Can Leach,leavitt & Mangino Get Back In The Game ?

MizzouTigers · November 11, 2010

How about we hire Canales as HC and let him bring Leavitt in as an assistant? That way Leavitt gets a second chance; Canales gets a great assistant that will get promoted at some point if he's changed; and UNT can be the magnanimous benefactor. The more I read it the more I like it. If Leavitt has not or won't change, he won't take the job and our hands will be clean and we will have avoided hiring an ego maniac like Leach and Mangino.

Why would Leavitt want to do that?

jimbob · November 11, 2010

Why would Leavitt want to do that?

SECOND CHANCE! He's not going to be hired as a HC for a long time if ever.

MizzouTigers · November 11, 2010

SECOND CHANCE! He's not going to be hired as a HC for a long time if ever.

Wanna bet?

MeanGreenTeeth · November 11, 2010

Maybe. But check Kansas' board and you'll see there are a huge amount of fans who would rather see that and a winning team than the svelt, non-booger hunting Turner Gill and a losing team. (Well, except when Gill's opponent is Mr. "This ain't intramurals!")

In all honestly I think very very highly of Mangino as a coach. Getting Kansas to (and winning) the Orange Bowl is quite remarkable given the level of athlete they recruit. As a football mind alone he might actually be my #1 pick for us. I just think the poor guy has a lot of demons to deal with. I can't see him living long if he stays that size.

SleepingGiantsFan · November 11, 2010

In all honestly I think very very highly of Mangino as a coach. Getting Kansas to (and winning) the Orange Bowl is quite remarkable given the level of athlete they recruit. As a football mind alone he might actually be my #1 pick for us. I just think the poor guy has a lot of demons to deal with. I can't see him living long if he stays that size.

Agree 100%. Mangino must be four bills and change. I also think he's happy just being a "consultant" at Minnesota.

Regarding Turner Gill, I agree with Green Mean. I thought he did a great job at one of the absolute worst places in the country in Buffalo and I was hoping he would interview for the SDSU job. However, I heard from an insider that although SDSU contacted him, he passed, with the expectation that, as happened a year later, he got a gig with a school from an AQ conference. I think he made a mistake in hiring Chuck Long to be his OC, however. I think Chuck is a great QB coach as evidenced by his helping turn a modest talent like Jason White into a Heisman winner, plus convincing Bob Stoops go give Sam Bradford a scholarship when word was Stoops was urging Bradford to walk on. Although some think Chuck was also a good OC at Oklahoma, after Chuck was hired a number of Sooners came to our board and said they were glad to see him leave and warned that they thought he would be a terrible head coach. I was very skeptical of them, thinking they were just upset that he left Norman. Turns out I was very wrong and they were very right.

Gotta say it, BTW. The more I think about it, the more I think Leavitt would be a great hire for UNT. As Phil Steele says in this year's mag, Leavitt had several opportunities to leave for greener pastures but stayed at USF. One such opportunity was apparently to replace Bill Snyder at KSU but they made the mistake of hiring Ron Prince instead. I haven't investigated Leavitt's circumstances but it sure sounds on the face of it like it was very similar to Mike Leach, though without the interference from an ESPN announcer I consider to be a loser who couldn't keep his nose out of his kid's affairs.

Green Lantern · November 12, 2010

SECOND CHANCE! He's not going to be hired as a HC for a long time if ever.

False. I'd wager good money that he has a D1 HC job by next season. Hopefully for our sake it's here.

Harry · November 12, 2010

SECOND CHANCE! He's not going to be hired as a HC for a long time if ever.

I disagree. Leavitt is too good not to coach again. In the interview last night you could tell how Coach Canales held him in such high esteem. He's just a great coach and it's proven out in his results. He built South Florida from the ground up and Chico had a big part in that as well. It's a big accomplishment that both should be proud of.

PlummMeanGreen · November 12, 2010

I disagree. Leavitt is too good not to coach again. In the interview last night you could tell how Coach Canales held him in such high esteem. He's just a great coach and it's proven out in his results. He built South Florida from the ground up and Chico had a big part in that as well. It's a big accomplishment that both should be proud of.

If UCF would give resume' doctor O'Leary a 2'nd chance for doing that, I think other similar schools might over-look other coaches with far less blemishes.

IMO, the key with such a coach with a blemish is the sit down or "come to Jesus" talk that his potential new employers would have where they would make it very plainl that there would be a "zero tolerance" clause in his contract to not repeat any offense again. Most coaches who love their trade would probably stumble all over themselves to make sure they didn't.

