Go after Kafka
- Thread starter T_Levine
- Start date
I don’t think anyone is saying Kafka would be a bad choice as NU HC, at least I’m not. I’m saying that there’s no chance in hell that ever happens based on everything I’ve heard.
I mean… yes, it did stop Gary. Remember his record before departing for Colorado?
Amongst other things, the academic restrictions make sustained success at NU very difficult.
That's the key. If they are willing to lower academic qualifications for football, I think they can get a very good coach to come to NU. We are a little behind when it comes to NIL but still in the game. You can land the players who care about school, and also the ones who just care about the pros. (I think if they got decent you could even get mostly purple sell outs at the new place...)
Right now the only real separating feature for the NU gig is that they don't need to do much more than six wins to keep the fans happy.
You need someone innovative and hungry to win/prove himself. Kafka seems like he wants to stay in the pros. I don't blame him, as dealing with high school kids, college kids, alumni, etc would just be a royal pain in the ass most of the time. You need a HC with a track record of rebuilding programs.
He wouldn't be a bad choice at all, but he has never been a HC, and with the pros, you don't have to deal with fans, alumni, stupid kids, etc. Plus, would he be innovative enough on offense to attract higher caliber QBs and WRs? Not to mention just about every other position.
After reading all of these enlightening posts there is no need to look any further. The perfect fit for the HC is right here on the board. All of this speculation and opinion with no credible facts. Give me a break.
This is an opinion board!!! Nobody knows what is going to happen at the end of the season or who will be the next HC. Where is the fun without speculation? Without it there would not be a board to begin with.
Nope. Only a hemimetabolous metamorphosis. Kafka played under Fitz.
Yes. That was hardly the craziest pass thrown in that game. It only cost us 20 yards.
Bacher wins that honor going away.
C'mon man, we win vs Howard and ONE conf game Braun loses interim tag and is made HC as it's the easiest move for Schill-Gragg and cheapest
Braun brings in excellent FCS coaches and a ton of excellent FCS players who follow their coaches . We become instantly relevant again.
Let's get that BT win!
Braun brings in excellent FCS coaches and a ton of excellent FCS players who follow their coaches . We become instantly relevant again.
Let's get that BT win!
How can he be "on the way down" when he was "on the way up" when he was fired?
Are you serious? I hope you are joking. FCS players are FCS players for a reason and with the West Coast expansion starting next season, do you think we are going to be competitive with 2 star recruits in the future? Damn we aren't competitive with 3 star recruits as it is. Sure there are diamonds in the rough in FCS in both players and coaches, but that is like panning for gold in a stream that has been pretty much tapped out. If the super conference expansion continues to 24-30 team that will mean an additional amount of CFB big boys coming into play. NU needs to get an established winner or a stud up and comer HC or coordinator to stay relevant. Going the FCS route is a crapshoot. Time is running out for the lesser programs in the B1G. NU might be able to resurrect much of the original Western Conference with a few add ons if it can't cut the mustard in the super conference. That is the type of thing that is going to happen when you have a non competitive team, with rather lackluster support from the University and the student body. With no big-time and revenue being generated, I can't imagine we will be welcome in the new alignment for very long. NU really had to make up it's mind whether to go all in with football back in the Barnett/ Walker days when the BCS was coming into its own.
I am serious about Schill-Gragg taking the easiest and possibly cheapest path forward. If we are fortunate to win one or two games in addition to Howard it will give cover to the removal of the interim tag. It will be an indication of where the BOT wants to go with Big Boy football. The ties to FCS that Braun has would his easiest way forward and yes, the bleak future you describe will become the reality. We should know the answer in 9 weeks or less.
I understand your angle Mesa, but if the program is going to get turned around quickly, you are going to have to get a lot more 4 star recruits. The FCS coach thing might work, but trying to recruit FCS players is a real long shot. My analogy is apt in that case. Trying to pan for gold nuggets in a river that has been panned out. NU has 3-5 years tops until it gets relegated to a lesser conference. It will probably join most of their West Division opponents in the new alignment.
We will still have the highest graduation rate, no car washes and a great student newspaper, so there is that.
There's nothing that would cause NU to get "relegated to a lesser conference". We're a charter member of the B1G, and can't be "kicked out" or "relegated," unless we choose to be.
