Five Coaches Who Deserve Final Interviews at U
Interviews this month will lead to the
announcement of the new Gophers football coach, probably by early
December. Athletic director Joel Maturi is keeping his candidate
list quiet but Sports Headliners compiled a list of five
names that logic says could be interested in the job and if so should be
interviewed.
Miracle workers Chris Petersen of
Boise State, Jim Harbaugh from Stanford and Gary Patterson
of TCU probably aren’t interested in becoming the Gophers coach. A
professional search to fill the position, though, makes no assumptions
about the best candidates in the land, including possible interest in
Minnesota. Maturi and his colleagues are advised to put together their
best “sales kit” and pitch the big three, with fingers crossed that
Petersen, Harbaugh or Patterson will say, “Tell me more. I am
interested.”
But let’s accept the popular notion that none
of the Big Three want to follow in the path of the Tim Brewsters
and Jim Wackers. Now what?
Well, the mandate needs to be this: hire a
winning college head coach who has already proven himself. These five are
worthy of being finalists:
Troy
Calhoun, Air Force. He’s won 30 games in three plus seasons. He’s the only
coach in school history to win at least eight games and go to bowl games
in three consecutive seasons. That’s impressive at a service academy
where the limitations on recruiting make it difficult to win. And that’s
the kind of guy we want at Minnesota, a place that will challenge a
coach to win and demands the football boss be special.
Don’t worry
about Calhoun’s run-first and most of the time offense at Air Force. He
used to be the offensive coordinator for the Houston Texans and can
plug in whatever system he thinks best at Minnesota. Pray that the
University of Colorado doesn’t fire coach Dan Hawkins and pursue
Calhoun, who might look favorably on staying in the state of Colorado.
Calhoun is 44 and in the age range where coaches are typically entering
their prime years.
Al
Golden, Temple. For years the best thing you could say about Temple was that
Bill Cosby ran track there. Golden's team last season was 9-4, the
first winning year since 1990 and first bowl appearance in 30
years for the Owls. That’s impressive at a football slum like Temple, among the worst
programs in the country for decades. Golden, 41, is in his fifth season
at Temple and the Owls are 7-2 this fall. He is still among the younger
coaches heading major college programs.
The former Penn State tight
end has the reputation of a disciplinarian and classroom work has
improved during his time at Temple. Golden is an exceptional recruiter
and coaching legend Bill Parcells has praised Golden’s ability to
coach defense.
Golden might turn Minnesota down but
he would be foolish to do so waiting for Joe Paterno to leave
Penn State. That could still be a few years away.
Dan
Mullen, Mississippi State. At 38 he’s the youngest of the Final Five and
with the least head coaching experience. Usually we don’t like
candidates who are only in their second season as a major college head
coach. Mullen gets a pass to the final invite room for a couple
reasons. First, you don’t work as Urban Meyer’s offensive
coordinator at Florida without being an overachiever. Second,
Mississippi State has been a burial ground for coaching careers but Mullen
has MSU at 7-2 overall this fall, and 3-2 in the SEC, the nation’s best
conference.
During his first season at Mississippi State he
re-energized the program and had a 5-7 record despite playing perhaps
the nation’s most difficult schedule. Mullen coached under Meyer from
2001-2008 and developed great quarterbacks including Tim Tebow.
More than 55 years ago Murray Warmath left Mississippi State to
coach the Gophers. Could history repeat?
Skip
Holtz, South Florida. The last name sounds familiar and Skip’s dad Lou
didn’t depart from Minnesota in 1985 on the best of terms. But that’s
not reason to exclude Holtz, 46, from this list. He made East Carolina
football relevant, winning consecutive Conference USA championships his
last two years there and having winning teams during four of five
seasons. Prior to Holtz’s arrival at East Carolina in 2005 the football
team had won only three of its last 25 games. His East Carolina record
was 38-27.
Holtz worked for his famous father as assistant head coach
at South Carolina and before that was head coach at Connecticut where he
led the program to its best season in school history. Holtz is in
his first year at South Florida (4-3) and the timing might not be right to move
north. But if Holtz thought all the resources were in place here
(including from the Minneapolis business community) he might be
interested.
South Florida is in the Big East
Conference and Holtz might view a Big Ten job as more prestigious.
Mike
Belloti, former Oregon head coach. Oregon, a program Bellotti coached up
until two years ago, is No. 1 in the country. At Minnesota the football
glory days were 50 to 80 years ago, but in Duck country they are now.
For a long time Oregon football was nothing special but first coach
Rich Brooks elevated the program, then Bellotti pushed it further
ahead and became the winningest coach in school history. Bellotti’s
record at Oregon was 116-55. That’s impressive and so, too, is his
connection to present head coach Chip Kelly. Bellotti hired
Kelly from New Hampshire, made him his offensive coordinator and later
appointed him head coach.
Out of coaching now, Bellotti, almost 60, is
rumored to be interested in coaching again. He resigned as
Oregon’s athletic director earlier this year to become an ESPN analyst,
a move that put him closer to football. His name is being linked not
only to Minnesota, but also Washington State where the athletic director is
a friend from Oregon days. Bellotti could be the right guy for the
Gophers including because he's potentially ready to report for work
sooner than the others who are finishing up 2010 schedules.
