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Knudson: Not Your Steppin' Stone

Dec. 8th, 2010

by Mark Knusdon- Mtn Insider
 
The danger of getting it right - hiring a bright young coach to run your football program - is that as soon as he has some success, other schools are going to come after him. It happens every single year, and it's happened again this year.
 
It's not just the bigger schools poaching the smaller ones. There are schools who's football programs are so big that they have no qualms about coming after the coach from another big school. No one's immune. When Florida was looking for a new coach a few years back, the first name mentioned was Oklahoma's Bob Stoops. And so it goes.
 
When the dust settled after that particular coaching search in Gainesville, it was a coach from the Mountain West - Utah's Urban Meyer - who relocated to the Southeastern Conference. That's the more common scenario, as we've come to find out.
 
Could that be changing? Could the coaching jobs in the Mountain West be gaining in prestige so that it's no longer a given that the next step is a step up?
 
Over the years, many a MWC coach has been the target of the football factories. For instance, the list of Wyoming coaches who've left Laramie for the next big gig is as long as your arm. Bob Devaney. Fritz Shurmur. Fred Akers. Pat Dye. Dennis Erickson. Joe Tiller. Yet the one who stayed, Paul Roach, is the one who had the most success and is now revered all across the state. Colorado State's Sonny Lubick was contacted first by Miami and later by USC in the late 1990's, but for reasons related to lifestyle and job security, he elected to stay in Fort Collins. He made the right decision.
 
Dennis Franchione got things rolling in six seasons at New Mexico before he began his vagabond ways. First a three year stint at TCU, and then to two tough years at Alabama and four nondescript seasons at Texas A&M. Bet he wishes he'd stayed in Albuquerque.
 
Five years ago, Boise State's Dan Hawkins left his successful gig with the Broncos to take a  "better" job with Colorado of the Big 12. We all know how that ended. Would anyone call the CU job a better one than the Boise job today? Would Chris Peterson leave Boise to move to Boulder now? Not a chance. 
 
Fast forward to 2010: After ending successful regular seasons and while gearing up for bowl games, both San Diego State's Brady Hoke and Air Force's Troy Calhoun became "hot commodities." Both decided to stay put. Could it be that the jobs they have now might be BETTER than the new gigs they were offered?
 
Calhoun was first mentioned as the leading candidate at Colorado. Rumors were hot and heavy that the Buffaloes were going to snatch Calhoun the same way they had grabbed basketball coach Jeff Bzdelik away from AFA. Never happened. Calhoun squelched the rumors by coming out with a public statement that we was not a candidate for the CU job. He had a better job in Colorado Springs. He took things a step further one week later by doing the same thing when he was mentioned as a candidate to replace the fired Josh McDaniels as the coach of the Denver Broncos. Thanks but no thanks. I'm an Academy guy, he said.
 
Hoke flirted with Minnesota, but eventually signed and extension with the Aztecs that not only gives him a nice pay raise, but also promises facility upgrades and raises for assistant coaches among other things. The Aztecs are going bowling and enjoy living in fertile recruiting land. Minnesota may be in the Big Ten, but they aren't in the post season picture, and...well...you pick where YOU'D rather spend your days.
 
There are several other up and coming young coaches in the MWC who could be future targets of bigger schools in the coming years. Dave Christensen at Wyoming. Steve Fairchild at Colorado State. Bobby Hauck at UNLV. If and when these guys and their current teams have some level of success, you can bet their phones are going to start ringing. The question is, will they have reason to answer those calls? The turf might not be greener on the other end of the line.