So let's try this again...I got nothing.

From another post:

Rick Neuheisel for head coach. Cal should pay better than the crap he's getting at ESPN or wherever he's at. No need to shell out big money here unless others are interested in him but I dont' hear much talk.
87-59 record coaching Colorado, UW, and UCLA.
5-3 bowl record with a Rose Bowl victory.
Three 10+ win seasons, he just couldn't win at UCLA for reasons I don't know.
I assume he has numerous connections for assistants

I understand what he has done prior, but he UCLA tenure was so disastrous that I cannot imagine we really take a hard look at him versus an up-and-coming coach.

Strykur;842770583 said:

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I understand what he has done prior, but he UCLA tenure was so disastrous that I cannot imagine we really take a hard look at him versus an up-and-coming coach.

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Justin Wilcox. Currently looking at the San Jose State opening. Former CAL and Boise State coach. Also part of Sark's staff at UW...

kuokuo;842770597 said:

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Justin Wilcox. Currently looking at the San Jose State opening. Former CAL and Boise State coach. Also part of Sark's staff at UW...

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Wow the San Jose State job does have legs for him, hm...

https://www.landof10.com/wisconsin/wisconsin-justin-wilcox-san-jose-state-coaching-job

Petey K

Strykur;842770583 said:

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I understand what he has done prior, but he UCLA tenure was so disastrous that I cannot imagine we really take a hard look at him versus an up-and-coming coach.

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The second he introduced his "overflowing passion bucket" ya just knew it wouldn't work. Love the guy as a commentator tho.

Strykur;842770565 said:

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Chad Morris turned down $4.9 million and decided to stay at SMU, not too surprising since Baylor will be a sticky job for years to come. Dykes could command a high salary in return for whatever comes his way in Waco. He is now their top candidate at the moment apparently.

So, my thoughts:

[U]We may have to get aggressive here since Oregon is now open and can overpay us substantially. So...[/U]

Lane Kiffin, yes we have to look at him, assuming other jobs like Tennessee don't come calling, and if we have to take the Sarkisian pill, then fine, with tight restrictions.
Charlie Strong is a pretty safe choice, had proven success at Louisville, and would mesh well here with non-demanding alumni. Underrated despite the Texas mess.
Mark Helfrich, maybe.
Risky, but maybe look at handing Jake Spavital the head job, he is an offensive talent.

I don't know, not a lot of good options at the moment, I keep seeing longshot coordinators mentioned, but nothing spectacular. Unless...

Ron Rivera? Don't see how we make this happen.

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Not in any particular order, these are Coaches I might want.

Ken Niumatalolo - Navy: 77-39 record at a school at which both academics and recruiting are a challenge.
Larry Fedora - North Carolina: 74-43 record combined at Southern Miss & North Carolina. He's probably Baylor's actual #1 choice now that Morris is out. North Carolina is academically similar to Cal, so he'd be up for the recruiting challenges Cal faces.
Bo Pelini- Youngstown State: 80-36 record at Nebraska & Youngstown State combined. Has Youngstown State in the FCS playoffs in his 2nd year. I realize it won't happen because he's worse with the media than Mike Leach, but he's a hard core defense guy and all he does is win.
Chris Klieman - North Dakota State: 41-11 overall with Loras and North Dakota State with two FCS Championships.
Brian Kelly - Notre Dame: 230-88-2 at four schools. Kelly is reportedly exploring other coaching options after having a bad year that, from where I sit, looks like an aberration. 34-6 at Cincinnati and 59-31 at Notre Dame. I seriously doubt he's forgotten how to coach.

If he were to suddenly become available, I want Ron Rivera, but I don't see him being unemployed soon.
I'd be willing to give Charlie Strong a look. Ditto Mark Helfrich.
If Lane Kiffen showed interest, Cal should give him an interview, but should take great care with any contract offer.

Strykur;842770617 said:

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Wow the San Jose State job does have legs for him, hm...

https://www.landof10.com/wisconsin/wisconsin-justin-wilcox-san-jose-state-coaching-job

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Makes sense to me. He can go to SJSU, learn how to run a program, win against weak competition, and with little interference from the admin, and then leap to the job of his choosing. Honestly, our admin has put us in a bad spot, and I'm concerned the job is not very attractive at the moment. Certainly not for a hot name, looking to build his resume at his first head job.

SoFlaBear;842770630 said:

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Not in any particular order, these are Coaches I might want.

