Here’s what we should be hiring for:
- leadership and accountability
- evaluation and recruiting (selling) skills, and commitment
- ability to build a staff
- high expectations/ambition
Out of people who meet those criteria, we should screen for offensive and defensive philosophy (scheme and style), to ensure fit with our program’s assets (local talent and culture).
I personally wouldn’t hire a fancy coordinator. Too much risk on the critical traits, and not needed because the right HC will get the right staff hired and system implemented. The job of the HC isn’t offensive scheming. It’s running a program. Talent eval, roster management, recruiting, retention of key players, position selection/changes, staff composition, S&C, development, scheme, game planning, play calling, motivation, nutrition, alumni relations, media relations, etc.
If you score our past HCs, you can see they all failed the basic criteria.
Coker wasn’t a leader, and didn’t hold his staff accountable, was terrible as a recruiter / evaluator (recruited off lists), allowed our S&C to decline dramatically, and allowed a culture of low expectations to set in.
Shannon wasn’t a leader, and didn’t build a good staff, maintained no discipline on S&C, and was mediocre and reluctant as a recruiter / evaluator.
Golden was a snake-oil salesman, didn’t hold his butt buddy accountable, was not a good recruiter or evaluator, got his schemes totally wrong for our program, and continued a mediocre S&C program. He was all spin and deflection, and had no expectation of real success.
Richt built a mediocre staff, and obviously had no accountability given his son’s performance and our offense’s performance generally. He hired a terrible S&C guy and didn’t fix it. He was a very lazy roster manager and mediocre evaluator. And he was clearly content with ‘okay’ results. He came to UM to retire, not compete.
Diaz, not a leader, lots of talk, no accountability, mediocre staff at best, not a good recruiter / evaluator.