I hear you, however:
1. Coaches coach well into their 70's now. CPJ is the longest tenured HC since Dodd and he lasted 11 seasons. 64 + 11 = 75. I see no real issue there if he still has fire in the belly and gas in the tank. Not everyone wants to retire at 65.
2. Admission: I think Stan screwed up the search royally. I think he had a false idea of what had to happen to make Tech successful and he bought onto the whole rebranding idea that TFG was selling. IMPO, that is baloney and it led him in the wrong direction.
3. I place zero credence in that interview committee if they thought TFG was right, and Whiz was wrong. None. In fact, if they thought TFG was right, I'd take the exact opposite of what they thought and move in that direction. They missed it that badly.
4. Whiz' break from college ball is the point of the comment - he's going to get a fast-track back into college ball under one of the best.
I have no idea if he will ever be a head coach again, but he didn't have a bad 6-season run at Arizona: 2 divisional firsts, 2 seconds, and 2 fourths in division including 2 postseasons and a Super Bowl. We might can do better but could certainly do a whole lot worse.
Did you notice his last several seasons - after the playoff berths? Awful. He had 21 wins total in his last five seasons. Plus, that run at Arizona included two five-win campaigns and two .500 seasons.
And as much as the NFL recycles head coaches, why hasn't he gotten another shot at a head coaching gig in the last eight years?
What is the allure of Whisenhunt? Because he played here 40 years ago?
As for coaches coaching into their 70s, we've got Saban, sure. And there's Mack Brown. And .... who else? Ferentz? You wanna use those two as examples?
And it wasn't TStan who interviewed CKW, at least not by himself. The other half of the committee said no.
As far as disparaging the committee for picking Clown, how many folks thought that was a great hire at the time? Except me and a couple of others, everybody else here as beating off to it like it was a DM from Olivia Dunne.
A fast track back into college ball from Saban ... in his mid 60s. And that would be a guy in his mid 60s getting his first college coaching job?
Pass.
We could do worse. We already have. But we can also do a whole lot better.
I'll give you a name on Saban's staff to watch in future years.
Tommy Rees.
First, he had to put up with Brian Kelly as his HC for four years. And now Saban has poached him from his alma mater to run his offense. Rees had to change up the offense last year when Buchner got hurt and Pyne had to go in, so he can adjust the offense when stuff happens. His offense averaged 35 points per game his first year as OC at ND under Kelly and 31.8 last year under Freeman, a mark better than the Pirate's last year at Missy State.
And he is only 30 years old.
