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***Coaching Search Thread***

Portland State:
Sources tell us that FootballCoachScoop that Athletic Director Torre Chisholm has narrowed the search down and will announce the new Head Coach next
week. According to our sources, Chisholm has narrowed it down to Al Borges (San Diego State Offensive Coordinator), Nigel Burton (Nevada Defensive
Coordinator) and Mark Speckman (Willamette Head Coach).

http://footballcoachscoop.com/Scoop.html
 
I don't want to judge the guy too early, but I'm surprised Burton is on this list. Nevada's defense has been terrible for many years now.
 
WinViksWin said:
So after seeing the fly sweep be so successful in the Civil War game is anyone else thinking that it might just be something worth going out on a limb for? Cause I sure was impressed by both teams using it and gaining huge chunks of yards. I really think coach Speckman is the guy who can bring us back to the forefront of the Big Sky. I hope the powers that be give him a shot. I don't think much of Al Borges he doesn't seem very sincere and doesn't seem to have the tools necessary to dig us out of the hole we are in. I liken him to Glanville, He is a name coach with a fine resume at many big time places yet he does not have the skills needed to manage an entire program. I am excited for the Viking players if they end up hiring Speckman they will absolutely love the guy and it will bring positivity and cohesion to their team. Hope you all enjoyed the Civil War I for one took the day off today.
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The fly sweep is but one play from the fly offense playbook. OSU does not run the Fly Offense in it's entirety.
 
SDSU’s Borges awaits Portland St. call

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/dec/05/sdsus-borges-awaits-portland-st-call/

San Diego State offensive coordinator Al Borges is expected to find out next week if he has reached his career goal of becoming a head football coach.

Borges recently interviewed as one of five finalists for the vacant head-coaching job at Portland State, where he served as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 1986-92.

A Portland State spokesman said the university hopes to make an announcement on the hire next week.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Borges said of his chances. “I’m just kind of hanging. I’ve been through this so many times I can’t even count.”

He said his interview in Portland went “fine.” In the meantime, Borges said he’s focused on recruiting for SDSU.

He’s vying to replace Jerry Glanville, who resigned last month after going 9-24 in three seasons at the Football Championship Subdivision program. The hiring of Borges, 54, would rekindle memories of the glory years for Portland State under head coach Pokey Allen, who went 63-26-2 with Borges running the West Coast offense. Borges since has taken that offense on to successful stints at UCLA (1996-2000) and Auburn (2004-07). He just completed his first season at SDSU, which finished with a 4-8 record under a new staff.

Borges’ desire to become a head coach has led him to make bold career moves previously. He has also proved to be a deft interviewee. At UCLA, he was considered a hot candidate after the Bruins won 20 straight games from 1996-97.

He thought he would improve his chances of landing a top job by making a splash with his offense at a rebuilding program, so he left for Cal in 2001 to work under Tom Holmoe. The strategy backfired. Cal went 1-10, and the staff was fired.

Despite working with struggling teams there and at Indiana (2002-03), Borges bounced back by convincing then-Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville that he was the man to lead the Tigers’ offense. Auburn made four Top 15 finishes during his tenure there.
 
This fly stuff is getting out of hand! It is one play, people! No one is using Speckman's whole offense at the D-I level. Just because a couple of schools use one or two plays doesn't mean that we should adopt Speckman's entire playbook. If you want to incorporate the fly sweep into PSU's offense, then you can hire any coach to do that!
 
They ran the inside zone off the sweep action and also ran the counter off of it and they ran play action off of it. That is more than one play fellas. And the fly also uses a lot of what oregon does in their offense as well. I don't think it is out of hand I just think you all are afraid of what you obviously don't understand. I'm sure the people making this decision are smarter and less petty than that. Even if they don't hire him there is no need to bash an offense you have never seen and have no clue about. Not trying to be rude guys but lets be realistic. The fly is certainly weird but it is going to be able to adapt and depending on personel maybe speckman runs less of it than any of you think. Maybe they run it at Willamette by virtue of necessity when what he really wants to do is air it out. None of us know so lets just wait and see what the committee thinks and roll with that.
 
WinViksWin said:
I really think coach Speckman is the guy who can bring us back to the forefront of the Big Sky. I hope the powers that be give him a shot. I don't think much of Al Borges he doesn't seem very sincere and doesn't seem to have the tools necessary to dig us out of the hole we are in. I liken him to Glanville, He is a name coach with a fine resume at many big time places yet he does not have the skills needed to manage an entire program. I am excited for the Viking players if they end up hiring Speckman they will absolutely love the guy and it will bring positivity and cohesion to their team.
Click to expand...

Negatives on Speckman:
-Went 11-17 in a three year span from 2005-2007. That included finishes of 2-7 in 2006 and 4-6 in 2007.
-Has ZERO division 1 expierience, ZERO!

