The Successor Is...Commentary Blog

On November 27, 2007 7:08 PM "Kevin L." asked:

Now that the firings have begun across the counrty, who do you think we should be thinking about as Ault's sucessor? Maybe a hard-on-his-luck guy with a good recent record like Dennis Franchione?

Damn good question...damn good. There are, of course, several questions we need to ask ourselves first and foremost:

1.) What do we expect his role to be? There are a number of great "down on their luck" types out there and they could be just what we need to drive some spark into our team and bring along some fresh thinking. The question is, how long do we expect him to be around? Mike Price ended up in El Paso in '04 and remains there, which is great in my opinion. Then there are the Dennis Ericksons of the world (I really expected him to at least wait an obligatory two seasons before jumping ship at Idaho). I guess it boils down to how much the school is willing to pay and how "down on luck" the coach thinks he is; chances are that he won't be around very long, but it could be just enough to get us over that hump and set the stage for the next guy. Ditto for a Sonny Lubick who could potentially look for a job for a couple years before he's ready to hang up his hat for good.

A big problem that arises from this, though, is recruiting: a LOT of kids are looking for stability, and while a Dennis Franchione type could be a real draw (and high schoolers and JCs signing letters of intent may or may not think about the possibility of a coach leaving), if he were to leave after one, two, or three seasons (before he can really establish a program as "his") then that could potentially hurt our recruiting for the next guy.

I probably shouldn't even mention it but I will anyway because it's funny as golly dang dern heck: Robinson really didn't do much to help UNLV out for all his name was worth.

2.) How much would we be willing to pay? We have some great donors and alumni, but let's face it, we just don't have the numbers that places like 'Bama have so we can't reach deep enough to compete with many other schools (especially now that we have a basketball team worthy of some of that attention). But you can also look at some other places and the successes they've had (Boise comes to mind) by promoting from within. Which begs another question...

3.) How much are we wanting to change? To be honest, Ault's system looks pretty good, and the premise of this blog boils down to Ault's coaching, per se, is what's in question here.

Take a trip back with me! When Ault first came on I felt (and hoped) down deep that he'd try to bring back Chris Klenakis...and he did. When he did I felt, along with a number of others, that he was going to be the future (I hate to say Tisdell style, but...Tisdell style!). Klenakis has been running our offense and it has been pretty solid except for a number of details which I feel are really on Ault's shoulders (cough cough, mental game; QBs having to run to the sidelines nearly every play to get Ault's call; the list goes on). And Klenakis has plenty of experience as well. I really don't want to speculate much farther on him since I really don't know his personality at all, but he does seem as legit a choice to me as anyone else. Then again if a coach is "let go" or even retires under less than auspicious circumstances one of his assistants is not normally handed that position on a velvet pillow (just ask Bo Polini).

The questions really go on an on, but my cat's litter box is telling me to stop here (gotta get there before the dog eats out of it). I hope that this at least helps the blogoshpere in some small way!

GO WOLF PACK!!!