Phil Longo out at Wisconsin
- Thread starter NCHawker
- Start date
Nebraska fires their OCoordinator with 3 games remaining in the season.
Wisconsin fires their OCoordinator with two games remaining.
Ferentz must think he's living in some sort of alternative universe hell. Or as he would put it, 'That's football...today. A sign of the times."
I don't know what Fickell was expecting...Wisky had recruited for decades at every position to build a system and team built on power running the ball. And then expect an 'Air Raid' coach to come in and have immediate success? Seems a little delusional.
Wisconsin fires their OCoordinator with two games remaining.
Ferentz must think he's living in some sort of alternative universe hell. Or as he would put it, 'That's football...today. A sign of the times."
I don't know what Fickell was expecting...Wisky had recruited for decades at every position to build a system and team built on power running the ball. And then expect an 'Air Raid' coach to come in and have immediate success? Seems a little delusional.
Fryowa
Administrator
I call it the nebraska effect.
Success in the past leads delusional fans to revolt. Which leads to donors and administration making influenced decisions to fire very capable coaches winning 9-10 games every year.
Said delusional fans and administration expect a return to success upon hiring new coaches, and when it doesn’t happen within 2 years they begin the same process of musical coaches over again.
The catch is that with every season the program fails, acquiring a capable head coach becomes more difficult because 1) going to work for a loser is less appealing, 2) coaches know their tenure (and HC career) will likely end being fired and with a legacy of embarrassment, and 3) every year the program sucks recruiting becomes more and more impossible. Once recruiting becomes impossible it’s game over. All you’re left with as HC candidates are middling no-namers chasing cash who don’t care what their legacies are as long as the checks keep clearing.
Wisconsin is about 39% down this road at present. I hope Paul Chryst is on a beach somewhere laughing his ass off.
guffus
Well-Known Member
Yes, if Rhule and Fickel fail, Nebraska and Wisconsin may have to lower their expectations and resort to looking for the next Matt Campbell / Cignetti type.
You know, a head coach who has had some success at the G5 level, and hopefully can at least build a consistently winning program at the P4 level. 75% of these hires fail in 3 to 4 years, but you keep hiring a new one until you finally find a winner
You know, a head coach who has had some success at the G5 level, and hopefully can at least build a consistently winning program at the P4 level. 75% of these hires fail in 3 to 4 years, but you keep hiring a new one until you finally find a winner
Fryowa
Administrator
I will also say the nebraska effect I mentioned above is what @BigD , @oldhawk12 , and others want to happen at Iowa. There is simply no other explanation for wanting KF fired other than pure ignorance, or wanting to be the next nebraska.
Fryowa
Administrator
The problem being that each successive one getting fired makes that job look more like a dumpster fire and decreases the pool of available good coaches, and in turn makes that 75% turn into 80%, then 85%, and so on. Then after you suck long enough, you start only getting leftover recruits that Nick Saban wouldn't even be able to do much with. Once that happens you're cooked and now you're relying on a one-in-a-million unicorn like Osborne, Fry, [insert luck of the draw program revitalizer here]...
The recruits whose first choice would be to come win 9/10 games for Chryst and Jim Leonhard are a whole lot more talented than the ones whose first choice would be to go play for Fickell...who has 1) proven he has no idea how to contend in the B1G, and 2) is probably not going to make it through their 5 year college football career.
We've seen it happen in spectacular fashion at nebraska, we're seeing it happen in Wisconsin, and have seen it happen at tons of other schools. The results of firing 10-win coaches are WAY more than proven to result in a very high likelihood of failure than success, and yet people still want KF fired.
LOLZies.
MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
RIP "Air-rade". LMAO!
There's a reason it hadn't been tried in the BIG recently.. Guess Fickel just had to learn that the hard way. What Purdue did yrs ago with Brees up to the time Kyle Orton was there was about as close to it there's been. But hell those Joe Tiller yrs were prior to like 09-08 I think. It's been awhile.
NorthKCHawk
Well-Known Member
Well, Nebraska is doubling down with its new OC. He is part of the invention team for Air Raid. Any system can work if you have the right talent to run the system. Therein lies the problem at these schools. Recruiting speed to cold weather schools is a challenge.
