Irrelevant List of Other Candidates I Wrote Up

So it looks like Kyle Flood will be named Rutgers' new head coach today or tomorrow. I wrote up a bunch of other guys as potential candidates, but never finished/published it. So here it is anyway.

Al Golden Head Coach Miami

The Colts Neck, NJ native has a lot of similarities to Greg Schiano. Golden is a great recruiter, a fine defensive mind, and a Joe Paterno disciple. He also lead one of the biggest turn arounds in college football, building Temple, possibly the worst program in the country, into a consistent winner. Golden has a pretty good job right now with the Hurricanes, but would Rutgers be able to lure him back to his home state? Probably not. He already turned down inquiries from his alma mater, Penn State*, but Tim Pernetti should at least make a phone call. Miami isn’t a top tier job any more. They have piss poor facilities, a fickle fan base, and have that whole Nevin Shapiro scandal on their hands.

Golden had no knowledge of the Shapiro scandal before taking over in Corel Gables, and he is certainly in a tough spot. NCAA sanctions might loom in the near future, would he really want to stay through a possible post season ban and loss of scholarships? I could see him taking a job that’s a step up and I don’t think Rutgers is one of those jobs. At best it’s a lateral move and at worst it’s a major step down, mostly because of the current state of the Big East.

  *Do yourself a favor and watch the linked video

K.C. Keeler Head Coach Delaware

Keeler has been a small school head coach in the north east for 19 years now, leading both Rowan (A Division 3 school in South Jersey) and Delaware to multiple playoff appearances. He has an overall head coaching record of 167-69-1, has won 7 conference championships and 1 national championship.

At Delaware Keeler’s teams ran a no huddle spread offense, and I’m not sure if he would bring that to Rutgers. That offense didn’t work too well at Rutgers with former Blue Hen offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarroca, but who knows if it was the offense or just Ciarocca’s ineptitude. I really have no idea how hands on Keeler is with his offense and/or defense, but he was a linebacker in his playing days and an offensive assistant as a coach. It’s always nice having a head coach who knows what he’s doing on both sides of the ball. He has a good track record as a head coach and ties to the north east. He is a rock solid candidate.

Darren Rizzi Special Teams Coordinator Miami Dolphins

I didn’t know who Rizzi was before Thursday, but I saw Bruce Feldman and Aditi Kinkhabwala mention him a possibility on Twitter. Rizzi served as Greg Schiano Special Teams coordinator from 2002-2007, He also held various other roles on the staff, before becoming the head coach at his alma mater, the University of Rhode Island. Rizzi had a disastrous tenure there, finishing 3-9 in his only season. He has spent the last 3 years coaching special teams for the Dolphins. His other previous head coaching experience was at New Haven from 1999-2001, where he went 15-14.

His head coaching track record isn’t great, but he has been a solid assistant, knows the culture of Rutgers football, and knows the north east.

Tom Bradley Former Defensive Coordinator/Interim Head Coach Penn State

Bradley was long believed to be the successor to Joe Paterno at Penn State, but once the Jerry Sundusky allegations rocked the program and university to its core, Penn State decided to bring in an outsider to run the program. Bradley was a Penn State lifer, playing under and coaching with Joe Paterno from 1977-2011. It is believed that he turned down head coaching opportunities on the past to stay at Penn State (Including UConn, Pitt and Temple last year), in hopes of one day succeeding Paterno.

Bradley is as responsible as any one for turning Penn State into Linebacker U, recruiting and coaching the likes of Shane Conlin, LaVar Arrington, Paul Posluszny, Dan Coner, and Sean Lee. He has as much clout as any recruiter in Western Pennsylvania, but he has not really recruited eastern PA or New Jersey. It is very possible that he would keep Cignetti, Haftely and Angilico on staff, due to their ties in the area. “Scrap” has all of 4 games of head coaching experience, but he is a great defensive mind who learned under the best coach of all time, and is well respected by basically everyone.

