[NU Sports] 08.31.06 (fwd)

[NUMBalum78 at aol.com]

Mike has given us a very thorough analysis of the available options, but I'd 
like to add another critical point:  we've lost most of our offensive "brain 
trust."  (Dunbar to CA, Patton to OK, and now Walker's passing.)  McGee will be 
brand-new in the OC role.  In case any other posters haven't noticed, it's 
been our incredibly successful offensive production that has driven the Cats' 
recent success.  Logic dictates that we need an experienced offensive coach to 
keep this engine running.  Brown, Fitz, and even Murphy all happen to come from 
defensive backgrounds.  

I never thought I'd say this, but it might actually make sense to bring Gary 
Barnett back for a strictly limited, 1-year assignment.  Not only does he know 
his way around an offense, having been the OC on a National Championship 
team, but he's visited recent NU practices as Randy Walker's guest to study the 
Cats' spread attack.  Granted, the media would have a field day and a large 
contingent of alums would be outraged.  It's an intriguing but probably 
unrealistic option.  

A more likely alternative would be to see if we could get Dunbar to return 
from Cal.  He's an experienced head coach, he knows our personnel like the back 
of his hand, and he has only been gone from NU a few months.  

I wonder if Bob Christian could be persuaded to coach our running backs, and 
possibly special teams? 

Whatever we do, it's important to build on the foundation that Randy Walker 
has left us.  The last thing this team needs is any more disruption.  



In a message dated 7/2/2006 11:54:34 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
nolan at romaine.tssi.com writes:
> In the next few days, we must now look to the future, or at least the 2006
> season. Who will be our coach? Will Mark Murphy and Jerry Brown shepherd the
> team through this season and hope to hire someone during the normal cycle 
next
> off season? I would think with only two months until our first kickoff the 
list
> of available head coaches would be rather short. Any thoughts?

One of the cruel lessons that sports teaches us, far too often, is that
life goes on even in the face of tragedy.

Realistically, there are five sets of choices:

1.  Hire a head coach away from another school

2.  Hire an assistant coach who is ready to become a head coach away 
    from another school

3.  Name a current member of the staff the interim head coach

4.  Name a current member of the staff the new head coach

5.  Hire a retired or out-of-work former head coach, either on an interim 
    basis or as the new head coach.

Options 1 and 2 both suffer from timing problems, this is a bad time to
try hiring someone away from another school.  Also, do we really want as 
our next coach someone who is willing to abandon his current school and 
contract a few weeks before fall camp?  

Option 3 may be the best or at least the most flexible choice, though it 
is not without risks.  The interim head coach would surely have a leg up 
on being named the new permanent head coach, especially if he starts out
the 2006 season with a few wins, but he might leave if he doesn't get the 
job, regardless of whether the new head coach wants him to stay on the 
staff or not.

Option 4 is probably the second best choice, but given the coaching 
departures since the end of the season the choices are a bit slim, and
why rush the naming of a new head coach if it's an in-house replacement?

With regards to both 3 and 4, if Pat Fitzgerald is, as some have speculated,
the coach of the future for NU, maybe the future is now.  How many first-time
head coaches in the last 20 years have never served as either an OC or a 
DC before moving up?  Not many, I suppose.

Option 5 would be a very mixed blessing.  Yeah, there are some big names out
there, like Gary Barnett and Rick Neuheisel (or is he still coaching with
the Ravens?)  Personally, I don't want Gary Barnett back, the taste from
his departure is still too bitter.  And nobody else, not even Ricky, rings
my bell, not even Tom Osborne, who having lost in the primary for his
bid to be the Governor of Nebraska, is probably available at the moment.

Moreover, since he's in his 60's and has little to prove on the football 
field, he could be the type of one-year (or less) placekeeper appointment 
that NU might find attractive.