But the other names that were being considered were just God awful. I mean, really, really low budget choices, as I remember... Bobby April was on that list... Frank Wilson I think... not names that scream credible Division 1-A hire. Names that screamed cheap. Hell, we hired New Mexico's 61 year old offensive coordiantor. Let that sink in.
At Toledo's hiring press conference in 2006, Dickson said:
This is far, far more urgent today than it was then, mostly because we were too cheap to do then what we MUST do now. Which is to at least double, if not triple, our football coaching salaries at every coaching position."The support has to build, not dwindle, and we had to reverse that trend, again, for bigger reasons and beyond football," Dickson said. "We're going to have to ramp up levels of support not seen here before. Football is a critical piece and driving force of that. ... We can't afford to regress."
Dickson probably thought we could slowly turn the program around and win games to the point where he could more easily sell football season tickets. That can't happen now. The community needs an immediate jolt. We need a name that sells tickets before the first snap of spring practice. We need that more than ever, because we are on the Big 12's watch list, and their only hesitation is probably how they can justify adding us from an on-field and budgetary perspective.
So, with that, I think our coaching candidates need to be either proven coaches in their coaching prime, or young, energetic guys that have the name recognition to make a splash in our market:
Rich Rodriguez -- has to be the first choice. Just has to be. There's hardly any amount that we would be asked to pay him that wouldn't be worth it to us financially, almost immediately. And he knows that he can work wonders here with his offense and southern Louisiana talent against C-USA defenses.
Mike Leach -- Knows the spread offense can work here. Yeah, there are some issues there with his history. We just admitted a convicted muderer into the law school. Our school is in New Orleans -- what are we about if not redemption? If we offered him a credible salary, the guy would absolutely drool over the chance to recruit southern Louisiana talent for his offense.
Mike Belotti -- Like Leach, a great offensive mind. Like Leach, loves coaching. Like Leach, has baggage. Like Leach, the baggage isn't that big of a deal and he's probably learned from it.
Who else has should be considered? I think its fine and reasonable to consider assistant coaches, but we won't get the hottest names that are being groomed for BCS jobs -- hell, Malzahn makes 1.3 mill a year, and the average SEC assistant won't make the splash that we need.