Still Safe
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Evan Takes it!
What a way for senior Evan Miller to end his collegiate career!
Miller was just named Ivy Defensive Player of the Week for his 19 tackle performance in the big 35-28 double OT win over Brown Saturday.
Buddy Teevens job is secure
Perhaps the "race" for Ivy head coaching talent won't have as many horses on the track as many once thought.
It looks all clear for Buddy Teevens at Dartmouth; local supporters tell me they'd be shocked if he's suddenly going to be fired in the coming days.
It didn't look good for Buddy after the 1-4 start, but winning three in a row to end the season looked good.
At Yale, everything is QUIET. We know the whole Tom Williams Rhodes Scholar claim is still being "investigated," but we still don't know if this will end with Williams losing his job.
The many anti-President Richard Levin sports fans at Yale are already thinking this could be a great way for Levin to kill football for another few years, That is, by waiting several more weeks to fire Williams and putting an already seriously challenged Eli squad, (lots of graduating senior stars), further behind the pack in 2012.
The hapless Bob Surace at Princeton seems safe for now despite a 2-18 overall record and 1-13 Ivy mark. But it appears that everyone gets three years grace in the Ivies these days. Another 1-9 next season and he is probably gone.
So for now, it looks like Columbia is really only competing with Fordham... at least for those few candidates that could be considered real contenders for the job at both schools.
I don't mind that fight. I feel confident we can match or beat any salary Fordham offers and I know we beat the Rams hands down on facilities, stadium, and league prestige.
The only category I worry about is aggressiveness. Will Fordham out-effort us on this and grab the best man out there? Will its search committee somehow convice the best candidate that it is more serious about winning?
I do applaud Athletic Director Dianne Murphy for urging Columbia supporters to contact Ted Gregory, Don Jackson and Kevin Ward with their candidate suggestions. I am optimisitc that any outside the box names or just some people that never would have been considered will at least get a mention where it counts.
And while I do wish someone from completely free of administration ties would also join in this process, I believe anyone like that with real clout will certainly not be ignored by Gregory et al during the search.
Out of respect for their privacy, I won't publish Gregory, Jackson or Ward's email addresses here but I'll be happy to pass on any serious suggestions from readers who can't contact them on their own.
For those who have been asking, I haven't endorsed any candidate myself, and probably won't publicly out of fear that doing so migh DISQUALIFY his candidacy with a Columbia administration that doesn't quite know what to make of all this "blog stuff."
But my list of attractive candidates part 2 and part 1, plus my really outside the box call to make a call to Brown's Phil Estes, from a few weeks ago are still viable and I'd like to add one more names now:
Mark Whipple in his UMass days
Mark Whipple
Pros: Tremendous record of success at the Ivy and FCS level. A master with QB's at every level, including the NFL. Helped begin the big turnaround at Brown. Would be a great asset to assure we get the most out of Sean Brackett's final season.
Cons: After vying for much bigger jobs lately and failing to get them, would Whipple see the Columbia job as a step down? His teams at Brown were good, but never better than 4-3 in the Ivies.
posted by Jake @ 11:34:00 PM
13 comments
13 Comments:
How about Ralph Friedgen for an out of the box suggestion? Friedgen is available and originally from New York. He went 75-50 as head coach of Maryland including 9-4 in his final year. He made Maryland an accceptable ACC program after about a decade an a half as a doormat after Bobby Ross left. Now Edsall has the Terps wearing ugly uniforms and playing ugly football. I also liked the Tom O'Brien suggestion from another poster. He's 106–75 lifetime and might be looking for a job this year (unless the Clemson win saved him).
" Gil Brandt of NFL.com knows Tressel well and...believes Tressel is more likely to pursue an unpaid gig at a small school where he can go back to teaching young players and helping coaches."
Gregg Rosenthal
www.nbcsports.com
May 31, 2011
I hear that Tressel has the colts job for next year. If we want to inside story on Toal how about hearing it first hand from his former players who wear the Columbia blue?
