Home Football For Those Who Want Beau Baldwin…

For Those Who Want Beau Baldwin…

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Read this article.

Some key points:

Since 2004, 18 FCS, Division II or high school head coaches have been hired as the head coach of an FBS program. At their previous stop, those coaches compiled a combined record of 744-347, with a winning percentage of .682.

Promising resumes, however, have not always yielded continued success at a higher plateau. At their first — and sometimes only — FBS head coaching stop, that combined record dipped to 225-375 (.375).

So how are some of these coaches so successful at the FCS level?

“We had a lot of FBS-type players on an FCS football field. That’s why we were able to do some of the things we were able to do”

They landed more  “men amongst boys” than the opponent and dominated.  This explains why when they get to the D1 level most collapse.

Regarding Baldwin, I wrote this in the last thread:

Researching Baldwin since I think that’s who BDCheapskate will hire.

Some Baldwin clips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vv7AuHQmdg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELHqiamNw5s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw3XYaffu00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKr-5p3sb64

His philosophy here is pretty smart. But I’m skeptical still…defenses have some ugly numbers, and I’m not sure how this attitude will work vs the wolves in the Pac-12.

Jack what is your take on this guy? I feel like he’d be perceived as a dud hire. But I like what he’s saying about the mental part of the game. That’s refreshing. Bad defenses, though and sounds like a player’s coach.

He’s definitely more mentally in-tune than Riley. Seems to stress psychology. I do like that part. Media was saying he’s a lot like Riley, but I don’t see that, either. I’m warming up to him.

My guess is that he recruited more D1 type players to his offense (we know Vernon Adams is a tweener/possible D1 QB, for example). So the offense humming along churning out wins. The defense, however, always looks poor.

While I like Baldwin in those clips, the reality is this: knowing the above how poorly coaches make this transition and why, do you want to take a shot on a guy like? Some people, like Lindsay Schnell,  just look at his record and offensive stats and don’t ask why. Those people love Baldwin.

37 COMMENTS

  1. I can’t help but think that a lot of the attraction to this guy is that he came into Corvallis last year and beat the Beavs. What kinduva recommendation is that? By that thinking we should hire Walt Harris. I’d take Wells, Wilcox and Smith before this guy, and maybe even a retread or two like Hoke.

    By the way, Angry, kudos on the outstanding effort the past two day starting fresh threads and providing lots of cogent analysis

  2. I do think Baldwin as an OC makes sense but am not sold on him as head coach. Wilcox for HC, Baldwin to coordinator? Get it done.

    Although, I’ve been on the Wells bandwagon for months so that is call 1, call 2, call 3, and call 4 IMO

    • I’d be easier with him as an OC. We should learn from WSU’s mistakes and the mistakes of others (.375 winning %). “This time will be different” isn’t really a sound philosophy. We’re talking the biggest hire in OSU history here, so with the transition from D2 to D1 this would be very poor risk management. So why the heck is BDC visiting with him today? Because he is cheap, of course. BDC is our worst fear.

      • Saying you don’t want a coach because the previous coach didn’t have success isnt sound philosophy either. Baldwin has had waaaay more success at EWU then Wulf ever did.

        Hiring Baldwin would have risk involved, no doubt, but with risk comes reward. As I said in a previous post a 3-9 season is the same as 9-3. You play the game to win championships, not Alamo bowls.

          • That’s because 9-3 means you had a chance to be relevant. Maybe if a team would have run the ball on the worst run D in the country (UW) instead of going all pass happy… or would have continued to run against SU… everyone except the QB who was only running for his life… maybe we end up 11-1 and in a conversation for something better than a poor showing at a bowl game against the second worst run D in the nation… where we go all pass happy again.

            e. is right.

            You play to win. The expectation is for your team to be a better team than the rest. It’s not always going to happen, and you learn to lose with grace (rather than excuses or blame). But especially on the 1AA level or below, you need to win championships if you want to prove you can win at the next level.

            Baldwin has done this once. But there’s just something about the guy that doesn’t sit right with me. He looks like he’s wearing a mask of some kind, and it makes me uncomfortable.

        • Saying you don’t want a coach because the previous coach didn’t have success isnt sound philosophy either. Baldwin has had waaaay more success at EWU then Wulf ever did.

          It’s not on it’s own, but I am looking at the failure rate of FBS coaches as a whole, and the explanation as to why some of these guys have success (i.e. getting more D1/tweener types than their rivals and just beating up on them). To me that is too high a risk for this hire. After thinking about this more, we really should not be considering him. Someone should hire him as a D1 OC and let him work up from there.

          • The same could be said about the Alabama, FSU, and UO of the world. Isn’t getting better recruits than your peers half the battle? If they are truly D1 tweeners doesn’t that speak volumes to Baldwins recruiting abilities?

  3. Not saying I want him, just adding to the list of names.
    Jeff Tedford has been released from the Tampa Bay Bucs, “to pursue other coaching opportunities”

    What he would bring would be Recruiting in California, confernece experience, and leadership.
    He was not overly successful at California even with several built-in advantages. His game management is not the best.
    However, maybe a retread who is ready to do things differently and learn from his mistakes?

  4. In the last four years, EWU have at least one FBS opponent on its schedule, and with the exception of the Beavs which they won, they lost only by just a touchdown or less

  5. Not that we’d ever know but I’d love to know how many coaches actually have or will reach out to BDC about interest in the head coaching position at OSU. Much like the OSU basketball vacancy, there was interest by several parties.

  6. I’m starting to come around to this argument. After doing my homework, I found that very few of the top 20 coaches in college football ever coached at a lower level at all, let alone using it as their springboard into their first major job (David Shaw, Brian Kelly, and Gus Malzahn were the only ones I could find).

    • It happens but it’s rare. Why take such a risk when we don’t have to? Sign a more proven D1 guy for 3 years, revisit Baldwin then. He’ll be available most likely as a D1 OC at that point.

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        Agree it’s a much smarter move to take on a D2 guy as a coordinator first.

        Still though, I’d take Baldwin over a “proven” D1 guy with little to no upside. Muschamp, Hoke, Tedford….ugh.

    • Art Briles, RichRod and Hugh Freeze all spent a couple years as assistants on the D1 level while transitioning from head jobs from lower levels. It’s just not a bad idea. It sets up the coach for success in the future. It’s like drafting a QB to play immediately on a bad team and expecting him to change the team for the better all by himself.

  7. Tedford is like Riley, except 2 years older and more washed out. I’ve said in previous threads that Riley was on the Tedford track, about 2 years out from being completely noncompetitive in most of his games and being run out of town. Both of them were kept on longer than they should have been due to a lot of credibility from building a terrible program up from scratch when they started.

    Please no. Tedford would be right around Banker-level on my list.

    Re: Baldwin- definitely a huge risk. Gotta say though I love the attitude that he projects. Both times he came to Reser he scoffed at the notion of being outclassed and was very direct: We’re here to win. Nothing less.

    • rutabagas is an understatement. If Riley can put 46 on them in the season opener, donkey cock suckage is a better term. Who does Nebraska open with next fall?

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