Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Our Short List

Pete Mangurian will be fired in 26 days, so it’s actually a little late to begin the process of searching for his replacement.

But here we go.

Many sources now tell me Mangurian's salary is more like $500,000 a year and near the top of the Ivies. That makes his hiring and the job he's done here even more of a scandal, but at least we know more money is available than we thought. 

I’ll start with my top two choices, and please note that they were my top two choices and 90% of the fans’ top choices from three years ago. Does anyone in their right mind think we would be this bad right now if we had hired one of these guys instead of Mangurian?

Of course not.



Tom Gilmore

Tom is just a good a choice for Columbia as he was three years ago, despite Holy Cross’ difficulties in that period. The truth is, HC is deliberately not keeping up with its Patriot League opponents in the new athletic scholarship financial race. And yet, the Crusaders are still a very tough team. Gilmore turned this program around 7-8 years ago, but is now better-suited to do his magic in the Ivies. He’s a tough coach, but someone who has the deep respect and admiration from his former players. Mangurian does not have that in case you hadn’t noticed.


Joe Moglia

Moglia would have taken the Columbia job in 2011 if CU had been smart enough to offer it to him. Now, it’s not so clear but Joe would still get a step up in media attention and visibility if he came up north. Right now, he’s still doing miracles with Coastal Carolina and probably would like a shot at a big-time FBS team very soon. But I think he would still entertain an offer from Columbia very seriously. A big bonus here is we wouldn’t have to pay him.



Now, for some other interesting options.

Dartmouth’s quick and efficient turnaround from 0-10 in 2008 to contender by 2010 to top 3 team in 2013 and now a top 1 or 2 team in 2014 is worth noting.

Here are two guys from that program who catch my attention:


Keith Clark

The Green’s offensive coordinator has weathered the graduation of two once-in-a-generation quality RB’s in Nick Schwieger and Dominic Pierre in the last couple of years and still has his offense moving well. Clark was our O-line coach for our 1996 8-2 season and he knows what Columbia is all about. He is more than ready to be a head coach.


Cortez Hankton

A totally outside the box choice, except he’s not. The Big Green WR coach is universally acknowledged to be on the fast track to stardom. He’s a killer recruiter, great teacher, and has the personality to move mountains. No one at Dartmouth can believe he came back for a third year there and they are thanking their lucky stars. He’s worth taking a very long look at.


Princeton’s turnaround is also very instructive for our purposes. But the Tigers only have one guy I’d investigate as a possibility:


James Perry

The Princeton OC and former Brown QB and asst. coach was vehemently hated by Roger Hughes’ players when he came to the Tigers with Bob Surace. Now he’s universally loved as he’s turned Princeton into a scoring machine. And it didn’t take long.


I have some other names, but let’s get the conversation started.

In any event, we must never allow the A.D., an interim A.D. or anyone to subvert the hiring process like Dianne Murphy did in 2011 with Mangurian. There couldn’t be a better example of “garbage in, garbage out,” as that fraudulent “search process” yielded a disastrous coach.


26 days to go… 

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mike Kelleher

Jake said...

Mike Kelleher is the D-Coordinator at Brown. He was with CU for 4 years and has a great resume. Remember, Brown's defenses have been underrated for years. Here's his bio:

http://www.brownbears.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/kelleher_michael00.html

Anonymous said...

For Gilmore and Moglia, how much would money factor into it? I don't know what Holy Cross and Coastal Carolina pays but I am guessing it is not be the 250-400K the CU Head Coach makes. Still not sure how Pete makes above the base 250K for the position unless the endowment is really 400K (which would make ti a peach job opportunity for many coaches)

Coastal Carolina impressed me the 1 game I saw against Furman. Very composed, very efficient and disciplined. I also like what I have seen from Holy Cross over the years despite them being an up and down program. You can see the game planning that goes into it.

If either Moglia or Gilmore are considered and make it through the selection process, I think either of them would be a vast improvement over Pete.

oldlion said...

Here is the administration's sick joke: Mangurian has a big contract which the administration does not want to eat. So he gets kicked upstairs and is named the new AD! Bollinger's revenge.

indianhoop said...

I think it would be an improvement for both HC and Columbia...but I don't see it happening at this juncture. Gilmore is in the middle of the scholarship transition process and I doubt he leaves HC now.

DOC said...

These sound like great candidates.
What would entice them to come HERE?
After all, some have been outright rejected or ignored in the past.

Jake said...

Gilmore is in the last year of his contract and I believe he is very interested. I like the idea of getting him in the same year that Penn replaces Bagnoli with Priore. Gilmore will have a strong ax to grind to prove his Alma Mater made a big mistake ignoring him.

