Football: The Game is ON

Now that the games are over, BG enters its most critical off-season in years.  Two reasons.

First, BG absolutely must get this coaching hire right.  They cannot afford another miss, or it's going to be a decade in the wilderness.  It's 25 days until the first signing day, but BG has to get the right guy, regardless of how long it takes.

The early signing deadline has put new pressure on coaching.  Babers was hired just before BG's bowl game but the signing deadline was in February and there's a holiday dead period anyway.  Now, the clock is ticking.  Furthermore, if you're thinking about hiring a coach in FCS (or DII or DIII), they are still playing in their tournaments.  (For example, Ferris State has a coach who has built a program but they are playing today and they are a #2 seed.  Mount Union is still playing as well.)

Even so, I think BG has to avoid the sound of the clock ticking.  This has to be the right guy, and if we have to wait for him to be done this year, so be it.  We are probably three years away from competing again, and with the wrong guy or a rushed guy, we're farther away.

The other thing to watch is transfers.  I hope it doesn't happen, but I suspect that BG will lose some guys in today's transfer-crazy world.  In particular, those guys who played as true freshmen can transfer and sit out their redshirt year and the redshirt juniors cold graduate transfer.  This is another situation where having a coach sooner would be better, but we need to have the right guy above all.

Which brings us to the quickest move BG could make....and that would be Coach Pelini.  I don't know where this stands (obviously), but I think it is clear that Moos is out talking to other people, which is fair.  We have to get the right guy.  If it's Pelini, that does help quite a bit.  I don't know if he's the right pick or, more importantly, the best pick.   He might be the best interim coach in history.  He has understood his role, acted as a steward of the program and the hopes of our players and done so with dignity and pride.  I've admired it 100%.

I don't blame him for the defense not getting much better.  I've talked about that before.

If Moos says he looked around and Pelini is the best guy, then I am for it.  But, it has to be the best guy, not the comfortable guy.

Sidenote:  the players made noises after the game about going to the administration to advocate for C Coach Pelini.  This is a chilling idea. The last time BG players advocated for a coach, they were threatening to transfer if Gregg Brandon didn't replace Urban Meyer.  We know how that worked out.  This is not a decision you leave to a bunch of college students.

The next three weeks or so are going to have an impact on this program for years to come.  This is a lot of pressure, this is what the job is.  He seems to have gotten us a good WBB coach and he hired Matt Fannon as well.  I believe he will do it again, but it's likely to get worse before it starts to get better.