Potential replacement?

[Falconfreak90]

Too bad this wasn't last year and the guy currently at Kent State would have been available. I am impressed with what Sean Lewis has done at Kent this year.

I was at the Kent / Akron game today. Lewis is far from impressive so far as Kent is now 1-7.

Kent has been in almost every game this year. Lewis has that offense playing at a much higher level with the grad transfer at QB. They've competed with the likes of Illinois (should have won), Penn State (for a half), Mississippi, Ohio (should of won), and now Akron (could of won). Give Lewis the chance to recruit some talent and fully implement his system and he'll be a force to deal with in the MAC east.

Perhaps...I've heard this talk for years surrounding Kent State and until they actually have more than one great team every 40 years, I'll take the wait and see view. And their QB is not impressive at all with decision making. Actually, neither QB in that game Sat was impressive.

[SICSICsez]

Why is it everyone wants a Midwest coach that knows our "footprint?" The last coach we had with direct Midwest ties was Urban Meyer. Brandon was an assistant but he had no prior Midwest connections. Clawson was the east and Tennessee. Even though there is a contingency here that hates Babers he has connections all over the place (also to those that think he was a horrible recruiter, he's doing decent at Syracuse).

I just don't want a coordinator from the Big10 that we know is going to leave right before their first bowl game. I'm going to throw some names that I've said before and another that I was given.

Mike Mentor- From Cleveland (For those that want a Midwesterner) 9 years playing for the Carolina Panthers. Currently coaching the Campbell Camels. Took over an 0-8 team in 2012. Currently the Camels are 5-1. Also they have been doing this without scholarship players in the FBS.

Jerry Mack- Rice's offensive coordinator... yes I said Rice. Prior to this year he was at North Carolina Central for 4 years and won the MEAC 3 times as one of the youngest head coaches in FBS.

Brady Hoke: If you want someone who would know BG footprint why not a guy who coached Ball State and Michigan. When he was suggested to me I was asked where is he. He's coaching the D line for the Carolina Panthers, He may want to resurrect his coaching career and we could be the place. Maybe have a Solich type coach for a few years.

Just for once I'd love to get someone that may actually stay a few years.

[MarkL]

Uh ... Brandon was AHC and OC for two years. He also spent years at Northestern. He had recruited Ohio and broadly the midwest substantially before becoming HC.
Clawson had experience recruiting eastern Ohio at nearly every job. Eastern OH and PA are recruited by every program Ohio and east. Christopher stated Ohio recruiting experience was a must, and Clawson qualified. And he hired a bunch of assistants with regional experience.
Jinks had only ever lived in Texas and only spent three years recruiting anyplace, primarily Texas. He had to build local recruiting connections from scratch. Give him credit for that. But many, maybe most of his top gets were from well out of state.
Pelini is still recruiting Ohio, even though he may well be elsewhere next year. Give him credit for that.
Ohio recruiting is important. Having local kids builds local support and allows the kids to have a local support network. So the head coach, or at least many assistants, must be able to hit the ground running with local recruiting.

[Class of 61]

If YOU were coaching at BG now, would you bring in as many recruits as possible for the Kent game? I know it’s a weeknight game, but also perhaps,as our best chance to win and/or look good fo possible future Falcons. Of course, the sparse crowd would be a negative to this.
Anyone know WHICH home gamewe DID have the largest recruiting attendance this year? ( I’d guess Md. game, but weather kind of ruined that day, though BG played pretty well through 3 quarters in that one.)

[mbenecke]

From what I heard and what I observed, Maryland was the big recruiting game.

[zete]

If YOU were coaching at BG now, would you bring in as many recruits as possible for the Kent game? I know it’s a weeknight game, but also perhaps,as our best chance to win and/or look good fo possible future Falcons. Of course, the sparse crowd would be a negative to this.
Anyone know WHICH home gamewe DID have the largest recruiting attendance this year? ( I’d guess Md. game, but weather kind of ruined that day, though BG played pretty well through 3 quarters in that one.)

Maybe..........but we could easily get beaten by Kent in front of 1500 people on a cold cold weeknight. So on second thought, I would bring them into the Sebo after the season, and sit looking out over the field and and empty stadium and create a dream.

