It's so easy for us as fans of Notre Dame to start threads on a random message board with headlines that read "Fire Kelly" or "This is ridiculous". While those may be genuine feelings at the time, a product of years of frustration, or simply a couple extra beverages, I think we can all agree that it serves as a great way to vent your frustration in an appropriate setting and manner.
With that said, I'm turning the page on yesterday and as someone who has spent his entire life around the game, both as a player and a coach, I'm always looking at the changes I would make if I were Notre Dame, to try to better the program. I'm not saying that I'm right, but every great idea and terrible idea starts as someone's opinion.
First of all, ND fans need to be realistic about the coach ND can lure to South Bend and we have to understand who a good fit would be vs simply a name. We have to understand the restrictions Notre Dame places on itself, the type of student athletes ND can lure to South Bend, the history of the person who they are about to hire and the comfort level that person would have coaching in a place like South Bend, where admittedly, things are a little bit different.
My next head coach is Greg Schiano, the current defensive coordinator and associate head coach at Ohio State. Schiano? Really...? Yep. And here is my argument as to why. First of all, Schiano is the right age (50 years old) and has the right amount of experience at both levels. We all know that an ND head coach has probably a 5-8 year life span, and Schiano is in the right age range to still be young at the end of his tenure, something I think is more important today than many people think. The ND coach is going to burn out. Age can't be a factor in that. Also, Schiano would take the job, something we have to consider. He's comfortable in the Midwest and Northeast and eager to prove that he can be a very good coach at a historic program. Urban Meyer hired him for a reason. He's a damn good coach. And he won't be stuck as someone's DC for long.
Secondly, Schiano built a program from nothing at Rutgers, to the point of respectability. People will look at his record alone and say "meh" but what they don't understand is that Rutgers is a complete graveyard for coaches and Schiano won almost every national coach of the year accolade in 2006 while at the helm in Piscataway. While he was a huge success at Rutgers, he also was humbled and learned a great deal when he was hired as the head coach of the Tampa Buccaneers in the NFL. Much like Pete Carroll, he was forced back to college football after learning how different the pro game was and has successfully transitioned back into college football after taking two years out of coaching and re-lighting the fire that drives coaches. He's now coaching under Urban Meyer and proving to be the same VERY GOOD coach he always has been.
Thirdly, I think it's important that ND hire a coach that has the right attitude and comes from the right mindset in terms of style and scheme. Schiano is both a players coach and a hardass. He's a Jersey guy, with that brash mentality and toughness to him, but his players have also loved him along the way. That's the perfect fit for ND, IMO. Very much like Lou was. Edgy. Takes no shit from anyone, but also supports his players 100% and coaches a swagger and an energy into them. He convinced a bunch of castoffs at Rutgers that they could hang with the big boys, and they did. We've also already seen what a Schiano team looks like. He's a defensive coach, and the team will be built with a background in defense and toughness. At Notre Dame, you must start with playing great defense first. ND coaches have proven that it's fairly easy to land quality offensive talent at Notre Dame, but special attention must be paid to the defense. That won't be an issue with Schiano, whose entire background, CFB and NFL, has been on the defensive side of the ball and that continues to be the case right now at Ohio State. Offensively, he wants to run the ball and play smash mouth football. Remember Brian Leonard and Ray Rice at Rutgers? That's what he's looking for. Obviously, 10 years later, the scheme may look a little bit different, but that's his mentality. A mentality that fits Notre Dame and one that Notre Dame can recruit to on both sides of the ball.
Speaking of recruiting, Schiano is a great recruiter. He's been successful in finding diamonds-in-the-rough, something he had to do a great deal at Rutgers, and he's also a huge part of the historically good recruiting class Ohio State is assembling this year. More importantly, his recruiting ties exist in the regions that Notre Dame traditionally recruits well and must continue to recruit well. At Rutgers he recruited the Atlantic North East, right down the coast, through the Carolinas and into Florida. At Ohio State he's recruiting the Mid West as well. Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Virginia etc, etc... With the ACC ties those are the states ND will continue to recruit well and that's fine. There is a ton of talent emerging in those states. Schiano knows that recruiting map and will continue the success that Brian Kelly started in those areas.
