Imo Herman moved too fast.
His ego set him up for failure.
It's easy for a coordinator to become HC at a midmajor, and basically continue being a coordinator.
Do very good on one side of the ball.
It's hard to build up a cadre of assistants that can take over. Frequently they end up with a staff where everyone is learning a new job... that's a lot of opportunity for Peter Principle.
Mid Majors, and midtier schools happy to wait, provide opportunity for Coordinator to learn HC, position to learn Coordinator, GAs to learn Position.
And to weed out the Peters.
But Herman jumped ship after 2 years at Houston. Had he really learned to be the HC in that timeframe? And just look at the staff he took to Texas.
He didnt keep 1 member of Strong' staff.
3 years later he's replaced both OC and DC with Buckeye staffers... and i assume some position coaches as well.
Compare that to Day, who retained most of his staff. Had Wilson on hand to become the OC while he learns HC. Hired Mattison, an old hand very familiar with B10, to be DC alongside hot hand Hafley. And retained the core position coaches and ancillary staff.
The HC change was done in a very stable environment where everyone largely knew their jobs already.
To go the midmajor route...
Urban spent 2yrs at BG and 2yrs at Utah. By the time he moved to UF he knew how to be a HC and had some chops on hiring staff.
Saban spent 1yr at Toledo, and 5 at MSU.
McElwain spent 2yrs at CSU, got hot... had a great offense with no D... and flopped at UF.
Frost spent 2yrs at UCF, and now struggling mightily at Corn.
Kirby is bucking the trend so far. But tbh, i have this feeling their momentum is fading. Cant get over the hump.
Lincoln, Dabo, Day are all internal guys.
Upvote
0
