I don’t know if you’ve seen what other schools replacing head coaches have been up to recently, but there are three recent hires that interest me.
- Bob Stitt has been hired as the next head football coach at the University of Montana. Stitt is an offensive whiz who’s done good things at a Division II school with very tough admissions requirements. So how does he translate at a higher level with a broader base of talent to chase?
- Lance Leipold is the new head football coach at the University at Buffalo. Leipold is taking a bigger step up than Stitt, going from Division III UW-Whitewater to Buffalo. He’s certainly been successful: “Whitewater has won five national championships under Leipold, whose 106-6 record is the best in the nation over that span at any level.” But he’s in a different world now.
- UNLV hires Bishop Gorman coach Tony Sanchez. This one’s the biggest leap of all. And he’s following in the footsteps of two hires that, well, left a lot to be desired. “The other former high school coaches who made the leap, Gerry Faust and Todd Dodge, were not that successful. Faust was 30-26 in five seasons (1981-85) at Notre Dame while Dodge was 6-37 in four seasons at North Texas from 2007 to 2010.” Is third time the charm? Who knows, but I doubt having personalities in the stands for high school games is going to make much of a difference next season.
I’ll be curious to see how this plays out. My guess is that Sanchez has the roughest time of the three, but we’ll see.
Get The Picture 
A good friend of mine has a son who played for Leipold and won three national championships in his time at Whitewater. If you ever get a chance to go to the D-III National Championship at the Amos Alanzo Stagg Bowl, do it. Cost $12 and they bring in a big wide screen on a trailer for replays!
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About time Stitt got a bigger job. He’s the inventor of the Jet Sweep- he should have sold that bitch to Malzahn. He’s coached a lot of great teams and great men at the Colorado School of Mines which is without a doubt one the best engineering schools most haven’t heard of.
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My favorite hire, although it doesn’t help UGA, was Will Muschamp at Auburn. You get a guy who’s run 4 straight top 10 defenses in total yards. Combine that with Gus’s hurry up dual threat Qb system, and they will win some trophies there.
Alabama MIGHT beat Auburn in 2015, but after Muschamp hits his stride with his recruits in 2016, I doubt Saban will ever beat Auburn again after 2015.
I don’t get the 3 hires above, running a high school program is a lot different that running a college program.
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Nope, Gus’s hurry-up offense (which is often hurry up to 3 and out) will kill Boom’s defense. There’s a reason these hurry up teams have crappy defenses. Once Boom starts getting blamed for crappy defenses at Auburn, things will really get funny.
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UF ran 70 plays vs Aub’s 72 per game. But Muschamp was still top 10 in total defense. Will not be a problem.
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UF & Aub were separated by less than 1 second in average time of possession per game, Muschamp will handle Gus’s system very well
Muschamp will flip over an offense that scores points, Gus’s offense finished 7th, 12th and 23rd in 2010, 2012, and 2013.
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I need you to swear on a stack of Yella Wood that you will come back at the end of the 2016 season and revisit this topic.
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#1
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I applaud the hires listed above and wish them well. I grow tired of the fire/rehire system system that most major schools get involved in. Yes, the individuals have viz and appeal from former hires but who’s to say that good football minds from Div II or Div III, JUCOs, or, yes, even high schools won’t succeed at major college level. Sometimes all it takes is an AD with a little courage and coaching analysis to get a gem. Additionally, there remains a lot of good assistants out there. You don’t have to recycle a Petrino or Meyer to have success…just look around.
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The other former high school coaches who made the leap, Gerry Faust and Todd Dodge, were not that successful.
Faust was 30-26 in five seasons (1981-85) at Notre Dame
Dodge was 6-37 in four seasons seasons at North Texas from 2007 to 2010.
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You know that Malzahn (your hero) and Freeze are high schools guys, right?
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I wonder if Georgia has ever gone against Muschamp when he was a Defensive Coordinator at Auburn?
Oh, they have? Really?
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Is anyone going to make a run at Propst @ Colquitt, or is there just TOO much baggage. Dude can obviously Coach.
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Why hasn’t anybody gone after the guy from North Dakota State? Maybe they have and I just missed it.
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Pretty sure the ndsu guy went to Wyoming last season and one of the former assistants is the head coach this season
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Lower-tier MWC schools have a long history of pulling highly successful coaches from FCS programs on the upper plains and then not investing the $ to make them successful in FBS. Good luck to him.
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Interesting to know a year from now as a follow up to this post
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I’ve made it to 2 Mines games since moving to CO last year. Stitt’s a good coach and I’m going to miss him. CSU and CU are awful to watch. Slow, small, and poorly coached is a hard way to make it in DIV 1.
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That’s what you get for abandoning your roots and moving to hippie central!
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I think Art Briles did 20 years on the high school circuit before taking the next step….
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It doesn’t matter what UNLV does. For whatever reason, that place just isn’t going to win.
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Did you ever see the skit from SNL late 80’s where Phil Hartman is a stuffy hard-ass professor at “The University of Nevada Las Vegas” teaching students about black jack? Gold Jerry, gold!
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