Tim Murphy Head Coach Harvard

119-59 at Harvard, winning 6 Ivy League titles

 Joe Susan Head Coach Bucknell

Rutgers' tight ends coach from 2001-2009. 17-15 as a head coach.

Frank Cignetti Offensive Coordinator Rutgers

Pretty good coordinator ready for a head coaching job.

Greg Roman Offensive Coordinator San Fransisco 49ers

South Jersey native, was at Stanford under Harbaugh.

Non Serious Candidates

Greg Toal Head Coach Don Bosco
Too big of a jump. See: Faust, Gerry.

Jim Tressel Former Head Coach Ohio State
He would still be under NCAA sanctions. His best bet is in the NFL.

Charlie Weis Head Coach Kansas
Just took the job at Kansas, but Rutger is his "Dream Job"™, since he is a Jersey native and coached at the HS level in NJ.

Jon Gruden Former Head Coach Tampa Bay Buccaneers

It’s obligatory that he is mentioned in every head coachingsearch.

FWIW, my initial wish list went like this: Golden, Cristobal, Addazio, Franklin, Bradley, Keeler, Murphy, Flood, Cignetti, Diaco, Roman, Flarhety, Rizzi, Susan, Weis, Toal, Gruden, Tressel.

Cristobal Backs Out of Deal At Last Minute.

Six Hours ago, it appeared that Tim Pernetti's four day coaching search was about to end as well as it possibly could have, with Florida International coach Mario Cristobal coming to New Jersey. The story was first reported by Keith Sargeant and confirmed by Tom Lucci, but the deal fell apart during negotiations, and it appears that Kyle Flood will succeed Greg Schiano.

Reasons why Cristobal turned down this job are hopefully a matter of outside circumstances, and not a reflection of his thought's on the state of Rutgers' football program. Did Pernetti force him to retain assistant coaches? Did his wife want to stay in Florida? Does he think he could get a better job if he waits another year? Could he, like Greg Schiano, not take another college job because he couldn't abandon his players and leave home? Who knows.

Cristobal's reputation will almost certainly sour amongst Athletic Directors around the nation after backing out of consideration for this job and the Pitt job as well. If he wants to stay in Florida, it looks like he'll be at FIU for a while. Jimbo Fisher has Florida State headed for a bright future, Al Golden just received a contract extension through 2020, and Will Muschamp will probably get  at least 3 or 4 more years at Florida. Would he even be interested in South Florida if Skip Holtz is run out of town? With USF likely stuck in the watered down Big East it doesn't seem likely.

I'm absolutely baffled that he backed out of the deal. I was so excited to have him aboard, he seemed like a great fit. You can say he is a Schiano clone. This day has some ho managed to be more shocking and bizarre than Thursday. But Rutgers should be alright under Kyle Flood.

Replacing Schiano: The Main Contenders

After 11 in Piscataway, Greg Schiano is leaving Rutgers to become the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I’ll get my lazy ass to blog about Schiano’s legacy at Rutgers later, but at this time want to discuss possible replacements. It would be nice to have a new coach by National Signing Day, which is only 5 days away, but a thorough coaching search is necessary. Having the right man to run the program for the next 5-10 years or whatever is far more important than trying to save one recruiting class, no matter how great it can possibly be. You can’t rush decisions like this, just ask West Virginia.

Part 1 of this 3 part series will cover candidates rumored to be on Tim Pernetti's "short list."

Mario Cristobal Head Coach Florida International

Cristobal has spent 38 of his 41 years in Miami, leaving only to become Greg Schiano's offensive line coach at Rutgers, during Schiano’s first three seasons on the Banks. He parlayed his success at Rutgers into a job at Miami before taking over a mess of a program at Florida International. Cristobal inherited a 0-12 team in 2007 that was also on the heels of the infamous brawl against Miami. Making matters worse, FIU was devoid of any facilities, had just lost scholarships due to NCAA sanctions and had extremely poor performances in the class room. In his five year stint, he got a weight room built, improved the team's APR 74 points, won a conference title and earned two bowl appearances. Cristobal has totally reshaped FIU's image, turning a bunch of thugs into winners who excel on and off the field.

