I would rank the rumored future UCF coaches as followed:
1.) Dino Babers
2.) Geoff Collins
3.) Randy Shannon
4.) Mario Cristobol
5.) Gene Chizik
6.) Brian Polian
For now I plan on only highlighting my favorite and least favorite candidates. If this is a success and people want my take on the other candidates I can try to do write ups on them as well. Hope you enjoy.
Dino Babers
Dino is far and away my favorite UCF Head Coach candidate. Babers gained experience working with some of the greatest offensive minds in football including June Jones, Mike Martz, and Art Briles. His personal offensive philosophy as a head coach came mostly from Baylor and Art Briles’ up-tempo, fast-paced, vertical spread offense that truly spreads the field. One of the trademarks of Baylor’s offensive is how closely the WR’s line up to the out of bounds line. This has several advantages as it takes the cornerbacks out of most running plays. Additionally, it makes life hellish for the safeties since the WR’s are lined up so far away from the line of scrimmage they quickly have to read run versus pass and then sprint to the WR stretching the field to prevent long passing plays. Babers took this offensive philosophy found success in Bowling Green the last two seasons. I could only imagine how his offense would thrive here at UCF with all the athletes we have in our state.
Babers understands the importance of the quarterback position and has proven he can develop a quarterback throughout his head-coaching career. He previously coached QB Jimmy Garoppolo who was drafted by the New England Patriots in the 2nd round of the 2014 NFL Draft. Currently, he has coached up QB Matt Johnson a Redshirt Senior to 4,465 passing yards, a 68.9% completion rate, and 41 touchdowns with only 6 interceptions.
On the recruiting trail Babers has done a pretty decent job as well. He was the recruiting coordinator for Baylor for a period of time, which is impressive considering they had RG3, Kendall Wright, and Josh Gordon. I also value the fact that he already recruits Florida pretty hard despite being in Ohio. In Babers 2015 recruiting class 8 out of the 25 players he signed were from Florida.
He has proven he can turn around a team fast. Prior to Dino Babers arrival at Eastern Illinois the team had gone 2-9 in back to back years. In his first year at Eastern Illinois he coached them to a 7-5 record; his first year on the job he won 3 more games than the team had won in the two previous years ‘combined.’ The following year he improved even further leading the team to a 12-2 record. In his first year at Bowling Green he amassed a 8-6 record despite losing his starting QB for the season to injury in the very first game. This year he improved the team to 9-3 with his only losses coming against Tennessee, Memphis (a 3 point loss), and Toledo. That being said I’d love to see what he could accomplish here at UCF.
Brian Polian
On the flipside we have Brian Polian who would represent the nepotism often found in the George O’Leary era. There are just too many connections to ignore in my opinion. Polian has UCF and George O’Leary ties as a former running backs coach at UCF in 2004. He then coached at Notre Dame, which happens to be UCF AD Danny White’s alma mater. Ironically, Danny White’s father was the Athletic Director of Notre Dame while Brian Polian coached there. Polian and Danny White also have ties to Buffalo University where White served as AD and Polian served as a positional coach there; their time at Buffalo did not overlap. Like I said, there are a lot of connections there.
Polian in my opinion would represent Brent Key 2.0; someone that has been given all the opportunities in the world to succeed but has done nothing remarkable. His resume is impressive with stints at Notre Dame, Stanford, and Texas A&M prior to becoming Head Coach at Nevada. That being said, he never was an offensive or defensive coordinator. The year prior to becoming Nevada’s Head Coach he served as Texas A&M’s tight end and special teams coach. That unusual jumping from those roles to a head coaching position obviously shows how much his last name (he is the son of former NFL executive Bill Polian) and connections could do for him.
