Colorado’s search committee has contacted Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress about running backs coach Eric Bieniemy as a candidate for its football coaching position, Childress told reporters in Minnesota on Friday.
Bieniemy, who helped lead CU to the 1990 national title, was listed among the early coaching candidates after his alma mater fired Dan Hawkins last week.
Bieniemy, 41, was then considered a longshot after athletic director Mike Bohn said he would not hire a coach-in-waiting.
Bieniemy has been the Vikings’ running backs coach since 2006. He coached the same position at UCLA from 2003-05 and at Colorado from 2001-02. Bieniemy landed some of those schools’ most prized recruits, and Childress said Bieniemy could be an offensive coordinator in the NFL and a potential head coach.
Bohn will not comment on any potential candidates.
Bohn defends committee.
Bohn defended the makeup of the search committee during a Friday booster luncheon at the Blake Street Tavern.
The committee, announced Wednesday, consists of David Cough, professor of chemical and biological engineering; Robert Boswell, interim vice chancellor for diversity, equity and community; Elizabeth Bradley, chair of the Boulder faculty assembly intercollegiate athletics committee; Dave Hoover, chairman and CEO of the Ball Corporation; Roger Parker, chairman and CEO of Recovery Energy, Inc.; Ric Porreca, university vice chancellor and chief financial officer; and George Solich, president and CEO of Cordillera Energy Partners III. Clough will chair the committee.
There are no members of the athletic department or former players.
“A lot of people don’t understand that Liz Bradley, who chairs our Boulder faculty assembly for intercollegiate athletics is an Olympian,” Bohn said of the former rower. “Well, that’s pretty good for me.
“Just because the search committee doesn’t have a football person on it, don’t be misled that they’re not utilizing consultants. They’re utilizing the entire senior staff of the athletic department, including myself.”
Continuing rivalry?
For future nonconference games, Bohn said he is working to get Nebraska on the schedule. He said he will not schedule other Big 12 North schools.
“We went to Missouri, and we had 200 fans there,” he said. “That doesn’t work for us.”
