Feb. 1, 2008

By Adam Caparell

CSTV.com

ADAM CAPARELL
Caparell is CSTV.com's football editor and national football writer.
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        ---   Column Archive   --- FOOTBALL 6/12: 2008 Schedule Planner - Week 4 6/6: 2008 Wishlist 6/5: 2008 Schedule Planner - Week 3 5/30: This Year's Kansas? 5/29: 2008 Schedule Planner - Week 2 5/23: Walking Tall 5/22: 2008 Schedule Planner - Week 1 5/16: Feeling Blue 5/9: Post-Spring, Pre-Preseason 2008 Top 25 5/2: Making The Call 5/1: Holtz Comes Full Circle 4/25: Question and Answer 4/18: These Aren't Your '07 Tigers 4/4: Mid-Spring, Pre-Preseason 2008 Top 25 3/28: Tillman's Hall of Fame Legacy 3/21: High School Superstars 3/14: Back Where He Least Expected 3/7: Easier Said Than Done 2/29: Spring Storylines 2/22: Change Is Good 2/15: No Regular Joe 2/8: Pryor Engagement 2/1: Plans For Succession 1/25: All About Practice 1/25: Name Recognition 1/24: Standing Out, In More Ways Than One 1/23: Feeling It 1/18: Post-Bowl, Pre-Spring 2008 Preseason Top 25 1/11: Late Season Run Priming Dawgs For '08 1/7: Ring A Bell? 1/4: Tressel's Hopefully Prepared For Anything 12/28: New Challenge For Georgia Defense 12/21: Hokies Have Something To Play For 12/14: Name Game 12/8: Little Surprise Tebow Takes Heisman 12/8: Back For More 12/7: Class Act 12/6: Flutie's Legacy Still The 'Miracle' 12/4: Dixon Can Still Smile 12/2: Wishful Thinking 11/30: Daniel Driving Missouri On BCS Run 11/28: 'Game' Still Largely Defines Beban 11/23: Long Time Coming 11/21: Bandstanding Brown 11/16: Georgia In The Know 11/14: Only Eddie Held Eddie Back 11/9: Soft Schedule Could Have Hawai'i BCS Bound 11/7: The 'Bear' And Crow 11/2: No Secret To Oregon's Success 10/31: Age Only A Number 10/26: Nittany Lions Know It's Got To Be Close 10/24: In Long Line, White Continued Tradition 10/19: Trojans In Unfamiliar Territory 10/17: Rogers Larger Than Life 10/12: Missouri The Machine 10/10: The Jet Likes To Run 10/5: Meyer's Seen This Before 10/4: Polled Over 10/3: Long On Memories 9/28: Season Begins For Dixon And Ducks Saturday 9/26: Desmond The Poser 9/21: Spurrier's Being Honest 9/19: All In The Family With Rozier 9/14: USC Ready For Another Early Road Test 9/12: Detmer's Magic Won Him Heisman 9/7: 'Show' Time For Virginia Tech 9/5: Drive Drove Dorsett 8/31: Family Affair 8/29: Count On The Gamecocks To Hatch 8/28: Youth Gone Wild On Gator Defense 8/28: Talent Comes Naturally To Tigers 8/27: SEC Preview 8/27: All Hail Saban 8/25: No More Lazy Sundays 8/24: Illinois D Brimming With New Confidence 8/23: Big Ten Preview 8/23: 2007 Football Schedule Planner - Week 14 8/22: Tee'd Off 8/16: 2007 Football Schedule Planner - Week 13 8/15: Brohm's Back, And All Is Well 8/15: Coaches Split On Early Signing Period 8/14: Schiano's Success Starting to Show 8/13: Big East Preview 8/13: It's Not About Respect With Leavitt And USF 8/11: Production Time for Seminole Signal Callers 8/10: Shannon Looking To Return Swagger 8/10: Wake Up? 8/9: Atlantic Coast Conference Preview 8/9: Tough Turkeys, Once Again 8/9: 2007 Football Schedule Planner - Week 12 8/8: Preseason Top 25 8/2: 2007 Football Schedule Planner - Week 11 8/1: Big Ten Expansion Doesn't Make Sense 7/26: 2007 Schedule Planner - Week 10 7/25: Beamer's Burden 7/19: 2007 Schedule Planner - Week 9 7/18: Good Vibrations 7/12: 2007 Schedule Planner - Week 6 7/11: Three and Up 7/4: And The Winner Is... 7/2: Where In The World Is Ed Smith? 6/28: SEC East's Big Weekend 6/27: Summer Bowl Forecast 6/21: 2007 Schedule Planner - Week 5 6/20: Big 12 Loses Its Big Man 6/14: 2007 Schedule Planner - Week 4 6/13: Trick Up His Sleeve 6/7: 2007 Schedule Planner - Week 3 6/6: For the Record 5/31: 2007 Schedule Planner - Week 2 5/30: Like Clockwork 5/24: 2007 Schedule Planner - Week 1 5/23: Florida Freshmen Get Defensive 5/16: Maroon Affected 5/10: Brennan's A Numbers Guy 5/9: More Than Just One Play 5/2: Post-Spring, Pre-Preseason Top 25 4/27: Quinn's Fallen, But He'll Still Be Up There 4/26: Size Does Matter 4/25: Troy Smith Now Middle of Pack QB 4/24: Peterson Can't Wait For The Moment 4/21: QB Biggest Question Facing Buckeyes 4/21: Don't Forget About The D 4/20: Bowl Game A Boon For Bluegrass Boys 4/19: The Bigger They Are, the Harder They Fall 4/18: New Coordinator, New Scheme, New Results? 4/18: Earlier The Better 4/17: It's Your Turn Offense 4/16: Spartans Hope Big Changes Go Long Way 4/14: Defense The Question Mark For Michigan 4/12: Height's Nothing But A Number 4/5: Two Much To Handle 3/28: More To Hill Than Just TDs 3/21: Down Could Mean Up For Delaware's Patrick 3/14: Changes In Store For Gill and Buffalo 3/7: Lurking In the Backgroung 2/28: What A Mock-ery 2/25: The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same 2/24: Piscataway Proud 2/23: 40, For Better or Worse 2/22: The Ultimate Q and A 2/21: Combine's A Coming 2/14: Rights For Recruiting Wrongs 2/8: Recruiting No Joke For Coaches 2/6: Lemming Retrospect: Class of 2006 1/31: Coker In No Rush To Move On 1/30: Ross Bows Out, But Leaves His Mark At Army 1/26: Seniors With Something To Prove 1/25: Coaching For The League 1/24: Welcome To The Pros 1/17: Pre-Spring, Post-Bowl 2007 Preseason Top 25 1/10: Irish Have A Ways To Go 1/8: Siler and Gators After Something More 1/4: Russell Sweeter Than Sugar 1/3: Irish Out For Respect BASKETBALL 3/16: Tougher Than The Rest 3/16: How About These?

