Who should be the next coach?
- Thread starter aTUfan
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Gillespie. He should be hired today as interim and see how he does the rest of the season. Then go from there.
Normally I wouldn't be on board with a fired former P5 coach...Graham and Malzahn would be exceptions b/c of their ties to TU.The recycled P5s haven't worked in a lot of places (see Charlie Strong and USF). Heck even the recycle with ties is not working at UCONN (Randy Edsall). No on the HS stuff. Maybe a lower level G5 like a Sunbelt or C-USA school, but it takes too long for them to learn the way the NCAA gig works for what we need and the level we need to be at.
NFL assistant-has to be the right guy but that rec should come from a player who has played for him, not a search firm. This is why Kragthorpe turned out well.
D1 Asst- again, has to be the right guy and some credence has to be given to how long he worked for said HC. While loyalty to a HC (and vice versa) is admirable, serving as an assistant for 20 yrs under the same person is sort of a detriment to the development of a HC in the making. They only know one style, one way to coach, one way to motivate, one way to do a ton of things. Give me the assistant who has worked for 2-3 HC and incorporates the best of each into his own style. I think this is the thing that's missing from Monty.
Recycle- again...be careful Must be the right person. Graham might not have that same lightning in a bottle in recruiting. Won't have the same assistants, won't necessarily have the players in place to get it down immediately while he puts together his own team like he did last time.
We would be looking at low tier four to tier five at best on that list. Anyone higher would be crazy to come to TU right now.
Names that jump out as possibilities: Blake Anderson from Arky St. Chip Long (OC from ND) Seth Litrell from UNT.
After giving this some thought I would look at a Coach with one of the traditional FCS programs that routinely compete for the NC. This is what KSU and ECU have done and I think those coaches will be successful. These type of coaches are usually sound fundamentally because the recruiting is more challenging with less TV coverage, locations (NDSU, UNI, E WA, etc...) and other things. One caveat I would require is that the coach have a solid recruiting coordinator. Also a clause in the contract that they cannot be their own O or D coordinator.
Seth Litrell isn’t going to leave UNT to come to a Tulsa. A down grade in facilities and support for at best a lateral move in programs.
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I feel like Tulsa is a lateral move from UNT in the same way it was for Graham when we poached him from Rice.
Not close to the same.
I like Seth a lot. I have a boy who lived with me through HS who plays for him. I've visited with him a couple dozen times over the last 18 months. UNT has given Seth everything he's asked for to this point. It's going to take a P5 to get Seth away from UNT, IMO.
Really? When was the last time that North Texas was on TV?
Go check the conference boards because I have already had this arguement about North Texas, with UNT fans. They are way behind in budgets, commitments, progress, exposure and anything else you want to measure. They are pouring money into the program and are still well behind any AAC school. Seth got a bump to 1.4m this year, after arguably the best season in UNT's history. Hell we start our coaches out at that.
The "no one wants the job who is good" sort of attitude is how we ended up Monty. Ashton's attitude gave us Graham. Kragthorpe was clearly a good assistant who came in with a plan and wowed the administration and WANTED the job.
Oh nobody wants to come coach at Tulsa....we just suck so offer someone we know will take the job. Terrible attitude, that will seep into the program as a whole when its believed by the fanbase.
The AAC is the stepping stone to huge P5 jobs, Oregon, Nebraska, etc. The exposure and push from the new media contract, the high profile teams (multiple ranked every season), fertile recruiting grounds and no big bully (OU, Clemson, Alabama, Boise) claiming king of the hill.
Tulsa sits in the middle of that opportunity at a place people have won and won big at. For a young up and coming coach who is eager to prove he belongs, we're a perfect match.
Different time, totally different financial situation. The academic administration that is now in place impedes us, in addition to the financial rep/situation that we have. If you don't know that then thank you Mr Ostrich, because everybody else in athletics is well aware of that gossip.
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Tulsa gave Graham everything he asked for. We were his "dream job". But Pitt gave him an opportunity in a (at the time) better conference. We're in a much better conference than UNT. I'm just saying, don't write off any opportunity before its been presented to you. UNT's season isn't going great so far this year.
Not just for Litrell, but anyone, we need to walk in with big d*ck attitude.
We start our coaches at that? We have started one coach at that, Monty, and then we gave him a raise and then we cut his salary. Our last head coach we gave $400,000 to start. We couldn’t even pay to fire Monty last year. We had to ask our coaches and AD to take a pay cut to give our stipend last year. We have given up on our indoor practice facility, something UNT has. He isn’t coming here.
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You can't watch this video without wanting Todd Graham back. Just remember the great offenses and teams we had under him.
Graham coached teams certainly played with swagger. Those highlights got my heart racing and then I remembered tonight’s game. Ugh. Back to reality.
Unfortunately, the way the rules have changed, and the game is officiated, several of those plays would have ended with a penalty and our players ejected.
THIS. Unfortunately I cannot imagine TU firing a coach midseason for on-field performance. Wish and hope I’m wrong as this is a wasted season otherwise. The defense is good enough for us to easily be bowl eligible.
First we pay out basketball coach over a million as well.
Second we paid Graham over a million. We offered Bill Self a bank roll of cash before he left for Illinois.
Currently with the paycut Monty's salary is still equal to Seth's. UNT's budget which they have massively increased is still well behind Tulsa's.
Do we have to live within our means? Yes. But our money and everyone not in the P5's money are two different things. We have a vastly better media exposure, media money, cfp money, budget, and performance, that's just how it is. In the same way Ohio St, or Iowa St has superior benefits to us. That alone will attract coaches.
Careful. Josh Blankenship coaches some D2 school in Colorado. We certainly don’t want that here.
But he said the f word to much.... Shut up! We won people. The powers that be wont allow him back.
Could you imagine Graham as the coach, defense stays in tact and Graham finds a great o coach... Yikes! We would be back for sure.
A lot of the defense is graduating.
Gipson, DE Robinson, Cannon, Burnett, Edmiston, C Willams, Bunch, CB Robinson, Wadley.
The defense will hardly be the same, too many people playing their 4th year of eligibility this year.
If Tulsa could somehow get ok with being a stepping stone then we would be fine. Our record of great coaches coming out of tulsa speaks for itself. Graham would come back with no arguments because he knows 3 to 4 years every top program would be knocking
Most Cusa coaches would love to come to TU. Littrell isn’t one of them though. He makes the same as Monty and is in the DFW metro for recruiting. Unless he wants to Danny Manning them just to come home it ain’t happening.
Unless Graham came attached with a shining star OC and DC I wouldn’t want him back. I remember him trying to take the reins all by himself in 2009. It didn’t work out well. Also, he would have to bring in a star QB to replace Smith since Smith will only have 1 more season.
Hmmm.....how'd that 2010 season go? You know where after one bad year he hired an OC?
Hold on, you mean we would have to recruit? Are you sure about that? Should he just get a QB? Or maybe he should throw in some running backs, receivers, linemen, tight ends, linebackers, corners and safeties?
Lots of DFW kids watching facebook for games? He got quite a pay raise to get to Monty's level and I doubt he looks at UNT as his final job. A sub par season this year (Houston beat them down at UNT after they Houston went into redshirt mode) and he might think it's time to move on. You see his Fine QB is almost out of eligibility and things look to be getting tougher without him.
