[Sly Fox]

This was what I was afraid of when the dominoes start falling ...

December 16, 2008

Tom Dienhart
Rivals.com College Football Senior Writer
MORE: Coaching carousel

With Gene Chizik off to Auburn, Iowa State is searching for a coach for the second time since 2006.

Athletic director Jamie Pollard was super secretive in his last search, involving few in the process. Expect that again to be the case.

Will Turner Gill find his way back to the Midwest by getting the Iowa State job?
The job is one of the most difficult in the BCS ranks. An early leader may be Buffalo's Turner Gill. Another top target likely will be Oklahoma co-offensive coordinator Jay Norvell, who interviewed for the job the last time it opened.

Here is where it gets uncomfortable for those of us who want to hang onto our coach ...

Expect big search at Army

Army will hire a new coach after Stan Brock was let go after two seasons. Liberty coach Danny Rocco could emerge as a candidate, as could South Carolina defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson. New York Jets quality control coach Ben Kotwica, a former Army player, could be involved. But this figures to be a wide-reaching and varied search.

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[jcmanson]

Army? Rocco doesn’t want to go to Army.

[TDDance234]

For the first time in my life, I agree with Barkley. Gill should have got the Auburn job...to hire Chizik was a slap in the face. He was 5-19 at Iowa friggen State...in the middle of a 10 game losing streak. Come on.

[Fumblerooskies]

Rocco can do much better than Army. He would be setting himself up for getting fired 3-4 years down the road. That program is in the dumps and will stay in the dumps. How teams like Navy and Air Force get it done is beyond me.

[Sly Fox]

That sounds like a situation three years ago somewhere in Central Virginia.

[4everfsu]

Army to be successful would have to run some type of triple option attack like Navy and Air Force does. All three service academys get the same type of students/athletes.

[olldflame]

I honestly don't know what offense Army has been running recently, but the last time they had any success at all, they were using the option, just like AF and Navy.

[LUconn]

When Rocco is done here, he'll be able to do way better than Army. He could probably do better than Army right now.

[TDDance234]

I honestly don't know what offense Army has been running recently, but the last time they had any success at all, they were using the option, just like AF and Navy.

It makes sense. They won't be able to attract the kind of quarterback it takes to run a pro-style offense but they can sure recruit athletes. We ran a hybrid wishbone/option offense in high school and if you have big guys that can pull and guys who will hold on to the football, it's almost impossible to stop at times. It's not pretty or flashy but it works.

[RagingTireFire]

Army tried to go to the triple-option this year. Unfortunately, they waited until mid-season to do it, further, they don't have the players they need to run it. Remember what Georgia Tech looked like running the triple-option with their slew-footed 3rd string QB against Gardner-Webb? That's what Army looked like the last half of the year.

The differences between turning around a 1-10 Liberty team and a 3-9 Army team are legion. Here's a few:

• First, Liberty's problem wasn't a lack of talent. The team was young, inexperienced and, by all accounts, poorly led. However, we have clearly seen that the players were there to compete and succeed. Army simply doesn't have the talent in place to win right away or even three years down the road.
  
  Secondly, what talent Liberty didn't have Rocco raided the transfer market to get. At the FCS level, you can do that. Army isn't at the FCS level and, even if they were, it is extraordinarily difficult to convince players to transfer into a military academy -- that is, if the academy would even accept them.
  
  Thirdly, facing off against 85 FBS scholarships week in and week out -- as opposed to 63 at the FCS level --, you need that many more quality players to contribute. Army, as an institution, simply can't attract the players it needs in the quantity that it needs.

If Army is interested in Rocco, that's great b/c it brings more publicity to our program but I really don't see him going there.

[olldflame]

Army tried to go to the triple-option this year. Unfortunately, they waited until mid-season to do it, further, they don't have the players they need to run it. Remember what Georgia Tech looked like running the triple-option with their slew-footed 3rd string QB against Gardner-Webb? That's what Army looked like the last half of the year.

The differences between turning around a 1-10 Liberty team and a 3-9 Army team are legion. Here's a few:

• First, Liberty's problem wasn't a lack of talent. The team was young, inexperienced and, by all accounts, poorly led. However, we have clearly seen that the players were there to compete and succeed. Army simply doesn't have the talent in place to win right away or even three years down the road.
  
  Secondly, what talent Liberty didn't have Rocco raided the transfer market to get. At the FCS level, you can do that. Army isn't at the FCS level and, even if they were, it is extraordinarily difficult to convince players to transfer into a military academy -- that is, if the academy would even accept them.
  
  Thirdly, facing off against 85 FBS scholarships week in and week out -- as opposed to 63 at the FCS level --, you need that many more quality players to contribute. Army, as an institution, simply can't attract the players it needs in the quantity that it needs.

