Some might argue it's because he was a high school coach 5 years ago.

My high school wouldn't hire Malzahn because his success was at smaller schools and they wanted someone that had more experience. Two years later a rival school hired him and he spanked that ass non stop for 4 years. He has been successful everywhere he has been. From coaching crack infested Hughes, Arkansas to their first and only state championship game. Building Shiloh into a powerhouse. Creating the greatest high school team ever in the state of Arkansas with Springdale. Taking Arkansas to the SECCG even though dumb ass Nutt wouldn't let him run his offense. Turning Tulsa into an offensive juggernaut. Turning Auburn's inept offense around in one season and with the help of Cam building a top offense in year two without one good WR.

It's probably not realistic, but if WSU shitcans Wulff, I'd take Malzahn in an instant, but it is true that he's going to scare off a lot of ADs both with his resume and non Danielson approve offense.

Some day a time will come when being good matters more than resume, but for the time being Chan Gaily still gets gigs.

IU is the perfect place for Malzahn.

Malzahn is clearly the best OC in the country, but does that translate to being a head coach? It's a gamble. It could pay off, but established programs that demand a lot are not the types to gamble. Teams that have less to lose like Wash St., Indiana, etc... don't have that downside. And who knows, maybe he doesn't want to be a HC and likes having the offense to worry about and being hands on and not worrying about everything else. Being a head coach is much more like being a CEO than having your hands dirty with everything. Malzahn might prefer being an OC at somewhere on top than being a HC at a school that isn't as prestigious.

The best strategy imo is hire two stud coordinators who are content to be coordinators, pay them a ****-ton of money, then let Mickey Mouse be the HC, who cares, as long as it is someone who can recruit and handle the media/alumni.

He's already said he wants to be a head coach, someday. There are very few established programs out there that can attract an experienced head coach and many times those schools can't even land a big name. Bama hired Mike DuBose and Mike Shula. Tennessee just had to hire Derek Dooley. Hiring a head coach in general is a gamble. For every Jim Tressel there are five Dan Hawkins. If I am anyone outside of the top 15-20, I'm taking a shot on Malzahn.

Could not disagree more. Stud coordinators don't like to remain coordinators, they want to be the guy. Much easier to find a great head coach and hang onto him than to identify great coordinators and be able to hold onto them for more than a few years in a row.

Usually a big part of the reason they want to be "the guy" though is the money. There are undoubtedly some guys who would be content with being a coordinator at a good program where they were paid decent HC money.

But really in order for this to work, the way things are done now would have to be overhauled - the coordinators would probably have to actually be paid more than the HC and the coordinators would need to have some authority.

Honestly I really like the way Lane Kiffin's staff is set up. I don't really think that kind of setup would be that much harder to replicate than trying to find one of the handful of genius micromanaging workaholics who can successfully control everything, including the personalities, and also recruit. That path is how Brad Childress (or, say, Charlie Weis) ends up coaching your football team.

I guess my point is, rather than expecting the HC to be responsible for everything, including a revolving door of coordinators who make a fraction of what he does, just get a good offensive mind who is content to be a coordinator, pay him some $$$, same for defense, and get a head coach with name recognition and experience who can recruit and who doesn't care about or want to be hands-on...that seems like a winning formula to me. The responsibilities are clear and you have proven guys in each discipline. Instead, what you end up with 90% of the time is a strategist who can't recruit or a recruiter who can't strategize being responsible for all of it.

A lot of those busts were predictable failures (DuBose and Shula). That's the problem in getting a hiring coordinator with no experience as a HC. Now those guys were different because they wanted "Bama" men. It's also a tough job where any loss is going to put you on the hot seat.

Tressel was an interesting case that you bring up. He was an "unknown" but he had the HC experience (although not at that level) and had the recruiting area locked up with his connections. He also understood the program.

Hawkins had 5 years of HC experience at Bosie, and 0 years as an assistant outside of Boise in a D1-A program. He certainly was a huge bust, but it was a bit more predictable.

The biggest question is whether or not Malzahn will want to "pay his dues" as a HC at a slightly lower level first. Jumping in to take a program that has a real hard time of competing at its "top" level might not be ideal for him. It would be better to take an even less prestigious job (something like a Tulsa or ECU or something) where he can dominate at that level and prove himself before moving up to a bigger program.

But yes, it's a gamble no matter what. Very few people are proven at the highest levels, and even then, they aren't jumping ship unless they were lucky and start sucking or get lazy and don't have the passion anymore and get canned. Unless it's Saban, then you just need to throw out a few million and he'll sell his soul.

I'm admittedly just talking out of my ass here, but in terms of hiring a HC I much prefer the guys who have been successful HCs at a smaller school (like Meyer, Tressel and Brian Kelley) to the hot coordinators

Ahh, the Bobby Bowden strategy. If you can keep the staff together it can work brilliantly (see: 14 top 5s in a row), but man once people start to bail your program can go to **** pretty quickly if your head coach sucks.

I agree with you but there aren't many of those guys available either.

Here is a look at the SEC, I'm using it since I am familiar with the coaches

Petrino - Stud OC to mid sized school
Mullen - Stud OC
Saban - Stud DC to small school HC for one year
Nutt- Small school HC
Miles- TE Coach who luckboxed into a head coaching job
Chizik- Stud DC to head coach but was unproven
Meyer- Small school HC
Richt- Stud OC
Spurrier - Small school HC
Dooley - Small school HC

Overall it is pretty even, and some of those are hard to categorize like Saban and Chizik.

The "hot coordinator" path worked pretty good for Oregon imo. Kelly did have a lot more experience at the college level by the time Oregon gave him a shot than Malzahn has now, though, so I see where it's a little bit of a gamble. Still, if I were any school that needed a head coach, Malzahn would have to be at or near the top of my list.

What are you talking about with Saban being a "stud DC to small school HC"? He was a NFL HC and head coach at 2 other BCS conference teams before going to 'Bama. He's not really relevant to this discussion, he was an established property for a decade before getting hired at 'Bama, not a risky hire at all.

He was a HC at Toledo for a year before being a NFL DC in the early 1990s, so I guess you're describing Michigan State's hiring process?

Man, Okie Light gets NO respect.

Yes, I'm just looking at how they became head coaches at big schools. Were they hired because they were the hot coordinator or because they were a successful head coach at a small school.

He was TE coach at Dallas before he was hired at OK State.

You could add Paul Johnson to that list. I'm trying to think of some guys who came up with big resumes who failed. Terry Bowden was pretty successful at the small schools and at Auburn (47-17), but was fired.

Jim Harbaugh is another that came through the small school ranks putting together a 29-6 record at San Diego.

I think there is a lot of "Fooled by randomness" going on in head coaching.

It's worked pretty well for Les Miles.

You don't even need coordinators when you've got Les's luckbox

looks like it's happening

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports...minute-glitch/

wow gruden coming to the U

such an unbelievably good thing, so pumped