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OT: McElwain to Florida

Coug95man2

Hall Of Fame
Dec 7, 2011
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So the lowly coach (EDIT: Sarcasm alert) for Colorado State that we lost to last year, apparently is worthy. How much we helped his stock go up is debatable but he is heading to Florida to coach the Gators. The number of assistant's falling is increasing. Wonder if the list of 6 is growing for us...

Link: USA TODAY on McElwain
This post was edited on 12/4 10:55 AM by Britton Ransford
 
++++ This one is even more puzzling than Riley's hire....riley just is better known to us. I don't get it either
 
I'm on the fence on this one. On my post that was intended, you'll notice his background. He worked at Alabama under Saban. He's a known commodity. He went from assistant, to HC and turned Colorado State around… He proved himself. It's still odd that a program like Florida wouldn't go with someone that had more HC experience in one of the Major 5 conferences… HC's that fit that kind of mold seem to be hard to find. Nebraska now Florida… and there are some that are heating our coaches seat. These major, major programs are hiring THESE guys and WE'RE complaining?!
 
Originally posted by SCglory:
++++ This one is even more puzzling than Riley's hire....riley just is better known to us. I don't get it either
I don't think so. Florida wanted someone offensively minded. SEC experience as an OC. Turned around CSU. Seems like a good pick to me.
 
McElwain was on my short list that also included Leach after the Cougs let that other guy go.
 
i'm iwth 95 on this one---CSU is a different universe than UF. I guess I'm not convinced he can do in the bigtime what he did for a small and minor school
 
If a turn around means a couple winning seasons, I guess he turned it around. Or maybe I'm wrong I thinking turn around means 5 winning years in a row???
 
I'm with you but it's a sign of the times.

Patience cuts both ways. We aren't patient for turn arounds (4 or 5 years and programs cut bait), so we aren't patient enough to see the consequences, either….
 
Originally posted by BiggsCoug:
If a turn around means a couple winning seasons, I guess he turned it around. Or maybe I'm wrong I thinking turn around means 5 winning years in a row???
He wasn't going to last long at the mid-major level. CSU had the equivalent of Paul Wulff before McElwain got there. Four wins, to 8 to 10, looks like a pretty good turnaround to me.
 
yeah, and unless you add someone who is simply an established winner, the patience level will be even less (like Sark at SC). That's what's so puzzling about Leach for the cougs. (Caveat: he could still turn the program around for sure) When Leach was hired I was 100% happy with the hire--he had an established track record of winning at a rural school that operated in the shadow of bigger programs. I mean....what else could you want??
 
Originally posted by dgibbons:
Originally posted by BiggsCoug:
If a turn around means a couple winning seasons, I guess he turned it around. Or maybe I'm wrong I thinking turn around means 5 winning years in a row???
He wasn't going to last long at the mid-major level. CSU had the equivalent of Paul Wulff before McElwain got there. Four wins, to 8 to 10, looks like a pretty good turnaround to me.
There is value in moving the win total forward for certain. I think there's value in keeping it there too. If I were hiring head coaches, I'd like to see consistent success. Once the guy gets you to 10 wins, does he know how to keep it rolling?
 
It appears that Florida is trying to find lightning in a bottle once again. They hired Urban Meyer after he had spent two years at Utah of the Mountain West Conference (at the time). So, in a way, this move is very similar to what worked for them before.
 
Some facts about McElwain:CSU had not had a 10-win season in 10 years--even in a crappy conferencePrevious coach (Fairchild) went 16-33 (0.327)Previous 1 year before CJM took over, CSU goes 3-9 and attendance sagsPrevious 3 years before CJM took over: 9-27 (0.250)Previous 5 years: 19-42 (0.311)Previous 10 years: 50-73 (0.407)I.E., consistent downhill trend. They fire Fairchild and hire CJM, and...CJM's first year he goes 4-8, second year 8-6, third year 10-2 (maybe 11 with bowl)CSU's average recruiting class under CJM's tenure: #97 (247 Composite)I have to say I wouldn't be *shocked* if the McElwain formula doesn't work when the difficulty level is ratcheted up, but I give the guy credit for running a hardnosed type of team and making it work with a crap team with zero resources or recruiting, and without resorting to Petersen-esque gimmicks like spreads and trick plays.
 
