No local highschool coach as the HC. I understand it being the first lightly lit bulb that goes off in local heads... but in the bigger scheme... it's the absolute wrong thing to do. The worst decision possible. We are already perceived as mental midgets... we need to stop proving that we are every time we go out in public. We want the other programs we compete with to pick some local highschool coach, in their backyard, as their next college coach.
The next coach... for UL... needs to be a name that is recognizable way beyond the state of Louisiana. We'll get our good local recruits, not by having them say "hey, I played against him in highschool... he's really good", but by having them be impressed that UL has finally done what it takes. If we get a local person, our competition will remind that recruit of how podunk UL is for having selected some local yocal highschool coach. It will cost us way more than it will benefit us. The disconnected fan is not going to reconnect with needed money, if we go 20 miles down the road and pick up some highschool coach.
UL... first and foremost... has to come up with a massive compensation package that couples up to a pay for performance contract. We have to borrow and consider this money as the greatest single investment we can make. It will impress recruits and their mentors in selecting their college, far more than any single item on the list. Then, we simply need to go on a search. The following are ingredients I would like to measure the next candidate against:
1. If it's a guy who is a great coordinator then I want one who is a young up and coming high energy guy. I do not want a poor public speaker and definitely not a coordinator that may have only succeeded because he was at an already established university. That is the biggest mistake. If that individual is the reason talent goes to his program... fine... but we need to stop being impressed by coordinator guys at big schools that coach superstuds successfully.
2. We need to dodge the list that is trying to give some guy whose been buried in the ranks for years, but that the college football world "thinks" is a good choice for UL.
3. The guy we get at UL has to be someone who can work closely with high financial boosters. In other words, given our history, he needs to have a personality that when he engages with people with strong financial means, he overcomes their massive doubts about our administration. The admin needs to suck it up, pick up a hellraiser young high energy coach, and just let him kick this big fat ugly slow system in its big fat ugly slow butt.
4. I would prefer a guy that is a head coach in FCS, is young and energetic, and is at the top of the list for the next mid-major program. If there is a high energy, sharp-minded, coordinator at a mid-major or a BCS, that was a HC in the FCS, then that is the guy we need. But, a key is that he has name recognition within the college football world. We need the pub. All recruits, even some kid in the back part of small town Acadiana, that is a highly touted talent, is going to dismiss the silliness of UL, if our coach isn't a college-known commodity - NO local highschool guy. That reulet wheel left Lafayette 25 years ago.
5. Publicity... it may be as vital to the deal as the brain of the next coach. We need to make a huge step change... by the announcement of a huge compensation package... and the recognizable name of this next great high energy, innovative minded coach.
6. There are two things that kill UL. Being conservative and following the same old beaten path... and not snagging some of the best recruits in south Louisiana. We need a young coach with a seriously high football IQ - at the collegiate level. I think it will work well with parents of recruits and the recruits themselves.
7. There does need to be a local recruiting magnet on the staff. Basketball did it right with Butch Pierre and we need it in football. We have got to understand that and just do it. The "local flavor" needs to be some staff additions that can recruit... THAT should be a conversation with the new HC and the RCAF board. We need a national figure head coach and some local talented position coach recruiting staff members.
8. Keep talking to Savoie/Walker/Farmer. BUT!!!! Get to know the people on the board of RCAF. They are key to forcing improvement in our future athletic system. Business people love the "trouble" and figure out excellent solutions. They focus on the goal and the benefits and don't get caught up in how much work it may require.