As for his staff, I'm not going to speculate as who he should bring in (save one person), but I'll tell you who he should keep. First of all, I love Mike Denbrock. Always have. I think he's the best WR coach in the country. But I think it's time for Denbrock to move on with Brian Kelly. He'll get a good job somewhere else and deservedly so. If I'm Greg Schiano, I keep Mike Sanford, make him the associate head coach, offensive coordinator and lone playcaller and get him a nice raise. Why? Two reasons. Mike Sanford is a young star in coaching and is probably a few years away from getting his own gig, but would make a great OC at Notre Dame, if he's not impeded by the other minds in the room. Sanford's offensive mindset comes from the same place as Schianos. He wants to run the damn football. Look at his background at Boise State and with Chris Peterson. Very similar to Schianos. They will pass vertically, but the foundation of the offense will be physically running the football. Also, Sanford is a very good young recruiter and his ties are to the West Coast, a place Schiano has little experience recruiting. ND will always pull kids from that region and it's important they have a good recruiter out there. Sanford is an obvious "keep" if he wants to stay and I think he'd be a damn good OC / QB Coach. The other two guys on offense I would keep are Harry Hiestand and Autry Denson. Hiestand is among the best OL coaches in the game, produces top talent and successfully recruits and develops great OL. I don't think ND's OL are soft, I think their scheme is soft. I put that on Kelly and Denbrock, not Hiestand. I'd give him a chance to stay if he wants to. I think he'll prove to be a valuable asset. In Denson's case, he's your Florida recruiter and an ND grad. He did an awesome job with his running backs last year, and I'm having a hard time blaming him for ND's RB's this year. The scheme is not giving them a chance to run the ball. That's not on the RB coach, people make decisions over his head. I'd also be interested in the idea of interviewing Mike Elston and Todd Lyght. Elston has done a GREAT job in his short term as the recruiting coordinator and he would help the recruiting transition a great deal from the Kelly staff to the Schiano staff. I think his attention to detail would also make him a really good special teams coordinator. I'd give him an opportunity to do both, unless he has an obvious better candidate in mind. Elston needs to branch out from under Kelly if he's ever going to further his coaching career. He's a hard worker and a likeable coach, but he needs more perspective and a new challenge. Special teams coordinator / recruiting coordinator would give him more responsibility and a pay raise and would keep recruiting on track and likely would keep most of the class together. In Lyght's case, this one would depend on Schiano's perspective. Lyght has done it all in his career relative to playing and is an ND graduate and a developing recruiter. Schiano, however, cut his teeth as a DB coach and knows how to coach excellent and develop excellent defensive backs. I don't think he'd have any problem interviewing Lyght and quickly understanding if he has what Schiano is looking for in a DB coach. I'm not giving Lyght a complete pass for this year, but when we found out just how little he was allowed to do under BVG, I'm curious as to what he could accomplish with more autonomy... Therefore, I'd keep Sanford, Hiestand, Denson and Elston and interview Lyght. I'd let go of Kelly, Denbrock (sadly), Longo, Booker and Gilmore. Schiano will bring in his own DL coach (and secondary coach depending on Lyght) and he'd need a new WR and TE coach.
That leaves the Defensive Coordinator position. The guy I'd go get is another East Coast guy in Mike Elko at Wake Forest. Mike went to Penn, has coached linebackers and coordinated defenses and also was the DC at Bowling Green under Dave Clawson, before the two left for Wake Forest. Another solid recruiter, with ties to the East Coast, an area Schiano is already familiar with. Elko, along with Elston, would to a dynamic job of recruiting The Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, etc, etc. Notre Dame could easily double Elko's salary and get him away from Wake Forest... Oh yeah, he's a damn good defensive coordinator too.