WOF said...

1. Does Jake's endorsement of these people disqualify them right out of the gate due to the admin's fear/loathing of him?

2. Would Gilmore or Moglia have any interest in dealing with this apathetic, minor league administration?

3. What good coach with legitimate credentials and who is still ascending career wise would risk their careers with our historically bad program and disinterested administration?

4. We loved Garrett but the blemishes in his coaching background and his age were going to limit the pool of schols willing to take a risk on him. If not for his stud sons I doubt we would have even taken a shot at him. Mac had baggage before he got here, too. One of the ADs way back when told me that we do not exactly get to pick from the top of the available candidate heap...

5. They need to make a statement hire and Bollinger needs to be involved and part of the sales pitch this time, otherwise we are looking at another D3 guy who is willing to gamble on us. Either that or another career footballer with some blemishes who is willing to gamble on us as a means to rectify their legacy....

Jake said...

If any of these candidates are disqualified simply because I named them, then we're truly dealing with an admin that's too childish and stupid to be supervising a college program.

Anonymous said...

What if the lame duck AD decides not to fire Pete and let's the new AD in June decide what to do the following year? The lack of accountability is going to be a problem here. With no one to oust Murphy sooner (never heard of giving 10 months notice in any job except an elected official).

Jake said...

The lame duck AD problem is a serious one and we need to demand an answer about who has the power to hire and fire at this point.

Anonymous said...

If theyre worried about people Jake named I was being 100% serious. Mike Kelleher or Clark. I played under him for two years (Kelleher) and he was the only sane person in the entire building that could relate to players and instill his vision. I wasnt even on the defensive side of the ball but as a dumb Freshman OLinman he was willing to take the time to teach me what he wanted done on the scout team.

I think we should cut the nonsense were not getting a head coach to come clean up this mess. It needs to be someone (a coordinator) that has been here before and knows the crap kids have to deal with.

The biggest mistake thats been made since Tellier got canned was hiring people that had never been around; or didnt understand our culture. Look at the results.

Jake said...

Old Lion:

I urge you to contact your former teammates and have them join you in a push for Kelleher or anyone you all like now. The more the admin people hear calls and gets letters about possible candidates, the less they'll be able to claim that some other no-name loser candidate was the only name they knew of, etc.

Coach said...

So far, the only coach who has proven that he can flip a program around is Joe Moglia.

Coach said...

You folks are in dreamland-
What coach is going to take the Columbia job without knowing who will be the new AD-

Anonymous said...

James perry? Scored 7 against harvard....

I remain, very truly yours, Richard Szathmary said...

Since we're being silly here (but thank God there've been no mentions of Don Bosco's Greg Toal again), why not try and lure Howard Schnellenberger out of retirement (again)? One thing in his favor is that the guy likely does not need the money at this point in his life.

As an interim sort--of-solution, Greg Schiano might very well be interested too. What makes him especially attractive to the Ivies is his well=known emphasis on scholastic achievement. The man also knows how to properly hold a press conference (unlike Mangurian).

And there are surely assistant coaches at, say, both Lehigh and Lafayette who'd like a chance to move up to a head position.

Coach said...

As I have stated earlier, the focus needs to be on the hiring of the Director of Athletics who has guided a successful football program, and will be able to manage Admissions and Financial Aid.

Anonymous said...

Did a little bit of research on Joe Moglia. WOW, what an impressive guy. He is what BillC should have been as a coach. His work ethic and character are all over the Coastal program. No panic, no fuss, just pure efficiency. He has Coastal in the FCS top 10.

ESPN story

Joe Moglia's personal web site

WOF said...

Maybe the new coach will also be the AD? Yes, I know I am really dreaming with that one...

alawicius said...

I think Mango will be back for his last year. Then I like Clark or Kelleher, maybe Moglia, with the Dartmouth WR coach as OC.

Allie

WOF said...

It will really be telling if they let PM stick around for another year.

I heard that our kids looked copletely tuned out and non motivated last weekend... Nothing says a coach is done better than the team quitting...

Coach said...

I believe that someone has stated before that we need to hire an outside search firm for the AD job with a specific criteria that the candidate has a history of working with a successful football program. Plenty of top candidates from schools such as Duke, Northwestern, Stanford, and from the Ivy Schools. Our previous two AD's were from Stony Brook and The University of Denver- what a joke!

Coach said...

What ever happened to John Audino, the long time Head Coach at Union College. Why is he not on the list? Coached at Columbia years ago.
Great recruiter.