What IS the formula for a sure-fire head coach hire?

[uscfutbol]

Based on the lack of responses from the bashers, I guess the takeaway is that those people can tell you without a doubt what won't work but have no idea whatsoever what will work.

It is amazing that the ones who bitch and moan the most about making the correct hire and who would and wouldn't work as a coach have not shared their voice in the OP's question...

 

[Silver_Coconut]

Yep - that's the rub.

So what if that player comes back next year, will the coach hold a grudge? Does he have a right to hold a grudge? How about the player? What will that do for his mental health?

 

[DibbleDee]

It is amazing that the ones who bitch and moan the most about making the correct hire and who would and wouldn't work as a coach have not shared their voice in the OP's question...

Instead they just started like 4 more threads about how the decision that hasn’t been made yet is a bad one.

 

[Balwiles]

So what if that player comes back next year, will the coach hold a grudge? Does he have a right to hold a grudge? How about the player? What will that do for his mental health?

Was actually in agreement with you. Heavily incentive-based contracts place too much pressure on the player-coach relationship.

 

[Silver_Coconut]

Was actually in agreement with you. Heavily incentive-based contracts place too much pressure on the player-coach relationship.

Gotcha. It’s such an often overlooked aspect. Incentive sounds good, but it’s a bad idea.

 

[fowl_mood]

Based on the responses of some in this forum, it appears they know the secret to making a sure-fire head coaching hire every time. If there is one, it's an awfully good secret.

Just in relatively recent history:

Alabama was an underachiever for a decade between Gene Stallings and Nick Saban because of poor coaching hires.

Tennessee has been an underachiever for 11+ seasons because of poor coaching hires.

FSU went in the toilet overnight because of a bad coaching hire.

VaTech is circling the drain because of a bad coaching hire.

Michigan went through 7 straight poor seasons because of bad coaching hires.

SoCal has been having uneven success for about a decade because of coaching hires.

Miami had consecutive poor hires that put their program in a mess.

Florida had 2 bad spells under Zook and Muschamp/McElwain because of hires that didn't work out.

Notre Dame went through a decade+ long drought because of poor coaching hires (and who can forget Gerry Faust prior to Holtz?).

Nebraska is on their second consecutive apparent poor coaching hire.

Texas hired Charlie Strong. Didn't work out. Jury is out on Herman.

Oklahoma experienced a down period of about a decade because their coaching hires.

Coaches from these hires ran the entire gamut from experienced and successful college head coaches, experienced and successful college coordinators, experienced and successful NFL assistants, NFL head coaches, internal hires, external hires, guys from mid-major programs, guys from P5 schools and on and on and on.

Now, granted, all of these teams are in a different tier of college football from us historically, and underachieving for some of them would have been a good season here. Nevertheless, 8 of the teams on this list are in the top 13 winningest programs of all time. So clearly, being a blue blood program does not make you immune to goofing up on a coaching hire.

Any one of these programs would have been able to attract the absolute cream of the crop when it came to head coaching candidates, yet they all made bad hires. Most of them had more than one bad hire. And most of them made consecutive bad coaching hires.

Many of these hires were met with cheers of excitement and anticipation. So clearly approval from the fan base isn't a guarantee of success.

You would think if ANYONE in college football had refined the head coach hiring process, it would be one of these programs.

Great post. Hiring of any kind is basically considered a 50% chance at success. It's interesting to me, having done a bunch of it, that as more information has become available on candidates, hire processes have grown more muddled. That ole standby, though, "fit", is still crucial in successful hires. Add it to experience, prior success and exemplary vetting of red flags to get to 51%.

I hope we get a good "fit."

 

[mayo531]

The actual Head Coaching hire might not be as important as who he puts on staff. At a place like South Carolina, the formula might be a head coach that knows, and has the ability to work well with assistants that can develop 3 stars into 4-4.5 stars. Player development should probably be our top priority. Strength and Conditioning coaches, nutrition coaches, position coaches, and innovative coordinators will be very important to our next coaches success or failures.
I don't think the formula today really means that a head coach is a great X and O type of guy. I think it's more of a guy that has a long term plan, knows the right people to build that plan, and is able to retain those people and make all the pieces work together.

