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| What's in store for Ohio State? |
Just think, in less than two weeks, we could be hearing this sentence from Gene Smith. Scandals aside, the next coach will inherit one of the most-coveted jobs in college football and a substantial nucleus of young talent to build a successful team around.
Before I get into talking about the top ten potential coaching candidates that could be on Geno’s List, let’s take a moment to discuss the lay of the land and what we’re looking for in a candidate. Based on what we've seen so far this season from the interim regime, it’s clear we need someone head coaching experience to fill the shoes of our iconic former coach.
In addition, the next coach will have an enormous challenge mimicking the Jim Tressel-built recruiting wall in the state of Ohio. Even before The Vest’s departure, the wall was already showing some cracks with blue-chip recruits Trey DePriest, Jordan Hicks and Aundrey Walker fleeing the Buckeye state for Alabama, Texas and Southern California, respectively. Someone with Ohio ties has to be near or at the top of the list of candidates. Not to mention, they obviously have to be able to recruit in the Sun Belt states. And finally, the final criterion to evaluate the candidates is their past offensive coaching experience.
With the evolution of the college game and our annual lethargic production, we need someone with an offensive coaching background. Gone are the days of three yards and cloud of dust. If we want to be able to beat teams from other BCS conferences and our own, we have got to regularly score above 30 on a consistent basis. While I’m by no means dismissing the importance of defense, we've have got to score more points.
Therefore, I’m going to evaluate candidates based on three criteria:
1. Head Coaching experience
2. Ohio ties
3. Offensive coaching background.
Let's get on to the list after the jump.
