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There's some buzz around Brian Polian, so here goes.
Polian has been a college football coach for over 20 years now. He began as a journeyman, doing his GA at Michigan State under Nick Saban, until finally landing on Charlie Weis' staff at Notre Dame for an extended period. He coached special teams in addition to some individual positions.
After Weis was fired, Polian bounced around again only to land his first head coaching job at Nevada. He was in the unenviable position of following up Chris Ault. If you are not familiar with Nevada football, that would be like following up Joe Paterno in an alternate reality where no scandal occurred. Ault is and will for a long time be Nevada football.
Polian did OK. He never really elevated Nevada, though he also caught them slumping in the final two years of Ault's tenure. And in his fourth year in 2016, after going 5-7, he and the AD mutually agreed to part ways.
He then landed back at Notre Dame under Brian Kelly where he has coached special teams again.
So a few things to know.
- He ran the pistol at Nevada. Of course Ault was famous for the pistol. The pistol is a tough offense to prep for because it blends some of what works with both the shotgun and traditional under center offenses.
- The immediate year after he left Nevada, the new coach had a rough year. But now in year two, they are 7-5. On track for the best Polian ever accomplished there.
- Former Charlie Weis assistants turned head coaches have done little. Mike Haywood won the MAC title at Miami in 2010 but has done nothing really since. Rob Ianello is one of the worst head coaches in MAC history. So Polian is the most successful of former Weis assistants, almost by default.
- He agreed to step away at Nevada when things were not progressing in order to gracefully allow someone else to take over. And he forfeited a buyout. That is character.
- Notre Dame STs have been very good these past two years.
- Former Brian Kelly assistants include two time MAC champ and two time Big East champ Butch Jones.
- Surely in the two years at ND he had time to reflect upon what went wrong at Nevada and learn from one of the nation's premier coaches.

All around, a good candidate. Head coach experience. 20+ years at the college level. Has worked for a variety of coaches. Knows the midwest. Hopefully a good recruiter. And is not married to one type of system.

Really. Nothing there jumps out indicating a quality hire.

MarkL wrote:Hopefully a good recruiter.

There are signs that he is. He is Notre Dame's recruiting coordinator. Also, while I don't subscribe to The Athletic (and thus can't read this entire article), this sportswriter seems to think he's a pretty good recruiter:

https://theathletic.com/478074/2018/08/ ... -coach-qa/" target="_blank

This, from 2013, is also interesting: Brian Polian reflecting on how recruiting is the way to outwork (and outspend, I suppose) other programs.

http://footballscoop.com/archive-news/b ... rk-people/" target="_blank

He's coached under Jim Harbaugh, David Shaw, Nick Saban, George O'Leary, Brian Kelly, and Kevin Sumlin.

I don't know if it's the absolute strongest hire because he's kind of unproven at this point, but I'm certainly intrigued. He's relatively young too, at 43.

If he's the guy, I'm going to buy into what he's selling until proven otherwise. Whoever gets this job has a rebuilding task ahead of them, and we've gotta really get behind the program and support them on this journey to make sure it happens.

Read the article. Cannot recall ever reading a less inspiring article about a supposed head coaching candidate. I don't want anything to do with a coach who learned offense or coaching from saban or Harbaugh.

And lastly, until proven otherwise, I will hold his father against him. Bill polian is insanely overrated and so out of touch with modern football I'm not sure he knows about the forward pass.

Might be a less exciting hire than pelini or Brandon. Meh meh meh

Here's how I see it. He's a safe, reliable, qualified hire after a disaster where the opposite was entirely true.
- 21 years of college coaching experience instead of 3.
- Worked for many programs and coaches instead of 1.
- Has worked under highly successful coaches rather than just one who was fired today.
- Has worked his way up from position coach of many different positions to coordinator as opposed to coaching just one position.
- Head coaching experience at the FBS level as opposed to the high school level.
- Many years of midwest recruiting as opposed to three years of Texas recruiting.
- Could name candidates for an entire coaching staff as opposed to having no clue in an interview about assistants.
- Most recently from the biggest, most historic, most recognizable program nationwide which just happens to be in our region of the country as opposed to a niche program in southwest Texas.
- Most recently worked for one of the most successful and well known coaches as opposed to a young, untested, one trick pony head coach.

The previous coach was a huge and unnecessary risk. I was notably quiet and not my normal Mr Optimism three years ago at this time because I saw more red flags than I knew how to count. If Polian is indeed the guy, and that is an enormous if because all we have heard is buzz, he is a safe hire.

Maybe right now a safe hire is needed. Not flashy. Qualified, reliable, safe.

hammb...I think it's completely irrational to hold your views on his father against him.

20+ years experience at the D1 level...four years of meh HC at Nevada...but that job was going to be a struggle for anyone and the person who hired him bailed after a year (sound familiar?) Took his lumps against P5 powers for a paycheck, beat one or two when they were down (sounds familiar) but was never to get over the hump against the upper echelon of the MWC, He did go 1-1 in bowl games

I honestly don't know why Nevada hired him...the guy he replaced was a coaching legend from their time in the WAC and they were moving up a level tot he Mountain West. Polian had never been higher on the food chain than special teams coordinator. He must have interviewed REALLY well

If he's learned from his mistakes at Nevada and brings more Kelly and less Harbaugh to the offense...I'm good with this hire. If he is..in fact...the guy

Flipper wrote:hammb...I think it's completely irrational to hold your views on his father against him.