Now lets dive into Polian’s recruiting. The year before Brian Polian took over as Stanford’s recruiting coordinator the team went 8-5 and still managed to sign 5 four star, 15 three star, and 2 two star recruits. In 2011, he was the recruiting coordinator for Stanford, the team went 12-1 that year under Jim Harbaugh’s leadership. In his 2011 recruiting class Polian was responsible for 7 four star, 11 three star, and 1 two star recruits according to rivals. The year after Polian was Stanford’s recruiting coordinator the team went 12-2 and got 3 five star, 10 four star, and 9 three star recruits. By correlating Stanford’s records to how they recruited you can see just how poorly Polian was as a recruiter. At Nevada Polian has never signed a four star recruit and have never signed more than 5 three star prospects in a given year. In his last two year recruiting classes he only signed 3 three star recruits.
Now that we covered lets talk football and X’s and O’s. In 2013, Brian Polian took over as Nevada’s Head Coach after longtime coach and innovator of the pistol offensive Chris Ault retired. Ault turned over the program to Polian in good condition. Nevada had 5 straight winning seasons and had 27-13 record over the previous 3 years. In Polian’s first year Nevada had a 4-8 record. The last time Nevada won less than 5 games was in 2001, 12 years prior. In 2014 he improved Nevada’s record to 7-6 and this year they are currently 6-5. There is absolutely no way that someone could look at those results and say that Polian is qualified for the UCF job.
Brian Polian’s sideline antics have been criticized as well. Earlier this year, Polian was called for two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties were he screamed and chased referees throughout the game. His antics were so bad that the University of Nevada ended up fining him $10,000 for his sideline behavior. The alarming issue is that event took place after the Mountain West Conference publicly reprimanded Polian for criticizing the officiating the previous year, warning him that a second time could bring stiffer penalties. Like George O’Leary he seems to leave motivation up to the players themselves as this post-game quote seems errily similar to something that GOL would say:
“You could say, ‘Coach, that’s your job,’ and it is,” Polian said of firing up his players. “Trust me, the staff was up and down the sideline trying to make sure the team was into it. But ultimately, and any former athlete knows this, there’s got to be some leaderships on your club. They have to follow each other and bring each other along, and personally I didn’t think that happened on Saturday.”
1.) Dino Babers
2.) Geoff Collins
3.) Randy Shannon
4.) Mario Cristobol
5.) Gene Chizik
6.) Brian Polian
For now I plan on only highlighting my favorite and least favorite candidates. If this is a success and people want my take on the other candidates I can try to do write ups on them as well. Hope you enjoy.
Dino Babers
Dino is far and away my favorite UCF Head Coach candidate. Babers gained experience working with some of the greatest offensive minds in football including June Jones, Mike Martz, and Art Briles. His personal offensive philosophy as a head coach came mostly from Baylor and Art Briles’ up-tempo, fast-paced, vertical spread offense that truly spreads the field. One of the trademarks of Baylor’s offensive is how closely the WR’s line up to the out of bounds line. This has several advantages as it takes the cornerbacks out of most running plays. Additionally, it makes life hellish for the safeties since the WR’s are lined up so far away from the line of scrimmage they quickly have to read run versus pass and then sprint to the WR stretching the field to prevent long passing plays. Babers took this offensive philosophy found success in Bowling Green the last two seasons. I could only imagine how his offense would thrive here at UCF with all the athletes we have in our state.
Babers understands the importance of the quarterback position and has proven he can develop a quarterback throughout his head-coaching career. He previously coached QB Jimmy Garoppolo who was drafted by the New England Patriots in the 2nd round of the 2014 NFL Draft. Currently, he has coached up QB Matt Johnson a Redshirt Senior to 4,465 passing yards, a 68.9% completion rate, and 41 touchdowns with only 6 interceptions.
On the recruiting trail Babers has done a pretty decent job as well. He was the recruiting coordinator for Baylor for a period of time, which is impressive considering they had RG3, Kendall Wright, and Josh Gordon. I also value the fact that he already recruits Florida pretty hard despite being in Ohio. In Babers 2015 recruiting class 8 out of the 25 players he signed were from Florida.
