Doogie: Latest on the coaching search

[corcoran1]

I think Harbaugh has a big enough ego that he will try the NFL, but I don't think I would want to coach for JJ at Dallas.
Personaly, I am hoping there is a way to get Patterson. The guy can coach defense and we need a whole different level of performance on defense to be competitive.

 

[thailleagle]

Agreed. I posted this earlier, but I think the only way that a MN connection should work for us is that it should make a previously unattainable coach (i.e. Tony Dungy) a possible candidate for the job.

In no way, shape or form should it make someone who is an inferior candidate (Trestman) more attractive.

I like Kevin Sumlin, regardless of an MN connection, well enough for him to be our next coach. He isn't my first choice, though, and I hope we knock on Harbaugh's door among other first before we settle for Sumlin.

Harbaugh to Dallas may kill our chances if true...

 

[ChicagoJoe]

Latest on the coaching search

• From talking to numerous people, it's becoming obvious that a current college head coach or former head coach (more Mike Bellotti than Leach) is the target.

• Where there's smoke, there's fire: Houston's Kevin Sumlin is clearly a name very much in the mix. His current assistant head coach, Tony Levine, is a former Gophers receiver. Sumlin was a Gophers assistant under Jim Wacker and Glen Mason (1993 to 1997).

• My colleague at Channel 5, Joe Schmit, says to keep an eye on Miami head coach Randy Shannon. He reportedly makes $1.4 million a year, so the "U" could offer more. He is said to not be a big fan of playing home games at Pro Player Stadium and reportedly received way too much backlash for his liking after a recent 28-point loss to archrival Florida State.

http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/Scouting_the_opponent_Ohio_State102810

Go Gophers!!

We need to find a Joe Tiller type. He is the guy who turned Purdue around. He is gone now, but that passing game of his made Purdue a threat even though they did not have the biggest or fastest linemen. A team can pass block with linemen who do not meet Ohio State standards. Ohio State and the other BIG Major Schools usually get all of the Five Star linemen. That has gone on for ages, and will not change until we have a strong winning record. Then we will get a few. How do you get them when you do not have that strong winning record? Simple, go find a Joe Tiller type.

I know of one. He is a former head coach and is now a Junior College coach who has four national championships to his credit and is the most innovative pass oriented coach in the nation.

Remember, there are two philosophies in Football Offense. You can pass to set up the run, or you can run to set up the pass.

Passing to set up the run has worked for nine out of the last ten National Championship Division One teams.

 

[ChicagoJoe]

Harbaugh to Dallas may kill our chances if true...

Harbaugh is a talent. He is not that innovative, but he is the type that can get the best out of his men. I got to see him a lot when he was a Bear. In his post game interviews it was obvious that he was future coaching material. He knows the game forwards and backwards, inside and out.

He can use proven talent and make it excel. We need somebody who can recruit and can recruit instant JC talent to fill the holes we have on this team.

 

[thailleagle]

Harbaugh is a talent. He is not that innovative, but he is the type that can get the best out of his men. I got to see him a lot when he was a Bear. In his post game interviews it was obvious that he was future coaching material. He knows the game forwards and backwards, inside and out.

He can use proven talent and make it excel. We need somebody who can recruit and can recruit instant JC talent to fill the holes we have on this team.

Trust me I'd love Harbaugh to come here I just think our chances of snatching him away from Standford or another potential job are very slim & with Minnesota's history of horrible luck I'm definitely not getting my hopes up...

 

[Stan The Caddy]

I know of one. He is a former head coach and is now a Junior College coach who has four national championships to his credit and is the most innovative pass oriented coach in the nation.

Who is the coach of which you speak?