With the exception of Tressel and Toal, do any of the suggested candidates elicit any real enthusiasm from anyone? They're all perfectly acceptable but can anyone honestly say that they CAN'T WAIT for next season if one of these guys is hired? Please.
Toal would answer the question "Could a high school coach do any WORSE than his Columbia predecessors?"
Tressel would answer the question "Could a national championship coach do any BETTER than his Columbia predecessors?"
The problem with Toal is that Columbia football is like the Manhattan Project. It needs more than a high school physics teacher who sends a dozen kids to MIT each year; it needs an Oppenheimer.
Tressel = Oppenheimer
Someone is intent on stuffing the ballot box here for the nomination of Toal. Hopefully, Fordam acts quickly to end the campaign.
Enough of the Toal comments. We need a "step up" not a "step down".
Why can't we talk about Toal? I know diddly about him except he's a terrific h.s. coach. Maybe he'd be terrible at CU, maybe he'd be great.
Without knowing anything about him, my hunch is it's better to go for a proven college head coach. But that's for the advisory committee to figure out. Looks like there's a large number of good possibilities on paper.
A question for Jake: Seems the process is that Ward, Gregory and Jackson find the candidates and Murphy selects from their top group (and maybe Campbell has veto power). I'm curious about the advisory guys, all fine CU players many years ago and still close friends of CU football and involved in the program. Do they know more about various candidates than Murphy would? Or at least as AD, isn't she able to secure more and better skinny about candidates than our alum trio? Or not? Is the idea of this process to spare her from interviewing 30 people? But isn't it her responsibility to vet them, not choose from football alums' opinions?
4:57 ... you seem to forget that Ray Tellier is on the Selection Committee ... he's the one with contacts throughout the coaching fraternity .... my guess iis that he'll assemble "the list" and take suggestions from Jackson et. al.
Also, any coach who makes a move from one program to another, moves because he is convinced that he has the skills to "do the job" ... yes, money is important, but in addition to a competitive financial package, he has to believe he will get the support from the administration to build the program he wants .... the living situation for his family (city vs country) might also have an impact... if he's young, he has to be convinced that the move to Columbia will improve his resume for his "next step" to a "better" program .... an older college coach might be less impacted by the financial package ....
Finally, all this discussion of bringing in outside people is silly .... everyone wants this done quickly .... if the decision is to be made by December 15th, there isn't a lot of time to find this consultant .... plus the suggestion is a slap in the face to Ray Tellier ... just remember that football people, including the likes of Chip Kelly (Oregon), think highly of Tellier ...
4:57: The discussion about bringing in outside help is "silly" only if you're satisfied with the past results.
Personally, I think it silly to expect a different result using the same process and people. Again, that is not to criticize the people involved.
At some point, someone will acknowledge that every coach over a span of 50 years is not incompetent, and it is time to look at how things are done outside of coaching.
I know, "silly" idea.
The above comment was meant for the 9:36 post.
... so 8:39 ... when have you ever gotten off your couch and actually played in an Ivy League game ... or coached a college team .... Jackson and Gregroy were All-Ivy ... Jackson's team is one of the few teams to actually compete for an Ivy title .... you need to sit back and let the adults make the decisions !!!
I like Norries, so no disrespect to him, but the program must go on. If Murphy let him go Sunday, after a win, then she had already made up her mind before then.
I sure hope Murphy and the committee are already several weeks into the process if that is the case.
It sure would have been nice had we picked up the paper this morning and read that CU had already secured their new coach. Would have showed me that they are finally being assertive and aggressive.
Toal is a good choice. Wilson was a good coach and got talent, but we need a proven winner that has consistently put his teams in a position to win and rise to the occasion, which Toal has done. Columbia needs "attitude" which Toal would bring. Worth the risk than middling college coaches. If you can't get a Les Miles etc., why take a college retread?
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