Colorado State University offensive coordinator Dave Baldwin. Brent Lewis, The Denver Post)
… and that case involves not just Dave Baldwin, the Rams’ interim head coach for the upcoming bowl game, but also the concept of continuity and stability.
With president Tony Frank and interim AD John Morris conducting the search for Jim McElwain’s successor, it’s reasonable — and even advisable — to see who might be out there, whether the predictable candidates or even a shocker or two. That includes (but isn’t limited to) assistants Tony Alford of Notre Dame and Billy Gonzales of Mississippi State, both former CSU players; and Matt Lubick of Oregon, Sonny Lubick’s son. I’ve gotten indications that Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost is inclined to wait and be picky, even among power conference jobs, and is considered extremely unlikely to be interested in the CSU position. The natural job for him, at his alma mater, Nebraska, went to Oregon State’s Mike Riley.
But after checking out who might be interested, or be talked into being interested, CSU could weigh everything, decide to strike “interim” from Baldwin’s job title and be in good shape.
After McElwain’s three-season stint, the Rams have a good thing going.
Baldwin, McElwain’s offensive coordinator, is well-liked and respected by the players. He oversaw an offense that averaged 497.8 yards per game this season, and his tutelage helped Garrett Grayson claim virtually all CSU career passing records — with the bowl game remaining. The offense was a bit of a hybrid, with McElwain bringing a lot of what he did at Alabama, but also with both he and Baldwin being adaptive to piece together what would work here.
Sometimes forgotten is that he was McElwain’s boss, so to speak, during their time together at Michigan State, when he was offensive coordinator and McElwain was wide receivers coach. And after getting the job at CSU, McElwain hired Baldwin away from Utah State.
Baldwin, 59, is from the Jack Elway coaching tree, having worked for John’s father on staffs at Cal State-Northridge, San Jose State and Stanford. . He has been a head coach at Santa Barbara City College (1990-93), Santa Rosa Junior College (1995), Cal State-Northridge (1995) and San Jose State (1997-2000).
Yes, wouldn’t that be a bit weird, if both CU and CSU’s coaches were former San Jose State head coaches?
The Spartans were 18-27 under Baldwin in four seasons, but there’s much more to that than meets the eye. They were 4-7, 4-8 and 3-7 in Baldwin’s first three seasons, then 7-5 in 2000, losing their final two games. They beat both Stanford and then seventh-ranked Texas Christian. But all in all, in an underfunded program with horrible facilities in what then was a decent Western Athletic Conference, that was impressive work.
His exit was bizarre and amounted to a contract dispute over what now seems to be a minuscule amount of money and Baldwin and his agent balking at ridiculous terms as well. He was offered a three-year contract with a base salary of $160,000. If the Spartans went 8-0 in the WAC, a year would have been added to the deal. If they went 4-4, a year would have been knocked off the term. And if they went 3-5 or worse, the contract was over — meaning he would have have been fired under the terms of his contract.
This is oversimplifying, but rather than accept that, Baldwin and his agent submitted a counteroffer of a $185,000 three-year deal, but San Jose State’s posture was take it or leave it, and Baldwin was shocked when he heard the university had issued a release saying he no longer was the Spartans’ coach.
It’s interesting to look over the San Jose Mercury News clips about his exit.
“This is utterly amazing to me,” Baldwin said the night the news broke. “I was still in negotiations, I thought…We did everything right for this university. Seven wins is the most in the state of California. I have raised the GPA of the football team. I have graduated the student-athletes at a higher rate than they have ever graduated. We had nine all-WAC players, the most ever.”
But he moved on, to Cincinnati, Baylor, Michigan State, New Mexico and Utah State.
And now he deserves to be considered a bona fide candidate for the CSU job.
That’s especially true if CSU for whatever reason wants to avoid a repeat of the McElwain departure circumstances, which is the risk of going with a “hot” younger coordinator, whether one with CSU ties or otherwise. (Frankly, I see nothing wrong with a repeat of what happened with McElwain because it will be a sign of on-field success, but it seems to offend many, and that’s even before you get to the issue of what kind of buyout, including other escape provisions, will be in the contract.)
But even toss that part of it aside, and Baldwin deserves to be considered simply on merit. He was an integral part of what got this program going, and he could carry on that momentum. The other in-house candidates could be co-defensive coordinators Al Simmons and Marty English, and assistant head coach/linebackers Tim Skipper.
Baldwin met with the media Thursday after being named the interim coach.
“The goal for us is to finish the season the way we want to finish it, and that’s a bowl win that will take this program, whether it’s me or anybody, to the next level,” Baldwin said.
I asked him if he wanted to be considered for the full-time job, and — — he said “definitely,” and gave examples of programs that benefited from staying in-house after coaching departures. (He could have added Oregon, where Mike Bellotti, Chip Kelly and Mark Helfrich were on the staff before moving up.)
He said of his messages to the players about moving on: “I told them this program has always been and always will be about players. There’s going to be another head coach come in and another one after that and another one after that. The players make the program and how we stay together as a family and create that continuity and stick to that continuity, we’ll have a great chance … Truthfully, why we won this year and were 10-2, it was a great atmosphere and the kids stuck together. And that’s what we need to make sure happens for the next couple of weeks.”
Baldwin noted: “I’ve been through this so many times. In the long run, you love a head coach. But when that head coach goes and somebody else comes in, they adapt. That’s what life’s all about, and these kids are going to understand that there’s changes. If they only came for a head coach, they didn’t come to Colorado State for the right reason. If you came for the family atmosphere here, if you came for the education, if you came for the climate and where we are, then you came for the right reasons. If you came for a head coach, you made the wrong decision because those changes are going to happen.”
He said of his relationship with McElwain: “I really learned the procedure of what he got out of being at Alabama and just attention to detail … There’s not a stone unturned.” Asked again about “whose” this was at CSU, he said, “He was the head coach and the head coach gets the credit. It’s a combination of this offensive staff — Art Valero (tight ends coach), Derek Frazier (offensive line), Alvis Whitted (wide receivers), Jeff Hammerschmidt (running backs) — that put it together. . . But if you called anyone in this conference and talked about what our offense is, they’re going to say it’s Dave Baldwin’s. They’re going to tell you the influence there is Dave Baldwin’s.”
He added, “I was that head coach and I walked away … I left Gary Andersen (then the Utah State coach, and he moved on to Wisconsin) and who knows if I didn’t leave, what would have happened. We turned that offense around. I think I made coach Mac a better coach, too, and I think each experience makes you a better football coach too.”
I asked him if he got the job, would he consider it his dream job and would he view it as his last stop.
“That’s a procedure down the line,” he said. “You can’t make guarantees in life for anything. I don’t see myself leaving anyplace if I get the head job. I bought a house in town. But there’s no guarantees in life. You just have to go on and see what happens.”
He said of the upcoming bowl game, most likely the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 20: “We want to go out as winners. This isn’t an audition for Dave Baldwin. This isn’t an audition for our coaching staff. . . This is for us to finish the way we should finish.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or twitter.com/TFrei
