Lebowski

I'll be really happy if we land Cig. IUP had a 4-10 conference record prior to Cig's arrival and in his first year they went 7-3. Elon had a 4-20 conference record and six straight losing seasons prior to Cig's arrival. They won 8 games his first season there. While at JMU he's always been 1st in the conference. Guys, this is a big effin' deal if we land this coach. I'm trying to stay calm about this because I don't want to get my hopes up. LOL!

He'll have a decent pool to choose from. He's an OG member of Saban's Bama crew, coached both Philip Rivers and Russell Wilson at NC State and is well respected among the coaching community. I'm betting Mike Shanahan joins him for sure. Ball St. grad and 2012 IUFB coach Bryant Haines will probably join him as well. Both have been with him since IUP.

Win. To win here in the Big Ten and give the middle finger to everyone that ever told him he's too old.

Yes sir. I would put all my chips on him to try to make a change at IUFB. I really hope we land this guy.

To be fair, he's got experience at both the worst and one of the best football schools in the conference. He might have just schooled Dolson on what is wrong with IUFB and how he'll make it a better place. Attaboy Dolson! He's my #1 out of all the names listed. A proven winner that creates cultures (notice the plural) of winning. Dude just knows how to win. Like he demands it and his teams just execute.

Winners. Winners pay that.

Ryan Day, Ohio State: $10,196,250 ($9,826,500) OC Brian Hartline $1.6 million DC Jim Knowles $1.957 million. DL Larry Johnson $1.167 million OL Justin Frye $1 million CB Tim Walton $1 million RB Tony Alford $772,500 S Perry Eliano $515,000 ST Parker Fleming $500,000 TE Keenan Bailey $400,000 QB Corey Dennis $412,000 Whoever gets hired will bring in his guys. Dolson isn't interviewing coordinator jobs. This is one of the major reasons I hope Candle is our guy. He'll bring in his guys, that already know the system (OF WINNING!). He'll hit the ground in a full blown sprint and shake some trees along the way. This is THE REASON I want an experienced HC that has a resume of winning to get hired. Even if it doesn't work out he'll at least already have a head start on things that most don't really take into account. If it's Chryst, he'll do the same. Hart and Frye will reach out to folks they trust and cherry pick folks to come along for the ride. They won't have that experience and hindsight of the duties of the job, but will be able to surround themselves with folks they trust. Regardless, going either route might be a homerun or a backwards K. All of this makes me wonder that Dolson wasn't able to sell IUFB to some of the names mentioned. It's a tough sell, especially to winners. They probably asked tough questions to Dolson where he failed the smell test. If that's the case, I'm almost certain money played a big role. Which doesn't make sense considering we just ponied up a large chunk of change to axe Allen. Whatever, it's IUFB. The other thought I have is Dolson had a target or two but didn't get any bites because it's IUFB. For example, it's possible Herman just doesn't want to coach here but was kind enough to go through the interview process. Bottom line, I hope the next coach hired wants to be here and has something to prove.

I'm starting to wonder if that 6-9 million dollar amount mentioned here is the total amount for both HC and assistant coaches? Just to put things into perspective, I did some searching for 2023 salaries of the Big Ten schools and here's what I've found. Source The dollar amount in parenthesis is the total amount allocated to assistant coach salaries. I could not find any info on PSU assistant coach salaries for some reason. I've included next year's schools as well. Both Northwestern and USC are private schools so their salaries are unknown. Ryan Day, Ohio State: $10,196,250 ($9,826,500) Mel Tucker, Michigan State: $10,015,350 (5,950,000) James Franklin, Penn State: $8,500,000 Jim Harbaugh, Michigan: $8,194,000 ($6,462,250) Luke Fickell, Wisconsin: $7,625,000 ($5,400,000) Kirk Ferentz, Iowa: $7,000,000 ($5,330,000) Dan Lanning, Oregon: $6,624,999 ($6,815,000) Bret Bielema, Illinois: $6,500,000 ($5,697,000) P.J. Fleck, Minnesota: $6,000,000 ($4,633,000) Chip Kelly, UCLA: $5,979,167 ($4,945,000) Matt Rhule, Nebraska: $5,500,000 ($5,515,000) Mike Locksley, Maryland: $5,500,000 ($5,075,000) Tom Allen, Indiana: $4,510,000 ($4,885,000) Kalen DeBoer, Washington: $4,200,000 ($7,525,068) Ryan Walters, Purdue: $4,000,000 ($4,915,000) Greg Schiano, Rutgers: $4,000,000 ($5,081,034) David Braun, Northwestern: unknown Lincoln Riley, USC: unknown IUFB's salaries seemed to be a bit off because after Bell was let go Osterman wrote an article saying Carey was earning $815k annually. So I'm not sure how accurate these are but it does provide you a bird's eye view of the conference money allocation. Overall IUFB is at the bottom of the barrel with both HC and assistant salaries. I was surprised to see DeBoer's salary so low. He's also paying his OC $2mil, which I believe was the highest paid coordinator in the conference. I wonder if that assistant pool is also part of DeBoer's own salary, much like what Allen did for Bell?

