People say we should hire the best available. I have spent a lot of time research who these best available people actually are and the majority of the highly proven coaches are all well into their 50's already and most in their 60's.

Let's examine who these elite proven head coaches are:

1) Chip Kelly - turns 52 years old. He will remain in the NFL to try and win at an elite level. However, he has not won anything at the highest level of college football or the NFL besides a conference title. He came up short in a national title game.

2) John Harbaugh - Super Bowl winning coach. NFL guy likely to stay in the NFL. If he goes to the college game, it will likely be to USCw, but that is likely not to happen. In his 50's.

3) Bill Belichick - Turns 64 next year. NFL guy that will go down as a legend.

4) Steve Spurrier - out of date.

I'm not going to keep going over NFL guys as that will take too much time to type out.

5) Nick Saban - nearing retirement.

6) Mark Dantonio - nearing retirement.

7) Urban Meyer - not available.

8) Art Briles - old.

9) Bill Snyder - retirement age.

10) Gary Patterson - oil money keeping him at TCU

11) Bob Stoops - past his prime.

12) Jimbo Fisher - young but not going to get him hired away.

13) Brian Kelly - wants to get into the NFL eventually. Would be someone I would take some serious consideration in though. Would be on my short list. However, he is 54 years old now. So, if he wants that NFL shot, he needs to take it ASAP.

My short list would be the following names:

Justin Fuente at Memphis

Scott Frost at Oregon

Bryan Harsin at Boise State

Willie Fritz at Georgia Southern has won at every school. However, he turns 56. So maybe a decade out of him.

Tom Herman at Houston

Brent Venables at Clemson

All of the guys on my list besides the head coach at Georgia Southern is in heir early 40's or late 30's.

I would list my list in this order:

1) Justin Fuente at Memphis
2) Willie Fritz at Georgia Southern has won at every school. However, he turns 56. So maybe a decade out of him.
3) Tom Herman at Houston
4) Scott Frost at Oregon (Nebraska native)
5) Bryan Harsin at Boise State
6) Brent Venables at Clemson (Kansas native)

I understand that people would prefer to hire a head coach that won multiple conference titles, national titles or a super bowl, but by the time a head coach reaches that level they are already well into their 50's or 60's and starting to get to the point where they will be winding down their passion, drive, and goals to win it all since they will have already gotten their pay day.

Jim Harbaugh is only 51 years old, which is the rare exception to the elite list. If he stays at Michigan, Michigan could have him for a good 10 or 15 years yet. Jim's older brother is obviously older and already reach the top of the football world. Is competing against the likes of Purdue and IL on yearly basis going to be exciting for him? I doubt it since he is use to going to battle against the best the sport can provide.

USCw got lucky with their hire from the Seattle head coach since he got fired at two jobs in the NFL and it worked out for them, but man did they get roasted for that hire. After he won in college he ran right back to the NFL and left USCw in sanctions and they are still trying to recover from his exit.

The three names we should seriously consider are Scott Frost, Justin Fuente and Fritz.

Go young. Go hungry. Go with the young gamble that has the desire to reach the top of the college football world. I"m sorry, but once you have been around for decades and losing games and already got the pockets filled with money to walk to the beach at any given moment, the energy and passion can go away pretty dang quick.

Justin has the longest winning streak in the country and that includes wins over P5 teams. Scott, even when he has a bad game with play calling, is still putting up over 500 yards and many touchdowns in a game. Fritz would have a rushing attack in the B1G West that would make the rest of the division ask for mercy by the 4th quarter.