What would happen, although it might take more than 3-5 years, is for the Big Fish to depart for a Bigger (Bucks) Conference, leaving NU exactly where it was. (See Oregon State and Washington State.)
As has already been noted, the problem with that idea is that, if you concentrate all the Big Fish in the BBC, someone still has to finish in last place.
Growing up watching UTEP in the old WAC, I remember when, rather than kicking out the undesirables, the top half of the conference decided to leave the WAC and form their own conference (called the MWC).
NU might never be kicked out of the Big Ten, but if Ohio State and Michigan decide to start something new, NU probably won't be asked to join them.
Yes, if "something happens," that will be the "something". But that would be a pretty big seismic shock, after the B1G has spent years building up this mega-conference by relentless coast-to-coast poaching. Not impossible though. We can help to forestall it by taking steps to get more consistently competitive in revenue sports.
I get what you are saying that the Big Fish could all decide to jump ship and leave NU behind but to my thinking the one thing that college football has to retain is a heavy footprint of many teams all over the country. At least 60-72 teams. Less than that and they are simply a young and inferior NFL without multiple local fanbases. I think NU, given it's Chicago market could argue that it is a top 60 team. It won't be all about the size of NU's alumni fanbase. A lot of fans from all over the country live in the Chicagoland area and want to see their team play live once in a while.
What worries me, precisely, is that the B1G has built up a mega-conference.
That WAC was the original mega-conference, with 16 teams. The teams that would become the MWC decided that the conference had become too big and they would do better in their own conference without the dead weight.
In a world where Stanford and Berkeley have joined the Atlantic Coast Conference, I wonder how stable these conferences will be in the long run. How will the "TV contract" landscape look in 10 years? Maybe we will move to more of an a la carte model?
Chicagoland has a team according to Facebook that is also the largest university in Illinois and that is the University of Illinois. According to the Facebook B1G fandom map, the concentration of NU fans are in the 11 northernmost counties of Illinois, along with a few just across the border in Wisconsin. If the program doesn't really rebound over the recent unpleasantness, along with the fact that $$$$$$$$$$ is now the only thing that matters in CFB, I wouldn't quite rule out that the greedy bastards try and squeeze out smaller teams for those with a bigger TV market. Face it, they are ruining CFB. I know alot of people that are losing interest in it altogether, and I include myself in that group. When all of those PAC 12 powerhouses come into the B1G, there is zero hope to win a division title, much less the B1G title. The fun will be gone. If the economy does go south in the next few years, there won't be a ridiculous # of bowls anymore as well.
Technically, nobody will win a division title in the 18-team Big Ten. (It’s 18 now? Yeeeesh!)
Anybody watch the Monday Night Football game with Kafka as Giants OC?
nypost.com
Giants have a crisis on their hands
The Giants, abominable 24-3 losers to the Seahawks, are already knocking on death’s door.
nypost.com
You guys should consider Brian Ferentz. He has underwhelmed as an OC but the guy is wired to be a fantastic HC. Unfortunately, he’s been severely stymied as an OC by being forced to run his dad’s schemes, upside is that you get a diamond (as HC) nobody knows about. Given a chance to do his own thing at your esteemed institution Brian will blow the doors off the b1g. Grab him while you still can.
I know, that is why I am not looking forward to the expansion. No divisions which make any shot at some sort of title a real, real, real, long shot for most of the teams that aren't OSU. U of M, PSU, or the PAC-12 converts. The best we can hope for is a half decent bowl.
I'm sure it has been said before, but I assume that the administration is holding off on recruiting a coach or appointing Braun to the role until Gragg is out. Seems clear that we need to remove that impediment before anything constructive happens.
I suppose the lawsuits will play out a bit more and (if the administration doesn't luck into a Gragg resignation), they will flush him in the name of taking accountability. What irony. It is hard to clean the slate now, because the administration needs some line of sight on where the lawsuits are going first.
Regardless, a clean slate with a credible/competent AD will help Schill to remain uninvolved with athletics (which is clearly his preference) and establish some hope that we can re-build a foundation for the program.
So its pigskin purgatory, for now.
I suppose the lawsuits will play out a bit more and (if the administration doesn't luck into a Gragg resignation), they will flush him in the name of taking accountability. What irony. It is hard to clean the slate now, because the administration needs some line of sight on where the lawsuits are going first.