Ken Niumatalolo - Navy: 77-39 record at a school at which both academics and recruiting are a challenge.
Larry Fedora - North Carolina: 74-43 record combined at Southern Miss & North Carolina. He's probably Baylor's actual #1 choice now that Morris is out. North Carolina is academically similar to Cal, so he'd be up for the recruiting challenges Cal faces.
Bo Pelini- Youngstown State: 80-36 record at Nebraska & Youngstown State combined. Has Youngstown State in the FCS playoffs in his 2nd year. I realize it won't happen because he's worse with the media than Mike Leach, but he's a hard core defense guy and all he does is win.
Chris Klieman - North Dakota State: 41-11 overall with Loras and North Dakota State with two FCS Championships.
Brian Kelly - Notre Dame: 230-88-2 at four schools. Kelly is reportedly exploring other coaching options after having a bad year that, from where I sit, looks like an aberration. 34-6 at Cincinnati and 59-31 at Notre Dame. I seriously doubt he's forgotten how to coach.

If he were to suddenly become available, I want Ron Rivera, but I don't see him being unemployed soon.
I'd be willing to give Charlie Strong a look. Ditto Mark Helfrich.
If Lane Kiffen showed interest, Cal should give him an interview, but should take great care with any contract offer.

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Sorry, I hate most of those names. I think we should make a run at Wilcox, Leavitt, or the DC at UW.

Sigh - I'm not as opposed to giving dykes another shot as most here are. I do find it sad that we can get a 5-7 coach lured away from us. What makes us think this admin / culture can retain the next coach if he's actually good.

That said, we know sonny is good at offense and he's got some players next year. He's been shown to try new things if something isn't working - I think he actually deserves another year or two to fix the defense. He inherited a broken program.

SoFlaBear;842770630 said:

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Not in any particular order, these are Coaches I might want.

Ken Niumatalolo - Navy: 77-39 record at a school at which both academics and recruiting are a challenge.
Larry Fedora - North Carolina: 74-43 record combined at Southern Miss & North Carolina. He's probably Baylor's actual #1 choice now that Morris is out. North Carolina is academically similar to Cal, so he'd be up for the recruiting challenges Cal faces.
Bo Pelini- Youngstown State: 80-36 record at Nebraska & Youngstown State combined. Has Youngstown State in the FCS playoffs in his 2nd year. I realize it won't happen because he's worse with the media than Mike Leach, but he's a hard core defense guy and all he does is win.
Chris Klieman - North Dakota State: 41-11 overall with Loras and North Dakota State with two FCS Championships.
Brian Kelly - Notre Dame: 230-88-2 at four schools. Kelly is reportedly exploring other coaching options after having a bad year that, from where I sit, looks like an aberration. 34-6 at Cincinnati and 59-31 at Notre Dame. I seriously doubt he's forgotten how to coach.

If he were to suddenly become available, I want Ron Rivera, but I don't see him being unemployed soon.
I'd be willing to give Charlie Strong a look. Ditto Mark Helfrich.
If Lane Kiffen showed interest, Cal should give him an interview, but should take great care with any contract offer.

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This isn't USC or Oregon. The media issue you bring up woth Pellini would not apply

What would you expect when it appears our admin seems to continually attempt to cripple the football coach and program. We'd be lucky to attract a coach or coordinator from another program and then retain them if successful. Be ready, these threads will likely reappear in 2-3 years whether we're winning or losing.

grandmastapoop;842770635 said:

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Sorry, I hate most of those names. I think we should make a run at Wilcox, Leavitt, or the DC at UW.

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Still gun shy about UW assistants. Flashbacks to Gilby.

SoFlaBear;842770630 said:

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Not in any particular order, these are Coaches I might want.

Ken Niumatalolo - Navy: 77-39 record at a school at which both academics and recruiting are a challenge.
Larry Fedora - North Carolina: 74-43 record combined at Southern Miss & North Carolina. He's probably Baylor's actual #1 choice now that Morris is out. North Carolina is academically similar to Cal, so he'd be up for the recruiting challenges Cal faces.
Bo Pelini- Youngstown State: 80-36 record at Nebraska & Youngstown State combined. Has Youngstown State in the FCS playoffs in his 2nd year. I realize it won't happen because he's worse with the media than Mike Leach, but he's a hard core defense guy and all he does is win.
Chris Klieman - North Dakota State: 41-11 overall with Loras and North Dakota State with two FCS Championships.
Brian Kelly - Notre Dame: 230-88-2 at four schools. Kelly is reportedly exploring other coaching options after having a bad year that, from where I sit, looks like an aberration. 34-6 at Cincinnati and 59-31 at Notre Dame. I seriously doubt he's forgotten how to coach.

If he were to suddenly become available, I want Ron Rivera, but I don't see him being unemployed soon.
I'd be willing to give Charlie Strong a look. Ditto Mark Helfrich.
If Lane Kiffen showed interest, Cal should give him an interview, but should take great care with any contract offer.

