Peter’s Picks

Call these guys

Let’s take incoming Columbia Athletic Director Peter Pilling at his word and assume he really is only looking to hire a new football head coach who has experience turning a program around.

That would seem to disqualify some of the rising stars in and around the Ivies and some big names too. But, a little nuance, (read “stretching), and poetic license might bring some of those people back into contention, and I’ll do that a little later.

For now, let’s look at who among my almost 3-month-old list of top candidates and see who still fits the “turnaround” bill:

1)      Joe Moglia

Sources tell me that some effort to woo him has been made by Columbia in the last month or so. It’s probably a stretch to think he would bolt Coastal Carolina at this point, but a redoubled effort should be made. Moglia turned around Chanticleers instantly and hasn’t looked back.

The pitch to make to get Moglia should be centered on New York City. Moglia needs to be here relatively often because of his position as TD Ameritrade Chairman anyway, so this would make life easier for him and his family.

More importantly, New York City is the best place for Moglia to be if he is going to stick with FCS football. Now that Moglia has been passed over for all the open FBS jobs, he should realize that those big programs will probably never hire him. That means his best next step is to be in the #1 media capital where every positive thing he does will get the most possible attention.  

Columbia might also want to appeal to Moglia to return to his coaching roots in the Ivy League. Wasn’t it a desire to return to those roots that inspired his entire career change?

2)      Tom Gilmore

Gilmore turned around his program at Holy Cross soon after he became the head coach. The program has had its ups and downs lately, but it is always a competitive team and punches above its scholarship and attractiveness rate in the Patriot League.

Gilmore has long deserved a chance to coach in the Ivies, where he was a legendary player and assistant coach. His players at Columbia hold him in highest regard.

Hiring him would not only be a good move on the field and in the locker room, it would also bring new financial and emotional support from a group of 40-50-year-old alums who are now at the height of their earning power.

3)      Phil Estes

The man who makes miracles year after year at Brown would be worth a very hard look. The facilities and atmosphere in Providence are dismal to say the least, but all the Bears do year in and year out is win.

4)      Mark Whipple

The man who turned around Brown and set the stage for Estes 20+ years ago deserves a call. He’s at UMass now, but Columbia can offer him more money and a better platform than New England.

5)      Greg Schiano

Yes, this may be a crazy stretch. But with the money Columbia is supposedly willing to pay, maybe it isn’t.

Should Pilling at least reach out to Schiano to gauge his interest?

Yes.

Now, for the non-head coaches who I still think you can consider because they have had a big hand in turnarounds despite not being the head coach:

6)      Keith Clark

Dartmouth’s overall turnaround over the past five years owes a lot to Clark. He’s the offensive coordinator and it’s the offense that’s been the best of the two units for the Big Green over that time. Recruiting is a big reason why and Clark deserves credit for that too.

He was also well-liked during his time as an assistant at Columbia. He’s a link to that great 1996 team that went 8-2. He coached the offensive line, the only part of that offense that had real effectiveness and talent. The ’96 team was otherwise all about the defense.

7)      Mike Kelleher

Much of Brown’s sustained successful turnaround over the years has been due to Kelleher and the work he’s done with the always-underrated Brown defense.

Kelleher is also a former Columbia assistant who was well thought of here.

8)      Chris Wilkerson

Wilkerson was at Dartmouth for nine seasons before going to the University of Chicago to become the head coach last year. He's made a quick turnaround for the Maroons and he certainly understands coaching in a tough academic, urban environment. He also recruits the NYC area.

9)      James Perry

The Princeton offensive coordinator has been a whiz at turning around that unit and making it a scoring machine. He deserves a chance to be a head coach in this league.

And finally, here are two outside the box candidates I’d very much like to see interviewed:

10)   Matt Patricia

After the Patriots Super Bowl victory, I find it even harder to believe reports that Columbia is seriously trying to bring New England’s rising star defensive coordinator to Morningside Heights.

But stranger things have happened. Patricia has turned around the once-flagging Patriots defense and he relates to players in a way that makes me thing he might not be a bad recruiter.

11)   Nunzio Campanile

Campanile is the 34-year-old head coach of Bergen Catholic. He also learned his craft for years at Don Bosco HS. It’s a stretch to call him a turnaround expert, but Bergen is a better team overall than it was before he got there.

These two schools are a treasure trove of the best Ivy-eligible talent out there. With Campanile and his mentor Greg Toal’s help, Columbia would have a pipeline from two of the best Ivy-recruited schools in the Northeast.

But more importantly, a guy like Campanile is a recruiting expert because he’s actually in the room when every Ivy recruiter comes courting his players. He’s seen what we all do in our pitches, and he could do it better.

I know of at least three times in the recent past when Columbia acted like snobs and refused to give top high school coaches a fair chance at our open head coaching job. I know that attitude came from one donor who has too much power over this program as it is.

Campanile, if he’s interested, deserves a good hard look.