Yeah Purdue had success doing what they did back then. Hell it's what made them relevant. Having NFL level QBs is a good place to start which they had. It's just tough to sustain and nowadays you either catch lightening in a bottle like Indiana has or you're gonna have ups and downs with it.
There's not a good chance of sustaining success with it and to me that's why we hadn't seen more of it. Fickel tried it to be different and catch that lightning but he hasn't gotten close. It's also crazy tough to do when the program you're trying it at has to do a total 180 culture and personnel wise to do it. Too high a mountain to climb I'm afraid
Fryowa
Administrator
Recruiting any talent to a program that's become a decade-long running joke is a challenge.
Your theory about recruiting doesn't necessarily hold up. Nebraska has indeed been a dumpster fire for years, but my guess is their recruiting classes have outranked Iowa's almost every one of the those years. There are 3 and 4 star recruits who find the stability of Iowa's program attractive, but there are also a lot of 3 and 4 star recruits who are sucked in by the sales pitch of 'fresh', 'exciting', 'wide open offense', and returning a historically great program to glory -- which each new coach can pitch.
I also think you're overstating your theory about being able to find capable coaches. Nebraska has shown that even with the longest P5 bowl drought in the nation, they will always be able to find capable coaches....now, they haven't yet found the RIGHT coach, but well into the near future they will have no problem finding capable suitors.
SwirlinLingerie
Well-Known Member
I think Goetz is pretty astute and likely considering all this as she keeps her short list of candidates ready.
If she thinks Woods has the right stuff - and maybe even has conversations or assurances that most the staff stays intact - then there is a lot to be said for continuing with a winning tradition and with a head coach/staff keenly aware of Iowa's culture, fan base and what it takes to be successful in Iowa City.
And if things went south after that, even fairly quickly, I think she'd be given a free pass to hire another coach. My feeling is Brian was the only promotion that would cause a fan revolt.
On the other hand, she owes it to the university and fan base to pressure test some outside candidates.
I was living in Minneapolis when the Steelers interviewed Mike Tomlin. Dude had only been DC for a single year, but it was clear he had a bright future. Maybe that's Woods. Maybe it's some outside candidate that's a perfect fit. Per the comments on this thread, hopefully she is entrusted with making the final call, and then the powers that be allow for stability once again for Iowa football.
If she thinks Woods has the right stuff - and maybe even has conversations or assurances that most the staff stays intact - then there is a lot to be said for continuing with a winning tradition and with a head coach/staff keenly aware of Iowa's culture, fan base and what it takes to be successful in Iowa City.
And if things went south after that, even fairly quickly, I think she'd be given a free pass to hire another coach. My feeling is Brian was the only promotion that would cause a fan revolt.
On the other hand, she owes it to the university and fan base to pressure test some outside candidates.
I was living in Minneapolis when the Steelers interviewed Mike Tomlin. Dude had only been DC for a single year, but it was clear he had a bright future. Maybe that's Woods. Maybe it's some outside candidate that's a perfect fit. Per the comments on this thread, hopefully she is entrusted with making the final call, and then the powers that be allow for stability once again for Iowa football.
NorthKCHawk
Well-Known Member
I think Fry is probably a bit hyperbolic about Nebbie, but its hard to argue with the results that program has vomited up the last decade and more.
I agree that Nebraska can and does recruit as well or better than Iowa if measured by stars. But, if measured by a good coach, who can evaluate talent, and then develop that talent into a Big 10 player, KF is light years of anything that Nebbie has done in recruiting. But, can Nebbie get NIL money, facilities, crowd support and resources that match up with Top 25 schools, even with the dumpster fire? Yes. They can. They have. They will. Will that matter? Not without a really good coach.
What Nebraska's problem has been is hiring good ADs who in turn hire good coaches. The leadership has been atrocious. You get the Yo Yo effect of going from Stuck in the mud Solich, to NFL passing guru Callahan, to Asshole Pelini, to nice guy Uncle Mike Riley, to hot young party animal Frost, and now to stable old "knows how to rebuild a program" Rhule. They are throwing darts at the wall and hitting nothing but the wall.
