Potential Head Coaches

[Seattle Eagle]

I’m not going to wait until the season’s progressed to voice that I agree with mostly everything I’ve read in this thread. I’ve seen enough. It’s time to get back to our winning ways. EWU has never been a perenial cellar-dwellar in the Big Sky until Coach AB. You can say that college football has changed markedly in the past 5 years and that’d be true, but it’s up to the leadership to figure it out. I’d like to see something new for sure.

 

[EagInTexas]

I’m not going to wait until the season’s progressed to voice that I agree with mostly everything I’ve read in this thread. I’ve seen enough. It’s time to get back to our winning ways. EWU has never been a perenial cellar-dwellar in the Big Sky until Coach AB. You can say that college football has changed markedly in the past 5 years and that’d be true, but it’s up to the leadership to figure it out. I’d like to see something new for sure.

Bingo. If there was a season to get out of the funk we've been in since 2021, it would have been last season. But we decided to F around and lose to Drake.

 

[Hambone]

Lots of speculation here, but do we even know if Best is on the hot seat? My concern is that he isn’t, and we’re fated to be another Portland St. who has a “great guy” as a coach who will never be fired because the admin doesn’t care.

 

[E-Wu Tang Clan]

Lots of speculation here, but do we even know if Best is on the hot seat? My concern is that he isn’t, and we’re fated to be another Portland St. who has a “great guy” as a coach who will never be fired because the admin doesn’t care.

What I said is straight from a former player who is still friends with current players and boosters/alums. Its about as facts based as you can get.

Oh we won't be Portland State. I wish being like Portland State is all we had to worry about. It will be much worse than that. There were calls to get rid of football or drop down to D2 or get rid of the football team WHEN WE WERE WINNING. When donor and alumni support dries up and athletics become an bigger anchor and an already budget constrained school it will just add fuel to the fire of people asking to drop a division or get rid of athletics altogether. Eastern will end up D2 like CWU or getting rid of the football program like WWU did in 2008.

No, keeping Best will cause irreparable damage to Eastern football and athletics as a whole if it hasn't already. I hope the new AD isn't that dumb and doesn't want a permanent black mark on his resume of having destroyed an athletic department he was put in charge of but who knows.

 

[Bloodeagle]

Recruiting has changed so much in the last 5 years, I’m not sure if even a coaching change could fix the program. Think of it as an inverted pyramid, It starts at the top with the admin and donors ($), and without that , it will be a death of a thousand cuts to what was once a storied program.

 

[LDopaPDX]

Recruiting has changed so much in the last 5 years, I’m not sure if even a coaching change could fix the program. Think of it as an inverted pyramid, It starts at the top with the admin and donors ($), and without that , it will be a death of a thousand cuts to what was once a storied program.

This is my thought as well. Firing Best and going a different direction may help, but the problems facing Eastern are so much bigger than that. The school is in arrears with enrollment, fundraising, and leadership. The meltdown started well before the football program started sliding. I’m not sure hiring Nick Saban would help resurrect the program without massive structural changes to the university as a whole.

I almost think the best scenario for Eastern would be doing what Coastal Carolina did several years ago and hire a wildly successful businessman to run the program and sink his own money into it. I realize that was a one-in-a-million scenario, but without the fundraising and budget, it’s hard to imagine how the program rises.

 

[Kuttaak]

Recruiting has changed so much in the last 5 years, I’m not sure if even a coaching change could fix the program. Think of it as an inverted pyramid, It starts at the top with the admin and donors ($), and without that , it will be a death of a thousand cuts to what was once a storied program.

They need to stop the bleeding, I don't see a new coach instantly turning it around and making the playoffs year one but give someone a couple of years and could get there. There are a ton of players in Washington every year that aren't offered by Washington or Washington State but are good enough to win Big Sky games. The cost of attendance (tuition, room and board) at EWU is more affordable for those on partial scholarships than most Big Sky schools. Last season we had a relatively easy non-conference schedule but wasted the opportunity by losing to a non-scholarship team. With the recruiting, schedule etc we should have been a lot better than 4-8 last season. I would have liked to see a new coach at the end of last season. Obviously that didn't happen. I don't think fall camp is the time to discuss firing him but Coach Best needs to win games early this season.

 

[E-Wu Tang Clan]

This is my thought as well. Firing Best and going a different direction may help, but the problems facing Eastern are so much bigger than that. The school is in arrears with enrollment, fundraising, and leadership. The meltdown started well before the football program started sliding. I’m not sure hiring Nick Saban would help resurrect the program without massive structural changes to the university as a whole.

To say firing Best may help a some is ridiculous. Bringing in someone new and exciting with a record of winning is exactly what we need for donors and recruits alike. Boosters and businesses don't want to invest in a shitty product. Good recruits don't want to play for a loser team. The product Best is putting on the field is increasingly getting worse and worse. I think we need some success before the money will come not the other way around. And like I said in my post, there are guys, especially in the NFL who will not donate with Best as head coach. They think he is a dickhead which from what I've heard he kind of is.

Recruiting has changed so much in the last 5 years, I’m not sure if even a coaching change could fix the program. Think of it as an inverted pyramid, It starts at the top with the admin and donors ($), and without that , it will be a death of a thousand cuts to what was once a storied program.

Eastern has always done more with less. We've always picked up and developed under recruited guys. Vernon Adams thought to be too small, Cooper Kupp who developed late and only had offers from Idaho State and EWU. Gage Gubrud was a walk on and ended up being as good as any QB who as played at Eastern. We just need to find a guy who is good at identifying diamonds in the rough or bring the guy back who did it before ie Beau Baldwin. This is what Eastern has always done, I don't see why we need to compete with top FCS schools for top talent. If they want to come to Eastern cool, if they don't we'll find a hard working, tough guy who does.

They need to stop the bleeding, I don't see a new coach instantly turning it around and making the playoffs year one but give someone a couple of years and could get there. There are a ton of players in Washington every year that aren't offered by Washington or Washington State but are good enough to win Big Sky games. The cost of attendance (tuition, room and board) at EWU is more affordable for those on partial scholarships than most Big Sky schools. Last season we had a relatively easy non-conference schedule but wasted the opportunity by losing to a non-scholarship team. With the recruiting, schedule etc we should have been a lot better than 4-8 last season. I would have liked to see a new coach at the end of last season. Obviously that didn't happen. I don't think fall camp is the time to discuss firing him but Coach Best needs to win games early this season.

Exactly, they do need to stop the bleeding. Even if it means going to into debt to buy Best out, especially if at the end of the season we can find a good HC candidate to come in or even get Baldwin back.

EWU is unique in that its is the only FCS school in the state. Even thought WSU has been downgraded quite a bit but trying to get back to P5 status again. We picked up guys who could have easily played at UW or WSU.

That last part I disagree with. From what I and others have seen from spring and fall camp it has just gotten worse, not better. There is zero reason to be hopeful or give Best the benefit of the doubt. Although I agree nothing will happen until the end of the season unless shit gets really bad. Which it might since we play in Missoula this year. Montana may put in the local high school team at half-time.