SoFlaBear;842770630 said:
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.
Eh.
I could see Lane Kiffin. Because he's a pretty boy and because of the way he bounced out of Tennessee, he probably gets a worse rap than he deserves (and because he was at SC). He's basically a younger Tedford. They're very similar, down to how conservative they get, playcalling tendencies, predisposition to play calling. A Tedford clone might sound bad, but really it was Tedford's paranoia, overexerting himself, and some downright crazy in his last few years that blew things up... not his playcalling etc (if anything getting away from the Tedford/Kiffin playcalling style contributed to the decline). If Kiffin doesn't have that particular crazy gene, perhaps it works fine.
Brian Kelly has a pretty documented history of throwing players under the bus, and a lot of bad stuff has happened at ND under his watch. Deaths at practice, academic fraud. And he has had more talent and a weaker schedule than Cal typically has.
Charlie Strong - no way. Guy does not understand offense. And his defenses.. supposedly his calling card... weren't great at Texas either. Also hated how he never even mentioend Cal in either post game presser. Something about the whole thing came off as not authentic. Dislike, pass.
Mark Helfrich - nah. He's a Sonny clone, with a slightly different offense. Only difference is he started off with some more talent when kelly left.
Klieman - I could do that.
Bo Pelini - if he has west coast recruting ties (which nebraska typically does) and is interested, maybe. Nebraska let him go thinking they're a bigger program than they are. I could see that.
Fedora - did any of UNC's academic mess happen under him?
Ken N - no triple option here
Obviously Ron Rivera would be tits, pancakes and beer. A Wilcox/Tosh/(spav?) combo would be pretty cool too.
