Of course, I wanted Fedora gone a long time ago. I'm certain that if he returns, we'll pay a bigger price to try to rebuild than we will if we replace him now. I also truly believe that with the right coach, UNC will win the ACC and be in the running for National Championships.
If I were the AD, and I had even a hint that Bob Stoops would return to coaching, I would do whatever I could to get him to spend time in Chapel Hill and study the entire landscape of ACC football.
My 1A would be Mike Leach. He has been HC at the two most isolated, out of the way places in P5 football, and he has won big at both - in two very different parts of the country. Leach at UNC with all it offers that neither Texas Tech nor Washington can ever hope to offer - Leach could make UNC the Clemson of the Coastal.
Each of those coaches would get the automatic offer: if you want it, the job is yours.
The guy I would most want to talk to without giving him an auto offer is Brent Venables. Everything seems arranged for him to be the next Bob Stoops: the top DC under a National Champion HC who transitions very quickly into an excellent HC. But some great coordinators do not have it in them to be excellent HCs, and some who could be excellent HCs need a few years as HC below the P5 level before becoming a P5 HC. If I felt that Venables had the aura of intelligent leadership (as opposed to just football smarts, which often is self-limiting in anything off the practice/playing field), which would feature his laying out the staff he wanted to assemble and how he would pitch each coach, as well as his plan to make UNC football the nemesis to Clemson and FSU, I would make him the offer.
And that gets us to the Group of 5 HCs. More and more, I think Scott Satterfield has the best possibility to do really well at UNC. The first reason is that he has succeeded a legend and done extremely well. Jerry Moore is THE legend of App State football, and Satterfield has followed the legend with flying colors. That is a huge test. If you doubt it, just look at various coaches who followed THE coaching legend, or even The coaching legend #2, at the school.
Second, Satterfield followed a legend and led App State up from 1AA. Doing the pair of tests at the same time is a task that most coaches would find very difficult, even overwhelming. He has made it look easy. Stepping up in division is akin to rebuilding a Loser, because you start in a hole.
Today, I heard something on TOS that reinforced my feeling that Satterfield may be the next Group of 5 HC ready to make the move up and make it big. One of the longtime writers for TOS said that years ago, when everybody knew that Ap St was preparing for life after Jerry Moore, he asked the App AD how he would decided who would get the job. The App AD replied that he would get all the assistants in a room and tell then that if they all could agree on which one should be the next HC, he would be the guy. If they could not all agree on one of them, then he would open the search.
If the AD made his choice that way, it means Satterfield's leadership skills were readily apparent to his assistant coach peers, most of whom were older - very much like Dabo Swinney. A natural leader.
If I were the AD, and I had even a hint that Bob Stoops would return to coaching, I would do whatever I could to get him to spend time in Chapel Hill and study the entire landscape of ACC football.
My 1A would be Mike Leach. He has been HC at the two most isolated, out of the way places in P5 football, and he has won big at both - in two very different parts of the country. Leach at UNC with all it offers that neither Texas Tech nor Washington can ever hope to offer - Leach could make UNC the Clemson of the Coastal.
Each of those coaches would get the automatic offer: if you want it, the job is yours.
The guy I would most want to talk to without giving him an auto offer is Brent Venables. Everything seems arranged for him to be the next Bob Stoops: the top DC under a National Champion HC who transitions very quickly into an excellent HC. But some great coordinators do not have it in them to be excellent HCs, and some who could be excellent HCs need a few years as HC below the P5 level before becoming a P5 HC. If I felt that Venables had the aura of intelligent leadership (as opposed to just football smarts, which often is self-limiting in anything off the practice/playing field), which would feature his laying out the staff he wanted to assemble and how he would pitch each coach, as well as his plan to make UNC football the nemesis to Clemson and FSU, I would make him the offer.
And that gets us to the Group of 5 HCs. More and more, I think Scott Satterfield has the best possibility to do really well at UNC. The first reason is that he has succeeded a legend and done extremely well. Jerry Moore is THE legend of App State football, and Satterfield has followed the legend with flying colors. That is a huge test. If you doubt it, just look at various coaches who followed THE coaching legend, or even The coaching legend #2, at the school.
Second, Satterfield followed a legend and led App State up from 1AA. Doing the pair of tests at the same time is a task that most coaches would find very difficult, even overwhelming. He has made it look easy. Stepping up in division is akin to rebuilding a Loser, because you start in a hole.
Today, I heard something on TOS that reinforced my feeling that Satterfield may be the next Group of 5 HC ready to make the move up and make it big. One of the longtime writers for TOS said that years ago, when everybody knew that Ap St was preparing for life after Jerry Moore, he asked the App AD how he would decided who would get the job. The App AD replied that he would get all the assistants in a room and tell then that if they all could agree on which one should be the next HC, he would be the guy. If they could not all agree on one of them, then he would open the search.
If the AD made his choice that way, it means Satterfield's leadership skills were readily apparent to his assistant coach peers, most of whom were older - very much like Dabo Swinney. A natural leader.