The only positive that I keep hearing is how the fly sweep was used in the civil war. I watched the game and it was run maybe 4-5 snaps in the entire game. The consistent style of fly sweep that Williamette has run belongs at the high school/division 3 level.

Al Borges has a long tenure in the Division 1 ranks as a Offensive Coordinator and has been fairly successful as well. How is he not sincere? He's going to take a pay cut to be named Portlands head coach.
 
D1 experience doesn't mean much to me personally. Considering the issues PSU faces I just think Speckman has the ability to deal with these shortcomings more so than the others. I am not saying the others aren't great coaches, just that in this instance he would be more prepared for lack of funding and lack of fan support which none of the other coaches have faced to the extent that Speckman has. It is not all about the fly, the fly is merely something which would bring people out to the park to see what the heck is going on with these Vikings and i think THAT is the positive it brings. Also coach Speckman himself is this interesting story, having been born with no hands, which would help in national exposure as well as recruiting as odd as it sounds. Recruits would watch his every move and would remember him that is for sure. He is also an inspirational guy and wonderful public speaker I would think those would be big positives for him as he tries to gain support and fervor for Viking football. And taking a cross section of any coaches career might find similar results, in 2007 though they beat a highly ranked Linfield team and many of their losses were by very small margins.

Looking at Borges' record he went 5-19 between 2002-2003.
Further he went 16-42 between 1999-2003

I consider him insincere because he has not been at any of these programs for long and has no loyalty to any of these programs. Loyalty and family is what PSU needs to find a sense of. If he left San Diego all the promises he made the year before would have been BS and thus insincere. And if he left there that would mean he had been at a D1 school for 1 year 3 seperate times in his career and had been at a school two years or less 5 times. Also it seems he has not done well as a recruiter, I have seen some other people post about this as well but am not sure about how to truly measure this. What I do know is that he certainly has never had to deal with lack of funding or fan support at any of these schools which would be a huge hurdle at PSU. And he has never had to deal with all that comes along with being a head coach which is a strike in my book. I am not being argumentative but there are significant shortcomings with all of these coaches and In my humble opinion Speckman has the fewest. He will be able to motivate the team and the city, and overcome the serious obstacles which are at PSU right now despite not having the D1 experience. I can live with Borges as the hire but am more convinced that Speckman would right the ship immediately. Hope you understand that this is merely my take on it and I mean no disrespect whatsoever as all of these candidates are good people and talented coaches. Who is right for PSU right now, we will know soon.
 
I don't think he is a "token" candidate at all he is a solid coach. But I don't think folks like the fact that he has only been a coordinator for 2 years. And also his defenses at Nevada have been less than stellar. This year they are last in the WAC in pass defense, 8th out of 9 teams in red zone defense, 8th in pass defense efficiency, 4th in total defense giving up almost 400 yards a game, 3rd in scoring defense giving up 28 points a game. Although they do lead the conference in Sacks as well as rush defense.

I think he sounds like a great recruiter and a solid guy but I bet many people wonder if he is ready to take on a head coaching position such as this and probably wonder if he can manage and be successful with the many problems here at PSU. I wish we had more info on him though.
 
WinViksWin said:
Also coach Speckman himself is this interesting story, having been born with no hands, which would help in national exposure as well as recruiting as odd as it sounds. Recruits would watch his every move and would remember him that is for sure. He is also an inspirational guy and wonderful public speaker I would think those would be big positives for him as he tries to gain support and fervor for Viking football.
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Sounds like the same reasons we brought in Glanville. For "exposure".

Borges should give Speckman a call for a motivational pep talk after he takes over the PSU Football Team next week.
 
Way to take things out of context and not answer any of the questions about borges. How in the world can you compare Glanvilles' type of exposure to that of Speckman? And unlike Glanville, Speckman has many other positive attributes which you are choosing to ignore. Awfully narrow minded of you. Try some facts or something, you haven't made a case for Borges that i can get behind. Borges questions: Doesn't it bother you that he has never been at place with the kind of obstacles that PSU has? Does it bother you that he has never been a great recruiter? Does it bother you that he has never been a head coach even after trying for years and getting turned down several times? Don't you think there is a reason he hasn't been a head coach? what is that reason? Does it bother you that he has had such short stays at so many different schools? Does it bother you that he has been fired so many times, and what does that say about his ability to hold a program together? Does it bother you that he makes promises that he doesn't live up to at schools? Is it a problem for you that he struggled at places like UCLA, Indiana, Cal, SDSU? What makes you so sure he would be succesful at PSU? Just saying there are more questions than answers with Borges for me, which is not to say i couldn't be persuaded if the argument actually had some substance.
 
