Probably guys that would never come here, but if you have the backing of the money guys, you go for the big fish before settling for a small one. Truthfully, I think we're screwed no matter what. We're not an elite program anymore. We've lost our luster, and Coach McGoogle may be the best we can do.
I asked because I feel like the only sure things out there are probably Urban, Saban, Dabo, Chris Petersen, Spurrier, and maybe Bob Stoops. They’re not coming here, and a lot of them are probably done for good.
I don’t even know who the next tier would be. Then, of course, you have the coach McGoogle crowd where we’ve been having to settle. Realistically, yet ideally, we’d shop in the crowd somewhere between the Mt. Rushmore of college ball and coach McGoogle. IMO, that’s gonna be someone that has proven they can win as HC in D1 ball for a minimum sample of 3-5 years. To me huge turnarounds and/or conference championships give them points. NFL experience may give them points with recruits as far as development. When you look at it, that’s a pretty short list as well, but by those criteria, there are three that stand out to me: Sarkisian, Marrone, and O’Brien. Campbell doesn’t have the NFL experience, but I’d put him in there too because he’s the type of giant killer our program needs. However, all things considered he could be the most expensive option out of them all.
If we are taking a chance on an up and comer, I like Napier or Neal Brown.
Freeze would be phenomenal, but I just don’t see that hire getting all the necessary people (both inside and outside of the program) to sign off on it.