Youngest coach in I-A. 34. Never heard of the guy. QB at Boise, assistant at UNLV, Stanford, Yale, and WKU, OC at Boise (14) and Notre Dame (15 & 16). Father used to coach UNLV (five losing seasons) and is currently at Indiana State.
Mike Sanford Jr to WKU
- Thread starter The Real SamC
- Start date
Winning programs have a knack for taking calculated chances that pay off....big. Marshall always seems to go with the safest bet, and hopes it will work out.
Do what?
MU's current football coach was a 53 year old career assistant, best known for recruiting, mostly to a then mid-major school, and an alumni of said school with which MU has a contentious relationship, when hired. His idiot predecessor was a 41 year old journeyman assistant, mostly in the Big 10. His genius predecessor was a first time head coach with solid but unspectacular credentials as an SEC/ACC assistant, as was his genius predecessor.
MU's current basketball coach is a 67 year old RETIRED HIGH SCHOOL coach, in a mixed-race marriage with a former student a generation younger (I don't care, but "safest bet" ) who spent his recent time as an assistant for his more famous brother in the NBA.
Which of those do you condider "playing it safe" ?
ALL OF THEM. I base my OP on the premise that Marshall always looks for the 'good ole home grown, WV/Marshall boy comes home" situation. Someone considering this their "dream job", who "wont likely leave" unless you absolutely run the program into the dirt.....in which case...we (Marshall Admin and super fans) will claim endlessly we are too poor to fire them for several more years and hope for a miracle of a turn around "next year". Only then, will Marshall eagerly look for another cheap option, as they continue to lie to themselves about "affordability" and "no one from WV would want to coach here".
The difference with other winning and growing programs??? They WELCOME hires from outside with little ties to the area, state, program, etc. They EXPECT their hires to move on. They WANT their hires to eventually be in demand for bigger jobs. They ACCEPT that as their place in D-1 and welcome the chance to use these coaches as much as the coach is using them. They structure their contracts for success, both for the coach and the institution if/when they move on.
Home run hire. Been very successful as an OC and player at Boise. I would expect no drop off at WKU
Jim Donnan, George Chaump, Stan Parrish, Billy Donovan, Donnie Jones, Dana Altman, and Carl Tacy say "hey" . For that matter, so do Dale Nitzche, J. Wade Gilley,and Dan Angel.
Sad Sam...you have crossed the line. Dan will be pissed at me for fighting his battles. He does not read the garbage found on Herd Nation!!!!! DD is 69 (not 67)......His second wife is a wonderful black lady and their daughter attends Marshall. She was not a former high school student of Dan's...they met under normal circumstances, fell into love and got married over 20 years ago. Yes, she is a few years younger, but age is only a number. Dan is famous in his own right...won over 500 high school games in S. Carolina...founder (1981) of the famous BEACH BALL CLASSIC at Myrtle Beach...was inducted into Marshall's Hall of Fame BEFORE younger brother, Mike was. His sister, Kathy Jo is also in MU's hall of Fame.
If your words were an attempt at being FUNNY...you are not. I wish I knew your true name...I would deliver my message to you Monday night (Dec. 19) FACE to FACE...You are nothing more than an internet Geek...HIDING behind an internet name.
GARY SWEENEY...Dan's Cuz-in-law.....from Charlotte.
Dude, chill. I was just responding to the idiot comment that MU makes "safe hires", pointing out that neither the current basketball nor football coach are traditional. If you bothered to read the board you would know I am a big supporter of both. And, before we get ourselves banned in this, the fact that DD WAS 67 when hired, and the fact that he is in a mixed race and mixed generation marriage (WHICH I COULD NOT CARE LESS ABOUT, but not everybody is a broadminded as me) shows just how dumb it was to say that MU makes "safe hires". I was not talking to you.
Sam....I offer my apology...this is the problem with Social media.....folks can receive the wrong message. Have a Very Merry Christmas & Wonderful 2017.
Sweeney in Charlotte
No shit Sam. You having problems comprehending?? You are proving my damn point. Marshall hasn't hired a Donnan, Parrish, Donovan, or Altman type in decades!!!!
And Donnie Jones was a clip board holder for Greg White's era. He sucked.
Respectfully I completely disagree. Had a top 5 NFL pick in Kizer this year to play with and ND's offense was pedestrian at best. I believe they were 65th in total offense this year.
Not saying he won't work out but it feels like reach to me.
After reading some stuff on him, apparently he didn't have complete control of the play calling at ND. Brian Kelly was in on it, along with someone else. So, the success/failures of ND's offense doesn't completely rest on his shoulders. In his one season at WKU, he called the pass plays while someone else called the run plays and the HC decided if the play was going to be run/pass. Sounds like ND was using that philosophy as well...he may use that while he's at WKU.
My concern about him would be that he was ND's QB coach and it can be argued that Kizer/Zaire progressed about as much under him as Litton has progressed under Bill Legg. He's bounced around so much, it's hard to tell how he'll do because he hasn't had any sustained success anywhere. His longest stay has been for 3 years at Stanford and he coached 3 different positions (QB/RB/WR) while there. Maybe he's picked up a ton at a lot of different places and has a great plan to put it all together at WKU? Or maybe due to his name/connections, he's worked his way up a little too fast and will struggle keeping the ball rolling there. Either way, I don't think anyone can have a definitive opinion on him yet.
Agreed. I could easily be wrong but I expect this hire to be a bust.
in his one year at wku their offense was horrendous. 115th passing offense nationally, 90th scoring offense.
Completely agree, as I posted further up in this thread, I feel he is going to be a bust and I am going to love every minute of it. Couldn't happen to a better program.
True, but that was the beginning of Willie Taggart. They won 2 games total in 2008 & 2009. Not much to work with. The fact they weren't dead last in every category is probably a good thing haha.
I think one of the keys for him is can he bring in a quality recruiting class. He will inherit some talent left over from Petrino and Brohm. Time will tell if he can run a program there is more to it than just calling good plays
Yeah, he's also got 3 more years of coordinator experience than Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh both have combined.
Speaks volumes!
So long as they keep getting athletes like they get, a goat that knows sign-language could coach them to a C-USA title.
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