Hire a winner, he will have the teams ear.
Don't hire a coach from a losing team. He will be forced to start his tenure by making excuses for why he failed in his last outing.
* Exception: His unit (Offense or Defense) excelled beyond the rest of the team and ranked at or near the top of his respective conference.
If you fire a .500 assistant you cannot hire an assitant from a team with a worse record and expect credibility. (see exception *)
This is my oversimplified criteria for hiring a football coach.
ps NEVER hire a coach that was demoted at his last job, which was also a loser. If you recall this was the case with the hire of Jerry Baldwin.