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Blindsided, yes. Unprepared, i doubt it. nobody announces a coach the day after a coach leaves, Maybe after a coach is fired and you have a deal in place with the guy you are flying in the day after, to replace them. With time spent trying to finalize a contract with PJ, when would we have called or set up an interview with another person, now its the weekend. Athletics do work on the weekend, and i am sure calls are being made, plans are being made, but why would they come out and tell us what those are if nothing is confirmed.

If the FCS national champion is on the list, he has not even gotten home from his game, he is not talking to us yet. Hell, Minnesota let PJ "Go back to Kalamazoo" before they met with him in Chicago.

On the bright note, we all know Kathy and others who make decisions are reading what we say and if we keep saying that we want Les Miles, they will listen. If we have come up with a name, i am sure they have that name and have weighed interest. We have a lot of support in football right now and like we did after Blashill in hockey, i am sure Kathy will make a splash. Also, Dr. Dunn is still the president and loves athletics and will be willing to push for a good coach. Some past presidents would have been ok going back to the bottom of the barrel, but the Prez now will look to continue success.

Not being inside the locker room, i cant tell you who or if anyone has called the recruits, I would hope current players are. PJ has a lot of loyal coaches in the room so I don't think i want any of them calling more western recruits. we still have a few good ones in line.

Maybe the next coach was busy coaching a game today and couldn't meet with KB yet? I'm not eluding to Caldwell. How do you name an interim HC when anyone from this staff could bolt too? How do we know our coordinators haven't contacted current recruits? But why would they if they are in line for jobs at Minn?

We knew Minn went after a Penn St coach (or maybe it was Ohio St but I'm too lazy to look) and he wasn't interested. We knew Miles flew in. We obviously knew PJ was in the mix. Minn fired their coach Tuesday, interviewed and had one hired in 3 days. I'm not saying we should be that quick but something should be trickling out. This is not a state secret.

(01-07-2017 11:54 PM)bronco1988 Wrote:  We knew Minn went after a Penn St coach (or maybe it was Ohio St but I'm too lazy to look) and he wasn't interested. We knew Miles flew in. We obviously knew PJ was in the mix. Minn fired their coach Tuesday, interviewed and had one hired in 3 days. I'm not saying we should be that quick but something should be trickling out. This is not a state secret.

Maybe out of respect for James Madison's program you don't put out that their coach is a candidate for WMU on the eve of their championship game?

Les Miles.

Unlikely he is the only candidate. But point taken.

(01-08-2017 12:12 AM)WMUlaxer97 Wrote:  

(01-07-2017 11:54 PM)bronco1988 Wrote:  We knew Minn went after a Penn St coach (or maybe it was Ohio St but I'm too lazy to look) and he wasn't interested. We knew Miles flew in. We obviously knew PJ was in the mix. Minn fired their coach Tuesday, interviewed and had one hired in 3 days. I'm not saying we should be that quick but something should be trickling out. This is not a state secret.

Maybe out of respect for James Madison's program you don't put out that their coach is a candidate for WMU on the eve of their championship game?

(01-07-2017 09:23 PM)rsswmu Wrote:  That's what's happens when you don't have a local newspaper.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

AFCA Convention is in Nashville this week. Possible Beauregard will be there to meet with candidates.

The idea of them promoting from within seems to be out the window. I would assume a group of assistants will be heading to Minnesota soon.

(01-07-2017 11:54 PM)bronco1988 Wrote:  We knew Minn went after a Penn St coach (or maybe it was Ohio St but I'm too lazy to look) and he wasn't interested. We knew Miles flew in. We obviously knew PJ was in the mix. Minn fired their coach Tuesday, interviewed and had one hired in 3 days. I'm not saying we should be that quick but something should be trickling out. This is not a state secret.

Minnesota coach basically kissed off his job Dec 16th when he sided with player boycott. AD & Pres started shopping for new coach then.

Chernoff is already at Minn with Fleck..I would assume some of the assistants are already there.

(01-08-2017 10:21 AM)okgc Wrote:  

(01-07-2017 11:54 PM)bronco1988 Wrote:  We knew Minn went after a Penn St coach (or maybe it was Ohio St but I'm too lazy to look) and he wasn't interested. We knew Miles flew in. We obviously knew PJ was in the mix. Minn fired their coach Tuesday, interviewed and had one hired in 3 days. I'm not saying we should be that quick but something should be trickling out. This is not a state secret.

Minnesota coach basically kissed off his job Dec 16th when he sided with player boycott. AD & Pres started shopping for new coach then.

