If You Were Interviewing Someone for HC Position

“Sell me this pen”

1. Are you comfortable being a CEO? How do you handle the day to day operations?
2. How do you get the best out of your players?
3. What do you look for in an assistant coach?

Things I would have to see would be a guy with a plan. How does want to structure the organization? Does he have an idea of who he wants to bring in as assistants and support staff? What’s his recruiting plan?

Red lights would be a guy struggling to effectively communicate his vision. A guy that’s busting out cliches during the interview would be a no go.

"If you won a championship, whats the first thing you would do the next day?"

Someone like Saban would say "get my arse on the recruiting trail" or "think about next year".

LSU needs sustainability. We've proven we can win it all. Just cant stay on top.

quote:

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LSU needs sustainability. We've proven we can win it all. Just cant stay on top.

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That and consistency. Eventually you may have a 7/8 win young/injured team here and there, but I think if you are doing the following:

are regularly in the division hunt
beating most of your rivals
winning 10 games
getting to Atlanta as much as you can, competing for a playoff every few years and in the running for a NY6 bowl fairly frequently.

that should be pretty good.

This may be a flash in the pan. B Kelly had a shite hole team in 2016 (and underachieved hard in 2014). ND has rebounded nicely since then. No reason LSU can't do the same.

Do you have a binder?

Did you get that thing at Office Depot or Staples?

There are 4 questions I would ask...


What is your philosophy on family?

What are your core values?

Loyalty, define it and give me an example of how it is shown?

Why does your family want you to take this job?

Those will be 4 you have to ask. Then you can figure out where to go from there. To build a program you have to be solid in its core and values then start branching out. If they do not answer those to your satisfaction why even begin asking about operations and sport philosophy questions?

If you are hiring a new coach you are basically starting a shift in culture and you want it to be what is in line with yours. As the football program goes, your future goes as an AD, generally.

#1 What are the expectations of our fanbase? What are the consequences of not meeting those expectations?

Speaking only of Florida, I want a coach who knows we expect to compete for the national title every year AND beat UGA and FSU every year AND have a high-flying explosive offense. And if they can't provide that in 3 years, their arse is going to get ridden out of town.

#2 What has the cheating program looked like at your previous schools? What are the necessary components to having a leak-proof seal around all necessary transactions?

SEC jobs are life in the fast lane. If they play stupid or are too open with such an obviously provoking question, bye. I want a coach who sternly politics at me, then stands up to leave the interview.

#3 Many head coaches have been doomed by loyalty to ineffective or otherwise compromised Assistant Coaches - tell me about the time you've had to make the hard decision to fire a coach that you loved and respected because he wasn't getting the job done.

Speaks for itself. The further up the totem pole you move as a Head Coach the unfortunate fact is that many of your friends and colleagues will not be suited to the ever-evolving, ever-intensifying pressure cooker of jobs. Are you going to let them be bigger than your program?

#4 College football is a game of trends - what do you see as the upcoming trends in the next 3-5 years of the sport and how will you position our team to be ahead of the curve?

I don't want someone who is married to 1 offense, 1 defense, 1 recruiting style, and I don't want a deliberate contrarian. I want a forward-thinker that keeps his finger on the pulse of the game, especially at the HS and FCS levels.

A windowless room has 3 lightbulbs. You are outside the room with 3 switches, each controlling one of the lightbulbs. If you can only enter the room one time, how can you determine which switch controls which lightbulb?