UPDATE: Just some general info I've picked up. There has been a lot of interest coming from agents of coaches about the position. Indeed, those agents reached out to AD Mack Rhoades or BU in general to get a sense of things. Some of the interest from coaches who are in between jobs. A couple of others were from the NFL. They know Baylor will pay well. Rhule was making well in excess of $5 million. Plus, both Art Briles and Rhule proved that Baylor could win again. Plus, the facilities that are on campus are a big help, of course. This is where the arms race matters.
By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
When it comes to coaching searches, an athletic director’s track record means something.
Sometimes.
Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades is in the early stages of the interviewing/vetting process to pick the football program’s next football coach. Matt Rhule moved on to the NFL’s Carolina Panthers this past Tuesday. It is Rhoades’ second search since the end of the 2016 season.
In his history as an athletic administrator, Rhoades has hired three football coaches: Tom Herman at Houston, Barry Odom at Missouri and Rhule.
The common denominator between all three? Rhoades went for a coach who was up and coming through the ranks.
When Rhoades hired Herman at Houston in December 2014, Herman was then one of the hottest coordinators in the country when he was the OC at Ohio State. In 2015, Herman directed Houston to 13 wins and win over Florida State in the Peach Bowl, a New Year’s 6 game.
Rhoades then embarked on Missouri’s search to replace Gary Pinkel in 2015 when Pinkel retired due to health reasons. During that time Rhoads was connected to or interviewed the likes of Rhule, Odom, Arkansas State’s Brett Anderson, Sonny Dykes when Dykes was at Cal, Matt Campbell when Campbell was at Toledo and Troy Calhoun who is at Air Force. Rhoades wound up promoting Odom. Missouri was also dealing with scandals.
Rhoades then moved on to Baylor in the summer of 2016 and hired Rhule. To count, that’s two coordinators from P5 programs and one sitting coach from a G5 program.
The timing of this search is a little different since it is in January and not the traditional late November/early December period. Like Missouri, Baylor still doesn’t know its fate from the NCAA regarding the sexual assault scandal in 2016. The university self-reported violations.
It’s likely that the unknown does have some kind of impact on what candidates it can attract much less secure. Baylor was hoping to have some answer in November. That never happened.
Given all of the above it would appear that Rhoades is likely going to have to stay with what he has done in the past. Convincing a sitting P5 coach to move is a tall order.
The activity of the search should pick up over the next couple of days. It would be ideal if Baylor can have its successor named in time for the first official visit weekend (Jan. 17-19). The recruiting calendar is coming off the dead period. The second signing period begins Feb. 5.
With the presumed candidates that were mentioned on Hot Board and using not good, good, very good and cloudy as a barometer, let’s handicap their chances knowing someone unknown could become the head coach to lead this program in 2020.
Joey McGuire, Baylor Interim HC: His interview began Tuesday morning about 10:00 a.m. as he scrambles to keep the daily business going, talking to recruits, talking to potential assistants and planning for the offseason. McGuire has to proceed as the head coach until he isn’t. Interim tags have been removed in the past. See Odom. One of his first big tests will be how he handles talking to the players and the team Sunday night. It would be a shock if Rhoades isn’t in the room to observe. He has some “it” head coach qualities. But it goes back to how do you get a job without experience and how do you get experience without a job.
Good
Sonny Dykes, SMU Head Coach: The word coming out of University Park is that Dykes is committed to returning SMU to its glory days of the 1980s. A 5-year extension just signed in December is nice. But Rhule signed a 10-year extension at Baylor in September, and he isn’t in Waco. Dykes knows how to recruit Texas. He knows how to get into the major cities, which is where Baylor really struggled in the past four classes.
Good
Josh Heupel, UCF Head Coach: He hired by Odom as the offensive coordinator at Missouri when Rhoads was there in 2016. But Rhoades was in Waco when the 2016 season started. Heupel showed that he could take the handoff from Scott Frost and keep the Knights at the upper echelon of the American Athletic Conference. The former OU QB knows the Big 12 conference in his days before he went on to Missouri. It would be a surprise if his phone didn’t ring.
Very good
Blake Anderson, Arkansas State Head Coach: Anderson would be motivated to do this for two reasons: 1) He’s a former Baylor player who wants his chance to show he can do it at the P5 level. 2) He wants a new lease on life after the death of his wife Wendy in August to breast cancer. The fact that Anderson returned to the sidelines and still guided his team to an 8-5 record and a bowl speaks to his character. Plus, his parents live in nearby Hubbard. This might a captain obvious statement, but I’m told if Baylor offered him the job, he’d take it.
