It's unfortunate the Marion hire didn't happen, my preference is at a minimum that the candidate have D1 coordinator experience and Marion checked that box and is clearly on the ascent in his career. My guess would be that someone else came and offered a bigger bag, that's the way business goes.
Not sure why folks think we'll get a coach that will be here for more than a handful of years. We want what we saw in Taylor, a capable coach that comes in and is very successful and is hired away. This is the game now, especially at the FCS level. This idea that we get a coach that will hang around for years on end isn't likely...and if it does happen, it's likely because the program is wallowing in mediocrity. Much like the top quality players will perform well and get promoted to a higher level after a year or two, a coach on the ascension will be on a similar trajectory.
This is a desirable head coaching position and these names wouldn't be thrown around if Dr. Wood/Orr weren't offering a competitive FCS salary. I'm not sweating a capable and competent coach being hired but a gimmick hire concerns me to a certain extent. A lot of whether one of the gimmicky names being thrown around would work depends on who that person fills out their staff with. Do they go the McCaffrey route and hook up all his bros with a job that ends in utter disaster, or do they go the Deon route and fill a staff with capable and connected coaches and makes changes to staff when needed?
Deon got his start in the FCS ranks before cashing out his chips and moving on to Colorado. The difference with Deon is he had his baller son, Shedeur, to head up his offense and he crushed it on the recruiting trail both at JSU and Colorado to surround him with talent. I get the desire to emulate that approach, but if the gimmick coach isn't coming on board with some quality talent in tow, it could be a complete disaster.
It'll be interesting to see how this hiring saga plays out.