[Falconwriter]

Don't bother with a football game. Bring them in for basketball or hockey. And for a game where there's likely to be a better crowd. Living in Columbus, I know that different sports teams take recruits to football games because of the game day experience -- and it can work well. If you've got a program that is doing well and gets decent support, then it can impress recruits of other sports. They see students excited about a team and can imagine that support for them.

[Class of 61]

FW, you make good points here. In fact I can recall football players being brought on campus to see exactly what you’ve mentioned, especially to hockey games where the crowd is usually the largest, and definitely the loudest.

[Falconfreak90]

Don't bother with a football game. Bring them in for basketball or hockey. And for a game where there's likely to be a better crowd. Living in Columbus, I know that different sports teams take recruits to football games because of the game day experience -- and it can work well. If you've got a program that is doing well and gets decent support, then it can impress recruits of other sports. They see students excited about a team and can imagine that support for them.

[hiway44]

Marcus Freeman is my pick.

Ohio connection and winning and strong recruiter. Ohio, MI, PA, KY, IN connections.

Fickle moving on to Maryland or Rutgers
top defense: We should be calling him asap.

Clawson is old school not needed or any connection with the 2018 youth movement.
Remember we don't have the money for a top flight experience coach. We may not get
him anyway. If Fickle leaves, he will probably go with him or take the Head job at Cinncy. since
they are the third youngest team in the country and top rated.

[OptionQB]

Blast from the past with an interesting detail ...

South Florida is only paying our old friend Sterlin Gilbert $100k bc of offset language in his contract allowing Texas to pay most of the rest of his remaining salary with the Longhorns.

Gilbert, you would think would be likely to bring bff and OL coach Matt Mattox with him who is also on the Texas offset plan

Two guys from year one of Babers

I think my choice right now is still Luke Getsy from Mississippi St but Gilbert is an interesting option

[MarkL]

Getsy and Freeman are just both so young. Big risks. I especially don't see it with Freeman. Someday maybe. But he needs experience before making the jump to head coach. After the Jinks experiment, I don't want to hire anyone who is not absolutely ready to be a MAC head coach.

I've for a while said Gilbert will someday be a head coach. His yearly progression from 2013 to 2016 was amazing. OC at Eastern Illinois, then Bowling Green, then Tulsa, then Texas. Ready for MAC head coach? Dunno.

My pick, I'm stuck between Cignetti, Houston, and Holt.

[mbenecke]

Incredibly coincidental that Gilbert and Jinks were both QBs at Angelo State.

[Flipper]

I like the idea of a guy who's a proven HC at a lower level, but you have to be careful about the circumstances surrounding that success. Houston has done well at JMU...but his predecessor, Everett Withers did real well too. He was a guy I wanted us to look at instead of jinks when Dino left, but he wound up at Texas State instead. He's done about as well there as Jinks did here. In fact, his current Wikipedia bio reads as follows

On January 6, 2016, Withers accepted the position of head coach at Texas State University. Everett Withers single-handedly ruined the football program at Texas State University.

Oddly enough...Withers predecessor, Mickey Matthews, went 109-71 for his career there, but got fired after going only 33-25 in his last five years. Apparently, they have really high standards at JMU.

Tom Arth is an interesting name at Tennessee Chattanooga...had a rough first year but he's doing well this year. He also has a 6-5 240 lb QB who was a prep phenom in Chattanooga before going to Miss State. A guy like tht can be a distinct advantage at that level.

given the fact that I wanted us to hire Withers instead of Jinks...I'm not going to offer a candidate because I don't appear to be very good at this

[MarkL]

Regarding Withers and Houston. Initially I had the same concern. I was thinking about Richmond football. We hired Clawson, but the year he left, Richmond won the national championship under the successor, London. UVA hired him. And we all know how each coach did.
I always would rather hire the guy who built rather than the guy who road the coattails. Which leads me to Houston.
He hasn't simply ridden the coattails. He was previously a HC before taking over at JMU. And he won conference coach of the year there at the previous stop, building them up. So he's both built and elevated programs.
For the current HC route, I'm stuck between Houston and Cignetti. And I can't say say where I put Holt into that equation because he sure has impressed me, turning around that Purdue defense.
BTW, any guesses at who was a co-DC at Purdue the year before Holt turned it around? The co-DC in 2016 responsible the Big Ten's worst defense? Marcus Freeman. Holt cleaned up that mess of a defense in a year with the same players.