He has proven he can turn around a team fast. Prior to Dino Babers arrival at Eastern Illinois the team had gone 2-9 in back to back years. In his first year at Eastern Illinois he coached them to a 7-5 record; his first year on the job he won 3 more games than the team had won in the two previous years ‘combined.’ The following year he improved even further leading the team to a 12-2 record. In his first year at Bowling Green he amassed a 8-6 record despite losing his starting QB for the season to injury in the very first game. This year he improved the team to 9-3 with his only losses coming against Tennessee, Memphis (a 3 point loss), and Toledo. That being said I’d love to see what he could accomplish here at UCF.
Brian Polian
On the flipside we have Brian Polian who would represent the nepotism often found in the George O’Leary era. There are just too many connections to ignore in my opinion. Polian has UCF and George O’Leary ties as a former running backs coach at UCF in 2004. He then coached at Notre Dame, which happens to be UCF AD Danny White’s alma mater. Ironically, Danny White’s father was the Athletic Director of Notre Dame while Brian Polian coached there. Polian and Danny White also have ties to Buffalo University where White served as AD and Polian served as a positional coach there; their time at Buffalo did not overlap. Like I said, there are a lot of connections there.
Polian in my opinion would represent Brent Key 2.0; someone that has been given all the opportunities in the world to succeed but has done nothing remarkable. His resume is impressive with stints at Notre Dame, Stanford, and Texas A&M prior to becoming Head Coach at Nevada. That being said, he never was an offensive or defensive coordinator. The year prior to becoming Nevada’s Head Coach he served as Texas A&M’s tight end and special teams coach. That unusual jumping from those roles to a head coaching position obviously shows how much his last name (he is the son of former NFL executive Bill Polian) and connections could do for him.
Now lets dive into Polian’s recruiting. The year before Brian Polian took over as Stanford’s recruiting coordinator the team went 8-5 and still managed to sign 5 four star, 15 three star, and 2 two star recruits. In 2011, he was the recruiting coordinator for Stanford, the team went 12-1 that year under Jim Harbaugh’s leadership. In his 2011 recruiting class Polian was responsible for 7 four star, 11 three star, and 1 two star recruits according to rivals. The year after Polian was Stanford’s recruiting coordinator the team went 12-2 and got 3 five star, 10 four star, and 9 three star recruits. By correlating Stanford’s records to how they recruited you can see just how poorly Polian was as a recruiter. At Nevada Polian has never signed a four star recruit and have never signed more than 5 three star prospects in a given year. In his last two year recruiting classes he only signed 3 three star recruits.
Now that we covered lets talk football and X’s and O’s. In 2013, Brian Polian took over as Nevada’s Head Coach after longtime coach and innovator of the pistol offensive Chris Ault retired. Ault turned over the program to Polian in good condition. Nevada had 5 straight winning seasons and had 27-13 record over the previous 3 years. In Polian’s first year Nevada had a 4-8 record. The last time Nevada won less than 5 games was in 2001, 12 years prior. In 2014 he improved Nevada’s record to 7-6 and this year they are currently 6-5. There is absolutely no way that someone could look at those results and say that Polian is qualified for the UCF job.
Brian Polian’s sideline antics have been criticized as well. Earlier this year, Polian was called for two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties were he screamed and chased referees throughout the game. His antics were so bad that the University of Nevada ended up fining him $10,000 for his sideline behavior. The alarming issue is that event took place after the Mountain West Conference publicly reprimanded Polian for criticizing the officiating the previous year, warning him that a second time could bring stiffer penalties. Like George O’Leary he seems to leave motivation up to the players themselves as this post-game quote seems errily similar to something that GOL would say:
“You could say, ‘Coach, that’s your job,’ and it is,” Polian said of firing up his players. “Trust me, the staff was up and down the sideline trying to make sure the team was into it. But ultimately, and any former athlete knows this, there’s got to be some leaderships on your club. They have to follow each other and bring each other along, and personally I didn’t think that happened on Saturday.”
![[laughing]](http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/classic/laugh.r191677.gif "Laughing [laughing]")
. If Danny White has an agreement in principle it seems like a lot of people think UCF outkicked its coverage coming off an 0-12 season