Those guys don't stay a mid-majors that long

Little Peter being an exception.
 
College HC hiring decisions can be mystifying to us mere mortals who have to make a living in the real world.

Michigan managed to take two consecutive successful coaches and create damaged goods in Ann Arbor. Notre Dame and Charlie Weis. Texas and Mac Brown. USC actually worked hard to hire Sarky! And all that is recent news. It doesn't take a heavy duty search to find examples in almost every decade since the telephone was invented.

Florida has a lot of built-in advantages. They are a real school, with solid academic requirements, which makes them unusual in the SEC and gives them a certain amount of help with a certain type of recruit. On the other hand, they are not a "football only" school that would not exist without football, so maybe for some types of coach they are not the ideal location. I think McElwain will do fine there. Florida's choice is not nearly as surprising as some of the others that are happening.

For the record, I think Riley will fit in well in Nebraska. OSU will need some help to find an equivalent replacement. Nebraska is not a good job, however, because averaging over 9 wins per season gets you fired. And it is hard for me to see Nebraska doing a lot better than that over the long term in the Big 10…with Riley or anyone else. I figure Riley has 4-5 years.
 
People keep saying 9+ win seasons get you fired at Nebraska, but I think most of the CFB world is aligned on the fact that it wasn't the record that got CBP fired--it was the toxic relationship with the administration. The 9-win seasons were acceptable.

Same with Leach at Tech--he went 0.737 his last 3 years there and still got fired because of the strained relationship, with the Adam James incident as a pretext.
 
Originally posted by chipdouglas:
People keep saying 9+ win seasons get you fired at Nebraska, but I think most of the CFB world is aligned on the fact that it wasn't the record that got CBP fired--it was the toxic relationship with the administration. The 9-win seasons were acceptable.

Same with Leach at Tech--he went 0.737 his last 3 years there and still got fired because of the strained relationship, with the Adam James incident as a pretext.
This sounds reasonable. I don't know much about the situation at Nebraska to make any definitive comments. I do remember that Frank Solich did well, but was let go and now they seem to change coaches every few years now.
 
What Nebraska is doing seems to be in line with what is wrong with college football.
 
Their last two successful coaches came from Utah and Duke. This seems to be exactly the type of hire they would make.
 
Originally posted by wazzubruce:
What Nebraska is doing seems to be in line with what is wrong with college football.
I agree. There was a time when they won National Championships and were perennially a good team. Of course, that was a time when Nebraska sold their soul and recruited players like Christian Peters (who was arrested at least 8 times while at Nebraska), Lawrence Phillips (who is still in prison and won't get out for almost 20 years), etc. Still, Nebraska (like the uw) think they are still on that level with Alabama, Ohio State, etc.

The problem is, football has gone away from the huge, but slow lineman that the state of Nebraska produced. Plus, their natural recruiting ground of Texas, players have so many more options than they did 20-30 years ago. Baylor, TCU, A&M, and other's are now destinations places ahead of Nebraska.

I think Riley is a very, very good coach. But, I am not sure that he can get more than Bo Pelini.
 
Originally posted by Coug1990:
I am not sure that he can get more than Bo Pelini.
This I agree with. OSU obviously had a love/hate relationship with Riley depending on his record that season, but the mystery with him is why his records are so mercurial. I know it's Oregon State, our rackmate in the basement of the PAC-12, but if Riley were truly the coach Nebraska thinks he is, I would have expected him to be successful more consistently and actually build up OSU to make noise every year.

That's not to say he wasn't an upgrade for OSU in the first place; just to say he's a good--but probably not great--coach. Hard to see him getting them to 10+ wins consistently if and when the B1G becomes a respectable conference once again. Even now, with Michigan State, tOSU, WIsconsin, even Minnesota. And Michigan won't be down forever.
 
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