Topic: How Long Should a New HC Get?

[HerdEcon]

How long should a new HC get to recruit players that fit his system and succeed?

I've seen posters here say everything from 4 years to expecting a championship season this season.

The NCAA transfer portal, the rules on graduate transfers, and early football signing period has recently changed the college football recruiting world.

Some schools have taken advantage of the transfer rules and been able to successfully recruit players that fit a system in as little as one off-season.  See WKU and what FAU did under Kiffin.  Those schools have been able to go from being an "also ran" to winning conference championships or playing in conference championship games in one season.

How long should a school and fan base give a new HC?  Is it a different timeline for a P5 school vs. a G5 school? 

On the G5 level my answer is 3 years if the coach is hired for his recruiting ability.  4 years if the coach is hired for his ability to turn around (re-build) a program and make chicken salad out of chicken sh!t.   The timeline is different for the top P5 schools.  The better P5 schools may get first pick of the transfers and recruits but expectations are also higher and they will lose a few players that would be great to have in a back-up role if needed.  Give the top P5 schools another year across the board. 

 

[andy31]

My general thinking on this is 4 years.  It can depend on the situation the coach was brought into, but I think a guy needs time to show what he can do as far as recruiting, culture building, academic progress, and certainly results on the field.  I think anything fewer than 3 is too small a sample size to determine a lot of that barring some sort of major problem.

[gochneaur645]

There's no one size fits all.

I could see a coach getting justifiably fired after 1 year if there's some sort of complete meltdown and/or off the field issues (see Sark at Texas, especially with his history at USC).

After that, I think even 2 years is usually fair game depending on how bad the results are and how much talent the previous coach left behind.

But yeah, 3 or 4 is probably the right answer most of the time.

[bighat]

I agree with 3 to 4 years.

[Johnnyherd]

Yeah, it?s hard to give a blanket answer.  Generally firing a coach is almost always very bad for a program in terms of recovery and reestablishing a program.

I think it?s interesting that Michigan State, Penn State, USC and LSU all signed their new coaches to 10 year contracts.  At least I think that?s what I read.

I also read there has been 590 Million dollars paid out in dead money to coaches that were fired and still owed money over the last decade.

All these schools are hiring first time head coaches is sort of like scratching off lottery tickets hoping to reveal 3 ?Sabans?.

So I think the smartest approach is hire a talented coach you believe in, that you know that can coach, build a solid staff and recruit and as long as they are working as hard as they can, stick with them. 
 

[MUonium]

yes, 3 or 3.5/4 at the most for G5 or schools that have limited resources.  doesn't really matter to the wealthy

[mxman870]

Four or five years minimum


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[herd1990]

According to many on here, about 4 games.  I?ve used the analogy here before but I think it?s very fitting.  If our football program was a restaurant, and the food was average, at best, and you fire the chef and bring in a new one, let the man change up recipes, add better ingredients and change the atmosphere.  You can?t expect him to use the same old stale food and expect 4 or 5 star dining.  I?d say after 3 complete seasons, we will know what kind of coach Charles Huff is.  We certainly saw some less than desireable outcomes and some inexperience on his part throughout the season, but let?s give the man a chance.  We have the last stiff 11 years and he won 1 title in the worst conference in the country.   And some folks wanted him back!!!

[ThunderingHerdFan]

With rare exception, 4?5 years, with progress appearing in year 3. That doesn?t mean Year 3 has to be a big year. It needs to lend promise to the following 1-2 years. The exception is a guy being totally lost, and I give the example of Ellis Johnson?s 0-12 season at Southern Miss. They fired him after one year. It was for the best.

That said, with the transfer portal, the linear growth of a program is no longer sustainable. We?re in full on free agency each year. Welcome to ?amateur? sports.

[Toro Toro Taxi]

3 - 4  should be enough to see what direction a program is going

[pdunn]

A coach has to have time to get his personnel and system in place.

Three recruiting classes plus one year.  Because there isn't much of a class in the coach's first year, that's five seasons.

The exception would be if there is serious, steady decline in years 1, 2, 3 and 4.

[puma]

I think 4 seasons but with improvement each year is a reasonable expectation.

Huff will finish his first season #2 in the East, with either an 8-5 or 7-6 record, and a Sagarin ranking of around #75. It's incredibly frustrating but isn't exactly atypical for Marshall football.

That's his starting point. I want to see improvement every year.

[herdfan129]

3 seasons....that gives the new coach 2 full recruiting cycles which is more than enough with today's transfer portals and such.

[svherd]

3-4 years always seems like the time frame given. Doc was 5-7, 6-6 and 5-7 his first three regular seasons and then turned it around very well the next few seasons. Then 2016 hit and, well, ya know.

[whf]

I think it depends on the development from his freshman to sophomore years. We always say that is the biggest jump for players, why not have that be the standard for coaches too?

So for me, 2 seasons to show "program" improvement.  That gives kids who want to leave a chance to leave, and those who want to stay a chance to stay, plus the addition of the coaches staff with adjustments and recruits. IMHO, the recruits should be at least second team in their first year to show that improvement.

[yogiherd]

Coach Huff was hired around the middle of January so that recruiting year was basically shot with so many signing in the early December period. Look at the hires this season with most of them being done a couple of weeks before the early signing period. With the late signing i think he gets five years to build his program.  Doc left a bunch or press clipping recruits mostly instead of  fball players; the talent level was over hyped by the doc media buddies. Always asking softball questions instead of the hard fast ball hitting questions.
GO HERD!!!

[herdfifteen]

Three to four.

[muherd34]

Depends on when the coach comes in.  But in our case I think year 3 we should see major improvement and year 4 it all should be clicking.  But let's be honest here, we do not play in the sec and should be able to turn it around fairly quickly with the right pieces.

[herdinphilly]

Certainly more than one year. The first year he?s coaching the last guy?s players. Progress should happen by year two and significant progress by year three.

Here is an example:

Year one: 7-5
Year two: 9-3
Year three 11-1

That?s the trajectory I?d like to see.

[herd2win]

We averaged 8 wins a season the last 4 years.  No way should it take 4 years to win 10 games if we made a change to get better.  If you are taking over a 1 win team the rules are different.

Huff needs to win 9 or 10 games next season to show improvement.

[MicDrass1]

4 years with own recruits if they are good players

[MicDrass1]

1st year with old coaches recruits solidly your 2nd and 3rd string depth chart.  We have too many 3rd stringers playing 1st.  How many of these guys would have started for Pruett?

Mollett & Will the OL players. 

Ali not yet but eventually

Can?t think of anymore

Been saying since 2015, talent not here.  Our recruiting the last 5/6 years stunk.

[biggreenarms]

3 or if winning record 4

[Gaylen]

6 months?

[herd2win]

I am amazed at the excuse makers.  We had the talent to win 10 games this season.  We blew the App St and ECU games and had no business losing to MTSU.

Some of you are acting like we played with Cammack Elementary players.  We were an 8 win team the previous 4 years to Huff being our coach.  A good coach should be able to improve or there was no reason to make a change.