Start this search with the premise that no successful head coach who interests the University is unavailable. Learn the facts about availability and narrow the search from there. Be prepared and willing to enter the “college football arms race,” including an annual contract of $2 million or more, plus plenty of personal perks and a detailed commitment from the administration to help the coach win. Part of a successful search process, too, is that Bruininks and Maturi must be stubbornly determined to hire a great head coach, resisting the discouragement of “no” from various coaches. Push on and then negotiate as if they had doctoral degrees in personal persuasion.
The search needs to focus on Dungy after the playoffs end for his Indianapolis Colts. If that takes awhile, then so be it. It’s far more important for the University to select the right coach, then to hire someone in a panic because the national signing day for prep players is February 7.
If not Dungy, then who else? Schiano, 40, took over a horrible football program at Rutgers after leaving the University of Miami as an assistant coach following the 2001 season. He coached the Scarlet Knights to an 11 win season in 2006 including the school’s first ever bowl victory. Rodriguez, 43, turned down Alabama to stay at West Virginia where his six year record includes three straight New Year’s Day bowl games and Big East Conference titles, and six wins over top 25 teams since he became coach for the 2001 season.
Gary Patterson, 46, from TCU, is a Wilkinson favorite. Patterson has a .754 winning percent in six seasons as head coach and graduated 86% of his players, according to Wilkinson. Patterson, TCU’s defensive coordinator before being promoted to head coach, has a win at Oklahoma over the Sooners among his impressive victories. His recruiting connections in Texas would be a huge asset for the Gophers.
Navy’s Paul Johnson, 49, is intriguing. Before coming to Annapolis he won two Division II-A national championships at Georgia Southern. At Navy he uses an offense called the triple option and his teams will either lead the nation in rushing each year or be near the top. At the service academies the talent is often undersized physically and underwhelming in ability, yet Johnson’s records are impressive and his teams compete with college football’s big boys better than Army and Air Force. Navy’s record was 1-20 in the two seasons prior to Johnson coming to Annapolis in 2002 but the last four years Navy has won at least eight games. If Johnson can win at Navy, do you think he can win at Minnesota?
Bo Pellini, 39, might be the best candidate among all the assistant coaches in the country. A former player at Ohio State, Pellini coached nine seasons in the NFL including with the Green Bay Packers before going to Nebraska where he was so successful as defensive coordinator players wanted him to succeed Frank Solich as head coach. Pellini then became defensive coordinator at Oklahoma and now at LSU. His name is synonymous with top 10 national defensive statistics.
Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst has created much speculation here already. Wisconsin football should be a poster program for the Gophers, providing a model for success and encouragement that Minnesota football can be much better. Impressive about Chryst is he left the Badgers after the 2002 season to take a job with Oregon State as offensive coordinator. Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez hired Chryst back for the 2005 season and that’s a compliment.
Whoever the Gophers hire this much is clear: with expectations and optimism higher than in the past, a new stadium opening in 2009 and challenges that include stadium funding, buyouts for coaches, and critics in the state legislature, the high schools, media and general public, Bruninks and Maturi have a thunderbolt opportunity.