Agreed, that was very stupid of him. He works for the AD and University, he embarassed both by his actions. Not smart.

(01-07-2017 11:13 PM)WMUslappy1 Wrote:  

(01-07-2017 11:06 PM)ColinApocalypse Wrote:  I don't envy KB right now. If it is indeed pneumonia she is dealing with, I know it all too well. I was in the best shape of my life when I contracted pneumonia (while I was in the Army), and it still hospitalized me, knocked me out of commission for the better part of a week. So for KB to be handling all this crap at the same time...phew...she's a trooper.

That being said, there has been no interim named. No word of who the administration has been in contact with. No list of interviews being set up. Are our recruits being contacted? What have our current players been told? There has been zero information since Fleck went wheels up to Minnesota. I have no doubt that our people are working tirelessly on the coaching search, but right now it feels like there is so much silence for a reason...the administration was blindsided and completely unprepared. I have no way of knowing if that's true. That's just what it feels like right now.

Believe it. This was in the can before the cotton bowl. No interm doesn't concern me. Frankly it gives me the impression a decision is forthcoming sooner rather than later

The assumption in D-I sports if you have a very good or conversely, very poor, coach (guess that means one who has a losing record) that the AD should always have the names of possible replacements in the safe.

I would assume for MONTHS that KB has known that P.J. would be a hot commodity this year and him staying was less, not more, than likely to happen.

As everyone knows the big issue with P.J. is that would the 'right' school have an opening which most likely would be the 'right' B1G school.

I would have assumed that the chance of P.J. staying was say 50 - 50.

Either she moves very fast with several candidates OR should appoint an interim.

These processes usually take a couple weeks, so if I were an AD, I'd consider an interim for timing reasons.

Normally when a coach is fired and the rest of the staff is in flux, they appoint a caretaker from the current staff who still has a contract for next season.

An interim coach for a few weeks? That seems like it would create unnecessary drama to be...this years recruiting class is already damaged, so I say, go with the new coach if it can be done in 10 to 14 days...

I think at this point we need to hope the 2017 class buffers us from PJ climbing in the ears of current players... I can see that guy trying to convince some of our 2016 class to sit out another year.... if that starts to happen I am going to lose my $h1t!

Said this before... this fallout was inevitable once he left... the timing is killing us. Had he left before the MAC Championship game he might have had time to pull in some different recruits and build a class that didn't include SO MANY of our 2017 guys.... but maybe we dont win the MACC... and thus don't go to the Cotton Bowl... Who knows... Its just a perfect storm right now... We really need to get a new coach in here that can grow from the ashes PJ is leaving behind...

(01-08-2017 12:32 PM)uclabruin Wrote:  An interim coach for a few weeks? That seems like it would create unnecessary drama to be...this years recruiting class is already damaged, so I say, go with the new coach if it can be done in 10 to 14 days...

You need an interim to contact recruits, and keep current players committed. These players had every moment of their day scripted by PJ...now they don't have anyone to talk to. Workouts were starting shortly, now they are on hold. Trust me when I tell you retention of roster players is a concern.

Coaches convention starts in 24 hrs at Gaylord Nashville. Kathy already has a list together that is growing daily. I think she has a new hire by next weekend. She also had three times the salary budget she had in 2013. As I posted before the next hire will be the highest paid HC in the MAC and well qualified. Fleck had minor resume in 2013 he just happened to be a lottery pick for WMU. Good things coming at WMU

(01-08-2017 03:06 PM)fastbuicks Wrote:  Coaches convention starts in 24 hrs at Gaylord Nashville. Kathy already has a list together that is growing daily. I think she has a new hire by next weekend. She also had three times the salary budget she had in 2013. As I posted before the next hire will be the highest paid HC in the MAC and well qualified. Fleck had minor resume in 2013 he just happened to be a lottery pick for WMU. Good things coming at WMU

I am hopeful, however, the longer we wait, we may as well just resign ourselves to realizing that our 17' class is going to be a little rough. My hope is that the coach we get carries weight with the young men that are already in the locker room.

No need for interim HC, I could see decision within the week. Plus, the team, per NCAA rules, have nothing scheduled until mid-Jan. What I do believe is happening in the interim is the leadership of our players are actively reaching out to verbals to see where they stand. We have some very potent recruiters on our side and think they will help draw a line in the sand for any recruits waffling. If they don't want to be here, we shouldn't want them here.

Two cents from an outsider. To me Tim Lester is a no brainer for you guys. He checks every box.