Rating The College Coaching Hires

NT80 · December 30, 2006

COMMENTARY

Can't dodge interest in coaching hires

BY MATT HAYES

Matt Hayes is a columnist for The Sporting News

December 24, 2006

So here is Todd Dodge, the new coach at North Texas. The team he's leaving is in the playoffs--the Texas high school playoffs.

So here is North Texas, with a fat-cat booster who threatened to redirect a million-dollar donation from the athletic department to the music department if a practice facility wasn't named after recently fired coach Darrell Dickey. Guess who won that battle? Can you say "Dickey Fieldhouse"?

A coach willing to walk into that situation gets an "A" on any hiring report card. Then again, that 78-1 record and those three state titles Dodge has put up over the last five years at powerhouse Southlake Carroll High School help too.

This has to be the most intriguing coaching hire of the season. But plenty of others stand out:

Best hire: Brian Kelly, Cincinnati. Don't know why Kelly didn't hold out for a bigger job. In three years, the Bearcats will have won the Big East and Kelly, a former NCAA Division II jewel, will be headed elsewhere. Probably Alabama, which, no doubt, will have fired another coach by then.

Worst hire: Dennis Erickson, Arizona State. This is the administration's home run hire? Erickson seems to have NCAA issues wherever he goes and shows zero loyalty. But he can coach.

Best non-jump: Rich Rodriguez to Alabama. Almost heaven or almost fired. You pick.

Best use of the early ax: North Carolina athletic director Dick Baddour. Notorious for failed searches, he cut loose John Bunting in late October and immediately landed Butch Davis, the prize on the market. Had North Carolina waited longer, Alabama would have offered Davis $6 gazillion a year--and suffered yet another emasculating rejection.

Worst panic hire: Mark Dantonio, Michigan State. Why was there a rush to hire Dantonio, a former Michigan State assistant, away from Cincinnati? Couldn't the Sparty brass have looked longer to find the perfect fit for a program with lots of bad karma?

Worst trade-down: Tulane. From Chris Scelfo, a guy with passion, discipline and loyalty, to Bob Toledo, a guy with a good offensive mind who lets his players do whatever they want.

Best use of limited funds: Miami. The Hurricanes wanted Barry Alvarez to embrace the program and the $15 million of athletic department red ink as coach/AD. They settled for talented assistant Randy Shannon, who will cost millions less, not require the AD tag and produce much more.

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e-bone ver2.awesome · December 30, 2006

I saw this article and posted about it back on Sunday, but I'm glad you found the complete article to post.

NT80 · December 30, 2006

I saw this article and posted about it back on Sunday, but I'm glad you found the complete article to post.

I never could find it on the Sporting News website after you mentioned it, guess it was just in the print edition so far. This was in a column on a Chicago based sports site.

Edited December 30, 2006 by NT80

MeanGreenBuzz · December 30, 2006

Well they didn't list as best hire, but from the large mention I would bet we were probably their #2.

PlummMeanGreen · December 30, 2006

Well, the hiring of Todd Dodge was the #1 hire in the Bankhead Hwy Gazette out here in Parker County. :rolleyes:

After reading TSN article, I think UNT officials (of which some attempts had been made by MM/DD to try to make them or even to a certain extent anyone associated with UNT look like fools; anyway, our officials need to go ahead and officially name the practice field after Andrew Smith (whose good name IMHO didn't need to be a part of or associated with this whole charade as it was in the first place); but come on now UNT officials, put that Board of Regent's tele-conference together and make all this official ASAP. No need to let all this contintue to festor by the national press.

I don't think MM would change his mind (again) on his latest (very sensible) suggestion to have the practice field named after #12 and to have something in place before new UNT HFC Coach Todd Dodge starts his version of Mean Green Spring Football. Wouldn't hurt if all the media in DFW, Texas and beyond received a press release on this new and updated request (by MM and DD) for the best name submitted for the re-naming of the practice field at the Mean Green Village, either. Of course, I guess that wouldn't persevere the original story on all this or sell as many newspapers, either. :huh: