re: Paul Johnson

I also really really like Greg Chiano at Rutgers.

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The thing is, only people in Baton Rouge and/or ignorant LSU fans would think that Paul Johnson would be a hire 'out of left field'.

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I concur. You might want to add Lincoln, NE to that, as well (with respect to the city/cities you're listing).

For whatever reason, a lot of folks think if the coach is not a part of a big-time national power already, then he obviously isn't qualified or experienced enough to win at a big time program. Paul Johnson took a mediocre, at best, Georgia Southern program and turned it into a 1-AA powerhouse, winning two national championships while he was there. He's taken a downtrodden-to-mediocre-at-best service academy (Navy) and turned it into a consistent winner, having won the last 4 or 5 commander in chief trophies.

I've suggested to Nebraska fans that he would be a very good candidate to coach their team and get them back to being a Big 12 title contender year in and year out and the vast majority respond with "we want somebody we know/somebody familiar with our program" b.s. - i.e. Pelini or Gill. Because we all know Pelini is such a good coach...he's sat in on talented defenses at Oklahoma, in Baton Rouge and the one year in Lincoln he was there is a bit misleading (Nebraska got BOMBED by Mizzou, K State and Texas that year...and Pelini led the team as interim head coach to a win over an iffy Michigan State team in their bowl game).

Paul Johnson is every bit the coach that Jim "the sweater vest" Tressel is, and Tressel was 'nothing more' than the head coach of a perennial 1-AA contender prior to Ohio State.

Everybody focuses on big name coaches. Look at what they've done. John Robinson didn't do squat in his second stint at USC. Albeit it's been but one year, but Saban was less than impressive with the end-of-the-year meltdown at Bama this year. Spurrier hasn't been all that impressive at South Carolina...his record, thus far, is about the same as his predecessor (Holtz) who was another "big name" coach hired to turn a program around.