Very Good
Brent Venables, Clemson Defensive Coordinator: Indications from earlier in the week would show that this one is not going to get off the ground. Venables is holding out for one of the Top P5 jobs in the country. That could be a return to Oklahoma if Lincoln Riley left.
Not Good
Billy Napier, Louisiana Head Coach: This is your publisher’s favorite because of his background of coaching at Alabama and Clemson and then gaining coordinator experience at Arizona State before he got the job at Louisiana in late 2017. It’s a great progression through the profession. He’s coming off an 11-win season. There’s the belief he wants an SEC job, but said he wasn’t a candidate for Mississippi State. Two of Rhoades’ three hires have come from out of the hometown state in which he worked.
Not Good
Dave Aranda, LSU Defensive Coordinator: Rhoades will hire an offensive minded coach (Herman). But his last two hires are defensive coaches (Odom and Rhule). That doesn’t mean he will stick with this route. Still, Aranda, who is coaching in the National Championship game against Clemson Monday, may not want to move anywhere.
Cloudy
Rest of the Field: Virginia Tech’s Justin Fuente could be a good fit. Maybe too pie in the sky from your publisher. UAB’s Bill Clark has a similar story to Rhule at Baylor. He took a program that was nothing (Clark re-started UAB) and turned it into a bowl team and a consistent winner in Conference USA. It would be a hard sell him in Waco. North Texas’ Seth Littrell likely won’t be in there mainly because he has no momentum behind him. The word I’ve heard about him is that he’s really good coach but needs a really good staff around him. Head Coach qualities are not a strong suit. Boise State’s Bryan Harsin does have a history of coaching in Texas because he was an OC in 2011-12. Wake Forest’s Dave Clawson has shown he can win consistent at a private school (WF is the smallest P5 school) but probably not a fit because he hasn’t won any kind of championship (perhaps not fair as he shares the same ACC division – Atlantic – with Clemson). The only reason coaches like Fuente and Clawson would look is because they know they are one step ahead of the posse. Fuente would be in that position more than Clawson only because Virginia Tech people have expected more. That’s likely what Mike Leach was doing when he left Washington State for Mississippi.
Not Good
We’ll do our best to keep you posted as this search unfolds. When Baylor said it was going to be tight lipped about this, it wasn’t kidding. But there is a lot at stake since Rhoades wants to maintain the momentum Rhule created.
By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
When it comes to coaching searches, an athletic director’s track record means something.
Sometimes.
Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades is in the early stages of the interviewing/vetting process to pick the football program’s next football coach. Matt Rhule moved on to the NFL’s Carolina Panthers this past Tuesday. It is Rhoades’ second search since the end of the 2016 season.
In his history as an athletic administrator, Rhoades has hired three football coaches: Tom Herman at Houston, Barry Odom at Missouri and Rhule.
The common denominator between all three? Rhoades went for a coach who was up and coming through the ranks.
When Rhoades hired Herman at Houston in December 2014, Herman was then one of the hottest coordinators in the country when he was the OC at Ohio State. In 2015, Herman directed Houston to 13 wins and win over Florida State in the Peach Bowl, a New Year’s 6 game.
Rhoades then embarked on Missouri’s search to replace Gary Pinkel in 2015 when Pinkel retired due to health reasons. During that time Rhoads was connected to or interviewed the likes of Rhule, Odom, Arkansas State’s Brett Anderson, Sonny Dykes when Dykes was at Cal, Matt Campbell when Campbell was at Toledo and Troy Calhoun who is at Air Force. Rhoades wound up promoting Odom. Missouri was also dealing with scandals.
Rhoades then moved on to Baylor in the summer of 2016 and hired Rhule. To count, that’s two coordinators from P5 programs and one sitting coach from a G5 program.
The timing of this search is a little different since it is in January and not the traditional late November/early December period. Like Missouri, Baylor still doesn’t know its fate from the NCAA regarding the sexual assault scandal in 2016. The university self-reported violations.
It’s likely that the unknown does have some kind of impact on what candidates it can attract much less secure. Baylor was hoping to have some answer in November. That never happened.
Given all of the above it would appear that Rhoades is likely going to have to stay with what he has done in the past. Convincing a sitting P5 coach to move is a tall order.
The activity of the search should pick up over the next couple of days. It would be ideal if Baylor can have its successor named in time for the first official visit weekend (Jan. 17-19). The recruiting calendar is coming off the dead period. The second signing period begins Feb. 5.
