Who shouldn’t be on WSU’s short list?

Like clockwork, whenever a college football coach leaves, media and Internet yahoos like us rush to put together a “short list” of possible replacements. Some lists are good, some are so-so, and others are bad. What you don’t see a lot are lists with names of people who schools shouldn’t hire. And why would you? We’re interested in the coach, not the guy who isn’t the coach.

But I’ve seen some weird lists this week, or names floating around Twitter, which is obviously the best place to go for these kinds of things, right? There are names of coaches who are way too old, coaches who have lots of baggage, and coaches who make zero sense.

So be it resolved: Here is a list of people Pat Chun shouldn’t have on his list (as if he should listen to any of us).

Jim Mora

Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

How the hell did his name get out there? He wasn’t good in the NFL, and he wasn’t good leading the UCLA Bruins, no matter how high his recruiting classes ranked, or how many players he sent to the NFL. As Gabe Marks once said, his teams are soft.

Beau Baldwin

James Snook-USA TODAY Sports

Have you seen the California Golden Bears offense the past three seasons? And before you get all, “well actually, they beat us.....” keep in mind it was the Cal defense that gave us fits. Plus, there’s probably a reason he left to go back to the Big Sky: He was going to be fired anyway. Baldwin had some awesome teams at Eastern Washington. One of them even beat WSU! But he tried to use the Cal offensive coordinator job as a spring board to a head coaching job at the P5 level after he turned down the Nevada head coaching job a few years ago. Back to square one!

Jim McElwain

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

I admit I didn’t know a ton about McElwain before this week. I knew he beat us in the New Mexico Bowl in 2013. I knew he had success at Florida right away before flaming out. It was the way he flamed out at Florida that gives me pause. He lied about receiving death threats after that weird photo of a guy who looked like McElwain posing naked with a shark came out. It wasn’t McElwain, but he felt the need to lie about death threats related to the photo anyway. He also apparently didn’t have the greatest relationship with his administration. I know he’s from the region, but there’s enough baggage to eliminate him, especially with the other potential hires out there.

Jeff Choate

James Snook-USA TODAY Sports

Choate was an assistant under Leach in 2012 but quickly moved on to UTEP, Florida, UW, and is currently the head coach at Montana State. Before you say, “we’ve tried the FCS to FBS thing before.....” well, OK go ahead and say that. It’s a big jump, but some have done well. Everybody knows about Jim Tressel. Chris Klieman went from North Dakota State to Kansas State this past season and went 8-4. But North Dakota State is a dynasty in FBS. Montana State is not, though the past two seasons they’ve made the playoffs, including the semifinals this season.

But Choate doesn’t have the resume WSU needs. Don’t know why he’s been on some lists out there, mainly Bruce Feldman’s.

Sonny Dykes

Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

I get it, he’s an Air Raid guy, and our offense is set for that. He only won 19 games in four seasons at Cal, and his defenses there were awful. He just had a good season at SMU, but that’s it. Next!

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Who do you have on your no fly list?

Links

Canzano: Mike Leach to Mississippi State is a ugly loss for the Pac-12 - oregonlive.com
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John Blanchette: Now Mike Leach can become Mississippi State’s Starkville reality | The Spokesman-Review
Wonder if the folks at Mississippi State will enjoy discovering that their new coach considers the Egg Bowl to be just another game?

After eight seasons, Mike Leach leaving Washington State to coach at Mississippi State | The Spokesman-Review
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Ten potential coaching candidates to replace Mike Leach at Washington State | The Spokesman-Review
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Washington State AD Pat Chun optimistic about football’s future after Mike Leach’s move to Mississippi State | The Spokesman-Review
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Mississippi State introduces the school’s 34th head football coach.

Mike Leach: ‘I will forever be proud and if I’m not careful, get emotional about my time at Washington State’ | The Spokesman-Review
Before he got too far into describing how he plans to rebuild the Southeastern Conference football program at Mississippi State, Mike Leach had one last parting message for the school he just left, and a sincere one at that.