Bowden is far from the right fit in my opinion. Ten years is a lot of time to be away from the game.

in addition to Bowden, there are a number of other guys with winning college records that are available right now:

- Bob Davie
- Larry Coker (National Champion)
- Glen Mason (bowl games in 7 of 10 years for Minn)
- Karl Dorrell
- Chan Gailey (bowl games in every season at GT)
- Mike Shula

I don’t endorse any of them, per se … but Coker, Mason, Gailey and Shula hold some intrigue

I wanted him to be named coach when Lambo was fired after the ’98 season

for example, Gailey is an OC in the NFL right now. And I think that Shula is QBs coach Jax. Given that Jim Zorn was a QB coach last year, that is not necessarily a bad thing. I’m not endorsring any of them because I think we need something a little bit more fresh, but its just not right to disrespect Coker and his accomplishments. In addition, Mason had remarkable success given what he had at Minnesota.

He wasn’t even the third best assistant under Pete Carroll. His appointment to the Raiders HC position was a sham. Why would he be your #1 by far ahead of Steve Sarkisian? Or Nick Holt?

Kiffin is not a good candidate in my book.

c’mon hook ‘em – I clearly said that I did NOT endorse any of those guys. JB asked us to identify winning college head coaches who were not employed … so I made a list. Coker has a national championship and has put a ton of guys in the NFL. That’s a lot more accomplishment than most coaches have and should be respected.

Truth is, I think that Wil Muschamp is the guy Emmert is already targeting and found it interesting that JB put up that Muschamp link today. He must be sensing the same thing. He makes sense because:

- he is very well known to Emmert/Woodward
- he is a defensive minded guy – defense being the key to re-establishing the “Husky Way”
- he brings a certain amount of SEC cache
- he is the top coordinator on the market and will be a head coach somewhere next year

If you were offered a choice of the Washington, Clemson, Miami, or Iowa jobs which one would you take? A guy like Brain Kelly may have that type of choice around the first of December.

You just really don’t know what that the final interview list is going to look like.

Who is actually interested?

Who may get a better offer?

Last time we had a dog and pony show like this Jeff Tedford (Cal), Urban Meyer (Florida), Les Miles (LSU), Dan Hawkins (Colorado), and Steve Spurrier (South Carolina) was at the top of everyone’s initial list. Dennis Erickson would have jumped at it but he was never contacted.

The final two were ND’s Ty Willingham and BC’s Tom O’Brien. Neither of those guys were in the initial grouping. Willingham came up after he was fired. His West coast ties and success at Stanford obviously earned him consideration. ND actually fired him to make way for Urban Meyer. Urban spurned the Irish for Florida.

O’Brien was more of a sleeper that really didn’t come up till the end. He asked for the job and UW told him to wait for a few days and he told them to shove it.

There are always great coaches out their to hire at any stage of the game. O’Brien was a great coach and UW passed on him for a not so great coach.

The most important thing is who is doing the picking from what is left.

Emmert made a mistake when he didn’t fire Willingham and hire Mora in December.

Turner made a mistake when he hired Willingham and should have hired O’Brien.

Hedges made a mistake when she hired Gilbertson and ignored looking outside at Mora, and Weis who were both interested in the position. June is a lousy time to hire a coach, but there were posibilities.

Hedges made a mistake hiring Neuheisel when she could have had Pinkel.

UW can’t afford another mistake this time and they know it.

They better be ready to open up the wallet. It’s going to cost them big bucks to get the caliber of coach we need.