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Here's my thing with the navy guy. Can he actually recruit top talent? Cause navy basically recruits itself.

The first thing I'm looking for in a coach is whether they can recruit. If you can't bring in the players, nothing else matters.

I mean, look at Colorado. I don't care how good the coaching staff is. They ain't beating uw and they lost to USC. You can't overcome talent with coaching. You just can't. Not consistently anyways.

fat_slice;842770637 said:

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Sigh - I'm not as opposed to giving dykes another shot as most here are. I do find it sad that we can get a 5-7 coach lured away from us. What makes us think this admin / culture can retain the next coach if he's actually good.

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Ugh.

amazing that no one has mentioned willie taggart. he coached at furd and knows the west coast. highly successful.

Cal is PR conscious. His press conferences can be cringe worthy. On the other hand, he wins.

ducky23;842770641 said:

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The first thing I'm looking for in a coach is whether they can recruit. If you can't bring in the players, nothing else matters.

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Then that basically leaves Kiffin.

SoFlaBear;842770645 said:

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Cal is PR conscious. His press conferences can be cringe worthy. On the other hand, he wins.

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HAHA no we're not, we are nowhere near as media savvy as say Oregon or USC. And who cares about PR these days, Harbaugh acts like a clown at Michigan and the media eats it up. Even Bo Pelini has become an internet hero despite his press conferences. Mike Gundy's rant back in 2007 was a huge boost for his career, despite the fact that it nearly got him fired.

Strykur;842770646 said:

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Then that basically leaves Kiffin.

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Haha! I win!

ducky23;842770647 said:

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Haha! I win!

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It's funny until he goes to Oregon, then we will be in trouble.

calgo430;842770644 said:

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amazing that no one has mentioned willie taggart. he coached at furd and knows the west coast. highly successful.

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OK, I have a question along that same line. Clancy Pendergast was DC here at Cal, and now he's at SC. Yet nobody every uses his name and "head coach" in the same sentence.

Strykur;842770646 said:

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Then that basically leaves Kiffin.



HAHA no we're not, we are nowhere near as media savvy as say Oregon or USC. And who cares about PR these days, Harbaugh acts like a clown at Michigan and the media eats it up. Even Bo Pelini has become an internet hero despite his press conferences. Mike Gundy's rant back in 2007 was a huge boost for his career, despite the fact that it nearly got him fired.

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Harbaugh plays nationally. Do you think the meddling Cal academics/admin would like it? I don't. And they've proven to be a problem. Also...not that it's relevant, but why was Gundy's rant a boost for his career? He's still at Oklahoma State. Where's the boost?

There's no way Kiffin would take this job.

grandmastapoop;842770650 said:

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Also...not that it's relevant, but why was Gundy's rant a boost for his career? He's still at Oklahoma State. Where's the boost?

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http://coachingsearch.com/article?a=Eight-years-later-Mike-Gundy-reflects-on-effects-of-Im-a-man-Im-40-rant

Quote:

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While speaking to Fox Sports’ Bruce Feldman in a live video chat Tuesday, Gundy was asked by a viewer about the rant, which happened after a 2007 win over Texas Tech and was in response to a column criticizing benched quarterback Bobby Reid.

“It’s really helped our team,” Gundy said. “It’s funny. In recruiting, it’s faded out over the last three or four years. Two, three, four years afterward, I would go into homes to recruit — I remember being on the East Coast, and one of the players’ grandmothers came in and brought that up and talked about it for a couple minutes, then got up and left. She just wanted to talk about our willingness to support our players.

“Since that time, there’s a statistic in how many games we’ve won and how far we’ve come. It just happened to be right after that.”

Gundy was 13-15 as a head coach before the postgame rant. Since then, he’s 74-29. When you type Gundy's name into Google, "Mike Gundy I'm a man" is still the No. 2 suggestion.

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Kiffen would be a good hire for a couple years until he moves up again. You would have to think he's learned a lot from Saban and from his own mistakes.

Strykur;842770565 said:

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Chad Morris turned down $4.9 million and decided to stay at SMU, not too surprising since Baylor will be a sticky job for years to come. Dykes could command a high salary in return for whatever comes his way in Waco. He is now their top candidate at the moment apparently.

So, my thoughts:

[U]We may have to get aggressive here since Oregon is now open and can overpay us substantially. So...[/U]

Lane Kiffin, yes we have to look at him, assuming other jobs like Tennessee don't come calling, and if we have to take the Sarkisian pill, then fine, with tight restrictions.
Charlie Strong is a pretty safe choice, had proven success at Louisville, and would mesh well here with non-demanding alumni. Underrated despite the Texas mess.
Mark Helfrich, maybe.
Risky, but maybe look at handing Jake Spavital the head job, he is an offensive talent.

