Bad Case Study - Illinois.
- Tim Beckman is hugely unpopular (hired wrong Toledo coach)
- Still somehow shows improvement in year 3 and goes to bowl
- Gets fired a week before year 4 for Mangino-like stuff
- Illinois promotes OC Cubit, signs a pretty weak 2 year deal, they don't have a horrible season (only 5-7, but competitive in most of their games)
- Feb 17, 2016 Illinois hires Josh Whitman as AD (2 weeks after signing day mind you)
- Has Cubit for cheap for 2016...10 months to asses if a change needs to be made after 2016 season and work back channels for "his" guy
- 2 weeks later (4 weeks after signing day) decides he has "his" guy, backing up a dump truck of money and interrupting 58 year old Lovie Smith's Mojito brunch in Florida
Illinois is 5-13, 2-10 since and looks absolutely rudderless right now (although not near as bad as KU).
If Illinois wants to can Smith after this season, it would cost them $16M! Never mind how much it would set the program back (on flip side, if he leaves and takes another job, he pays Illinois, but what are odds of that happening? I guess he can always have a Gary Anderson moment).
When it's all said and done, Whitman should have just trotted out Cubit an additional year. The fanbase wasn't in love with Cubit, but they had reason to stay engaged during his only season and he wasn't Beckman. There wasn't pressure for a big splash but Whitman had to have one. All the while, you had a guy in PJ Fleck up the road that just wanted to take a regional Big 10 job and Illinois would have probably checked the box as easily as Minnesota did.
If the university is going to take action with Zenger, it's right now or summer of 2018. It's probably too late to do a combo hiring by the time the early December coaching feeding frenzy starts but with urgency could maybe be done. Illinois shows the risk of timing with AD hire. Whitman coming on when he did has probably set that program back significantly.
Now, look at Purdue. It was apparent about 3 games in 2013 that Darrell Hazell was an awful hire. They grinded it out 3 1/2 frustrating years and finally canned him middle of last year (surprisingly, after his best start). He at least was able to bring bodies into the program and keep them. They vetting coaches for a couple of months, and made what I think was the best college football hire this year in Jeff Broehm (might have been too good...if they win 7-8 games, I think another team is going to try sweep him up).
I hate to think like this, but if we don't hear something big tomorrow or this week I think it's in best interest to just grind it out through beginning of next season, get ducks lined and hope there are at least enough bodies to make a change late Sept 2018 and make sure a good enough AD is in place by then.
- Tim Beckman is hugely unpopular (hired wrong Toledo coach)
- Still somehow shows improvement in year 3 and goes to bowl
- Gets fired a week before year 4 for Mangino-like stuff
- Illinois promotes OC Cubit, signs a pretty weak 2 year deal, they don't have a horrible season (only 5-7, but competitive in most of their games)
- Feb 17, 2016 Illinois hires Josh Whitman as AD (2 weeks after signing day mind you)
- Has Cubit for cheap for 2016...10 months to asses if a change needs to be made after 2016 season and work back channels for "his" guy
- 2 weeks later (4 weeks after signing day) decides he has "his" guy, backing up a dump truck of money and interrupting 58 year old Lovie Smith's Mojito brunch in Florida
Illinois is 5-13, 2-10 since and looks absolutely rudderless right now (although not near as bad as KU).
If Illinois wants to can Smith after this season, it would cost them $16M! Never mind how much it would set the program back (on flip side, if he leaves and takes another job, he pays Illinois, but what are odds of that happening? I guess he can always have a Gary Anderson moment).
When it's all said and done, Whitman should have just trotted out Cubit an additional year. The fanbase wasn't in love with Cubit, but they had reason to stay engaged during his only season and he wasn't Beckman. There wasn't pressure for a big splash but Whitman had to have one. All the while, you had a guy in PJ Fleck up the road that just wanted to take a regional Big 10 job and Illinois would have probably checked the box as easily as Minnesota did.
If the university is going to take action with Zenger, it's right now or summer of 2018. It's probably too late to do a combo hiring by the time the early December coaching feeding frenzy starts but with urgency could maybe be done. Illinois shows the risk of timing with AD hire. Whitman coming on when he did has probably set that program back significantly.
Now, look at Purdue. It was apparent about 3 games in 2013 that Darrell Hazell was an awful hire. They grinded it out 3 1/2 frustrating years and finally canned him middle of last year (surprisingly, after his best start). He at least was able to bring bodies into the program and keep them. They vetting coaches for a couple of months, and made what I think was the best college football hire this year in Jeff Broehm (might have been too good...if they win 7-8 games, I think another team is going to try sweep him up).
I hate to think like this, but if we don't hear something big tomorrow or this week I think it's in best interest to just grind it out through beginning of next season, get ducks lined and hope there are at least enough bodies to make a change late Sept 2018 and make sure a good enough AD is in place by then.