Green Dozer · November 12, 2010

If UCF would give resume' doctor O'Leary a 2'nd chance for doing that, I think other similar schools might over-look other coaches with far less blemishes.

IMO, the key with such a coach with a blemish is the sit down or "come to Jesus" talk that his potential new employers would have where they would make it very plainl that there would be a "zero tolerance" clause in his contract to not repeat any offense again. Most coaches who love their trade would probably stumble all over themselves to make sure they didn't.

I don't know Plumm, I think guys at this level have to big of egos to run scared. I do not believe a "come to Jesus" meeting scares any of them, especially if they are winning. Having said this, I am not saying don't give anybody a second chance. If you tell a Leavitt not to do something that he did not do in the first place, then you take away his passion thus limiting his ability to be an effective coach. But the attempt to apply a normal template to the business of sports is not going to happen.

Edited November 12, 2010 by Green Dozer

jimbob · November 12, 2010

Wanna bet?

"Show Me" The Money!

PlummMeanGreen · November 12, 2010

Agree 100%. Mangino must be four bills and change. I also think he's happy just being a "consultant" at Minnesota.

Regarding Turner Gill, I agree with Green Mean. I thought he did a great job at one of the absolute worst places in the country in Buffalo and I was hoping he would interview for the SDSU job. However, I heard from an insider that although SDSU contacted him, he passed, with the expectation that, as happened a year later, he got a gig with a school from an AQ conference. I think he made a mistake in hiring Chuck Long to be his OC, however. I think Chuck is a great QB coach as evidenced by his helping turn a modest talent like Jason White into a Heisman winner, plus convincing Bob Stoops go give Sam Bradford a scholarship when word was Stoops was urging Bradford to walk on. Although some think Chuck was also a good OC at Oklahoma, after Chuck was hired a number of Sooners came to our board and said they were glad to see him leave and warned that they thought he would be a terrible head coach. I was very skeptical of them, thinking they were just upset that he left Norman. Turns out I was very wrong and they were very right.

Gotta say it, BTW. The more I think about it, the more I think Leavitt would be a great hire for UNT. As Phil Steele says in this year's mag, Leavitt had several opportunities to leave for greener pastures but stayed at USF. One such opportunity was apparently to replace Bill Snyder at KSU but they made the mistake of hiring Ron Prince instead. I haven't investigated Leavitt's circumstances but it sure sounds on the face of it like it was very similar to Mike Leach, though without the interference from an ESPN announcer I consider to be a loser who couldn't keep his nose out of his kid's affairs.

I don't think Leavitt belongs in the trash heap at all no more than I thought Fry did back after SMU fired him. UNT president Jitter Nolen took the bull by the horns ignoring all the locals usual modes of hiring philosophies and all but told the UNT community of that day, "we're going to go outside the box and "I'M" going to hire Coach Fry with our BOR's approval, of course. Sometimes, university presidents have more moxy and gonads towards doing such things than some may give credit.

I think our new Prez' Rawlins is cut from the same cloth that Jitter Nolen was and will tweek candidates right along with our AD (and maybe Neinas) till they find "the one" who we need to hire for maybe the most historic and important hire in our school's history--with the new stadium and all. Sorry, but we don't need to move completely all used furniture to our new house across the interstate but that is my opinion which is not the most popular one with about 25 or 30 on this board but............

.........we all have to understand just how small a percentage we on GMG.com represent among our entire UNT academic community, our entire student body (not just the SGA, either, with their sometimes easily sway'able political agendas thru the years) and the rest of our area alumnus body which numbers about 100,000 in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Again, this will not be one of those shoot from the hip hurry up(Helwig with DD?) sorta' hires we have become famous for in Denton in times past and local and state sports media who only have to look at our records in all sports of the last 5, 10 or 30 years and how all that translated on a national ranked basis among the other 120 schools in our division. We know how we rank in the Sun Belt and albeit a great home for us now and serving our purpose for the time being, I don't think Dr. Rawlins sees the 'Belt as our forever home so might we want to plan ahead with that in mind?

Personally, I am not sure our next HFC's name has yet to even be mentioned on this or any other board for that matter. Uh, just sayin'...... :rolleyes:

Edited November 12, 2010 by PlummMeanGreen

McKinneyMiner · November 12, 2010

UNT president Jitter Nolen took the bull by the horns...

The man's name was "Jitter"...??

VideoEagle · November 12, 2010

The man's name was "Jitter"...??

CC Nolan. Jitter was his nickname. Very bright, outgoing personality. Well liked by the students and a few in the faculty. The older faculty hated him because he wanted to move the university forward. Was forced out in some trumped up scandal that I think was later shown to be false. But once tainted, he was done.