Bronco has been offered the OSU job. He is weighing the decision but he has a verbal offer, and OSU is planning to make the announcement on Monday who their new coach is. I have talked to BigCoug personally, who is a poster on another board I frequent and he is connected very well to the athletic department and several big donors. It will probably be leaked by the media sooner than later.

I know a lot of you guys are down on him, but he’s #1 on my list of defensive guys who we could realistically get. I think the mystery candidate stuff was all BS or said mystery candidate was just using OSU for leverage. So then you get into guys with that profile who actually would take the job, and Bronco is #1 on that list. His teams always play good, aggressive D, has a power run game, and always has a savvy QB. He could probably get higher talent at OSU and do even better. I don’t think he is known as a great recruiter, but maybe he could get someone on staff for that.

Overall if he is the guy I’d rank it an 8/10. He’s only 48, too, so the idea he’s washed up isn’t reality.

I like Frost, Wells, and all the young guys you like, but they’re high risk for many reasons, and I also don’t know if their teams would play defense. I also like that Bronco has an OSU connection but not an incestuous one.

Think about this:

(1) A week ago, would you trade Riley for Mendenhall? In a heartbeat.

(2) Albatross of Riley’s contract gone, and with a better coach on hand.

(3) OSU got 500k for Riley.

(4) Career record of 90-38. Five top 25 finishes. 10 straight bowl games. Experience and winning.

I see nothing bad from hiring Bronco Mendenhall.

So the speculation is clearly just that and nobody knows anything yet. How about we think about what would make this coach a good hire?

I don’t think young and exciting = automatic good hire. Nor does someone over 50 automatically = bad hire. We need to be careful of the natural tendency to want the opposite of the last coach, which is just emotional backlash. Emotional decisions are rarely good ones. Personal story, but I remember dating a somewhat conservative girl years ago…then getting bored with her and going the opposite direction. That got scary fast. Rinse, repeat.

If I were in charge of this hiring, I’d step back and ask what it takes to win in this conference. Personally, I’d go for a defensive minded coach. The two best OSU teams (2000 and 2006) were based around defense and ground attack. When we look at Stanford’s run it was based around D and a ground game, and even Arizona this year. So I’d go with D and then supplement that with a ground game and savvy/heady QB. This guy doesn’t need to set passing records, just make clutch throws and convert 3rd downs at a good rate. The teams setting passing records (OSU and WSU) are also the teams finishing in the cellar. For this reason, I don’t like Beau Baldwin in any capacity, even OC. My #1 guy is Kirby Smart. Doubt he’s even on OSU’s radar. But he fits the bill. If they could land him and an OC who understands game flow and has good instincts (to know what is predictable, when, and why) I’d be happy.

Boring? Maybe. But that would win big. This is a reason I like Mendenhall despite some disliking him. He runs that exact style.

Regarding Matt Wells, Scott Frost, etc. They are both worth hard looks and I like them, but if I were interviewing them I’d grill them on their defensive philosophy and understanding of game planning for each opponent (something Banker was terrible at–same D no matter who he was playing).

If anyone actually has credible sources and wants to share info, shoot me an email.

An admin just showed up on blitz posting a quote about Hoke, then said not to be a hater if he’s the coach.

So over there they have a regular member dropping rumors that some all-world coach is interested in OSU (even implying it could be Harbaugh), yet this guy can’t name names. Meanwhile, the admin and Mamma Machado are implying it’s Hoke.

It seems like a ploy by blitz to get people all riled up so they sign up for a membership. Why do I feel like BDC decided on Hoke days ago and this is all a smoke screen to make it look like they aimed big? Crazy conspiracy theory or something OSU and the “aim low” crowd would try? (I.e. we aimed big, didn’t work, got the guy who Michigan is paying for).

Per Mamma Machado: From sources: Brady Hoke has been contacted about the OSU job, while Justin Wilcox and Matt Wells have not.

Just checked in and they said Michigan is laughing at us like we’re laughing at Nebraska. All seem disappointed. These are the same guys who loved Riley just because he was their coach (and hated him the second he left), so if nothing they’re loyal to their active coach. Yet, they do not want anything to do with Hoke.

Personally, I would take Tedford over Hoke. That is how badly I do not want Hoke.

Mamma Machado gave clues yesterday that it could be Hoke. She said it would be an interesting story line if he coached for the Beavs at Michigan next year, someone mentioned he’s invested in apartment complexes in Corvallis, is friends with Hoke from their days at Michigan in the mid 90s, and the real kicker is that Michigan is still paying a big part of his salary. I bet Bob D views this as a value hire and figures if things go wrong, who cares, Michigan is on the hook. That is a small-minded mentality and no way to run an AD. My fear is he will hire him out of nepotism (he knows him) and because he is cheap. This makes no sense with the rumor from last night, unless that rumor was for the VFC, which there’s an announcement for on Wednesday. So these could be unrelated things, and we could wind up with Hoke. Talk about a disaster…many at Blitz say they’d rather have Riley than Hoke.

If this goes down it will be an amazing feat for BDC to hire the one candidate everyone seems to agree they don’t want. There will be zero excitement over this guy. Rumors are he’s a jerk who mistreated his QB last year, too, so his bad resume isn’t the only problem.

My new pick is Kirby Smart.

Also on my approved list, in order: Matt Wells, Scott Frost, Bryan Harsin, Tim DeRuyter, Bronco Mendenhall.

Begrudgingly accept list: Tedford, Justin Wilcox…maybe some others.

Disapprove list: Brady Hoke, Jack Del Rio, Beau Baldwin, Neuheisal, Long