The 10 Commandments of a college football coaching search:
I. Do not freak out if you haven’t hired a coach. Arizona hired Dick Tomey on January 13, 1987. His predecessor, Larry Smith, was hired on April 16, 1980. They became the two most successful football coaches in school history. Now that 16 players have been signed in Arizona’s Class of 2018, don’t stop turning over rocks just to beat someone’s clock.
II. Do not pay your search firm “expert” unless he has fully examined North Dakota State coach Chris Klieman, who is 54-6 and has won three of the last four FCS national championships. Klieman is affordable; his buyout is a mere $150,000. No, it will not be a Big Bang press conference winner, but my goodness, he must be doing something right. Beau Baldwin, now Cal’s offensive coordinator, was the Klieman of his day at Eastern Washington. Give him a call, too.
III. Do spend time getting to know Philadelphia Eagles special teams coordinator David Fipp. He has coached under Tomey, Chris Ault, Rich Ellerson and Chip Kelly. Fipp, 43, is a former starting safety at Arizona, teammates with Tedy Bruschi. His head coach at Philadelphia, Doug Pederson, last year said Fipp will “someday be a head coach in the NFL.” His top kick returner, Kenjon Barner, told The Athletic last month that Fipp’s “going to be a head coach. … Guys love playing for him. I love that dude. He’s special. When you have a coach like him, you’d do anything for him.” Are special teams coaches qualified? On Monday, it was reported the Arizona Cardinals are interviewing Atlanta Falcons special teams coach Keith Armstrong for their head coaching vacancy.
IV. Don’t buy it if a hot prospect says he’ll need four or five years to turn things around in Tucson. Baloney. I would accept a one-year contract for a mere $100,000 to coach Arizona in 2018 and guarantee the Wildcats would be bowl eligible. If I couldn’t produce a 6-6 record, I’d give back the $100,000 and scrub the ancient restrooms at Arizona Stadium for a year, no charge. Arizona’s ‘18 schedule is so inviting that the next coach will be 5-0 the day he walks into his office for the first time.
V. Do make sure the next coach doesn’t buy a vacation home on a golf course in Georgia or somewhere near the Mason/Dixon Line. This is the Pac-12. Make it work here or at least in within the conference’s footprint. In July of 2016, Rich Rodriguez conducted his annual preseason staff retreat from his spiffy resort home in Georgia. About 20 staff members had to fly across country to do what could’ve been done in, say, Pinetop or Flagstaff. What a waste of $20,000 or more. Remember when Arizona was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, ranked No. 1 in 1994? SI published a photograph of the UA coaching staff on their preseason retreat. It was on Mount Lemmon.
VI. Do not expect a lifer. Get a guy while he’s hot and running on renewable energy. The shelf life of a Power 5 college football coach is about six years. The Pac-12’s current head coaches have been at their schools for an average of 3.4 years. And remember this: in the AP’s 2007 Top 25 preseason poll, in which RichRod’s West Virginia Mountaineers were ranked No. 3, such status was fleeting. Of those 25 head coaches, 24 no longer coach at those schools. The holy names of 2007 — Joe Paterno, Mack Brown, Bob Stoops, Bobby Bowden, Phil Fulmer — have either retired or been fired. The stock of many others from that Top 25 declined quickly: Houston Nutt, Bill Callahan, Karl Dorrell, Dennis Franchione. The only man still on the job at his same school is TCU’s Gary Patterson. The average stay at each of those Top 25 schools from 2007 was 5.6 years.
VII. Don’t get flummoxed by a coach’s “system.” These things evolve and so must a coach. When RichRod arrived at Arizona in 2012, the UA’s spread offense and speed-it-up system was without peer in the Pac-12. Arizona ran 1,082 plays that season. That was even more than the lightning-quick Oregon Ducks (1,058). Since then, as Arizona stubbornly did not change, the league lapped the Wildcats. In 2017, Arizona ran just 908 plays. That total was sixth in the league, behind even stodgy Utah (953 plays) and UCLA (932), which was a dumpster fire.
VIII. Do insist that your next coach drive the short seven miles to Pima College and introduce himself to PCC football coach Jim Monaco. In the last three years, Oregon, Utah, Colorado and Oregon State signed Pima College football players. Arizona? Zip. RichRod never even talked to Monaco. Not once.
IX. Don’t underestimate the appeal of Arizona football. In the past few days, former Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin, ex-UCLA/Washington/Colorado coach Rick Neuheisel and former Tennessee coach Butch Jones have aggressively reached out to prominent UA donors in attempt to get involved in the coaching search. Maybe it’s not good timing for those men, but they know it’s possible to be a winner at Arizona.
X. Don’t hire someone who doesn’t appreciate the power of recruiting in the Polynesian culture. Arizona hasn’t had a Polynesian assistant coach since Joe Salave’a was let go by RichRod in 2012. As of Monday, the Pac-12 had 16 coaches/recruiting coordinators of Polynesian ethnicity, including Salave’a, who is Oregon’s associate head coach. Arizona’s next football coach must be more resourceful than to blow off any segment of the recruiting world.
OK, that’s it. Now go forth from the football wilderness and work on those 14,000 empty seats at Arizona Stadium.