If Army is interested in Rocco, that's great b/c it brings more publicity to our program but I really don't see him going there.

But Navy and Air Force can?
None of them will ever contend for a national championship like Army did during WW2 with Blanchard and Davis, but there is no reason Army can't get back to a level similar to the other service academies and go to a lower tier bowl now and then.

[Hold My Own]

This is not a slam or even a slight negative statement...but I dont think the type players that he's bringing in here will fit in well at Army at all...

[4everfsu]

I don't think Army has run the triple options before in the past. I know when Bob Ross came in he ran a more pro style offense, I formations, etc. But Army can be competetive but they need a coach coming in with a different offensive scheme.

[RagingTireFire]

Army, as an institution, simply can't attract the players it needs in the quantity that it needs.[/list]

But Navy and Air Force can?
None of them will ever contend for a national championship like Army did during WW2 with Blanchard and Davis, but there is no reason Army can't get back to a level similar to the other service academies and go to a lower tier bowl now and then.

I'm not sure of the best way to say it other than that Army is administratively different than Navy and Air Force. There's a different culture starting at the top that allows the latter two to succeed while Army flounders.

Also, unlike the other two academies, Army has become a coaching graveyard. Aside from Jim Young and Bobby Ross, who both retired from football entirely citing exhaustion, every other coach there in the last three decades has been fired. Bob Sutton, who took them to 10-2 in '96 against a schedule loaded with I-AA's and bottom-feeders, was unceremoniously fired in the street outside Veterans Stadium three years later.

[Kolzilla41]

I personally don't think Rocco will touch Army with a 20 ft pole. He wants to win a National Championship that we are on the cusp of winning in the next 4 years, IMO. He wants to build success here that might get him a job at a better BCS school.

[JMUDukes]

with success, you'd better get used to those rumors. We deal with that with Mickey all the time.

[ToTheLeft]

with success, you'd better get used to those rumors. We deal with that with Mickey all the time.

Other teams WANT Mickey?

I don't believe it.

[SuperJon]

He wants to win a National Championship that we are on the cusp of winning in the next 4 years, IMO.

You can't be serious with that? We haven't even made it to the playoffs yet. We're moving in a great direction but the level of play at the top and the level we play at right now are drastically different.

[ToTheLeft]

But Mike Brown is going to win the Heisman and we're going to beat WVU and JMU by 30 points next year, as long as the big, bad, mean Selection Committee lets us in, we'll win the National Championship!

[Sly Fox]

I heard whispers of him being considered for the Rice job which would bring Mickey back home to Texas. But obviously he didn't land in Houston.

As for Coach Rocco, I fully anticipate his name being mentioned for a number of job this winter. I had several people tell me that Coach Rocco was on the list at Clemson ... just not at the top of the list. Like Matthews, he has bigtime I-A assistant credentials and has turned around a floundering I-AA program. Obviously Mickey has been doing it longer as a head coach with more success. But the level of respect Coach Rocco has in the coaching ranks was high before he came to Lynchburg. And he has done nothing to diminish those standards ... quite the contrary.

[jcmanson]

We will win the National Championship while Mike Brown is at QB. Of course this is only if Coach Rocco chooses to play him at QB next year.

please note the sarcasm

[Kolzilla41]

He wants to win a National Championship that we are on the cusp of winning in the next 4 years, IMO.

You can't be serious with that? We haven't even made it to the playoffs yet. We're moving in a great direction but the level of play at the top and the level we play at right now are drastically different.

You don't think we have a chance in 4 years of winning a championship? I think it is possible. I know we have to see if the talent we have gels and progresses but it is a possibility.

[ToTheLeft]

He wants to win a National Championship that we are on the cusp of winning in the next 4 years, IMO.

You can't be serious with that? We haven't even made it to the playoffs yet. We're moving in a great direction but the level of play at the top and the level we play at right now are drastically different.

You don't think we have a chance in 4 years of winning a championship? I think it is possible. I know we have to see if the talent we have gels and progresses but it is a possibility.

We.

Lost.

To.

Presby.

[Kolzilla41]

But Mike Brown is going to win the Heisman and we're going to beat WVU and JMU by 30 points next year, as long as the big, bad, mean Selection Committee lets us in, we'll win the National Championship!

Didn't say any of that but BS gets an auto bid 2010. It is a possibility.

[jcmanson]

You can't be serious with that? We haven't even made it to the playoffs yet. We're moving in a great direction but the level of play at the top and the level we play at right now are drastically different.

You don't think we have a chance in 4 years of winning a championship? I think it is possible. I know we have to see if the talent we have gels and progresses but it is a possibility.

We.

Lost.

To.

Presby.

Stupid Hose