Borges, Burton, or Speckman. I haven't heard anyone say anything about Burton. Other coaches have praised him. He's supposed to be a good recruiter, which everyone agrees is important. He's specialized in defense - is that why you all are so silent? Or is it something else?
 
Something else? What are you implying that people are racist and that is why we aren't talking about Burton? I don't think that is it but I can't speak for all these yahoos.

I posted about Burton earlier obviously. I don't think he is seen as a strong candidate because he doesn't have any experience being in charge of a program. And he specializes in Defense yet his defense is not all that good. The reason Nevada wins is because there offense outscores the other team (averaging 40 points a game on O) not because the D is so strong. He gave up 45 points to Idaho of all teams. And his Defense has actually gotten worse statistically in his second year, they were ranked 4th in the nation in rush defense last year and are 26th now. They were ranked 85 in pass defense efficiency with a calculation of 135.18 in 08, this year they are ranked 114 with a mark of 155.30. Last year they allowed 395.58 yards a game this year they are giving up 398.92 yards. they averaged more sacks in 08 and the tackles for loss have also gone down this year, although they have allowed 4 less points a game in 09 27 as compared to 31 in 08. Both years they have been ranked 119 out of 120 FBS teams in pass defense not dead last but close. I am pretty sure Montana is licking their chops on that one. I have heard about how he is a great recruiter which is definitely a plus but there is a lot more that goes into rebuilding a program than that. I also have read that he relates well with the players which is important but most coaches have the same attributes and have more experience than he does.

What I would like to know more about him is how he does with the media, how is he as a public speaker and face of a program, how will he get portlanders excited about PSU again, other than winning which is always the easy response. And I would really like to know how they can afford to take a chance on a guy who has so little experience and not a ton of success coordinating a defense after everything we have been through the past few years. Also I saw that he is up for the San Jose state job would he wait to see if he could get that job were PSU to offer him? I question whether he is ready to be a head coach only because I don't know more about him. There has to be a reason why he is in the top 3 but what that reason is sure isn't evident from here. Which coaches, besides Mike Riley who endorsed both Burton and Speckman, are supporting Burton as the HC at PSU?

I still think Coach Speckman is better prepared than he is to deal with the total package of PSU football and all the challenges which it faces. Although think about this.... Speckman as the HC and Burton as the DC and assistant head coach, that would be a solid combo. Might mean a pay cut for Burton though not sure what the scale is at Nevada.
 
WinViksWin said:
Borges questions: Doesn't it bother you that he has never been at place with the kind of obstacles that PSU has? Does it bother you that he has never been a great recruiter? Does it bother you that he has never been a head coach even after trying for years and getting turned down several times? Don't you think there is a reason he hasn't been a head coach? what is that reason? Does it bother you that he has had such short stays at so many different schools? Does it bother you that he has been fired so many times, and what does that say about his ability to hold a program together? Does it bother you that he makes promises that he doesn't live up to at schools? Is it a problem for you that he struggled at places like UCLA, Indiana, Cal, SDSU? What makes you so sure he would be succesful at PSU? Just saying there are more questions than answers with Borges for me, which is not to say i couldn't be persuaded if the argument actually had some substance.
Click to expand...

Although, if Borges wasn't a good football coach in at least some degree, all of those schools obviously wouldn't have hired him in the first place. And additionally, it may not have been completely personal when he was let go from some of those big schools either, it may have just been an entire staff cut after an unsuccessful season (like what happened at cal). Basically, I think it would be beneficial for PSU to have a head coach who has first hand experience and knowledge on how the large and successful college programs are run. Although Speckman is a good story and may be a good coach, his lack of upper-division experience doesn't really point in an optimistic direction when we're talking about bringing the PSU football program to a point of national dominance.
And to bring exposure to the program, I personally think having a head coach who has coaching experience at schools like Auburn, UCLA, Cal, Indiana and Oregon will do just as much as having a head coach with no hands.
 
Thanks, Wnviks. That's what I wanted. Good points. I'd still put him at the same level - for different reasons - with Speckman. Although that may not be saying much.
 
pdxfan said:
Borges, Burton, or Speckman. I haven't heard anyone say anything about Burton. Other coaches have praised him. He's supposed to be a good recruiter, which everyone agrees is important. He's specialized in defense - is that why you all are so silent? Or is it something else?
Click to expand...

Burton is less known to the crowd here. Borges has history here. Speckman is known locally.
 
To my surprise the portland tribune is reporting that Nigel Burton Will be the next coach of PSU. I am skeptical but I guess it can't get any worse than Glanville... I hope. Also seems weird that it is coming out now even though the article says it won't be officially announced till tuesday. I wonder if it is true.
 
Here is the article: http://www.portlandtribune.com/sports/story.php?story_id=126016316653673500
The Tribune is by and far a solid weekly. No reason not to believe them.
 
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