Those coaching moves, IMO, would keep the young, hungry, quality coaches at Notre Dame, while keeping recruiting intact and some continuity on the staff, but would also create massive shakeups in areas of need and bring fresh energy to a program desperately in need of it.
Continued...
With that said, I'm turning the page on yesterday and as someone who has spent his entire life around the game, both as a player and a coach, I'm always looking at the changes I would make if I were Notre Dame, to try to better the program. I'm not saying that I'm right, but every great idea and terrible idea starts as someone's opinion.
First of all, ND fans need to be realistic about the coach ND can lure to South Bend and we have to understand who a good fit would be vs simply a name. We have to understand the restrictions Notre Dame places on itself, the type of student athletes ND can lure to South Bend, the history of the person who they are about to hire and the comfort level that person would have coaching in a place like South Bend, where admittedly, things are a little bit different.
My next head coach is Greg Schiano, the current defensive coordinator and associate head coach at Ohio State. Schiano? Really...? Yep. And here is my argument as to why. First of all, Schiano is the right age (50 years old) and has the right amount of experience at both levels. We all know that an ND head coach has probably a 5-8 year life span, and Schiano is in the right age range to still be young at the end of his tenure, something I think is more important today than many people think. The ND coach is going to burn out. Age can't be a factor in that. Also, Schiano would take the job, something we have to consider. He's comfortable in the Midwest and Northeast and eager to prove that he can be a very good coach at a historic program. Urban Meyer hired him for a reason. He's a damn good coach. And he won't be stuck as someone's DC for long.
Secondly, Schiano built a program from nothing at Rutgers, to the point of respectability. People will look at his record alone and say "meh" but what they don't understand is that Rutgers is a complete graveyard for coaches and Schiano won almost every national coach of the year accolade in 2006 while at the helm in Piscataway. While he was a huge success at Rutgers, he also was humbled and learned a great deal when he was hired as the head coach of the Tampa Buccaneers in the NFL. Much like Pete Carroll, he was forced back to college football after learning how different the pro game was and has successfully transitioned back into college football after taking two years out of coaching and re-lighting the fire that drives coaches. He's now coaching under Urban Meyer and proving to be the same VERY GOOD coach he always has been.
Thirdly, I think it's important that ND hire a coach that has the right attitude and comes from the right mindset in terms of style and scheme. Schiano is both a players coach and a hardass. He's a Jersey guy, with that brash mentality and toughness to him, but his players have also loved him along the way. That's the perfect fit for ND, IMO. Very much like Lou was. Edgy. Takes no shit from anyone, but also supports his players 100% and coaches a swagger and an energy into them. He convinced a bunch of castoffs at Rutgers that they could hang with the big boys, and they did. We've also already seen what a Schiano team looks like. He's a defensive coach, and the team will be built with a background in defense and toughness. At Notre Dame, you must start with playing great defense first. ND coaches have proven that it's fairly easy to land quality offensive talent at Notre Dame, but special attention must be paid to the defense. That won't be an issue with Schiano, whose entire background, CFB and NFL, has been on the defensive side of the ball and that continues to be the case right now at Ohio State. Offensively, he wants to run the ball and play smash mouth football. Remember Brian Leonard and Ray Rice at Rutgers? That's what he's looking for. Obviously, 10 years later, the scheme may look a little bit different, but that's his mentality. A mentality that fits Notre Dame and one that Notre Dame can recruit to on both sides of the ball.
Speaking of recruiting, Schiano is a great recruiter. He's been successful in finding diamonds-in-the-rough, something he had to do a great deal at Rutgers, and he's also a huge part of the historically good recruiting class Ohio State is assembling this year. More importantly, his recruiting ties exist in the regions that Notre Dame traditionally recruits well and must continue to recruit well. At Rutgers he recruited the Atlantic North East, right down the coast, through the Carolinas and into Florida. At Ohio State he's recruiting the Mid West as well. Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Virginia etc, etc... With the ACC ties those are the states ND will continue to recruit well and that's fine. There is a ton of talent emerging in those states. Schiano knows that recruiting map and will continue the success that Brian Kelly started in those areas.
