Coaches face dilemma of when to join new team
The speculation is starting to make your head spin.
OK, so my barber’s uncle says Les Miles is going to Michigan. And Tommy Tuberville’s going to Texas A&M. And who’s coming to Nebraska? The haircut finished just before he could say.
’Tis the season for rumor spilling, job changing.
We’re at that time when every coach is apparently, seemingly, plausibly believed to be on his way to coach somewhere else.
Of course, college football coaching changes are a real mess.
With bowl games coming a month after the regular season, coaches switching jobs face an interesting dilemma: When to move into the new office? Before the bowl game? After the bowl game?
And then there’s the athletic directors, sometimes forced to decide whether to keep a lame-duck coach around for a bowl game, bring in a new guy, or let an assistant be the interim coach.
Many are wondering if Nebraska will face such a dilemma. The Huskers will try to qualify for a bowl game by beating Colorado on Friday. A day later, coach Bill Callahan will meet with interim athletic director Tom Osborne to evaluate the coach’s job.
Given this tough season, no one is certain Callahan will still be the Husker coach after this weekend.
If the Huskers beat Colorado, and Callahan is not retained, who coaches in the bowl game?
Interim coach was a rather foreign title to Nebraskans until four years ago, when Frank Solich was fired after a 9-3 regular season. Bo Pelini, then the Huskers’ defensive coordinator, assumed the interim head coaching tag.
How difficult was it for Husker players to transition from Solich to an interim coach?
Apparently, it wasn’t hard at all.
“When I found out Bo Pelini was going to be our interim coach, I was really at ease with that by the way he was with the players,” said Sam Koch, then a Husker punter, now with the Baltimore Ravens. “Obviously, it is a tough time, but it wasn’t like they were bringing in somebody who has no clue.”
Barrett Ruud, then a Husker linebacker, now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, said a coach with a strong personality like Pelini’s would have no trouble taking over leadership of the team for one game.
“There was no need for him to get our respect. He already had it,” Ruud said. “He’s a natural leader. Obviously, he was with the defense more than the offense. But the offensive guys knew he could do it. It didn’t take much for him to get our attention.”
It is very rare that a school hires a new head coach and brings him in right away to coach in the bowl game.
As Koch said: “I find that would be very hard for the players, just from the fact that they don’t understand what the new guy would do. Would he keep the same offense?”
But it has happened before.
Last season, upon being offered the head coaching position at Cincinnati, Brian Kelly promptly told his Central Michigan team he was leaving to coach the Bearcats in a bowl game.
Never mind that Central Michigan, the team he had just coached to a Mid-American Conference championship, was in a bowl game, too. Kelly wanted to get a jump-start with his new team.
“There’s no question it helped,” Kelly said to the Courier News of Bridgewater, N.J.
“Most (people say), ‘You got a chance to evaluate your kids.’ I think they got a chance to evaluate me and my staff and what we’re about, how we prepare and what game day’s like. So, certainly, those 15 practices and a (bowl) game gave our players a better glimpse of what to expect with a new head coach.”
Kelly’s Cincinnati team beat Western Michigan 27-24 in the International Bowl.
Taking a much different approach to changing jobs was Charlie Weis.
After accepting the Notre Dame job three years ago, Weis hung around Bill Belichick and Tom Brady for a couple months, going for a Super Bowl ring with the New England Patriots.
During that time, he split his workload between two jobs — offensive coordinator for the Patriots and head coach of the Irish.
The Patriots won the Super Bowl. But a cynic might argue that Weis hurt Notre Dame’s recruiting class that year by not going directly to South Bend, Ind.
Weis was in Jacksonville, Fla., for the Super Bowl during letter of intent signing day.
Consider that the recruiting class Notre Dame signed that year are now upperclassmen. The Irish are 2-9 this season.
“If I would have walked away (from New England),” Weis told Notre Dame Magazine, “it might have saved Notre Dame a couple of players.
“But the fact that it could have had a detrimental effect to the Patriots — that’s not the right way of doing things. I think I owed it to the Patriots and the people of New England to finish what we started.”
There is no perfect method to handing coaching shakeups.
In Nebraska’s situation four years ago, even though players loved Pelini, Ruud said many were still hurt because they didn’t think their head coach should have been fired.
“It’s obviously not your first (choice),” Ruud said. “You don’t want to have a coach get fired before the end of season. But if it happens, you got to be a professional about it.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.
