Workers put up the smokestack for the big announcement at Mitten Hall.
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| Two hours after this post, Steve Addazio was hired by BC. |
Nobody does it quite like the Vatican when it comes to hiring announcements.
The last time a big hiring happened in St. Peter's Square, thousands of people waited outside for a puff of smoke announcing a new Pope.
Got to wonder what happened during that interview process.
"Your resume said you were in the Hitler Youth?"
"Yes."
"Then you were in the German Army?"
"Yes."
"Then you were Hitler's driver for eight months?"
"Yes."
"Can you win?"
"Yes."
"Not a problem. You're hired."
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| Inquirer's Mike Jensen's choice is the most logical one. |
Temple University is hiring a new head football coach and this is what's at stake:
Hire a proven winner and Temple goes from 4-7 to 9-3 seasons and increases attendance at Lincoln Financial Field from the 25K range of the past three seasons to 35K and beyond. With that come increased contributions and an overall university endowment in the bottom half of the nation moves into the top half.
That's all.
Hire someone who MIGHT win and risk going from 4-7 to 3-9 or worse. If that happens, the only thing rattling around LFF on Saturday afternoons will be tumbleweed, not people.
Do you want to take that chance, even with a popular former assistant coach who is well-liked by the current players and the parents? Or a popular former Temple player who has never run a BCS program or recruited a single player?
I don't.
No one knows who is the leading candidate at this point, but this much is clear: Temple got burned by a blustery-talking assistant coach from a big-time program the last time and is not likely to go down that road again.
Also expect that a name will surface who might not be among those mentioned so far.
You need only to look at Boston College for an example of that. Steve Frauddazio, err, Addazio was named head coach by BC a week ago today at 4:30 p.m., even though at 2:13 the same afternoon he was not mentioned as a finalist by ESPN Boston writer Brett McMurphy (see inset).
Pete Lembo of Ball State is the one guy who has NOT been mentioned by anyone, so I fully expect that Lembo could be named head coach sometime tomorrow.
Lembo is one of really two "proven winning head coaches" available for Temple to hire at this point. The other is Bowling Green's Dave Clawson.
And neither one of those guys were ever in the Hitler Youth.
Tomorrow: The Haves, The Have-Nots and the Might-Haves
