Can SMU Football Find It's Larry Brown?

[Big12Mustang]

Loved the Godfather's appearance at signing day!


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[RebStang]

In my opinion, we need to be realistic and acknowledge that Coach Brown is not the norm when you hire an older coach in a major sport.

The odds of finding the football equivalent of Larry Brown aren't exactly high. Heck, if some of the coaches mentioned in this thread decided they wanted to get back into coaching they would have bigger offers than SMU.

The next coach needs to be a young, aggressive recruiter looking to make a name for himself to open doors to the big time programs. Like it or not, that's where we are right now - either a stepping stone or a low pressure job for a guy wanting one more nice paycheck before retirement.

Next time around, go find some hot shot young recruiter and let him bring in some talent on his way to an SEC or Big XII job. May have to do it a couple times but that's the strategy to get where we want to go, in my opinion. Heck, programs like TCU and Boise State got used as stepping stones a couple times along the way, too.

[LA_Mustang]

We literally hit the lottery with LB. And we even tried to throw the winning ticket away. It is not happening again. That said, there are plenty of really good coaches out there. We've just got to convince one to come here. Also, LB needs to be involved in our sales pitch when we begin the process.

[StingStang]

Chandler Gailey?

[sbsmith]

Chandler Gailey?

Not exactly beloved around these parts. Plus his tenure at GT was rife with mediocrity.

[PonyKris89]

Jimmy Johnson is SMU Football's Larry Brown. Who would have thought that Larry Brown would have come to SMU? Someone get on the phone and get Jimmy Johnson to SMU.

Dude, no comparison between the two. LB loves coaching, and has never stepped away from it.

Johnson burned out on it a long, long time ago. It's just plain stupid that you keep bringing him up.

[PerunaPunch]

Let's see, an older Hall of Fame Player/Coach who has won at the highest levels, who loves SMU and would respect our traditions... Hmmmm.... How about Forest Gregg?

[dirtysouthpony]

Chandler Gailey?

No on Chan Gailey. Drive 60 miles to the east and get Mike Bobo from UGA. A proven top notch recruiter who would be looking to make a name for himself. He knows how to keep the local talent, Atlanta in this case at home.

[ojaipony]

To answer the original question: of course. Someone else asked, though, the better question: Does SMU want to?

A few quick thoughts:

- There are very, very few Larry Browns out there. I don't know who, on the football side, is in the NFL hall of fame, is still alive, and has won both a college NC and Super Bowl. (I don't think there is).

- What we need on football is a high energy guy who is strong with the Xs and Os and really, truly values the importance of recruiting and gets that he has a gold mine within 100 mile radius of Dallas.

- It will take a little bit of time. You really need about 2-3 super strong recruiting classes to get to the top of your conference (also need strong Xs and Os and a little bit of luck, like, your best players don't all get hurt during important times in the season).

- All I want within 3-4 years is to realistically expect a shot at the AAC championship and truly competitive games against Baylor. The talk about moving up to a better conference is way premature. The above sentence is step 1 (shocking that we aren't there yet in 6 years with JJ, that's why I've thrown in the towel with this guy).

Having said all that, I don't know who this person is. I like the idea of Jimmy Johnson, but I don't see it happening (he's been out of the coaching biz a long time and would make a huge pub splash but I don't think he'd really want to get back into it at SMU and I'm not sure if we'd have the willingness to pay the bucks he would require).

I like the idea of Chad Morris, but I don't know much about him other than him being a former HS TX HC with tremendous success and has had great success at Clemson running an exciting offense. Is he a relentless recruiter? Could he likely be able to turn an entire program around? Could he assemble a strong recruiting and Xs and Os staff? I don't know.

After thinking long and hard about this for many many months and doing tons of research, here's my vote (and some of you will hate it): Adrian Klemm. (I know he loves L.A. and it would take a lot to bring him here, but a HC job with a 5 year, $2-3M/yr contract he would not turn down . . he's now the Associate Head Coach at UCLA, something he required to stay . . . if USC and UCLA battled it out for him, I think that says something).

http://www.latimes.com/sports/college/u ... z2sOmEWRNQ

[mustangxc]

Barry Switzer would be just as good as Jimmy Johnson.

[peruna81]

bring Ron back

[mustangxc]

Hire Larry Brown as football coach too! We know he can assemble a top notch staff and he will be great in the locker room. Just bring in some great coordinators like Norm Chow and Monte Kiffin to draw up x's and o's and we're set.

[PonySnob]

LB certainly has a better record against top 25 teams/teams with records than JJ does.........

[GRGB]

Mack Brown.

Does he want to make 500k, or show how good he is for 2.5-3m

[Bergermeister]

bring Ron back

Bring Hayden back - he's only in his mid-80s.