 

[OldWiseCock]

I’m not talking about cheating. Imagine the coach gets 500k for going to a bowl but a player drops a touchdown pass that makes the team bowl eligible.

Ain't that a possibility now?

And I wouldn't structure the incentive that way. Too weighted.

I'd do something like this:

Bowl eligible = $10,000; win the game = $25,000
NYD Bowl = $25,000; win the game = $50,000
Playoff game = $50,000; win game #1 = $100,000
NC = $250,000

I'd have incentives for graduation rate and team GPR too.

 

[Horseshoe 04]

Ask Jerry Jones & do the exact opposite of everything he advises

 

[Goose cock]

Have a competent AD, president, and bot...we don’t

 

[Silver_Coconut]

Ain't that a possibility now?

And I wouldn't structure the incentive that way. Too weighted.

I'd do something like this:

Bowl eligible = $10,000; win the game = $25,000
NYD Bowl = $25,000; win the game = $50,000
Playoff game = $50,000; win game #1 = $100,000
NC = $250,000

I'd have incentives for graduation rate and team GPR too.

What if the kicker misses a field goal that costs his coach 25 grand.

 

[owenfieldreams]

The highest rate of success is hiring a proven hall of fame caliber coach... Obviously those situations are only available in rare circumstances. You have to catch one when he is out of a job generally, which... If we are talking a real winner they rarely are! Or you have to steal them from the highly successful programs they are currently winning at... Nobody is taking Saban away from Bama right? But that is as close as you can get to a sure fire hire... Everything else is a huge risk.

Oklahoma is the only program with 4 HC's with over 100 victories each. A 5th HC is on his way to joining the 100 plus victory club. Only one Sooner HC came to the job with HC experience ( Bennie Owen ). The other 4...Wilkinson, Switzer, Stoops, & Riley all were assistants hired to be a HC for the first time at OU.

 

[GCDC1959]

So you get something big like an 18 wheeler with trailer, spray said trailer down for lice, fill it with cash, park it outside Saban’s house, ring doorbell & point and say ‘there’s more where that comes from’.

Done!

 

[GamecockNYSC]

My Grandmas secret recipe for hiring coaches:
1 - coach in a state where football is everything and have more diehards then professionals
1 - Great Boosters
1 - Great Facilities
1 - Unique methods (offensively like Spurrier, fatherly pastor like Urban, or Displibe Dad like Saban, or Coach friend like Dabo
1 - Easy schedule or opponents first 3 years minim of coaching
1 - 5 star QB + 5 star WR or RB + OL
1 - alumni teachers who will pass students to get them to your school
1- local media that ask hard questions at press conference unlike ours that are trying to get invited to Sunday bbq

And Last put not least
A dash of cinnamon

 

[OldWiseCock]

What if the kicker misses a field goal that costs his coach 25 grand.

There are incentives now. All I am saying is increase the incentives. You win some you shouldn't and lose some you should win. That's the way the game works. If you do your job well it comes out in your favor more times than not.

 

[Silver_Coconut]

There are incentives now. All I am saying is increase the incentives. You win some you shouldn't and lose some you should win. That's the way the game works. If you do your job well it comes out in your favor more times than not.

There are, and I think it’s a slippery slope.

 

[usc-lurker]

It takes F.M. to get a sure fire hire.

 

[USC 1992]

i have used this method for decision making

 

[DarkHorse2001]

You are right. But, we've actually done that. 2X. Both coaches had success and then quit in frustration. So not even that has worked for us.

I don't believe they quit in frustration of not being able to win here. They were senior citizens when they arrived. Holtz wanted to hang it up after the second bowl win over Ohio State. Spurrier put the wrong person in charge of recruiting. He was not going to fire that person, but the program quickly began to suffer. It would have required another rebuilding of the roster. Spurrier decided at his age, he would rather retire.

 

[OldWiseCock]

There are, and I think it’s a slippery slope.

You think it might cause dissension and conflict if a coach doesn't get his incentive bonus because of single play or player? I can see how that might be true.