Best CUSA coaching job - Underdog Dynasty

jdennis82 · March 30, 2016

Underdog Dynasty (an SB Nation blog focused on G5 schools) is planning to present their personal rankings of the CUSA jobs but before doing so, they ask...

"If you were given a clean slate and all of these jobs were open where would you go?"

http://www.underdogdynasty.com/2016/3/29/11322220/ranking-best-head-coaching-jobs-conference-usa-g5

oldguystudent · March 30, 2016

So basically, they're going to take an internet poll before saying anything, then probably agree with it. Journalism at its finest.

In all honesty, I don't think I could in good conscience vote in that pool.

FirefightnRick · March 30, 2016

Dumb voters not paying attention to the question.......voting Southern Miss as the best and North Texas as the worst, when in fact from a coaches perspective, it's the exact opposite.

If your a coach you want that job with no accountability, no expectations and little pressure to succeed.

Rick

untcampbell · March 30, 2016

I don't want the coach that wants a job with no accountability, no expectations and little pressure to succeed. I don't think that is the reason SL took this job.

GMG

FirefightnRick · March 30, 2016

3 minutes ago, untcampbell said:

I don't want the coach that wants a job with no accountability, no expectations and little pressure to succeed.

And what fan does?

But .....again...the question is what is the best coaching job. Not what fans want.

Rick

oldguystudent · March 30, 2016

In my last two years in my former profession, we got sold to private equity. They imposed over three sales cycles, 47%, 89%, and 100% quota increases, each on top of the previous. Then they cut the production team, so the product we were tasked to sell literally didn't exist. Then they tried to make us sign a responsibility waiver that we would not hold the newly acquired company liable should we fail to quintuple our sales over three years with product that didn't exist.

It was once a great job for a great company that I would've loved to be a great lifelong career.

When I turned in my resignation, they begged me to stay. They offered me an immediate 20% increase in compensation. I refused. 12 months later, the entire sales force had been fired in favor of independent contracting free lancers that nobody had to actually pay. I suffered through a couple three years of dire poverty in grad school, and ultimately came out way ahead of the game because I knew when to fish and when to cut bait.

Sometime the demands of the job are unrealistic and unattainable no matter the compensation or promises.

VideoEagle · March 30, 2016

18 minutes ago, untcampbell said:

I don't want the coach that wants a job with no accountability, no expectations and little pressure to succeed. I don't think that is the reason SL took this job.

GMG

I don't want that either.

Frankly, I'd think the best option if a coach is looking for a stepping stone is a place where he can get noticed nationally. Constant winning is NOT vital to moving up, just improving a program. Getting more wins than the previous guy in a place where you will get noticed. The "place where you can get noticed" means larger market with fewer other competing news stories. Within CUSA, that's UTSA. Again, that assumes the coach is looking for a stepping stone. DFW far more competition for news as does South Florida.

EDIT - scratch the part about media market size. I just remembered Arky State lost a couple of head coaches to P5 jobs in the past decade. You need a job where you can get noticed and you need to win more than the guy before. Those are the two most important elements. Thus being taking a team that's winning actually makes it harder to move up to a P5 job.

Edited March 30, 2016 by VideoEagle

GMG24 · March 30, 2016

I voted Marshall. For one simple reason they have won and won a LOT recently I think it is leaps and bounds the best CUSA job especially if I got to pick.

VideoEagle · March 30, 2016

2 minutes ago, GMG24 said:

I voted Marshall. For one simple reason they have won and won a LOT recently I think it is leaps and bounds the best CUSA job especially if I got to pick.

I honestly haven't paid close attention to Marshall's coaches. Have they had a number head coaches that moved up to P5 jobs?

GOMG2013 · March 30, 2016

Thinking about this question with no bias is hard. I know UNT wouldn't be at the top if I were an up and coming young coach.

Too much competition for recruits in Texas and the other schools have bigger followings, more money committed to athletics, and are in better conferences.

Before the financial issues in louisiana, I would have said La Tech. Access to top athletes and not much comp in the state once you LSU decides who they want.

From a recruiting standpoint, the Florida schools would probably be high on the list also.

Ben Gooding · March 30, 2016

19 minutes ago, VideoEagle said:

I honestly haven't paid close attention to Marshall's coaches. Have they had a number head coaches that moved up to P5 jobs?

Not really. Doc Holliday is entering his 6th or 7th year.

untjim1995 · March 30, 2016

1 hour ago, oldguystudent said:

Sometime the demands of the job are unrealistic and unattainable no matter the compensation or promises.

This is what I believe sums up the job as head football coach here at UNT.

Can you win here? Well, yeah, we have had 4 winning seasons here, including three in a row from 2002-2004, since we moved up to FBS in 1995. In that span, though, we are 84-166, a winning percentage of .336. That covers 5 head football coaches (Simon, Dickey, Dodge, Mac, and Chico) and only two ADs (Helwig from 95-01, and RV ever since), as well as three different conferences and two different home stadiums. And in that span, we have seasons of 5 wins in three other seasons.

So the question becomes, when you look at actual results, for 21 seasons, one-third of the time we have finished with 5 wins or more, can you have a realistic and attainable belief here in building a consistent winner against your current conference mates in today's game? To say yes, is ignoring history, location, and support by fans. Homers can believe anything, but realistically, it goes against every fiber of the last 20+ years, not even counting FCS, to believe this place can ever be a consistent winner. Now, Littrell has a great pedigree and he gets his chance to prove this wrong. But its gonna take recruiting at a level that has very rarely been seen here, from Dickey's stealth class in 2000 to Dodge's recruiting of offensive talent.