Regardless, a clean slate with a credible/competent AD will help Schill to remain uninvolved with athletics (which is clearly his preference) and establish some hope that we can re-build a foundation for the program.
So its pigskin purgatory, for now.
Look here, second-class citizens of the non-pay board, in case you haven't seen it:
theathletic.com
Gratifying to see a kinda credible source hype MK. He also makes the point gocats makes - that he's a hot commodity in the Pros and unlikely to be interested in the NU dumpster fire. But he could be the HC NU needs and here's hoping the IYI BOT makes the effort with a really attractive offer. You never know. Even when you know, you never know. There are other really good alternatives this guy offers, too, but NU will have the same problem marketing the dumpster fire to them.
Looking back over this thread, it's disheartening to see respected posters say MK is toxic because he played under Fitz. Guilt by association is the child of presumption of guilt. On the surface, our system of justice has the opposite ideals. NU should embrace them.
Who will replace Pat Fitzgerald? An NFL OC, Power 5 head coaches top Bruce Feldman's list
Would sitting head coaches like Mike Campbell and Dave Clawson be tempted to move to Evanston?
theathletic.com
Gratifying to see a kinda credible source hype MK. He also makes the point gocats makes - that he's a hot commodity in the Pros and unlikely to be interested in the NU dumpster fire. But he could be the HC NU needs and here's hoping the IYI BOT makes the effort with a really attractive offer. You never know. Even when you know, you never know. There are other really good alternatives this guy offers, too, but NU will have the same problem marketing the dumpster fire to them.
Looking back over this thread, it's disheartening to see respected posters say MK is toxic because he played under Fitz. Guilt by association is the child of presumption of guilt. On the surface, our system of justice has the opposite ideals. NU should embrace them.
Hey @desihawk there's a real good DC available for you guys, he's a former NFL DC and one of the rising young defensive minds in the game, and he can recruit lights out. His results on the field as NU's DC were severely stymied by old school Fitz, but he would make an excellent DC for you guys and would blow the doors off the B1G. Iowa needs to grab him ASAP while he's available.
Dream scenario would be Kafka HC and Braun DC...I think they would work together really well. (Kafka isn't interested in the gig today but he also isn't lighting the world on fire at the Giants this season. Which changes my opinion of him zero.)Look here, second-class citizens of the non-pay board, in case you haven't seen it:
Who will replace Pat Fitzgerald? An NFL OC, Power 5 head coaches top Bruce Feldman's list
Would sitting head coaches like Mike Campbell and Dave Clawson be tempted to move to Evanston?
Gratifying to see a kinda credible source hype MK. He also makes the point gocats makes - that he's a hot commodity in the Pros and unlikely to be interested in the NU dumpster fire. But he could be the HC NU needs and here's hoping the IYI BOT makes the effort with a really attractive offer. You never know. Even when you know, you never know. There are other really good alternatives this guy offers, too, but NU will have the same problem marketing the dumpster fire to them.
Looking back over this thread, it's disheartening to see respected posters say MK is toxic because he played under Fitz. Guilt by association is the child of presumption of guilt. On the surface, our system of justice has the opposite ideals. NU should embrace them.
The Giants have only scored field goals and defensive and special teams touchdowns for over 200 minutes. Almost four entire games. No touchdowns. NO to Kafka.
To be at least somewhat fair, the OL is gawd awful, and you can't make chicke soup out of chicken poop, so I will grant him that. But still....let's keep watching how the Giants do, for now, I vote no.
sounds fantastic. we'll definitely consider him though it will have to be at the OC spot for which the main requirement at iowa is that the candidate have minimal experience with an ancillary aspect of football and a tenous nfl connection.
apologies for the delayed response but it's been crazy in IC with iowa putting up a valiant but losing fight to retain brian ferentz. our loss is your gain.
What is this thing with Kafka? He isn't setting the world on fire and you never hear him mentioned on the networks as being the next big thing. Is he even on their radar? You need to look at the next Mike Leach, Urban Meyer, type. Somebody that has a new innovative system that can give the program an identity that will attract a better talent pool. Kafka hasn't made a name for himself, so obviously, he isn't really that hot of a commodity. We are better off with a CFB HC!!!!!
Pays to be part of the Andy Reid tree. Literally. Except if you’re Eric Bienemy.
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