Just a Hypothetical Scenario

[BlackSailsDawg]

He also reported Moorhead was safe the morning of the Music City. I mean Rosey is always right.

Always

[TrapGame]

Well none of this matters per Rosey. Per his several sources, Arnett will be retained and He has hired Jimmy Sexton.

As of now, yes, he is being retained. No decisions are being made in the middle of season. There's still a lot of football to play.

[phatdog]

What we can replace Arnett with depends on our NIL program. I'm think we are in for long term sucksville.

[Leroy Jenkins]

Arnett will be retained

He can stay, just move back to his old office.

[RiverCityDawg]

Mullen and Malzahn are the floor, but if we can get someone we like better than those, cool. If we can't, we know those guys can win in the SEC at much more consistent level than Croom/Moorhead/Arnett, so it would be an improvement.

People keep mentioning Malzahn. He's not leaving a P5 head coaching job in Florida to come to the 13th best team in the brutal SEC located in Starkville. He just signed an extension with UCF. They will be a better program than us in... oh wait, they are already a better program than us.

[CoachT14]

So lets just go with a hypothetical and say this season goes off the rails, I for one think 7 wins is still very much possible with our remaining schedule, but for the sake of conversation lets just say we do not figure this out and 4-8 or 5-7 is the record at the end of the season. It is obvious that Andy Staples was not just posting the Arnett buyout for nothing he was fed it by someone. So lets say we move on from CZA after one season. Who should we go after?

A) An up and coming OC like Kittley at TTU

B) A G5 HC like Charles Huff or Sean Lewis, yes I know Lewis is OC now but he was HC at Kent

C) Retread P5 HC like Malzahn, Herman, Mullen, etc

D) Lay our sack on the table and shoot for a sitting P5 HC. Someone like Dykes, Gundy, Leipold, Locksley, etc.

D should be the first one (I highly doubt they come, but you do it anyway)

Tier 1:
Urban Meyer (won't even answer ha)
Sonny Dykes
Chris Klieman
Prime
Kyle Whittingham

Again, those guys aren't coming but you call and at least gauge interest just in case.

I struggle to find a spot for Mike Elko and Lance Liepold, they're kind of in between Tier 1 and 2 for me and could easily be in both.

Next you move on to lower less proven P5 coaches/G5 coaches:

Tier 2:
Jake Dickert - Modern AR guy, defensive head coach that is beginning to prove something following Leach at WSU. Will most likely bring Ben Arbuckle with him. 28 year old wiz kid running that offense. (2)

Jonathan Smith - consistently has won at OSU which has become a hard place to win at at times.

Charles Huff - familiarity, seems like he's becoming a top notch HC himself.

Jamey Chadwell - My favorite choice, he's won everywhere he's been, it's time for his shot at this level. (1)

Sean Lewis - Exciting, been a HC recently, stop on the with Prime

GJ Kinne - young and exciting, probably the biggest risk, but the reward could be worth it. (3)

Curt Cignetti - too old imo, but he wins.

Willie Fritz - too old imo, but just wins.

Tier 3, retreads and OCs:

Gus Bus - anyone who thinks we wouldn't be better for calling him is just ignorant. He's not my first call, but we are currently doing far worse.
Tom Herman - could be Kiffin 2.0 for us, could be disaster. I need to see more of what he will do at FAU this year.
Jeff Lebby - my favorite choice if we go the OC route. Been around some of the greatest offense minds in football. He's almost 40. He's ready.
Ryan Grubb - has the Husky offense rolling.
Bobby Petrino - meh, but better than this staff.
Phil Longo - has orchestrated some really good offenses for the last 10 years.

[BlackSailsDawg]

My issue with getting coaches that haven’t coached during the transition or in the portal/NIL/kids run the school yard college football right now is are those coaching going to be playing catch up or are they going to be able to hit the ground running.

Anybody you get will go over who they want to keep that is committed and resell them on the idea. Second, unless they have not been doing their jobs at their last job, they have recruits they have built relationships with.

[Matt3467]

People keep mentioning Malzahn. He's not leaving a P5 head coaching job in Florida to come to the 13th best team in the brutal SEC located in Starkville. He just signed an extension with UCF. They will be a better program than us in... oh wait, they are already a better program than us.

While I'd be very surprised if he'd entertain an offer from us if ARK came calling I'd almost guarantee you he'd be leaving.

[StarkVegasSteve]

While I'd be very surprised if he'd entertain an offer from us if ARK came calling I'd almost guarantee you he'd be leaving.

