Another coach gone?

factman · Post by **factman** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:32 am

I am hearing that DJ Durkin may be headed to Stanford to coach with Harbaugh.
The only thing that bothers me about these coaches leaving is that it makes me wonder how much time and effort they have actually put into recruiting. I guess we'll see in a few weeks.

jeebus · Post by **jeebus** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:36 am

sweet god...this is getting bad...very very bad.

on the verdge of what could be a very note-worthy season that could boost our image we lose this many people? one has to wonder why... oh well maybe it'll be fixed in 08

Flipper · Post by **Flipper** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 7:12 am

I agree factman...Durkin, Azzani. Springer and Studrawa leave and Mick McCall was interviewing elsewhere for a HC gig. How much time were they devoting to recruiting and how much time was sent getting resumes out and interviewing?

We've got some holes in our staff right at the end of the recrutiing process when we need to be closing things out and keeping those verbals committed.

It's getting harder to view this as anything but the usual exodus of assistants that happens when a head coach's butt is on the line

tim94064 · Post by **tim94064** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 8:30 am

Sounds like the boys are getting out of "dodge"

Jacobs4Heisman · Post by **Jacobs4Heisman** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 8:37 am

From what I heard when players were leaving at the end of the season, there were "major problems" between the team and coaching staff. Who knows if the problems extended to within the staff or not? Maybe there were philosophy differences between Brandon and the assistants? Maybe Brandon was told by Christopher he needed to shake things up? Or maybe it's just a weird coincedence of 4 coaches all receiving opportunities they couldn't refuse in the same offseason. We can only guess at a lot of these dynamics.

IMO, a good portion of these changes are due to the head man not really knowing what he's doing. I know that Brandon directly led to at least a few of the player departures, but it's much harder to tell how much he affected the other coaches. When you turn over half your staff in an offseason though, it smells pretty bad. Like I said before, this program is a sinking ship, at least for the next couple years. This athletic department needs to learn how to fire people.

JoeFalcon · Post by **JoeFalcon** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 9:21 am

It sounds like these "boys" are getting offered positions that double their salary or increase their responsibilities significantly.

Stud: doubles his salary at LSU; goes to preseason Top 5 team.
Azzanni: returns to alma mater and gets title of Assistant Head Coach.
Springer: becomes a defensive coordinator for the 1st time in his career.
Durkin: goes to a PAC-10 school and gets a huge raise (maybe)

None of these are lateral moves, and such movement is rather common in the coaching profession. Hopefully they can be replaced quickly as was the case with Adam Gonzaga and Matt Campbell. This recruiting class is shaping up to be the best that we've had since GB became head coach.

The only problems that were written about publicly were the 3 linemen who transferred to I-AA schools due to lack of playing time and disagreements with the staff over said issue. J4H, if you have any additional info please share.

Jacobs4Heisman · Post by **Jacobs4Heisman** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 9:34 am

I don't have much in the way of specifics outside of the kickers, but I heard from multiple sources, that I deem reliable, that there was a lot of discord in the locker room, and most of it came from the top. Not hard to believe with the way Brandon acts on the sidelines and in the media. I can only imagine what he's like in the locker room.

I wasn't completely sold that at least some of that talk wasn't sour grapes, but I believe it more and more with every departure. If people are happy with their job, they're not out looking for other ones. And I have a hard time believing that other programs are raiding the staff of a bad team in a bad conference. My opinion, based on nothing other than intuition, is that these guys were either told to look for employment elsewhere, or did it on their own to escape a rapidly declining situation.

Globetrotter · Post by **Globetrotter** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 12:07 pm

Matt Campbell?

bgfalcon03 · Post by **bgfalcon03** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 1:09 pm

I don't know who you are hearing all that stuff from but, the coaches who have left are not leaving with bad feelings toward Brandon. They left because that is part of the business...who could blame them for wanting to take a step up..
As for the three players who left ...ask any of the players and they will tell you that those 3 players were downers and they had bad attitudes.

HoustonFalcon · Post by **HoustonFalcon** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 1:12 pm

Look, if they were told to look elsewhere for employment, they sure did a pretty good job of finding them. To me, if you are an assistant on a team that declined last year, and you get a better job the next year, that is a reflection on the head coach. If Coach Brandon has all of these quality guys on his staff, and yet his team struggles in many areas, it is a reflection on him. The team doesn't normally take the attitude of the assistant coaches, they take the attitude of the head coach. Either that or they leave.

Flipper · Post by **Flipper** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 1:22 pm

Sooooo...maybe all these guys started looking for work elsewhere because they thought Gregg Brandon was going to go to Florida to work for Urban Meyer...maybe there was some fire to go with that smoke? Maybe there still is?

bgfalcon03 · Post by **bgfalcon03** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 1:24 pm

you can think what you want..
But I know for a fact that Stud did not leave with any hard feelings toward Brandon.

FalconFanatic · Post by **FalconFanatic** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 1:34 pm

Thanks for everything coaches. Goodbye and goodluck! Moving on to next thread

orangeandbrown · Post by **orangeandbrown** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 6:31 am

Jacobs4Heisman wrote:If people are happy with their job, they're not out looking for other ones. And I have a hard time believing that other programs are raiding the staff of a bad team in a bad conference. My opinion, based on nothing other than intuition, is that these guys were either told to look for employment elsewhere, or did it on their own to escape a rapidly declining situation.

I have no way of knowing what's really going on, but people do leave good jobs to get better jobs. You don't have to be unhappy.

Jacobs4Heisman · Post by **Jacobs4Heisman** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:04 am

orangeandbrown wrote:
Jacobs4Heisman wrote:If people are happy with their job, they're not out looking for other ones. And I have a hard time believing that other programs are raiding the staff of a bad team in a bad conference. My opinion, based on nothing other than intuition, is that these guys were either told to look for employment elsewhere, or did it on their own to escape a rapidly declining situation.
I have no way of knowing what's really going on, but people do leave good jobs to get better jobs. You don't have to be unhappy.

No doubt, but if half my company left all of a sudden, I'd have a tough time buying the excuse they were all happy here and just happened to stumble across a better opportunity. It happens, but I'd be one hell of a coincidence for it to happen 4 times in one offseason.

Just a gut feeling on this one.