The 10 Commandments of a college football coaching search:
I. Do not freak out if you havenโt 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 Arizonaโs Class of 2018, donโt stop turning over rocks just to beat someoneโs clock.
II. Do not pay your search firm โexpertโ 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 Calโs 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 โsomeday be a head coach in the NFL.โ His top kick returner, Kenjon Barner, told The Athletic last month that Fippโs โgoing to be a head coach. โฆ Guys love playing for him. I love that dude. Heโs special. When you have a coach like him, youโd do anything for him.โ 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. Donโt buy it if a hot prospect says heโll 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 couldnโt produce a 6-6 record, Iโd give back the $100,000 and scrub the ancient restrooms at Arizona Stadium for a year, no charge. Arizonaโs โ18 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 doesnโt 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 conferenceโs 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 couldโve 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 heโs hot and running on renewable energy. The shelf life of a Power 5 college football coach is about six years. The Pac-12โs current head coaches have been at their schools for an average of 3.4 years. And remember this: in the APโs 2007 Top 25 preseason poll, in which RichRodโs 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 โ Joe Paterno, Mack Brown, Bob Stoops, Bobby Bowden, Phil Fulmer โ 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 TCUโs Gary Patterson. The average stay at each of those Top 25 schools from 2007 was 5.6 years.
VII. Donโt get flummoxed by a coachโs โsystem.โ These things evolve and so must a coach. When RichRod arrived at Arizona in 2012, the UAโs 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. Donโt 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 itโs not good timing for those men, but they know itโs possible to be a winner at Arizona.
X. Donโt hire someone who doesnโt appreciate the power of recruiting in the Polynesian culture. Arizona hasnโt had a Polynesian assistant coach since Joe Salaveโa was let go by RichRod in 2012. As of Monday, the Pac-12 had 16 coaches/recruiting coordinators of Polynesian ethnicity, including Salaveโa, who is Oregonโs associate head coach. Arizonaโs next football coach must be more resourceful than to blow off any segment of the recruiting world.
OK, thatโs it. Now go forth from the football wilderness and work on those 14,000 empty seats at Arizona Stadium.
