Bo knows football. Bo knows defense. Bo knows the recruiting region. Bo .
CSU should get Bo Pelini to be its next coach.
Alas, no news yet, as the Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley and the likely new Florida coach, Jim McElwain, meet in Fort Collins.
So let’s spin this thing forward. Assuming McElwain leaves, who should be the new coach of Colorado State football?
I say Bo.
But how about ?
On my weekly Tuesday show on 102.3 FM, co-host Nate Kreckman gushed about Baldwin, and understandably so — McElwain has referred to his CSU offensive coordinator as his closest confidant in Fort Collins. In efforts to maintain stability, . When you fire a coach, you have the luxury of gambling on a hotshot coordinator or, perhaps, a proud alum (which is why some suggest Joey Porter, the Steelers’ linebackers coach, could be a good fit, even though this sounds like a Jon Embree situation if I’ve ever heard it.) But when your coach leaves, it means your team is in pretty good shape, and sustainability is vital.
If CSU promotes Baldwin, he can say to his players: “Hey, I was here when we won 10 games and went to a bowl, and so were you. I believe in you, and you hopefully believe in me. Let’s do this.”
A Denver native, Baldwin’s been a head coach before, he’s been an offensive coordinator at many schools, including Michigan State, and he’s clearly been a mentor to names you know — Kapri Bibbs, Dee Hart, Rashard Higgins and Garrett Grayson, the newly minted .
Baldwin knows this region for recruiting, and he could step right in and coach in the bowl game (like the Las Vegas Bowl). And this is more fun than substance, but check out this local tie, via Colorado State’s media guide — he preceded John Elway at Granada Hills (Calif.) High School in the early 1970s, then coached for Elway’s father, Jack, at Cal State Northridge. Baldwin coached under the elder Elway most of his early career, with stops at Cal State Northridge, San Jose State and Stanford.
Also, Baldwin is older — he turns 60 in March — so you’d think that this would be his pinnacle. He’s not looking to get to the SEC. In other words, even if he does have a couple good seasons, you’d think he wouldn’t bolt.
OK, this all sounds nice, but let’s talk about Bo Pelini? If he’d actually want the job, go get him.
No, this guy wouldn’t stay for more than a few years, assuming they actually keep winning. But this guy is too talented to pass up — again, assuming he actually wants in. Fired as Nebraska’s head coach, his resume is sterling, with defensive coordinator positions at Nebraska, Oklahoma and LSU. And check this out — he got the Nebraska job in 2008, and in every season, including this past season, he won either nine or 10 games. Read that again. Yeah, he can ruffle feathers. But he’s surely humbled by all of this stuff in Nebraska, and he’ll be hungry to coach at a high level.
A curveball name could be , a name you might not know. He’s the head coach at Colorado School of Mines, and he is credited as an offensive innovator.
And of course, Mark Lubick, Sonny’s son, is available, and has been an assistant in the SEC and learned under his dad.
On Twitter, I asked fans who they think should be the new coach. — “Who cares. Two winning seasons and they will be gone too. #bitter”
Chew on this
• What was that? What happened down the stretch in ?
Coach Brian Shaw said Denver’s staff knew what play Portland would run, via inbounds, in the final five seconds. Yet the abysmal defender J.J. Hickson was on Robin Lopez, who scored the winning basket. Then, with 1.3 seconds left, Denver still had a shot at a shot. And what happened? The inbounds pass went to Danilo Gallinari, who flung some ridiculous, defended 3-pointer. That was the best shot the Nuggets could get? It was disgusting.
I’ve taken some heat for being so down on the Nuggets, even when they went through that winning streak. But the Cleveland win notwithstanding, most of these wins are not quality wins; they’re “you can’t lose these ones” wins. Yes, Denver was playing the second game of a back-to-back against Portland. But the Nuggets couldn’t win a close game at home, and thus couldn’t nab a big win against a talented team.
Nuggets radio broadcaster Jason Kosmicki said it best in the postgame show. He was asked, “Are you a believer in the ‘good loss’ theory?”
And Koz said, “I’m not sure this was a good loss. … This was a tough pill to swallow.”
• Happy 46th birthday to , who inevitably will celebrate Friday night, and feel all right, at a party here on the West side, where he’ll reach for his 40 and then turn it up — the designated driver will take the keys to his truck — and he’ll hit the shore because he’s faded, and honeys in the street will say, “Monty, yo we made it!”
Benjamin Hochman: bhochman@denverpost.com or
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