The last time we had a coaching hire, I wanted our budget to be around $2-$2.5M/yr. We came in at $1.5M/yr for Diaco. Furthermore, we shopped in the clearance aisle for assistants to fill out the staff. We are getting exactly what we have paid for: a mediocre football budget for mediocre football product. With the G5's leading AD budget - seriously, no G5 schools comes remotely close to our $72M AD budget - we cannot afford to continue to pinch pennies in the single most important sport to get us out of the G5. It is imperative that we increase the head coach search budget AND assistant coach budget to fill out the best possible staff. No, we are not going to pay someone Jim Harbaugh or Nick Saban money (aside: rumor has it that Phil Knight is prepared to support $10M/yr to replace Helfrich at Oregon! Yikes), but we *should* set our football coaching staff budget along the lines of Houston and Cincinnati (around $3M/yr for head coach). And no, I do not think paying a guy $3M/yr just to pay a guy $3M/yr is the right approach either (see: Tommy Tuberville). I am just saying that our football budget needs to reflect 1) commitment to football and, thus, commitment to being a P5 school; 2) scaled to match our AD budget commitment.
Below are a few names that would interest me on varying levels. My criteria:
1. offensive background. We have hired nothing but defensive coaches and have the worst offense in FBS...in an era when the rules significantly favor the offense. Not to mention, we haven't had a stout defense since Don Brown left, further adding credence to the importance of properly funding a full coaching staff. We desperately need to hire an offensive mind and then arm him with a very good DC. We need excitement back in this program for wins and ticket sales. Hiring an offensive guy is a must.
2. would favor a guy with previous head coaching experience but it's not exactly a deal-breaker for me.
3. would favor an "east coast guy" but it's not a deal-breaker for me either.
4. no older than 50 years old (yes, I know, I am completely violating age discrimination laws here). I like young college coaches since energy and enthusiasm is needed to generate excitement, recruit, and to drive/motivate 18-23 year olds on a daily basis.
I'll group my candidate list by expected salary range, in my best guess. Note: all names *should* also receive confirmation from our AD that we will pay our OC/DC in the $350-550K range, in line with bottom half of P5 schools, and pay competitive salary for various position coaches (QB, OL, DB, ST are probably most important right now) in addition to a good S&C coach to take advantage of our P5 level facilities.
The $1.5M/yr - $2M/yr candidates:
Scott Satterfield, HC, Appalachian State (current salary: 525K). Stop me if you've heard this one before: he's a coach who successfully has navigated App State from FCS (where they were very successful) to FBS. He's a former QB with an offensive background. His recruiting ties are mid-Atlantic which isn't too far of a stretch for us here. A 29-17 record in a few seasons as HC during a FBS transition is something worth considering.
Bobby Wilder, HC, Old Dominion (current salary: 550K). Like Satterfield, he has successfully overseen ODU's transition to FBS. He's a bit older than Fleck, Broh, and Satterfield, but his career coaching record of 63-30 and ties to the northeast (from Maine) are appealing. Former QB with an offensive background.
Mike Bloomgren, OC, Stanford (current salary: N/A). We could do much worse than hiring out from under the Jim Harbaugh/David Shaw tree. He's coached OL and QBs before becoming an OC. He's also coached under Rex Ryan during Ryan's Jets stint. Stanford's offense is not flashy by any means but it is the model for what UConn has tried to run (and recruited) since moving FBS. Bloomgren actually might be one of the quickest to produce results of the names on this list, given the similarities between what Stanford does and what UConn tries to do (basically, what Stanford does).
Ed Warinner, OC, Ohio State (current salary: 600K). Similar to Bloomgren, we could do much worse than hiring our from under the Urban Meyer coaching tree. Tom Herman was an instant success at Houston and the hope is that Warinner can do the same. The problem is that other schools like to hire out from Meyer too and there will likely be competition.
Mike Sanford, OC, Notre Dame (current salary: N/A). I know, I know, we didn't find great results in the last Notre Dame assistant that we hired but Sanford might be someone worth it. He has been an assistant at Stanford under Shaw and led Boise State's offense to being one of the top offenses in the country in 2015. He has coached QBs...very successfully...everywhere he's gone. Ironically, Diaco serving as his DC would be a nice combo given the bend but no break style Diaco likes and Sanford's high tempo offenses.
Joe Moorhead, OC, Penn State (current salary: N/A). A name we're all familiar with from his time here at UConn. He knows the northeast and has resurrected Penn State's offense under James Franklin this year. He also has HC experience (and very good 38-13 FCS record to boot) while at Fordham and produced immediate results in year 1 turning a 1-10 team into a 6 win team. He's familiar with UConn, our facilities, and now with proper leadership in our athletic department than when he was last here, he can produce here too.
The $2M/yr - $3M/yr candidates:
PJ Fleck - HC, Western Michigan (current salary: 800K). Negative: he's a hot name and will surely be a sought after commodity once the coaching carousel begins to spin. He's been head coach at WMU for 4 years and his career record is mediocre (17-21) but has really put it together in the last 2 seasons (year 3 and 4 at WMU). He was an Assistant at Rutgers, so he's familiar with our recruiting area. He's getting the right kids for his system at Western Michigan though and brings a good balance of offense and defense style. I'd say the chances of us hiring him are less than 15%, given the fact that I think he'll go to a P5 school. But if a lower tier P5 school gets too aggressive in salary negotiation, maybe we can come in at $2.5M/yr range and convince him to come here.
