College football’s annual coaching carousel is in high gear and NC State is taking spin this year.
SFN has already blogged some commentary and analysis to set the table for some of our future entries. But, we don’t expect football coaching scoop to be quite as clear as the basketball scoop that we were able to analyze back in April because of the existence of the 3rd party search firm.
(By the way – SFN recently was privy to a complete debrief of the Wolfpack’s basketball search. What an amazing experience to hear all of the inside scoop and perspective. We walked away from the conversation surprised at just how damn accurate and timely we were with our coverage of the search. Even some things that we were somewhat unclear we ended up being closer than we even thought!)
Today, Fanblogs.com has blogged an entry reviewing top potential coaching candidates from around the country. South Florida’s
Jim Leavitt did not make Fanblogs’ initial list despite the expectation that he is sure to get some looks from some open jobs. (Not so sure about the fit at NC State. But, names like Leavitt are why you run a process and get to know multiple candidates.)
Red and White from State has taken the Fanblogs entry and expanded it with an NC State focus. Great work from these great guys!!!
If Bill Cowher ultimately accepts the Wolfpack’s job as he has indicated for years was something that held interest for him, then this list may not be of much interest to NC State fans.
If Paul Johnson is truly emerging with the kind of momentum that we hear, then this list may not be of much interest to NC State fans.
But, we love coaching carousels and don’t want to ignore anything that is going on out there, so we thought that we would share their list.
Other football coaching search related to comments:
* First, have to accept the not-so-hard-to-accept proposition that Bill Cowher is done in Pittsburgh at the end of this year. It is something that folks in Pittsburgh have generally accepted as this year has progressed. Additionally, the guy didn’t buy a house in Raleigh, join Northridge Country Club, and send his daughter to Ravenscroft because he was going to be living in Pittsburgh much longer. Or any other NFL city for that matter. Heck, just today the SteelCityInsider wrote the following:
First, Cowher’s contract isn’t extended during the off-season, which on its own is fine, but it’s created a mini-media storm that is stronger than ever 12 weeks into the season. Second, in the years Cowher has been in Pittsburgh, I have never seen him so unenthusiastic during games. It’d be one thing if he was Bill Belichick: a pensive, contemplative strategist who eschewed a lot of the rah-rah stuff. But Cowher isn’t that type of guy. He’s made his living as a player’s coach. The rah-rah stuff is what he’s best at. Let the coordinators handle the details and let Cowher motivate the troops. I’ve seen nothing to indicate Cowher is motivated to do anything other than coach five more regular season games, load up the moving truck and head south.
* If Cowher is truly done in the NFL, then it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that he would be first on everyone’s list close to this search.
* It is fascinating how much of the media deals with Cowher’s association to the State job. Evidently, they truly think that dozens/hundreds/thousands of State people are crazy. Do these Einstein’s really think that all of these State people – many of which are highly intelligent and successful – simultaneously sat in a room and originated the name Bill Cowher as a potential coach simply because he is an alum? Of course not.
* The only reason that Cowher’s name is discussed as an alternative is because Cowher has chosen to publicly and privately comment regarding his dream/desire to finish his coaching career on the sidelines in Raleigh. Has that dream changed? We will soon see because this is probably Cowher’s last chance at the job. The next hire will get at least four to five years before any questions would arise about job security.
* The main issue with Cowher could revolve around timing. In a perfect scenario Cowher would take a year off from the Steelers to re-charge and would handed the keys after the 2007 season. But, that would mean another year of failure on the field and long term damage to the program off-the-field. Cowher has told friends at State that he would never want it to look as though he was the reason that Coach Amato (or any coach) would be pushed out of their job. With State making a move after this season Cowher has nothing with which to worry. Legitimate risk would have existed had Amato returned for an 8th year and achieved the most minimum of success. State simply had to make the move this year.
* Despite the growing momentum behind Paul Johnson‘s candidacy, we hope that NC State & Chuck Neinas fully vet and analyze all potential candidates for the job. We have no problem comparing all candidates (after Cowher) to Paul Johnson; we just hope that all candidates are run through a truly legitimate process and given a thorough look. It is danger to just throw your weight behind Johnson and close your eyes to everyone else.
* All the Paul Johnson-talk indicates to us that he must be interested in the job. There is no way his name could have gotten out so early unless he wanted his name in there.
* We like the evolution of the names on the football list. With names like Johnson, Fisher, Chow and who knows who else – can you tell the difference between who is working on the football list and who was responsible for a basketball search where Lee Fowler CHOSE to pursue names like Steve Lavin, Lon Kruger and John Beilen in front of Sidney Lowe or one of many ‘up and comers’ whom Fowler should have been more in touch with but was not?
* It will be interesting to learn if the current ACC affiliation of Tom O’Brien will negatively impact his ability to express interest in the NC State job. TOB’s name was floated during Carolina’s ‘search’. Based on what we have heard from college football circles, we have no doubt that TOB would welcome a fresh start outside of Boston College.
* We made reference to the comments included in this entry yesterday. Question for you — why isn’t Skip Holtz‘s name being connected to the NC State job? People forget that Holtz built a pretty successful program from scratch (and with no resources) at UConn before choosing to join his father at South Carolina. That didn’t work too well. Regardless, Holtz is back on his own and immediately succeeded in turning around a pitiful ECU program.