Littrell has a huge job and pay upgrade somewhere else if he gets this thing up to even .500 in the next three years, since we are so far under the ground right now as a program. But, if not, he's gonna be gone in three to four years, never to be a head coach again in college--just like Simon, Dickey, Dodge, and McCarney.

Aldo · March 30, 2016

Yup went Marshall. Job security.

keith · March 30, 2016

4 hours ago, oldguystudent said:

So basically, they're going to take an internet poll before saying anything, then probably agree with it. Journalism at its finest.

It works for politicians, so why not?

UNT90 · March 30, 2016

4 hours ago, untcampbell said:

I don't want the coach that wants a job with no accountability, no expectations and little pressure to succeed. I don't think that is the reason SL took this job.

GMG

Right. That standard only applies to a brown nosing AD at UNT. Ask DMac about the double standards in job performance at UNT. I'd bet he would have a great Grey Goose infused story for you.

UNT90 · March 30, 2016

3 hours ago, Eagle1855 said:

I'll always think UNT is the best job because of its location, the size of school, and the alumni base + talent in the region -- but it's never really worked out that way. At least not yet.

Problem is everyone in the region thinks you are the absolute worst FBS (Football) and D1 (basketball) program in college athletics. Throw on top of that an administration that flat out doesn't care about that perception and will do nothing to change it and the absolute worst AD at any collegiate level, and you have a job that isn't high on anyone's pecking order. I mean, nothing against Littrell, but it's not like any other university was considering him as a head coach and he had to make a choice.

Just thank god for individual ambition and there only being 128 (?) FBS head football coaching jobs in the entire world, otherwise we may have been forced to hire the head coach at Paschal HS.

oldguystudent · March 30, 2016

1 hour ago, UNT90 said:

we may have been forced to hire the head coach at Paschal HS.

Been there, done that.

Army of Dad · March 30, 2016

1 minute ago, oldguystudent said:

Been there, done that.

Yes, because we would never repeat something around here (12-20 in year 1&4 of a basketball coach that was retained)...

untjim1995 · March 30, 2016

45 minutes ago, Army of Dad said:

Yes, because we would never repeat something around here (12-20 in year 1&4 of a basketball coach that was retained)...

Hell, Todd Dodge was our 2nd foray into hiring a HS coach to take over our program. The first one, Dennis Parker, failed miserably at the I-aa level for us...so we went ahead and hired that failed HS coach's OC from those days to come here and take over the program.

Either we have no idea how to run an effective college football program or we have no interest in running an effective program...

VideoEagle · March 30, 2016

Interesting that when you go back and look at the polling results, NT is in second place with 106 out of 577 votes as of 4;04pm. I guess we aren't perceived as as terrible a job of some here think. At least 18% of the voters think NT is a good head coaches job to use as a stepping stone. I don't quite get that as the last coach to move on to a (perceived) better job was Jerry Moore.

Mean Green 93-98 · March 30, 2016

14 minutes ago, VideoEagle said:

Interesting that when you go back and look at the polling results, NT is in second place with 106 out of 577 votes as of 4;04pm. I guess we aren't perceived as as terrible a job of some here think. At least 18% of the voters think NT is a good head coaches job to use as a stepping stone. I don't quite get that as the last coach to move on to a (perceived) better job was Jerry Moore.

The other C-USA message boards must not have posted the link yet.

Personally, I went with Southern Miss. Good history, good fan support, next in line to jump up to the American Conference.

casual fan · April 1, 2016

On 3/30/2016 at 8:20 AM, FirefightnRick said:

Dumb voters not paying attention to the question.......voting Southern Miss as the best and North Texas as the worst, when in fact from a coaches perspective, it's the exact opposite.

If your a coach you want that job with no accountability, no expectations and little pressure to succeed.

Rick

From a coaches perspective, they want stability.

2006 Dickey was fired 2 years after winning 4 titles in a row and going to 4 bowls.

2010 Dodge was fired.

2010 Canales takes over for the last five games.

2015 McCarney was fired 1 year and 5 games after winning a bowl.

2015 Canales takes over for the last 7 games.

2016 Littrell takes over.

You can debate whither or not there has been coaching accountability, but there has certainly been very little coaching stability.

UNT90 · April 1, 2016

13 minutes ago, casual fan said:

From a coaches perspective, they want stability.

2006 Dickey was fired 2 years after winning 4 titles in a row and going to 4 bowls.

2010 Dodge was fired.

2010 Canales takes over for the last five games.

2015 McCarney was fired 1 year and 5 games after winning a bowl.

2015 Canales takes over for the last 7 games.

2016 Littrell takes over.

You can debate whither or not there has been coaching accountability, but there has certainly been very little coaching stability.

There has been less than zero Athletic Director accountability.

Easiest $375k job in America. By far.

Green Dozer · April 1, 2016

On March 30, 2016 at 2:33 PM, untjim1995 said:

Hell, Todd Dodge was our 2nd foray into hiring a HS coach to take over our program. The first one, Dennis Parker, failed miserably at the I-aa level for us...so we went ahead and hired that failed HS coach's OC from those days to come here and take over the program.

Either we have no idea how to run an effective college football program or we have no interest in running an effective program...

Actually Dodge was our 3rd. Odus Mitchell was the head coach at Marshall (TX) High School when he was hired as head coach here.

GrayEagle · April 4, 2016

On 4/1/2016 at 6:30 PM, Green Dozer said:

Actually Dodge was our 3rd. Odus Mitchell was the head coach at Marshall (TX) High School when he was hired as head coach here.

I was about to say the same thing. The irony is that high school was good enough here to be in the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.