With the presumed candidates that were mentioned on Hot Board and using not good, good, very good and cloudy as a barometer, let’s handicap their chances knowing someone unknown could become the head coach to lead this program in 2020.
Joey McGuire, Baylor Interim HC: His interview began Tuesday morning about 10:00 a.m. as he scrambles to keep the daily business going, talking to recruits, talking to potential assistants and planning for the offseason. McGuire has to proceed as the head coach until he isn’t. Interim tags have been removed in the past. See Odom. One of his first big tests will be how he handles talking to the players and the team Sunday night. It would be a shock if Rhoades isn’t in the room to observe. He has some “it” head coach qualities. But it goes back to how do you get a job without experience and how do you get experience without a job.
Good
Sonny Dykes, SMU Head Coach: The word coming out of University Park is that Dykes is committed to returning SMU to its glory days of the 1980s. A 5-year extension just signed in December is nice. But Rhule signed a 10-year extension at Baylor in September, and he isn’t in Waco. Dykes knows how to recruit Texas. He knows how to get into the major cities, which is where Baylor really struggled in the past four classes.
Good
Josh Heupel, UCF Head Coach: He hired by Odom as the offensive coordinator at Missouri when Rhoads was there in 2016. But Rhoades was in Waco when the 2016 season started. Heupel showed that he could take the handoff from Scott Frost and keep the Knights at the upper echelon of the American Athletic Conference. The former OU QB knows the Big 12 conference in his days before he went on to Missouri. It would be a surprise if his phone didn’t ring.
Very good
Blake Anderson, Arkansas State Head Coach: Anderson would be motivated to do this for two reasons: 1) He’s a former Baylor player who wants his chance to show he can do it at the P5 level. 2) He wants a new lease on life after the death of his wife Wendy in August to breast cancer. The fact that Anderson returned to the sidelines and still guided his team to an 8-5 record and a bowl speaks to his character. Plus, his parents live in nearby Hubbard. This might a captain obvious statement, but I’m told if Baylor offered him the job, he’d take it.
Very Good
Brent Venables, Clemson Defensive Coordinator: Indications from earlier in the week would show that this one is not going to get off the ground. Venables is holding out for one of the Top P5 jobs in the country. That could be a return to Oklahoma if Lincoln Riley left.
Not Good
Billy Napier, Louisiana Head Coach: This is your publisher’s favorite because of his background of coaching at Alabama and Clemson and then gaining coordinator experience at Arizona State before he got the job at Louisiana in late 2017. It’s a great progression through the profession. He’s coming off an 11-win season. There’s the belief he wants an SEC job, but said he wasn’t a candidate for Mississippi State. Two of Rhoades’ three hires have come from out of the hometown state in which he worked.
Not Good
Dave Aranda, LSU Defensive Coordinator: Rhoades will hire an offensive minded coach (Herman). But his last two hires are defensive coaches (Odom and Rhule). That doesn’t mean he will stick with this route. Still, Aranda, who is coaching in the National Championship game against Clemson Monday, may not want to move anywhere.
Cloudy
Rest of the Field: Virginia Tech’s Justin Fuente could be a good fit. Maybe too pie in the sky from your publisher. UAB’s Bill Clark has a similar story to Rhule at Baylor. He took a program that was nothing (Clark re-started UAB) and turned it into a bowl team and a consistent winner in Conference USA. It would be a hard sell him in Waco. North Texas’ Seth Littrell likely won’t be in there mainly because he has no momentum behind him. The word I’ve heard about him is that he’s really good coach but needs a really good staff around him. Head Coach qualities are not a strong suit. Boise State’s Bryan Harsin does have a history of coaching in Texas because he was an OC in 2011-12. Wake Forest’s Dave Clawson has shown he can win consistent at a private school (WF is the smallest P5 school) but probably not a fit because he hasn’t won any kind of championship (perhaps not fair as he shares the same ACC division – Atlantic – with Clemson). The only reason coaches like Fuente and Clawson would look is because they know they are one step ahead of the posse. Fuente would be in that position more than Clawson only because Virginia Tech people have expected more. That’s likely what Mike Leach was doing when he left Washington State for Mississippi.
Not Good
We’ll do our best to keep you posted as this search unfolds. When Baylor said it was going to be tight lipped about this, it wasn’t kidding. But there is a lot at stake since Rhoades wants to maintain the momentum Rhule created.
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