The UO AD makes the hiring decisions for assistant coaches?! I would be shocked if that were the truth. In almost every case the HC makes every decision regarding his staff and he just runs it by the AD to make sure they’re ok representing the university. I’m almost 100% positive that hire was all on Helfrich. I know that’s the case for OSU.
If someone needs a car they might want a new Lexus, but if they've only 8G to spend, they're buying a used Hundai or something more in that category. Oregon needed a DC twice during Helfrich's tenure and hired guys with zero experience both times for bargain bin prices. With Leavitt they paid 3 times as much. Does it make any sense to you that any HC would prefer someone with zero experience working beside them when wins and losses are tied to their career? It makes far more sense that others in control of the purse strings told those doing the choosing they couldn't afford top or even the middle shelf. I'm sure Helfrich had input on which DC from the 400K bargain bin he wanted, but in no way would it be anyone's preference to be shopping there. STOMP
He followed the Oregon model of promoting from within for the most part though. Yeah they were cheaper but he was familiar with all the coordinators he had. He probably had confidence they could do the job because he knew them.
MH wasn't familiar with the all the Coordinators he had on staff because none of the Assistants he inherited from the Kelly era had ever been one (a Coordinator) before. Hoke's hiring flies in the face of the hiring from within theory. I think the overriding factor in that hire was that like Pellum, he was willing/available to sign for the same 400K that Pellum did. Like Don, he had no track record as a Coordinator. His inexperience & the switch to a 4-3 combined with a rash of injuries to the front 7 made that the roughest season for UO in more then a decade STOMP
The hiring of hoke came after they fired Pellum, it’s plausible MH didn’t think anyone internally could do it. The original hiring of MH and the staff were mostly from within. I don’t know what the truth is here about the decision making process for all those hirings. It could’ve been money driven and I’m sure it at least somewhat was. I just find it kind of hard to believe that the AD told Helfrich to hire no names just because of the money, I suppose it’s possible.
Again, they didn't even interview an experienced DC either time. I find it impossible to believe that after the Pellum debacle, that it was Helfrich's choice to go with someone with no track record. That Hoke signed for the same exact dollars that Pellum commanded suggests thats what was budgeted and no one with options was interested. STOMP
You could be correct. Helfrich didn’t seem like a good hire from the start to me. He spent way to much time trying to prove he could be just as good as Chip, then spent a bunch of time trying to show us how he was different than a chip. He really buckled under the pressure of coming after Kelly.
Of course, because the only reason the ducks couldn’t go out and get the best DC’s available is because they didn’t have the money. Shoulda known. Dave Aranda would have been blessed with the opportunity to coach at UO they just couldn’t afford him. Sorry man that hire had a lot more to do with Helf than it did anyone else in the entire department.
Your post is dripping with bitterness. Wild guess that you're a Beaver fan? Every business operates within a budget. Where the coaching $$$ seems to have been disproportionately spent was on Helfrich's 2nd deal. Following the NCG, they doubled his yearly salary to 3.5 Mil. Combined with Pellum or Hoke's 400K thats 3.9 Million annually. For comparison, Cristobal is currently making 2.5 Mil while Leavitt is making 1.7 Mil for a combined 4.2 Million annually. STOMP
I’ve just seen too many posts like the prior one from Duck fans thinking they are up there with the Alabama’s and Ohio States of the world and can hire whoever they want. Then try and justify a hire like Cristobal, who probably couldn’t have landed any other P5 HC job in the country. Hoke had Oregon ties and had interviewed for more than one DC position in the P12. If Helf wanted someone more accomplished and the guy wanted the job, they would have found the money. Hoke wasn’t immediately considered a bad hire but it’s telling that other schools passed on him for the same position but Helf pulled the trigger. That’s on him.
and I've read plenty of unhinged Beaver fan posts like yours that have zero connection to what they're responding to, which is why I thought you were a Beaver fan. I never expressed that Oregon is up there with Bama & Ohio State in any way. The Ducks don't generate close to the amount of money that either of those two programs do and consequently don't have the money to spend on coaches that they do. https://www.businessinsider.com/sch...ge-sports-2016-10#4-michigan--1525-million-22 Cristobal and Leavitt make 4.2 Million combined tOSU's Meyer and Shiano make 7.9 Million combined Bama's Saban and Lupoi make 8.2 Million combined. Hoke had as many Oregon ties as he had DC experience, none. Not sure where in the world you're gathering that he wasn't immediately considered a bad hire, but on the Oregon rivals site where I frequent his hire was met with plenty of skepticism. Again, zero experience + a big change in schemes fueled that. Not sure what Pac 12 schools you think he interviewed him as a DC. Here's a link to an Oregonian article at the time where he details what jobs he was considering for the month between his Michigan firing and Oregon hiring... no Pac 12 schools were mentioned. https://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2016/01/brady_hoke_describes_how_he_wa.html STOMP
There you go. I talk to Duck fans every day and they sure as hell don't think we are Bama. We are also not Our Sisters Of The Poor either. The reason why Oregon didn't spend big on assistant coaches till Taggart/Cristobal was they didn't have to. They just hired from within and paid the new guy a similar salary. It doesn't mean they were cheap it just meant if you hired from outside you would have to pay everybody else a higher wage. Helfrich's hiring of Hoke showed just how out of depth he was. Hoke's ceiling was as a DL coach. But it also wasn't Helfrich's fault Don Pellum was so bad. Accepting him as DC was part of becoming head coach in the first place. It was also Cristobal who convinced Knight and the AD to increase the salary for the current assistants. He knew if Oregon wanted to compete they had to pay competative wages and increase the number of assistants. Anyway. Hi guys. I'm back.
That had everything to do with your argument. You said they couldn’t land a top notch DC because they didn’t have the money like that would be the only reason they couldn’t get whoever they want. It’s the same tone I’ve heard since Uncle Phil became owner . Hoke has connections to the STATE of Oregon. He coached at OSU for 6 years, with coaches who were at the time coaching at UO. I know for a fact that Hoke threw his hat in the ring early on for the OSU DC job when they lost Sitake. A lot of that stuff won’t reach media unless they get an actual interview. Look, all I’m saying is the Hoke and Pellum hires are almost directly related to Helfriches ability (or inability) to evaluate talent. No matter what you think the salary pool was at some point the HC had to genuinely believe he would be a good hire. Which it was not. Duck fans may have been immediately skeptical but Hoke was just years removed from looking like one of the brightest up and coming defensive coaches in the nation. People forget he went 12-1, 11-2, and 9-4 as a HC. Landing a P5 DC job was not unexpected or an immediately apparent reach.
EVERY SIGLE PARAGRAPH is a direct answer to something you wrote. You know what, never mind. Hope you have a good college football Saturday.
I'll have an awesome college football Saturday, thanks, as I'm leaving for a backpacking trip in the Trinity Alps with some old friends in a couple hours. For obvious reasons I'm not concerning myself with how UO does this weekend, just hoping they stay healthy. Hope you have a great weekend as well. STOMP