The biggest concern about hiring Cristobal is his lack of ties to the northeast. He doesn’t really have any inroads from his brief stint at Rutgers, so he would likely have to retain some of the current assistants to recruit the area. X’s and O’s wise, Cristobal has experience running pro-style offense and spread offenses, and he has implemented a spread attack in his time at Florida International. Cristobal is a young, energetic, hard-working coach, his ties to Florida are a plus, and if he is able to retain/bring in guys to recruit NJ, Rutgers can’t do much better.

Steve Addazio Head Coach Temple

As a Connecticut native and former Syracuse assistant, Addazio has strong ties to the north east. During his time on Urban Meyer’s staff at Florida, he won two national championships and was able to recruit north easterners like Will Hill, Aaron Hernandez, Shariff Floyd, and Joe Hadden to come south to play for the Gators. In his first year as a head coach at Temple, Addazio lead the Owls to a 9-4 record, including a blow-out win at Maryland, a near upset of Penn State, and a New Mexico Bowl Victory over Wyoming.

Addazio has a bad reputation around the blogosphere because of his time as Florida’s offensive coordinator. Yes, he is a bad coordinator and a terrible play caller, but he was a great offensive line coach, is well organized, and is a good recruiter. He would likely hand off coordinator and play calling duties like he did at Temple. He worked in a spread offense at Florida, but his background is in a pro-style offense. He was handed a talented roster when he took over at Temple and he was able to live up to expectations. Rutgers would like for him to do the same thing there.

Bob Diaco Defensive Coordinator Notre Dame

Diaco is a Ceadr Grove, NJ native and he has done a good job recruiting the north east the last two years for Notre Dame, landing 4 star safety/linebacker Elijah Shumate this year and 5 star defensive end Ishaq Williams last year. Diaco also recruited New Jersey as an assistant at Virginia and has Big East experience, spending one season as Cincinnati’s defensive coordinator under Brian Kelly. He has gotten great play out of his linebackers at Notre Dame, turning Manti Te’o into an All American and future first round pick.

His defenses have always been solid to good, but his style of defense is much different than what Rutgers ran under Greg Schiano. Under Schiano, the Knights ran a 4-3 defense that blitzed a lot and played man to man coverage. Diaco runs a 3-4 front and I believe, I’m not totally sure, plays zone defenses with light blitzing. He has potential and ties to the area, but his lack of head coaching experience is a concern. Similar to Schiano when he was hired?

James Franklin Head Coach Vanderbilt

 Franklin is from Eastern Pennsylvania and was previously the offensive coordinator/coach in waiting at Maryland and coached as a wide receivers coach in the NFL prior to that. In his first season at Vanderbilt he improved the Commodores from 2-10 to 6-7, including a Liberty Bowl berth. He does have recruiting ties to the north east in Maryland and Pennsylvania, but as far as I know, he has no experience recruiting New Jersey.

Schematically, Franklin’s background is in a pro-style offense, but he did run the spread at Vandy last year.  Franklin is very fiery and emotional, and is very close with his players. I highly doubt that he would leave a job at an SEC program to coach in the Big East, even if it is closer to his roots.

Pat Flarhety New York Giants Offensive Line Coach

Flarhety is a Pennsylvania native and was Rutgers’ offensive line coach from 1984-1991 under Dick Anderson. He has been in the NFL since 2000, and he has also been an assistant coach at the collegiate level at Iowa, Penn State and Wake Forest. He is regarded as one of the top line coaches in the NFL and he has always produced solid lines and a bunch of Pro Bowlers. I would assume he’d run a pro-style offense if hired.

Since the Giants are in the Super Bowl, it’s unlikely that he would be able to start his job at Rutgers before National Signing Day. He also hasn’t recruited in 12 years. He seems like a bit of a long shot.