5 coaches I think we should hire and why, ranked
1A. Jeff Traylor: An Alum. A native east Texan to boot, Traylor is a top notch recruiter who could put SFA on par with any FCS team in the country talent wise. His HS teams also played a fun, high scoring style of offense. Traylor can take us back to the playoffs and set us up nicely in the talent department, even if his tenure might be short.
UT boards did an excellent writeup on Traylor here:
http://insidetexas.com/inside-the-gameplan-what-traylor-brings-to-ut/1B. Curtis Luper: SFA Alum, Army vet. Luper could be the man for the job. A renowned recruiter(he discovered Cam Newton chilling at Blinn for Auburn), he's the guy SFA should have hired last time around. I'm not 100% sure his offensive style, but a former air traffic controller running an air raid offense seems fitting. He's the Co-OC and Running backs coach at TCU, a program that knows how to do more with less and seems to play the underdog role perfectly.
SFA would be lucky to land him.
Great writeup on Luper:
https://www.star-telegram.com/sports/college/big-12/texas-christian-university/article217151630.html2.Will Hall: I'll admit, this is my wildcard pick. He hasn't coached in Texas, which I think is pretty important. But he has coached in Louisiana and Arkansas, so he's slightly familiar with our neck of the woods. He's a known program builder, taking a West Alabama team that went 26-30 prior to his tenure to a 25-11 record in his 3 years there. He then took over West Georgia, a team that went 19-42 in the previous 6 seasons and took them to two straight 12 win seasons. Currently assistant Head Coach and TE coach at Memphis. I think he'd be an excellent fit to help rebuild the program.
No Awesome writeups, so wikipedia will have to do:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Hall_(American_football)3. Colby Carthel: Ahh, now onto the inevitable, perhaps even the favorite according to some. Carthel is the coach that's meant to check all the boxes. Familiarity with the current AD: Check. WInner(D2 Champion: Check), familiar with East Texas/Texas: Double Check. Young and exciting: Check. It's like the football gods put an excellent head coach right in our backyard and dared us not to hire him.
He's 57-17 at Commerce currently and his 5th season isn't even finished yet. A DC by nature, he'd be a great pairing with an explosive offense because defense would still be an important part of the gameplan, unlike some offensive coaches: looking at you Mike Leach. Overall, a solid, quality hire. And likely the right one.
I'm not even going to link to an article, but checkout this excerpt from Wikipedia. The dude made lemonade and Commerce didn't even let him start with lemons.
Quote:
In 2013, Carthel left West Texas A&M and was hired as the 19th head football coach at Texas A&M University-Commerce.[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colby_Carthel#cite_note-6][6][/url]The program was coming off of two back-to-back 19 seasons, the worst two year stretch in school history. Carthel quickly established a new culture in Commerce that saw 50 of the 85 players leave the program.
4. Matt Moore: Last on this list, but this darkhorse candidate is one of my favorites. Matt is currently the OC and offensive line coach at Troy, one of the hottest teams in the country. They're 34-15 over the past 4 seasons with wins over LSU & Nebraska.
So why do I think he's a great fit. He's a Mike Leach coaching tree disciple. He's coached in Texas and Louisiana. He's worked for successful programs, having been at Tech during their heyday(the infamous Crabtree catch season) and now at Troy. And he's an Oline coach. We desperately need a new Oline and there aint no way that a man who's fed his family by coaching in the trenches is going to let our Oline continue to be a weakspot. Check out these stats:
Quote:
Troy's offensive line has been a juggernaut during Moore's second stint with the Trojans. Troy led the country with just eight sacks allowed during the 2016 season after ranking 38th in his first season. The Trojans finished the 2017 campaign ranked sixth in offensive line efficiency and 12th in fewest sacks allowed; Troy ranked 111th nationally in sacks allowed in the year prior to his arrival.
That's in addition to 2 1000 yard backs in two of the first 3 season. Check out this article on their Oline and some of Moore's coaching philosophy:
https://www.dothaneagle.com/sports/troy/offensive-line-has-been-consistent-for-troy-trojans/article_2b54f6fc-e3aa-11e8-aa54-2bb4b1e93837.htmlBonus Coach: Graham Harrell. The Wunderkid. Harrell isn't just a Leach disciple, he's also likely the most successful college QB Leach's system has ever produced. And now he's coaching at UNT, which has seen a remarkable rise under the current coaching staff, with him serving at OC. Just 33, he'd be a homerun hire for SFA and likely the first in a line of head-coaching gigs.
But the reason I didn't include him in the top 5? He seems the most unlikely. While 3 losses have reduced his shine a bit, Seth Littrell, Harrell's boss, is still likely headed for a big promotion to a P5 role after the season (if enough of them open). And I'd bet that Harrell is either his likely successor at UNT or his OC at that new role. If Littrell is content to stay in Denton for another season, we might be able to lure Harrell away.
