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It is official now, both Babers and Syracuse have acknowledged that Babers now leads the Orange program. Congratulations and best of luck, coach, and thank you for all you have done!

What Kingston will do next is anyone's guess. This time two years ago we were all sure DJ Durkin was headed our way and when Babers was announced, we all said "who?" and then "wow!"

Some names we have floated so far ...
Sean Lewis or any other current staffer. Would run the same offense, would keep some continuity, and would energize the current players.
Everett Withers. Current head coach of a successful program. A defensive guy, more of a Clawson type.
Bob Stitt. Well known in the football community. Would keep the same offense and would be an enormous splash.

I can say this: Bowling Green is among the most attractive positions out there for up and coming coaches. Two conference championships in the last three years, lots of national press about the program successes, wins over big name programs, and two straight coaches winning championships and getting big name coaching jobs. Whoever Kingston picks, we will be in good shape.

I think that coach Ward has the greatest likelihood of getting the job from the current staff. Externally, Stitt and Withers will likely get a call as well and see if they're interested. Like Kingston said today, the success of the program will make this a very desired job for numerous coaches. BG is in a position of power given the situation.

BTW, all assistants will be coaching the bowl game.

I don't know that Withers is like Clawson...he's not bombastic as Dino but JMU ran a fastball offense like ours. I think they were running right around 85plays a game this year.

Stitt seems a little too Gregg Brandon....Northern Colorado...School of Mines...

One thing in Ward's favor...he was a HC before. At a small college...but he has experience running a program.

What Ward did with this defense vs what the defense was last year is just tremendous. He also is my personal favorite of the current staff from my observations as a fan.

I'll put my trust in Kingston. I don't think it's imperative to keep the same offensive system.

The talent is there to win a 3rd title in 4 years. They will absolutely be the favorites to win the East....again.

Any coach will probably be bringing in a completely new staff. Wouldn't mind seeing Ward retained as DC. Not sure I'd be ready to give the head gig to someone with 1 year of FBS experience. Or worse no, FBS experience....Stitt.

MarkL wrote:It is official now, both Babers and Syracuse have acknowledged that Babers now leads the Orange program. Congratulations and best of luck, coach, and thank you for all you have done!

What Kingston will do next is anyone's guess. This time two years ago we were all sure DJ Durkin was headed our way and when Babers was announced, we all said "who?" and then "wow!"

Some names we have floated so far ...
Sean Lewis or any other current staffer. Would run the same offense, would keep some continuity, and would energize the current players.
Everett Withers. Current head coach of a successful program. A defensive guy, more of a Clawson type.
Bob Stitt. Well known in the football community. Would keep the same offense and would be an enormous splash.

I can say this: Bowling Green is among the most attractive positions out there for up and coming coaches. Two conference championships in the last three years, lots of national press about the program successes, wins over big name programs, and two straight coaches winning championships and getting big name coaching jobs. Whoever Kingston picks, we will be in good shape.

You can uncover your eyes now its real. Those are not all the names we mentioned.

MarkL wrote:Some names we have floated so far ...

Globetrotter wrote:Those are not all the names we mentioned.

........ and did I indicate otherwise?

Very confident in CK's ability to hire another good coach.

I will throw 2 names out ... Casey Keeler at Sam Houston State and Delaware or outside the box would be
Kendall Briles

60yearsofsicsic wrote:I will throw 2 names out ... Casey Keeler at Sam Houston State and Delaware or outside the box would be
Kendall Briles

Here's another outside the box name ... Ruffin McNeill. I normally wouldn't hire a retread but I'd consider an exception. McNeill got an awfully raw deal from ECU. He was fired after going 5-7 with a team hobbled with injuries and they were in most of their games. Just a thought ...

Given the offensive talent that returns, and (hopefully) the recruits -- I'd like to see someone come in who runs a similar offensive scheme so the players wouldn't need to adjust that much AND they'd be excited about the hire. It might also help keep some recruits who fit that style and are very talented.

If you hire a defensive guy, he can always hire an offensive coordinator who wants to run that type of system. Another advantage of a defensive guy is that he'll be really picky about who is the DC and how they play. I think it might really strengthen that side of the ball.

In any event, I do agree that winning two titles in 3 years and having two coaches step up to nice jobs makes this coaching slot very attractive. And we haven't even mentioned the talent returning! Whoever comes in should know they have a very good shot at getting BG back to the MAC title game for the fourth time in a row.

Al golden and mike London might make some sense too

I think Kendal briles is well within the box.

Kendal Briles would be an odd choice... he's never coached anywhere but Baylor where he worked or his dad. If you want to hire a guy strictly based on youth and a working knowledge of our offense... you should hire Lewis

No matter who we end up hiring, think of this for a minute, this will be the 6th different head coach between our football and basketball program that Kingston will have here at BG in his short tenure. When he came on board we had Clawson in football and he hired Babers and will be naming yet another, and in basketball we had Orr and he's already hired Jans and Huger. I gotta believe it's very unlikely that any other school out there has had 6 different football and basketball coaches in a window of about two and a half years or so. Talk about having your plate full.

This thing could go anywhere....I don't think Kingston will feel obligated to go with someone connected to the program. I think it would be ideal to keep the offense similar to what the've been running. Promoting one of the assistants doesn't really excite me much....Id rather see us go to a Kendall Briles or Zach Azzani than promote from within.