He has coveted that Arky job for almost two decades. If they even make him a remotely competitive offer he will be gone.

[PGHBulldogBG]

If Gus wasn?t that successful at Auburn I?m not sure why a team like State or Arkansas would want him. If he can?t win with Auburn recruits I doubt he wins with State or Arkansas recruits which are traditionally ranked lower. The best formula to win at State is a coach that wins at either lower P5 schools like Leach or one that wins at the G5 level with lower talent than the other teams in their conference. This is why going after Clawson or Chadwell is what we should do. Napier was a bad choice for UF because he had a talent advantage at ULL. Chadwell would have been the better choice for UF because he won at the same rate in the last few years as Napier with a big talent deficit. The only other route is to hire an OC who has won multiple championships with a good offense like we did with Mullen. Those are few and far between though.

[TrapGame]

Jonathan Smith of Oregon State may be in play for some team this season. He has turned the Beavers around in the last four years. He has made it known he does not like that Oregon State is in limbo concerning the PAC12 fiasco.

Chadwell has some baggage, but my goodness, if Auburn can hire Freeze then we should be in play for him.

Petrino is a definite possibility. Some won't like it but Petrino would take the our job in a heartbeat if it was the best job on the table.

[Santiago]

What we can replace Arnett with depends on our NIL program. I'm think we are in for long term sucksville.

This is a good point. We all talk about throwing money to hire a coach but these days a school has to show a good coach their commitment to NIL.
Takes more now than just saying "we are in the SEC and here is some money". With the playoffs, these coaches have way better options to get there than coaching here.

[KB21]

It blows me away to see that some would rather hire someone like Bobby Petrino, who has had a losing season in 3 of his last 4 years as a head coach and is old over getting a great up and coming young offensive mind that is super intelligent and savvy with analytics.

[TrapGame]

It blows me away to see that some would rather hire someone like Bobby Petrino, who has had a losing season in 3 of his last 4 years as a head coach and is old over getting a great up and coming young offensive mind that is super intelligent and savvy with analytics.

It's about who will take the job. Petrino has run P5 programs as a head coach. His offense is killing it for Jimbo this year. Is he my first choice? HELL NO! But beggars can't be choosers.

[BlackSailsDawg]

This is a good point. We all talk about throwing money to hire a coach but these days a school has to show a good coach their commitment to NIL.
Takes more now than just saying "we are in the SEC and here is some money". With the playoffs, these coaches have way better options to get there than coaching here.

I disagree with that a bit. Again, WSU is ranked 6th in offense this year after being 93rd last year. It took that staff a spring, a summer, and they are 4-0 with 2 wins over 2 top 20 teams. That's the polar opposite in what we have been able to do. And here are the 2 things to note:

- That HC makes less than Arnett
- That massive turn around happened with 3 star and below players. Not a single 4 or 5 star on that team.

[KB21]

It's about who will take the job. Petrino has run P5 programs as a head coach. His offense is killing it for Jimbo this year. Is he my first choice? HELL NO! But beggars can't be choosers.

There is no upside to hiring a retread like Petrino. All it means is that we are going to be doing this again in 3 years. I'd much rather go after Kittley or Riley and have a coach with significant upside and growth potential.

[KB21]

1. Zach Kittley, offensive coordinator, Texas Tech.


2. Garrett Riley, offensive coordinator, Clemson


3. GJ Kinney, head coach, Texas State

[TrapGame]

There is no upside to hiring a retread like Petrino. All it means is that we are going to be doing this again in 3 years. I'd much rather go after Kittley or Riley and have a coach with significant upside and growth potential.

There's no guarantee Kittley or Riley would pan out either. Upside? Bruh, Petrino has been the head coach of P5 teams. Right now, that's an upside.

[HancockCountyDog]

Bottom line on all of this. He beats Arkansas in two weeks, he is not getting fired, barring a 2008 egg bowl performance, which there is zero indication of happening.

If we are 4-3 headed into the last 5 games, we have a good shot at being bowl-eligible.

[TrapGame]

Bottom line on all of this. He beats Arkansas in two weeks, he is not getting fired, barring a 2008 egg bowl performance, which there is zero indication of happening.

If we are 4-3 headed into the last 5 games, we have a good shot at being bowl-eligible.

It's also Croom level to beat one decent team out of 8 and still keep your job. If he beats Arkansas, that's great but he needs to follow that up with another SEC win to think he can handle this job. He needs to beat AU or UK.

I'm really hoping the wheels start turning and we see vast improvement in the back half of schedule and win 6 or 7 games.