Interviews this month will lead to the announcement of the new Gophers football coach, probably by early December. Athletic director Joel Maturi is keeping his candidate list quiet but Sports Headliners compiled a list of five names that logic says could be interested in the job and if so should be interviewed.
Miracle workers Chris Petersen of Boise State, Jim Harbaugh from Stanford and Gary Patterson of TCU probably aren’t interested in becoming the Gophers coach. A professional search to fill the position, though, makes no assumptions about the best candidates in the land, including possible interest in Minnesota. Maturi and his colleagues are advised to put together their best “sales kit” and pitch the big three, with fingers crossed that Petersen, Harbaugh or Patterson will say, “Tell me more. I am interested.”
But let’s accept the popular notion that none of the Big Three want to follow in the path of the Tim Brewsters and Jim Wackers. Now what?
Well, the mandate needs to be this: hire a winning college head coach who has already proven himself. These five are worthy of being finalists:
Troy Calhoun, Air Force. He’s won 30 games in three plus seasons. He’s the only coach in school history to win at least eight games and go to bowl games in three consecutive seasons. That’s impressive at a service academy where the limitations on recruiting make it difficult to win. And that’s the kind of guy we want at Minnesota, a place that will challenge a coach to win and demands the football boss be special.
Don’t worry about Calhoun’s run-first and most of the time offense at Air Force. He used to be the offensive coordinator for the Houston Texans and can plug in whatever system he thinks best at Minnesota. Pray that the University of Colorado doesn’t fire coach Dan Hawkins and pursue Calhoun, who might look favorably on staying in the state of Colorado. Calhoun is 44 and in the age range where coaches are typically entering their prime years.
Al Golden, Temple. For years the best thing you could say about Temple was that Bill Cosby ran track there. Golden’s team last season was 9-4, the first winning year since 1990 and first bowl appearance in 30 years for the Owls. That’s impressive at a football slum like Temple, among the worst programs in the country for decades. Golden, 41, is in his fifth season at Temple and the Owls are 7-2 this fall. He is still among the younger coaches heading major college programs.
The former Penn State tight end has the reputation of a disciplinarian and classroom work has improved during his time at Temple. Golden is an exceptional recruiter and coaching legend Bill Parcells has praised Golden’s ability to coach defense. Golden might turn Minnesota down but he would be foolish to do so waiting for Joe Paterno to leave Penn State. That could still be a few years away.
Dan Mullen, Mississippi State. At 38 he’s the youngest of the Final Five and with the least head coaching experience. Usually we don’t like candidates who are only in their second season as a major college head coach. Mullen gets a pass to the final invite room for a couple reasons. First, you don’t work as Urban Meyer’s offensive coordinator at Florida without being an overachiever. Second, Mississippi State has been a burial ground for coaching careers but Mullen has MSU at 7-2 overall this fall, and 3-2 in the SEC, the nation’s best conference.
During his first season at Mississippi State he re-energized the program and had a 5-7 record despite playing perhaps the nation’s most difficult schedule. Mullen coached under Meyer from 2001-2008 and developed great quarterbacks including Tim Tebow. More than 55 years ago Murray Warmath left Mississippi State to coach the Gophers. Could history repeat?
Skip Holtz, South Florida. The last name sounds familiar and Skip’s dad Lou didn’t depart from Minnesota in 1985 on the best of terms. But that’s not reason to exclude Holtz, 46, from this list. He made East Carolina football relevant, winning consecutive Conference USA championships his last two years there and having winning teams during four of five seasons. Prior to Holtz’s arrival at East Carolina in 2005 the football team had won only three of its last 25 games. His East Carolina record was 38-27.
Holtz worked for his famous father as assistant head coach at South Carolina and before that was head coach at Connecticut where he led the program to its best season in school history. Holtz is in his first year at South Florida (4-3) and the timing might not be right to move north. But if Holtz thought all the resources were in place here (including from the Minneapolis business community) he might be interested. South Florida is in the Big East Conference and Holtz might view a Big Ten job as more prestigious.
Mike Belloti, former Oregon head coach. Oregon, a program Bellotti coached up until two years ago, is No. 1 in the country. At Minnesota the football glory days were 50 to 80 years ago, but in Duck country they are now. For a long time Oregon football was nothing special but first coach Rich Brooks elevated the program, then Bellotti pushed it further ahead and became the winningest coach in school history. Bellotti’s record at Oregon was 116-55. That’s impressive and so, too, is his connection to present head coach Chip Kelly. Bellotti hired Kelly from New Hampshire, made him his offensive coordinator and later appointed him head coach.
Out of coaching now, Bellotti, almost 60, is rumored to be interested in coaching again. He resigned as Oregon’s athletic director earlier this year to become an ESPN analyst, a move that put him closer to football. His name is being linked not only to Minnesota, but also Washington State where the athletic director is a friend from Oregon days. Bellotti could be the right guy for the Gophers including because he’s potentially ready to report for work sooner than the others who are finishing up 2010 schedules.