Ed Orgeron - Interim HC, LSU (current salary: $1.2M/yr). This dude has been clamoring for a HC job for years and has found success in not just one, but two, interim jobs: USC and LSU. Granted, the level of talent on the roster is night-and-day different at those places than at UConn, but the guy has proven that he can coach in adversity and keep a team together and motivated. He also comes with an outstanding reputation as a recruiter. Negative: culturally speaking, he's a southern guy that would have to adjust being in the northeast. He's actually a perfect fit at LSU - his creole tongue might only be deciphered by the fans in Baton Rouge. I'd say the odds are less than 10% that he comes here because I do think his latest interim stint will finally give him a P5 coaching opportunity somewhere. But like Fleck, if you give him an appropriate football coaching budget, I think he could do some good things here.
Jeff Brohm - HC, Western Kentucky (current salary: 800K). Like Fleck, he will garner a good amount of attention this offseason. He has a career record of 27-10 at WKU and has an offensive background and played in the NFL - something that reflects well on the recruiting trails. He's coached as an assistant under Ron Zook, Howard Schnellenberger and Bobby Petrino at various schools. Give this man the proper football funding and there is little doubt he can succeed here at UConn. I'd say our chances are less than 10% or hiring him.
Matt Rhule, HC, Temple (current salary: $1M/yr). This is pure Dooley fantasy and would be a complete G5/AAC power play for UConn to hire him away from a conference school but man, this dude can coach and coach in the northeast. He's from the northeast in our recruiting territories, played LB and coached as an OC before being a head coach. Right now, Temple is a good program to emulate. We would have to, at least, double his salary to entice him to leave. Maybe more. And he'll get looks at other openings. Fuente jumped from Memphis to Virginia Tech for $3.2M/yr. That's likely the range we're talking about. Would be expensive to buyout Diaco AND buyout Rhule AND pay him 2x or 2.5x his current salary but I'd be willing to do it for Rhule.
Lane Kiffin, OC, Alabama (current salary: $1.4M/yr). High risk hire and there is no guarantee that Kiffin wouldn't leave us out to dry if/when a different job became available, but the move could be beneficial to both parties. Why would Kiffin come here? To show P5 schools that he can be good HC after his disastrous stints at Tennessee and USC. I'm going to guess that Kiffin has picked up a thing or two under the last few years under Nick Saban. Turning UConn around would provide him a needed boost to his HC aspirations and could be a hot commodity for any opening in 2018-beyond. Why would UConn hire Kiffin? Our offense stinks and there is little to doubt Kiffin's ability to do creative things with an offense. He also comes with a "name" that casual UConn fans have heard of and *could* drive ticket sales going forward. If we are able to negotiate a fairly substantial year 1 buyout to lock in some kind of security, it could be a move that benefits both.
Josh McDaniels, OC, New England Patriots (current salary: $1.5M/yr). Incredibly highly unlikely he would leave the Patriots for UConn but perhaps he will want to take the Bill O'Brien path towards becoming a NFL head coach (again). No, UConn is not Penn State but O'Brien took that job immediately following the JoePa/Sandusky scandal, was praised for his work, and ultimately landed the Texans job. He made $2M/yr as head coach of Denver so we would have to come in over the top of that number AND commit to paying for top assistants so that McDaniels can better achieve quick results. But there is little arguing against this guy's creativity as an offensive innovator. It has even made a few seasoned NFL coaches complain about formations and then, ultimately, adopted by their team(s).
Dave Doeron, HC, NC State (current salary: $2.2M/yr). Yes, he'd need to get fired first and I'm throwing him in here since
@whaler11 mentioned him, but I too would love to see UConn reach out to him should he become available. Probably wouldn't cost us as much as other candidates given his current salary, but he had success at Northern Illinois and has pulled in some decent recruiting classes. Hopefully, he could bring some of those mid-Atlantic connections to UConn.
Wildcard names* (would need to fired from current job and probably command, at minimum, $2.5M/yr but maybe more):
*These names are extreme long shots that would require a very serious financial commitment. However, if we could land a coach like any of the below, the ticket sales impact would be immediate and it would signal to the rest of the college football world that UConn is very serious in its commitment to football on a P5 level.
Rich Rodriguez, HC, Arizona (current salary: $2.9M/yr). Big name to help sell tickets immediately but would take the longest to find success, in my opinion. His fast, spread offenses require a completely different skill set of player than what we've been recruiting for the past decade or so. But the hope here is that RichRod would bring excitement back to the Rent, result in an immediate uptick in recruiting, and provide UConn with a much needed boost to its football commitment reputation.
Brian Kelly, HC, Notre Dame (current salary: base $1.6M/yr; incentives N/A). Would cost over $3M/yr and a VERY long shot given the fact that I think he would be targeted by several schools should ND fire him, but can you imagine the excitement that he'd bring? Ticket sales, fun offense, outstanding coaching tree. Would need to empty out the bank to get him.
Charlie Strong, HC, Texas (current salary: $5.2M/yr). Brian Kelly 2.0. He took the Louisville job without visiting the school or touring the facilities...maybe he'd be open to dropping down to the G5 level if we offered competitive salary. His Texas stint has been bad for Texas standards but his Louisville turnaround can't be ignored. He quickly turned around the mess left behind by Steve Kragthorpe and could be mostly responsible for Louisville being invited into the ACC. If UL football didn't turnaround, there is no chance that FSU and Clemson would back their invitation.
Jim Tressel, former HC, Ohio State. Would have to pay some of his "show clause" but it's very hard to argue against his success. He'd likely come much cheaper than the other 3 wildcards, but his show clause would be a huge detractor. If Benedict evaluates the program as one that isn't a bowl team for the next few years, then the show clause is not as damaging. It's not like we have a New Year's 6 roster or path ahead of us any time soon.
I also have no idea where some of that money being thrown around is gonna come from.