Sage&Silver wrote:qwerty:
You brought up KN and RR as the measuring sticks, not me. My contention isn't with Sumlin isn't a good hire. He will improve Texas recruiting, create continuity on the defensive staff and probably have a good year or two with Tate.
My contention is with the binary position most posters seem to have taken in the last week.
-There is only one coach worthy of Arizona blessing him with our gift of a program. He will bring in recruiting classes like Tucson has never seen, fill the NFL draft and Arizona Stadium alike with Wildcats.
-Then there is the field, a bunch of losers not worthy of consideration who fans will abandon before they plunge Arizona back to post-Tomey depths.
I quoted your post because you named two coaches that have not won at a P5 school, then promoted a third coach who has never won at a P5 school either.
He's a risk, just like the rest. I don't think his positives, like recruiting, will translate to a place with our resources. I think schools like Arizona need to role the dice on up and comers.
And I stand by focusing on recent performance, not a first year outlier. Brady Hoke went 11-2 his first year at Michigan. Would you take him over Beau or Salave'a?
There are three coaches that we're being told are in consideration at the moment, AFAIK. Beau Baldwin. Ken Niumatalolo. Kevin Sumlin.
There is only one coach that will be a "splash" hire. That's Sumlin. He would immediately create a buzz around our program, and he is the most experienced coach out of the three, having coached at a P5 school and at Houston. He would seemingly bring with him Mazzone, who we know is a good OC. He moves the needle with boosters and fans. He has recruiting ties to the area, but would seemingly be pretty expensive, so IDK if we could get the best assistants.
Beau Baldwin is the young OC. He coached a bit at FCS Eastern Washington, but really this is his first big P5 coaching job. We could get him on the cheap, and get some great assistants. I'm fine with that too, but he's not going to move the needle on attendance or boosters, which is part of the reason it's so hard for us to make a big-money move for an HC. But in his favor, it would mean we're going the "young, hungry" route. Young HC. Young OC/DC. Young guys hitting the recruiting trail, hopefully building something here long-term. He has west coast recruiting ties, and hopefully would allow us to hire some more great recruiters.
Ken Niumatalolo is in the worst spot of the three, and IMO a really off the wall pick. He has no ties to anything Arizona. He has not been a P5 coach. He runs an off-the-wall offense. He's an experienced coach, but he's spent basically his entire life coaching at Navy. He has never been a head coach in an analogous school, at any level. No, Navy is not an easy job. But Army, Navy, and Air Force are all jobs that are unlike anything else in College Football. Maybe if he were going 11-2 every year, instead of one time (first year in the AAC, it's been worse each year since), I'd be more inclined to listen. But instead, he's won ~8 games a year consistently, and there are very few opportunities for big wins on that schedule, so it's not like he's getting a lot of opportunities for signature wins.
Sumlin isn't perfect. But look at where he ranks among his contemporaries. Dan Mullen went 20-20, and got the
Florida job. Everyone who has a better record is way out of reach (Gus Malzahn and Nick Saban), and everyone who is worse/the same (Bielema and Freeze) is either terrible or embroiled in scandal.
We hired Rich Rod after he went
6-18 in 3 years at Michigan. How often do you see a coach, basically free of scandal, go 51-26, get the boot, and become available for Arizona? The answer is, not often.