As for his staff, I'm not going to speculate as who he should bring in (save one person), but I'll tell you who he should keep. First of all, I love Mike Denbrock. Always have. I think he's the best WR coach in the country. But I think it's time for Denbrock to move on with Brian Kelly. He'll get a good job somewhere else and deservedly so. If I'm Greg Schiano, I keep Mike Sanford, make him the associate head coach, offensive coordinator and lone playcaller and get him a nice raise. Why? Two reasons. Mike Sanford is a young star in coaching and is probably a few years away from getting his own gig, but would make a great OC at Notre Dame, if he's not impeded by the other minds in the room. Sanford's offensive mindset comes from the same place as Schianos. He wants to run the damn football. Look at his background at Boise State and with Chris Peterson. Very similar to Schianos. They will pass vertically, but the foundation of the offense will be physically running the football. Also, Sanford is a very good young recruiter and his ties are to the West Coast, a place Schiano has little experience recruiting. ND will always pull kids from that region and it's important they have a good recruiter out there. Sanford is an obvious "keep" if he wants to stay and I think he'd be a damn good OC / QB Coach. The other two guys on offense I would keep are Harry Hiestand and Autry Denson. Hiestand is among the best OL coaches in the game, produces top talent and successfully recruits and develops great OL. I don't think ND's OL are soft, I think their scheme is soft. I put that on Kelly and Denbrock, not Hiestand. I'd give him a chance to stay if he wants to. I think he'll prove to be a valuable asset. In Denson's case, he's your Florida recruiter and an ND grad. He did an awesome job with his running backs last year, and I'm having a hard time blaming him for ND's RB's this year. The scheme is not giving them a chance to run the ball. That's not on the RB coach, people make decisions over his head. I'd also be interested in the idea of interviewing Mike Elston and Todd Lyght. Elston has done a GREAT job in his short term as the recruiting coordinator and he would help the recruiting transition a great deal from the Kelly staff to the Schiano staff. I think his attention to detail would also make him a really good special teams coordinator. I'd give him an opportunity to do both, unless he has an obvious better candidate in mind. Elston needs to branch out from under Kelly if he's ever going to further his coaching career. He's a hard worker and a likeable coach, but he needs more perspective and a new challenge. Special teams coordinator / recruiting coordinator would give him more responsibility and a pay raise and would keep recruiting on track and likely would keep most of the class together. In Lyght's case, this one would depend on Schiano's perspective. Lyght has done it all in his career relative to playing and is an ND graduate and a developing recruiter. Schiano, however, cut his teeth as a DB coach and knows how to coach excellent and develop excellent defensive backs. I don't think he'd have any problem interviewing Lyght and quickly understanding if he has what Schiano is looking for in a DB coach. I'm not giving Lyght a complete pass for this year, but when we found out just how little he was allowed to do under BVG, I'm curious as to what he could accomplish with more autonomy... Therefore, I'd keep Sanford, Hiestand, Denson and Elston and interview Lyght. I'd let go of Kelly, Denbrock (sadly), Longo, Booker and Gilmore. Schiano will bring in his own DL coach (and secondary coach depending on Lyght) and he'd need a new WR and TE coach.
That leaves the Defensive Coordinator position. The guy I'd go get is another East Coast guy in Mike Elko at Wake Forest. Mike went to Penn, has coached linebackers and coordinated defenses and also was the DC at Bowling Green under Dave Clawson, before the two left for Wake Forest. Another solid recruiter, with ties to the East Coast, an area Schiano is already familiar with. Elko, along with Elston, would to a dynamic job of recruiting The Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, etc, etc. Notre Dame could easily double Elko's salary and get him away from Wake Forest... Oh yeah, he's a damn good defensive coordinator too.
Those coaching moves, IMO, would keep the young, hungry, quality coaches at Notre Dame, while keeping recruiting intact and some continuity on the staff, but would also create massive shakeups in areas of need and bring fresh energy to a program desperately in need of it.
Continued...