Agreed. Never said it was rational.

That said I find it difficult to believe that the son of the posterchild for old school bland football would bring the sort of football I want to see. Especially given the fact he's worked under Shaw, Harbaugh, and saban... Exactly the type of football I don't want. If he's the guy I hope to be wrong.

I cannot stand old school (especially NFL style old school) football. I want nothing to do with a coach of that philosophy. Hopefully the apple fell far from the tree.

This guy Special team coach. OVER FREEMAN REALLY!!!!

hammb wrote: I cannot stand old school (especially NFL style old school) football. I want nothing to do with a coach of that philosophy. Hopefully the apple fell far from the tree.

Devil's advocate here. 1 - Clawson could be called old school mentality. He worked out just fine. 2 - in Polian's stint as HC at Nevada, he ran the pistol. Hardly old school. Doesn't mean he will do the same here, he inherited the pistol from Ault. In fact, he may go with what he inherits and run a hurry up if he is the next coach.

Pretty good Q&A from Feldman. I will share a couple.

What don’t most die-hard college football fans understand about running a non-Power 5 program?

There are two principal challenges in leading a Group of 5 program. Fundraising is critical. You are not trying to raise money to build a state-of-the-art indoor facility such as we are building here at Notre Dame. Often you are raising money for team meals, or to be able to afford spring recruiting. The other major challenge is scheduling and guarantee games. In four seasons, we played nine Power 5 programs solely for the purpose of guaranteed income. That money is not only vital for the program, but in some cases for the financial health of the athletic department. Balancing fundraising and scheduling philosophy is difficult. You have to factor in not only the financial, but the style of play of your opponent, travel, and fit within the schedule so that you can have your team in the best possible shape for conference play.

How do you think you’ll be a better head coach if you get another chance?

I do want to be a head coach again if the opportunity presents itself. I think that I will learn from my Nevada experience and be better the next time around. Looking back, there are things that I would do differently in every facet of the program: staffing, recruiting, campus and community relationships, Xs and Os. That is all part of professional and personal growth.

Why would you want to be a college head coach again?

If my time at Nevada had been an abject failure, I would consider that chapter of my career closed. I honestly don’t believe that it was. If we had closed a couple of tight games, I might still be the Nevada head coach. I am in a sort of coaching limbo. Not a failure, but not an overwhelming success, either. I don’t think the final chapter of my head coaching book is written yet. I hope to get another opportunity, but if it does not come, I will be grateful for my experience at Nevada and particularly for the relationships that we enjoyed.

MarkL wrote:

hammb wrote: I cannot stand old school (especially NFL style old school) football. I want nothing to do with a coach of that philosophy. Hopefully the apple fell far from the tree.

Devil's advocate here. 1 - Clawson could be called old school mentality. He worked out just fine. 2 - in Polian's stint as HC at Nevada, he ran the pistol. Hardly old school. Doesn't mean he will do the same here, he inherited the pistol from Ault. In fact, he may go with what he inherits and run a hurry up if he is the next coach.

Agreed. Clawson was definitely old school and exactly the type of coach I wouldn't want to hire again, really. I was excited for him when we hired him because of his resume as a HC (Polian's is FAR less stellar).

As successful as Clawson's old school approach was (and I'm not at all forgetting his success) we were boring as hell to watch until we landed Johnson, and we rarely beat anybody that we didn't "out talent". His record against Toledo and P5 teams was awful. And I attribute that entirely to his brand of football.

Old school football can not succeed to the level that I want to see BG succeed. We will never recruit the quality/depth of talent required to consistently beat our rivals and knock off P5 teams taking an old school approach. We must build our program around putting athletes in space and scoring points. Look no further than Ann Arbor to see the limitations you put on your program when you hire that type of coach. Harbaugh will win 9-10 games every year beating who he should, but will never beat the best competition on his schedule playing that way. FINALLY the NFL is even realizing how painfully limiting old school football is and opening things up. Ground n pound football is dying, and I'll be happy to throw the first shovel of dirt on the grave.


All that said, I don't know what sort of offense Polian would bring here. His OC at Nevada is now the HC at Hawaii, so he's not coming here. My fear with Polian is looking at the history of who he's coached with, and who his father is, I don't see any of the type of football I want at BG. He's his own man. Maybe he's been quietly biding his time waiting to get another shot to unleash his preferred high flying scoring. But all I have to go on was a mediocre run as HC, and an uninspiring list of people he's worked with.

Polian is the biggest "meh" you could get. He's also the safest selection to make. Never had a winning season within conference play while at Nevada, which to me is a huge red flag. It would be a highly disappointing selection after getting a six-week head start on the search.

Tony4BG wrote:If my time at Nevada had been an abject failure, I would consider that chapter of my career closed. I honestly don’t believe that it was.

This seems fair. His time in Nevada wasn't great, but it wasn't Jinks-era bad, either. Two years after Polian left, Nevada is 7-5 this season. This is consistent with the idea that Polian is a strong recruiter.