OK, so my barber’s uncle says Les Miles is going to Michigan. And Tommy Tuberville’s going to Texas A&M. And who’s coming to Nebraska? The haircut finished just before he could say.
’Tis the season for rumor spilling, job changing.
We’re at that time when every coach is apparently, seemingly, plausibly believed to be on his way to coach somewhere else.
Of course, college football coaching changes are a real mess.
With bowl games coming a month after the regular season, coaches switching jobs face an interesting dilemma: When to move into the new office? Before the bowl game? After the bowl game?
And then there’s the athletic directors, sometimes forced to decide whether to keep a lame-duck coach around for a bowl game, bring in a new guy, or let an assistant be the interim coach.
Many are wondering if Nebraska will face such a dilemma. The Huskers will try to qualify for a bowl game by beating Colorado on Friday. A day later, coach Bill Callahan will meet with interim athletic director Tom Osborne to evaluate the coach’s job.
Given this tough season, no one is certain Callahan will still be the Husker coach after this weekend.
If the Huskers beat Colorado, and Callahan is not retained, who coaches in the bowl game?
Interim coach was a rather foreign title to Nebraskans until four years ago, when Frank Solich was fired after a 9-3 regular season. Bo Pelini, then the Huskers’ defensive coordinator, assumed the interim head coaching tag.
How difficult was it for Husker players to transition from Solich to an interim coach?
Apparently, it wasn’t hard at all.
“When I found out Bo Pelini was going to be our interim coach, I was really at ease with that by the way he was with the players,” said Sam Koch, then a Husker punter, now with the Baltimore Ravens. “Obviously, it is a tough time, but it wasn’t like they were bringing in somebody who has no clue.”
Barrett Ruud, then a Husker linebacker, now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, said a coach with a strong personality like Pelini’s would have no trouble taking over leadership of the team for one game.
“There was no need for him to get our respect. He already had it,” Ruud said. “He’s a natural leader. Obviously, he was with the defense more than the offense. But the offensive guys knew he could do it. It didn’t take much for him to get our attention.”
It is very rare that a school hires a new head coach and brings him in right away to coach in the bowl game.
As Koch said: “I find that would be very hard for the players, just from the fact that they don’t understand what the new guy would do. Would he keep the same offense?”
But it has happened before.
Last season, upon being offered the head coaching position at Cincinnati, Brian Kelly promptly told his Central Michigan team he was leaving to coach the Bearcats in a bowl game.
Never mind that Central Michigan, the team he had just coached to a Mid-American Conference championship, was in a bowl game, too. Kelly wanted to get a jump-start with his new team.
“There’s no question it helped,” Kelly said to the Courier News of Bridgewater, N.J.
“Most (people say), ‘You got a chance to evaluate your kids.’ I think they got a chance to evaluate me and my staff and what we’re about, how we prepare and what game day’s like. So, certainly, those 15 practices and a (bowl) game gave our players a better glimpse of what to expect with a new head coach.”
Kelly’s Cincinnati team beat Western Michigan 27-24 in the International Bowl.
Taking a much different approach to changing jobs was Charlie Weis.
After accepting the Notre Dame job three years ago, Weis hung around Bill Belichick and Tom Brady for a couple months, going for a Super Bowl ring with the New England Patriots.
During that time, he split his workload between two jobs — offensive coordinator for the Patriots and head coach of the Irish.
The Patriots won the Super Bowl. But a cynic might argue that Weis hurt Notre Dame’s recruiting class that year by not going directly to South Bend, Ind.
Weis was in Jacksonville, Fla., for the Super Bowl during letter of intent signing day.
Consider that the recruiting class Notre Dame signed that year are now upperclassmen. The Irish are 2-9 this season.
“If I would have walked away (from New England),” Weis told Notre Dame Magazine, “it might have saved Notre Dame a couple of players.
“But the fact that it could have had a detrimental effect to the Patriots — that’s not the right way of doing things. I think I owed it to the Patriots and the people of New England to finish what we started.”
There is no perfect method to handing coaching shakeups.
In Nebraska’s situation four years ago, even though players loved Pelini, Ruud said many were still hurt because they didn’t think their head coach should have been fired.
“It’s obviously not your first (choice),” Ruud said. “You don’t want to have a coach get fired before the end of season. But if it happens, you got to be a professional about it.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.
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