 

[gopherdudepart2]

I don't understand all of the haterade towards Sumlin

He is a good football coach who got his first head coaching job at Houston not exactly a prime job even though it is in a major metro market and has done well there. Sumlin has been a coach at the U and they ran some pretty good offenses in those days even if the defense reeked.
Who is to say that Sumlin would not look for or bring a top notch coordinator for defense with him. Our defense does not lack talent, there is a lot of physical talent on the D what they lack is good game planning and teaching right now. Who is to say that Sumlin would not make this a high priority getting a good defensive coordinator.
Sumlin and a guy like Levine one of his coaches, would bring some FIRE and some life back to this program and not blow smoke out of there butts.
Sumlin's star is rising in the coaching ranks he is well thought of guy's this is not a chopped liver or affirmative action thing at all as some have accused. Kevin Sumlin is a good football coach.
He was good here and he was good at Purdue on Tillers staff, so this is not his first rodeo in the Big10 if he comes on board.
Just think Sumlin is getting dumped on way to much in these parts, he is a quality football coach and is getting attention based on Merrit not because of some perceived favortism.

 

[ChicagoJoe]

Who is the coach of which you speak?

His name is Tom Craft. He was hired to take over for Ted Tollner (former USC HC and then San Diego State HC). Ted was fired because he just gave up on recruiting. He had only one lineman in his last three recruiting classes who ever started by his senior year. Tom Craft was hired to coach the poorest talent team in college football, but had to wait until his recruiting classes matured. Most people know that takes five years at the least if the school has had poor recruiting classes in succession.

Tom Craft's First recruiting class in 2003 went on to be the most talented class in Aztec History with six of the kids making Pro Teams in 2008. Fantastic recruiting class.

He was fired as HC at San Diego State when his first two recruiting classes were Redshirt Freshmen and Sophomores in 2005. The Athletic Director who fired him was a former Volleyball coach and knew nothing about college football, and questioned why the head coach was playing with all those Freshmen and Sophomores.

With that underclassman dominated team, Tom beat Utah and BYU in that season. No Aztec coach had ever done that, much less with a two deep that was 70% underclassmen. Both of those teams went to bowl games, so this was no small feat. Four of his offensive linemen were Redshirt Sophomores or Freshmen.

Tom took that termination in stride and went back to JC coaching where he had won three national championships at Palomar JC. He agreed to be the Offensive Coordinator at Mt SAC College and had them in the California State Championship game three years in a row, winning the state and national championship for the fourth time last season. He is now the head coach at Riverside Community College a former one win per season college and they only have one loss (to Mt SAC, the team that Tom Craft built.) He is the most innovative mind in the game of football to have come on the scene in the past twenty years. Ask Urban Meyer who's game films/videos he used to create his offense at Utah and Florida. He might start claiming that it is all his now, but a few years ago, he gave credit to Tom.

Tom might have Riverside in the playoffs for the state championship this season. That is something that nobody expected. You usually do not see a coach take sheet and turn it into gold in just one season.

I am in no way associated with the man. I just know a damn good coach when I see one.

 

[Stan The Caddy]

No offense, but I have no interest in a failed coach from San Diego State who turns 57 in a couple of weeks.

 

[ChicagoJoe]

No offense, but I have no interest in a failed coach from San Diego State who turns 57 in a couple of weeks.

If you hire a winner, he usually continues to win. I look at the mess that is Gopher Football, and know that we need to hire a winner. At San Diego State in 2005 with that underclassman dominated team the Vollleyball Coach AD fired him before the last game of the season. If he had won that game, the Aztecs would have won their sixth game and for some reason the volleyball coach did not want that. He wanted to bring his own man in, Chuck Long, who turned out to be a miserable failure and was fired after three seasons. San Diego State had to eat his contract. The Volleyball coach is no longer the AD at San Diego State.

If Minnesota brings in a loser with hope that he will stop being a loser, we will just have more of the same as we have now.

But to each his own. I know that an innovative passing offense can turn this program around, just like it worked for Purdue years ago. We will see what happens.

 

[Khaliq]

Sargeant Carter would also be hired as Gomer's OC?

Excellent contemporary reference.