Does anyone know the budget for assistant coach salaries for IUBB? Like is it market value for a top tier program?

He got mentioned by me and some other cat on like page 20-50 or something. LOL. I was just throwing out coordinator names, since Lewis is being discussed. I guess my point was to point out there are plenty of other coordinators that have a more experienced resume than Lewis. It was more of a knock on Dolson than anything.

The same reason Gruden is? LOL!

So, it's not that he didn't win per se, it's the program he was coaching has a much more richer history than IUFB thus the reason you say he didn't win? Or is it you're just not a fan? Or is it his recruiting, or lack thereof? Serious question, how would you feel if he accomplish the exact same results at IUFB?

Define win. Because during his tenure (3 seasons) he went bowling 3 out of 3 and finished with a 21-15 record. I don't know about you, but for me at least, I would be on cloud nine if IUFB had his numbers while at Miami.

Today I started looking at top coordinators. Because, well, that's where I'm at now. A lot to choose from and depending on what direction you want but I think I would be happy with a guy like Manny Diaz. I would think we would be seeing these types of names on the list instead of Sean Lewis. Especially after letting Allen go with a huge buyout. But whatever, it's IUFB we're talking about here.

The Dude abides.

I think Woody's name popped up during the search. Or at least I recall his name being mentioned. But it was one of those names that was more of a casual name that no one talked about. I could be wrong about that. My memory is kind of shot these days.

Well, that would fit the IUFB mold. I'm actually kind of expecting a coordinator getting the job. IUFB is such a tough sell to head coaches that have experienced programs with a culture of winning.

Does anyone have the list from Matt Weaver? Looks like it's a paywall.

I do like that it seems Dolson is set on hiring someone with HC experience.

The list is kind of what I expected. Trying to sell IUFB to proven winners is a challenge.

This is what I'm afraid of.

Sh!t man, Dolson can call me and I'd do the search for half the price.

That's pretty much Iowa's mantra. It's been that way for a quarter century.

I think that depends on a number of factors. But if all things are at status quo, I'm not sure that's even the ceiling. A lot of things need to change from top to bottom. Yesterday was a start by letting TA go.

Here's the thing though, even throwing all the money in the world at it doesn't guarantee or raise your chances of success. The most consistent thing about IUFB is how incredibly bad it's been throughout its entire history. Case in point, Mallory is considered one of the best coaches IUFB has ever had. Dolson could hire Jesus Christ himself and even he could struggle with this program. If anything, whoever is the next coach at IUFB will more than likely be fired due to lack of winning, just like every other IUFB coach throughout its entire history. Because history says so. The most logical thing to do however, is hiring someone that has a proven record. Someone that has had success at not only winning but has experience at building a culture of winning. It takes someone and a backing to start that culture. Unfortunately trying to hire someone like this is a giant mountain to climb because these kind of people know right away if the job is right for them. It's a two way street and these people know how to ask the right questions during the interview process. They know right away if they'll have the backing they'll need to build that culture. That's why I still think we'll end up with a coordinator when this is all said and done. And if that's the case, hopefully we end up hiring the next Barry Alvarez.