What’s the knock on Napier?

I think he should be our guy. Maybe his age? He is a youngen and AU is a crazy job.

Who’s your first?

Cristobal. But I am really warming up to Napier. He might be a better "coach" than Cristobal. Napier can recruit also.

I would be very happy if we hired him.

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IMO, he should be #1. I would also vet the Indiana coach. He has SEC ties. Mario scares me as a gameday coach. Freeze is crazy.

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I don't get all the love for Cristobal. Oregon? That program was built up years ago. Any mediocre coach could step into that job and win the PAC-12 almost every year. He's a pretty good recruiter, but his best job doing that was at Alabama, and again, pretty easy place to get kids to go to win you are on top and having multiple 1st round picks every year.

Napier sound like the guy, to me.

Napier in my opinion has done a much better job than Cristobol. He can build a program so it seems. He may be young but if he is a success then we have a coach for a good while...would love to have a dynamic offense along with a defense that we have had in the past. That would make us contenders every year. I don't see that with Cristobol. To me he hasn't shown a dynamic offense. I like the new Indiana Offense and the Rajun Cajuns offense somewhat...

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I don't get all the love for Cristobal. Oregon? That program was built up years ago. Any mediocre coach could step into that job and win the PAC-12 almost every year. He's a pretty good recruiter, but his best job doing that was at Alabama, and again, pretty easy place to get kids to go to win you are on top and having multiple 1st round picks every year.

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I mean, it sounds like you came to a conclusion and are just going to talk your way into believing it regardless. Oregon is not in any way, shape or, form, an "easy" school to win at. He has taken their recruiting to a level that no coach - not even Chip Kelly - came close to reaching. That school is NOT easy to recruit to: they have zero instate talent, and who the frick wants to go to school in Eugene, Oregon? Cristobal's elite recruiting was also confirmed at Miami. At Alabama, he spearheaded the entire recruiting effort as both the RC and AHC - its lame to just say "oh its Alabama that means nothing". He was by far the best recruiter on a staff of "All Star" recruiters. Literally the same thing was said about Kirby who has continued his recruiting prowess at Georgia. Everyone who I have heard from who knows anything has told me that Cristobal is a Top-5 recruiting HC. He's that good, and now consider that despite having zero West-Coast ties, he is recruiting better than anyone who has ever held that Oregon job. At Auburn, he'd be stepping back into the region where he actually has built-in pipelines.

The other thing about Cristobl is his pedigree. Two NC wins at Miami under Jimmy Johnson. Then moved to coaching where he tutored under Greg Schiano who is a no-nonsense type that while an a-hole, is a legitimately good coach. Cristobal was there at Rutgers when they turned that program around and sent players to the league. Then the 4-years as Saban's right-hand man during their dominance. He's picked up a lot of the intangibles required to build and maintain a program from the experiences that he has. Saban knew what he was doing when he hired him and immediately gave him the AC and RC title.

Also the idea that anyone can win at Oregon is completely ignoring what happened after Kelly left.

Helfrich came in and won with Kelly’s players. Then went 9-4 and 4-8 in his third and fourth years. Then Taggert came in and went 7-6.

I think that you are right on there.

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I have also heard that he would be Sabans choice to follow him. Might not be true, but Saban did put a lot of confidence in him. I keep hearing that he does not sustain or he is not a good game day coach. What is your opinion of that?

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Yes, I've brought that up as well here. I've heard from multiple people that he is Saban's choice to replace him. He impressed him a LOT during his time at Alabama.

The "gameday coach" stuff is entirely up in the air. I've literally heard people state that Saban is a bad gameday coach. 95% of this job at this level is "CEO" type stuff: recruiting, assembling a staff of recruiters and coaches, and setting a team IDENTITY with a prolonged vision. The 5% "gameday" crap is up in the air - we've seen Gus beat Saban and Urban struggle with Tommy Tuberville. Everyone is going to lose games; the goal here is to find an elite recruiter who understands program building and how to get there. Cristobal has the makeup of this type of coach, and I can't stress enough how important recruiting is at this level. He understands things like the fact that you NEED to build both sides of the football at the lines. He would also assemble an elite staff here as he has built connections and is the type who's recruiting ability also extends to recruiting coaches.