CHEYENNE, Wyo.—A day after firing coach Joe Glenn, Wyoming Athletics Director Tom Burman said Monday that he will move quickly to fill the coaching vacancy but won’t let recruiting needs rush the decision.
Burman declined to discuss specific candidates for the Wyoming job. He said the search will look across the country and up and down the college divisions.
“We’re going to look all over the county to find the right fit for the University of Wyoming who can help us get over the hump,” Burman said. “We need to look at leadership abilities, organizational abilities, ability to sell the program to recruits, first and foremost, to the state, secondly, and then (the coaching) staff.”
Glenn, a well-liked coach credited for his promotion of the football program, was fired Sunday after finishing his fourth losing season in six years at the school. Glenn went 30-41 overall and 15-31 in the Mountain West Conference. The Cowboys finished the 2008 campaign 4-8 overall and 1-7 in the conference.
Burman said he never set a preseason mandate that the Cowboys reach a bowl game, but he did expect a winning season.
“I think really what the issue came down to this year was we finished with one win in the league and last year we finished with two wins in the league,” Burman said. “And we need better than that after six seasons.”
Burman said the university was contacting the four high school players who already made commitments to Wyoming to encourage them to still come despite Glenn’s departure. However, Burman also said the 2009 squad will have a strong group of juniors, seniors and experienced underclassmen.
“We’re going to do everything we can to catch up in the recruiting as soon as we get a coach on board, but until then, there’s really not a lot you can do,” he said.
Burman wouldn’t discuss the salary he plans to offer an incoming coach, only saying it will be competitive within the Mountain West Conference.
“We’re always limited at the University of Wyoming,” Burman said. “But we can put a package together that’s competitive within the Mountain West Conference that’s going to allow us to lure the kind of candidate we want. … We’re investing in (the football program) and for us to be nickel and diming it probably doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
Glenn had a base salary of $150,324, but various incentives provided for payment of up to $450,000 year. The university said it will pay Glenn $316,000 for the remaining two years of his contract.
When asked about potential candidates, Burman said he has a “short list” but wouldn’t respond to multiple questions about Nebraska receivers coach Ted Gilmore—a name that’s surfaced as a possibility for Wyoming.
Burman said he’s not looking specifically for an offensive or defensive specialist. Wyoming’s offense ranked 107th out of 119 Division I schools in total offense and 43rd in total defense for the season.
“We know where we were this year offensively,” Burman said. “We feel like we have better players than that, and so offense is important, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to hire an offensive guy. But if we do hire a defensive guy, they’re going to have to demonstrate to us a real strong commitment to offense.”
Burman, who became UW’s athletics director in October 2006, said he views the football program at Boise State as a model for what he’d like to do at Wyoming. He referred to Boise State’s consistency and the way outgoing head coaches are often replaced by a member of the team’s coaching staff.
That’s where “I want to get this program to, where we hire a great coach and that coach gets recruited to take a job at a BCS level program and we pat ’em on the back and name one of the coordinators the head coach and we move on,” Burman said. “To me that’s the ideal situation we can be in.”
