Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Moving on down the list...

Bill Cowher says he's not interested.

Asked if he had any interest in going back to his former school, Cowher said, "No."

"I've been getting a lot of contacts about it; I've heard about it," Cowher said Wednesday. "But I've got a job here."

And now we begin the oh-god-I-hope-we-don't-screw-this-up phase of the coaching search. David Cutcliffe, Gary Barnett (?!), Jim Donnan: if one of those men is hired, Chuck Neinas owes us $35,000.

NC State hasn't contacted Cutcliffe--or Norm Chow, who I really like--officially.

Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Norm Chow said through a team spokesman that he had not been approached about the job, while University of Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton said nobody has approached him about discussing the vacancy with offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe.

Tom Dienhart throws out a bunch of names in haphazard fashion, and you've likely heard all of 'em except:

Houston's Art Briles

Briles would be a risky choice (and I think Paul Johnson, Jimbo Fisher, and Norm Chow are better options), but man, I love his system. Should we somehow miss out on our second-tier guys, Briles should get an interview. The only thing is he's never coached outside of the state of Texas, so he has no roots in the southeast and might not have any interest in relocating. I looked around the internets for some detail about his offense that I could share here, but the best I could do were these tidbits:

From Bruce Ciskie:

Things started to turn around for Houston when Art Briles came aboard before the 2003 season. He brought with him an offense that no one has really been able to accurately describe. It’s part spread, part option, truly a multiple offense.

Also, an old Topeka Capital-Journal article:

[T]hey orchestrate an offense designed to keep teams off balance, with unconventional screens and options mixed with no-huddle, spread and shotgun looks.

Houston is playing in the C-USA title game this Friday at 8PM. It's on ESPN2--check the Cougars out.