OK. Another post about the hiring process. This is my educated guess- no more. But I think it is a lot more accurate than the idea that JW woke up on December 1 and said: “I need to fire Lovie and hire a new football coach.”
So, we know that football coaches spend the offseason watching film of football. Potential recruits, last year’s games, likely opponents and maybe even practice. The ability of an assistant coach to lock himself in a room and watch hours of tape (the old term for video- back when you actually had to spool film on a reel ) was a real attribute in an assistant, assuming he got something out of the film. It is how defenses were created for novel offenses. How novel offenses devised wrinkles to reply to the new defense. Anyway, you get it. Hours of preparation.
Why should the Athletic Director be any different? Especially with the most important position in his business area? Now, if your coach is Nick Saban, you don’t devote as much effort to analyzing coaches as you do if your coach is Lovie Smith. But even the Alabama athletic director has to prepare for the day that Nick Saban says ‘No Mas.’ So, EVERY athletic director is continuously compiling some type of list of potential football coaches. This is my thought about JW.
In the 2018 season, JW knew that, absent a miracle, he was going to have to fire Lovie and hire a new coach. JW knew politically that he could not do it after 3 seasons. Which is why he devised the ‘extension’ which actually had a lesser buyout after year two. Lovie agreed to the extension but I don’t think he was happy. Hence, Lovie’s passive aggressive act of hiring Miles (and other curious personnel decisions), almost as a dare to JW to meddle or even fire Lovie.
So, JW has to be (more) actively looking for a new coach in 2018. Don’t forget that JW spent time in the NFL (a very elite trade union), lettered at Illinois, trained as a lawyer, worked in sports management and sports contracts, and also had experience as an Athletic Director. JW knows people or can at least make phone calls to people given his status: NFL GMs, NFL coaches, P5 CFB Coaches, agents, other athletic directors, former players, influential alumni. Through this process he will get a good feel for which coaches are good at their job, good people, bad fits at current position, peaked out in current position or in a bad fit with the need for a new start.
The coaches under contract? JW probably has to get permission to speak to them although I bet there are different levels of intent in that contact from ‘I want to interview him’ to ‘It’s just a casual conversation checking references on other coaches.’
Now to Bret Bielema. He is an engaging guy, particularly in an interview, or if he wants something. JW and BB probably crossed paths somewhere and found a mutual interest: Both grew up in the Midwest, played B1G football, and had lots of mutual acquaintances and friends from Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. Freed from Iowa, Wisconsin or contract considerations, I bet BB spoke to JW with a lot of candor- some of it hurtful to Illini ears. But they developed a relationship.
BB is a prideful stubborn guy, (my opinion) and was pretty pissed at being fired by Arkansas, especially when his successor flopped. In 2018 and 2019, BB was learning from Bill Belichek (the other BB) AND sticking it to Arkansas on his buyout. I don’t get BB as an extremely introspective person but I think he was learning. And stewing. Waiting for his next opportunity. Looking for the job that would be the right fit in 2021 when he had squeezed the last few dollars out of Arkansas. Did I say that BB was vindictive?
So, I think that BB and JW developed a relationship- even if just for an exchange of stories and gossip- as early as 2019, maybe even earlier. MAYBE it was strong enough that JW and BB waited out 2020 when both would be on/in the market?
This conjecture does not mean that JW had no other targets or candidates. Luke Fickell and Brent Venables supposedly each generated a lot of interest. And Lance Liepold in a different direction. But the very curious thing is that JW did not seem to spend much time on the offensive gurus. (I guess he did not get Dtrain’s emails?). None of the names were OCs.
Oh, and there are background checks. JW does not want to be embarrassed by hiring George O’Leary 2.0.
So, probably by the complete a##kicking that was the 2020 Wisconsin game, JW had made his decision to make a change. JW probably is making the official channel request to interview BB and others. Probably to get official mutual interest and to exchange compensation and other requests with agents. Because it has been my experience that $4million contracts take more than 10 days to be negotiated. And JW was NOT going to fire Lovie without a definite hire in place.
All of this is very quiet. JW does not want to get in a bidding war with another school or be publicly jilted by a coach who just wants a raise at his current job. And JW has to make sure he has the money to make the move. Big Money Donors (BMDs) want some info before they write the check. Some names had to be floated to the BMDs, in the strictest confidence. And like many of us here, had to be warmed up to the idea of BB, but perhaps as a fallback to Luke Fickell or Brent Venables.
The rest of the search happened more publicly- much of it on this forum. No need to repeat that.
