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Falcon fans -

It looks as though CMU will be hiring Butch Jones, the WR coach at WVU for its head football coach job. Some Chippewa fans are concerned...ah, actually pizzed-off...that we're offering a job to someone who has "only" been a WR coach and not a coordinator for a BCS program.

My question to you is what was the reaction when BGSU hired Urban Meyer, the WR coach from ND, to replace Gary Blackney? Was there a similar "WTF?" reaction. Blackney had a good run at BG and I'm sure you had some outstanding candidates besides Meyer.

Thanks so much and best wishes in hoops this year!

From what I remember, it has been several years ago, most fans were simply happy we were getting a new coach. Urban was from Notre Dame, so I figured he must have known what he was doing. Blackney had an amazing first 4 years here at BG, but the last 6 smelled of a rotting animal along the road. We were happy to be moving on. My advice, give the guy all the support possible and give him a chance. Great head coaches don't always have to have been coordinators.

The situations are quite a bit different. CMU is on top right now and BGSU was coming off a very poor season that saw us lose to...get this...Buffalo. The MAC was also a different league then. Toledo was making some noise and Marshall had some notoriety thanks to Moss, Pennington and the Giant Gary Coleman, but the league didn't have the Giant Killer rep it's developed (ok we've been more Giant scarers than killers of late). We weren't on ESPN much...or at all and we had one paltry bowl bid.

So...while we may have been OK with getting a WR coach from Notre Dame, I could see where CMU fans might be a tad miffed that they're getting a positional coach.

Here's a key question...were any finalists out there with coordinator expereince? Here at BGSU there was a guy...I forget his name..who was a Big 10 OC. Meyer getting the job over a guy with a better paper resume lent him some cred.

Flip:

Good points. And CMU got a good one in Kelly, an HC at a I-AA school. Surprising that they wouldn't be able to find a similar HC or an OC at a I-A school.

Butch was with CMU for something like 7 years before he went to WVU. Not to mention he's been coaching in Rich Rodriguez's system, which is very similar to Kelly's. Plus, I'm pretty sure on the MAC Report they said Jones was originally from Michigan and played with Ferris State. I understand the concern with getting a WR coach as your new head coach, but to me he really sounds like a pretty good fit. It looks like CMU is trying to get someone to coach that may show a little more loyalty towards the school than a Kelly, or a Meyer in our case.

Flipper wrote:The situations are quite a bit different. CMU is on top right now and BGSU was coming off a very poor season that saw us lose to...get this...Buffalo. The MAC was also a different league then. Toledo was making some noise and Marshall had some notoriety thanks to Moss, Pennington and the Giant Gary Coleman, but the league didn't have the Giant Killer rep it's developed (ok we've been more Giant scarers than killers of late). We weren't on ESPN much...or at all and we had one paltry bowl bid.

So...while we may have been OK with getting a WR coach from Notre Dame, I could see where CMU fans might be a tad miffed that they're getting a positional coach.

Here's a key question...were any finalists out there with coordinator expereince? Here at BGSU there was a guy...I forget his name..who was a Big 10 OC. Meyer getting the job over a guy with a better paper resume lent him some cred.

Interesting points Flipper. The Big 10 finalist was Jim Chaney, the OC at Purdue. The other was Jay Norvell, who was at the time coaching WR's with the Indianapolis Colts and had previously been the OC at Iowa State. Meyer also had big-name coaches (Earle Bruce, Lou Holtz) raving about him to Krebs and Seeliger.

One interesting tidbit: Butch Jones was portrayed very poorly in a book that came out a few years ago titled Recruiting Confidential by David Claerbaut detailing his son's journey through the college recruiting process.

http://www.amazon.com/Recruiting-Confid ... 1589790251

BG got an entire chapter and a bunch of other mentions, and the author was very complimentary of Brandon.

It's the Journey... wrote:From what I remember, it has been several years ago, most fans were simply happy we were getting a new coach. Urban was from Notre Dame, so I figured he must have known what he was doing. Blackney had an amazing first 4 years here at BG, but the last 6 smelled of a rotting animal along the road. We were happy to be moving on. My advice, give the guy all the support possible and give him a chance. Great head coaches don't always have to have been coordinators.

That's the way I remember it happening. I have to admit I wasn't familiar with Meyer at the time he was hired but my bud Mark, a BiG ND fan, knew of him and said he was a pretty intense dude.

It is official. CMU has hired Butch Jones, the WVU wide receivers coach, to be its head coach.

I have reservations and my gut feeling is we could have done better, but trust the AD's decision. Apparently, Jones is a terrific recruiter who landed our starting QB, RB and several of our All-Conference linemen. He worked under both DeBord and Kelly before leaving for WVU two years ago.

Best wishes to your Falcons! Hope we play again next season!

Centralguy wrote:It is official. CMU has hired Butch Jones, the WVU wide receivers coach, to be its head coach.

I have reservations and my gut feeling is we could have done better, but trust the AD's decision. Apparently, Jones is a terrific recruiter who landed our starting QB, RB and several of our All-Conference linemen. He worked under both DeBord and Kelly before leaving for WVU two years ago.

Best wishes to your Falcons! Hope we play again next season!

Good luck. Recruiting and offensive creativity are the name(s) of the game, and Butch Jones seems to have both areas nicely covered.