I don't know, not a lot of good options at the moment, I keep seeing longshot coordinators mentioned, but nothing spectacular. Unless...

Ron Rivera? Don't see how we make this happen.

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There are only two candidates that have been mentioned on this board that are remotely acceptable. Ron Rivera who is extremely unlikely and Jim Leavitt. You guys are all going down the same route that got us into this mess-name HC guys who are necessarily retreads or mediocre because that is all we'll pay for.

Spavital - yeah, the past four years has been awesome. Someone gives us a get out of jail free card and we go rob the nearest liquor store

Helfrich - can I please have the guy who took a dominant program with unlimited funds and ran it into the ground in a few years? What, Gilby isn't available?

Charlie Strong - can't beat our crappy coach with better personnel

Lane Kiffin - Oh H to the E to the double L no. Jesus H. Christ, you know a lot of Cal fans are Raider fans and got to see that act up close. Not a one would take Kiffin over Hue and we don't want Hue. Kiffin was a good OC before being a absolutely crap head coach everywhere he has gone. It is not surprising he is a good OC again.

Call Ron. If he doesn't want it, get Ron to help look. Get Herm Edwards, Jack Clark, Mooch and others to put together a list of guys they believe in that we have never heard of. Add Leavitt. Do the interviews. No $2M mediocre head coaches please.

Strykur;842770653 said:

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http://coachingsearch.com/article?a=Eight-years-later-Mike-Gundy-reflects-on-effects-of-Im-a-man-Im-40-rant

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Possibly. But correlation does not equal causation.

I want the guy from North Dakota State.

Jim Leavitt turns 60 in December, how long would he be coaching us for, realistically? I do not understand the fascination for him at all.

At least Strong had a good run at Louisville. Blows away anything on Dykes resume.

My shortlist back in 2013 (didn't want Dykes):
1. Chris Petersen (Boise State HC; NorCal native, UC Davis alum)
2. Charlie Strong (Louisville HC; runner-up to Tedford in 2002)
3. Mark Helfrich (Oregon OC for Chip; former asst. at ASU, Colorado) *fired today
4. Mike MacIntyre (San Jose State HC)

Current situation: Sonny Dykes ($2.825 million salary after spreading bonus over 4 years of contract extension)

My shortlist now:
1. PJ Fleck (Western Michigan HC; former 49ers WR; current salary: $800,000)
2. PJ Fleck (see above)
3. PJ Fleck (see above)
4. Willie Taggart (South Florida HC; former Stanford asst.; current salary: $1.5 million)
5. Jim Leavitt (Colorado DC; former South Florida HC and 49ers asst.; current salary: $500,000)
6. Matt Rhule (Temple HC but no West Coast ties; however, his DC Phil Snow is a Cal alum and ex-asst.; current salary: $1.3 million)
7. Pat Narduzzi (Pitt HC; former Michigan St. DC but no West Coast ties; current salary: $2 million)
--
Reach (highly unlikely) candidates from NFL, but since we're throwing out names:
8. Sean McDermott (Ron Rivera's DC in Carolina; current salary: ?)
9. Matt Patricia (Belichick's DC in New England; current salary: ?)

If Dykes stays and we're stuck with him again:
Then replace DC Art Kaufman with either:
1. Alex Grinch (Washington St. DC who has shown how to build an aggressive, successful defense to complement an Air Raid offense); or
2. Phil Snow (Temple DC/Cal alum, see above)

FIFY:

Think it's time to start the actual, legit "Death Watch Hottie Thread!"

ducky23;842770641 said:

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Here's my thing with the navy guy. Can he actually recruit top talent? Cause navy basically recruits itself.

The first thing I'm looking for in a coach is whether they can recruit. If you can't bring in the players, nothing else matters.

I mean, look at Colorado. I don't care how good the coaching staff is. They ain't beating uw and they lost to USC. You can't overcome talent with coaching. You just can't. Not consistently anyways.

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It's always a nature/nurture argument. I agree that recruiting is important. On the other hand, I'm not sure that Stanford has become a fixture atop the Pac 12 North simply because they recruit better talent. They are flat-out better coached. Alabama gets second to none talent, but they win consistently because they are flat-out better coached than anyone (and I hate Saban with a passion); ditto Ohio State. On the other hand, I've seen years where Miami was loaded with talent (it's easy to get talent to go there) and the team underwhelms because its badly coached.

TandemBear;842770663 said:

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FIFY:

Think it's time to start the actual, legit "Death Watch Hottie Thread!"

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We'll start it in here when Dykes leaves.