Wash Post: Consultants play key role in CFB Coach Searches

[dcpony]

The story leads with Orsini's hire of June Jones.


Consultants play key role in college football coaching searches

By Zach Berman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 17, 2009;

Not long after Southern Methodist fired football coach Phil Bennett in October 2007, officials at the school had an ideal candidate in mind to replace him. In January 2008, they finally got their man: June Jones, who had just concluded a 12-1 season at Hawaii.

And for those 71 days, Bob Beaudine kept quiet.

Coaching searches do not usually take 71 days, and SMU Athletic Director Steve Orsini knew the next coach would cement his reputation -- and possibly his future at SMU. But Jones was the coach he wanted, and Jones was the coach he was confident he could wait to hire. And he was confident, in part, because of Beaudine, a search consultant.

Beaudine was hired by Orsini to help with SMU's search, and worked with Jones's agent to gauge Jones's interest and facilitate discussion. Because Jones was preparing for the Warriors' appearance in the Sugar Bowl that season, he did not want to be distracted by job speculation. Such distraction would have been likely if not for a third-party search consultant, which has become one of the popular trends in football and men's basketball coaching searches.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 12_pf.html

[Longtime]

Um, didn't we interview and offer Paul Johnson? Or is the "June was Orsini's man all along" story a lot of spin control?

[Mustang75]

So JJ was the "Secret Coach" all along. Man that thread was funny!