So, that is my educated guess of the search process. So, fire away. Those who have more direct experience with this process, please chime in and correct me….
So, we know that football coaches spend the offseason watching film of football. Potential recruits, last year’s games, likely opponents and maybe even practice. The ability of an assistant coach to lock himself in a room and watch hours of tape (the old term for video- back when you actually had to spool film on a reel ) was a real attribute in an assistant, assuming he got something out of the film. It is how defenses were created for novel offenses. How novel offenses devised wrinkles to reply to the new defense. Anyway, you get it. Hours of preparation.
Why should the Athletic Director be any different? Especially with the most important position in his business area? Now, if your coach is Nick Saban, you don’t devote as much effort to analyzing coaches as you do if your coach is Lovie Smith. But even the Alabama athletic director has to prepare for the day that Nick Saban says ‘No Mas.’ So, EVERY athletic director is continuously compiling some type of list of potential football coaches. This is my thought about JW.
In the 2018 season, JW knew that, absent a miracle, he was going to have to fire Lovie and hire a new coach. JW knew politically that he could not do it after 3 seasons. Which is why he devised the ‘extension’ which actually had a lesser buyout after year two. Lovie agreed to the extension but I don’t think he was happy. Hence, Lovie’s passive aggressive act of hiring Miles (and other curious personnel decisions), almost as a dare to JW to meddle or even fire Lovie.
So, JW has to be (more) actively looking for a new coach in 2018. Don’t forget that JW spent time in the NFL (a very elite trade union), lettered at Illinois, trained as a lawyer, worked in sports management and sports contracts, and also had experience as an Athletic Director. JW knows people or can at least make phone calls to people given his status: NFL GMs, NFL coaches, P5 CFB Coaches, agents, other athletic directors, former players, influential alumni. Through this process he will get a good feel for which coaches are good at their job, good people, bad fits at current position, peaked out in current position or in a bad fit with the need for a new start.
The coaches under contract? JW probably has to get permission to speak to them although I bet there are different levels of intent in that contact from ‘I want to interview him’ to ‘It’s just a casual conversation checking references on other coaches.’
Now to Bret Bielema. He is an engaging guy, particularly in an interview, or if he wants something. JW and BB probably crossed paths somewhere and found a mutual interest: Both grew up in the Midwest, played B1G football, and had lots of mutual acquaintances and friends from Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. Freed from Iowa, Wisconsin or contract considerations, I bet BB spoke to JW with a lot of candor- some of it hurtful to Illini ears. But they developed a relationship.
BB is a prideful stubborn guy, (my opinion) and was pretty pissed at being fired by Arkansas, especially when his successor flopped. In 2018 and 2019, BB was learning from Bill Belichek (the other BB) AND sticking it to Arkansas on his buyout. I don’t get BB as an extremely introspective person but I think he was learning. And stewing. Waiting for his next opportunity. Looking for the job that would be the right fit in 2021 when he had squeezed the last few dollars out of Arkansas. Did I say that BB was vindictive?
So, I think that BB and JW developed a relationship- even if just for an exchange of stories and gossip- as early as 2019, maybe even earlier. MAYBE it was strong enough that JW and BB waited out 2020 when both would be on/in the market?
This conjecture does not mean that JW had no other targets or candidates. Luke Fickell and Brent Venables supposedly each generated a lot of interest. And Lance Liepold in a different direction. But the very curious thing is that JW did not seem to spend much time on the offensive gurus. (I guess he did not get Dtrain’s emails?). None of the names were OCs.
Oh, and there are background checks. JW does not want to be embarrassed by hiring George O’Leary 2.0.
So, probably by the complete a##kicking that was the 2020 Wisconsin game, JW had made his decision to make a change. JW probably is making the official channel request to interview BB and others. Probably to get official mutual interest and to exchange compensation and other requests with agents. Because it has been my experience that $4million contracts take more than 10 days to be negotiated. And JW was NOT going to fire Lovie without a definite hire in place.
All of this is very quiet. JW does not want to get in a bidding war with another school or be publicly jilted by a coach who just wants a raise at his current job. And JW has to make sure he has the money to make the move. Big Money Donors (BMDs) want some info before they write the check. Some names had to be floated to the BMDs, in the strictest confidence. And like many of us here, had to be warmed up to the idea of BB, but perhaps as a fallback to Luke Fickell or Brent Venables.
The rest of the search happened more publicly- much of it on this forum. No need to repeat that.
So, that is my educated guess of the search process. So, fire away. Those who have more direct experience with this process, please chime in and correct me….