Purdue, Florida State and Kentucky. Three programs with three different cultures in three different conferences, yet despite their differences, they all shared something in common over these past few months: Each named the heir apparent of their current head coaches.

Jimbo Fisher will take over for Bobby Bowden in three years. Joker Phillips will lead Kentucky when Rich Brooks steps aside in 2012. And Joe Tiller will retire after next season, paving the way for Danny Hope to steer the Boilermakers.

While the act of naming a successor is not entirely new territory for college football, it's certainly become the trendy thing to do lately as the number of elder coaches approaching their final years on the sidelines rises. Schools want to know what the future will look like and they're seemingly going to new lengths to secure it.

"Succession plans, in my opinion, only work if you're following somebody who's had a successful run and you don't feel the program needs a major transition," Purdue AD Morgan Burke said. "I don't think they should be viewed as an `en vogue' item. They ought to be viewed as another tool in your selection process if you have circumstances like we had."

Earlier this month, Purdue announced that Tiller would retire after the 2008 season. Originally under contract through 2010, Tiller decided back in May that he wanted one more year to coach this year's senior class. He sat down with Burke, began to discuss a succession plan and eventually the talk turned to names.

"We started the process by taking a good hard look at the program," Burke said. "What do we like, what don't we like, and tried to describe the type of person who would replace him."

Eventually their criteria led them to Hope, who had spent several years working under Tiller at both Wyoming and Purdue until 2001. After a five-year hiatus at Eastern Kentucky, he was hired to be the Boilermakers' offensive line coach and associate head coach this upcoming season and the head coach in 2009.

Whether Hope can continue the success Purdue has experienced under Tiller -- 10 bowl games in 11 seasons -- remains to be seen, but one of the biggest reasons why Purdue decided to name a successor was that it provided the program a sense of considerable stability. 

"It took the uncertainty out from the school standpoint, the fans standpoint and the recruiting standpoint," Burke said.

The recruiting standpoint is probably the biggest reason many schools are now choosing to name successors for coaches they know won't be around much longer. Any uncertainty surrounding a coach's future can and will be used against a school. Florida State has experienced that for years with Bobby Bowden. Schools battling the Seminoles for recruits have always questioned why they would commit to Florida State and play for a head coach who will be 78 years old and might not be around for their four of five years on campus.

That's a big reason why Phillips was named Brooks' eventual successor at Kentucky two weeks ago.

"In the recruiting process, there were a lot of people saying coach wasn't going to be there much longer and this put those questions to bed," Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart said. "This allowed us to focus on building our program in the right way and for families to understand we're going to be pretty consistent and pretty stable for the years to come."

Stability is one thing Kentucky has lacked over the years. Brooks himself wasn't sure two summers ago if he would be back on the sidelines for the 2007 season. Now after two successful seasons and with a clear succession plan in place -- Phillips will take over for the 66-year-old Brooks in 2012 -- Kentucky believes it has positioned itself to be an SEC East contender for many years to come.

"Anytime you can build consistency for the young people in your program that's what you should do," Barnhart said.

But are schools getting ahead of themselves in naming a successor years in advance of a coach's retirement? For starters, the waiting game that is usually associated with a succession plan can take a toll on everyone involved.

"If you're the guy waiting you're wondering how long, the fans are wondering how long, the recruits are wondering how long. It's a little bit more challenging," Burke said. "But it's another way of trying to take the uncertainty out and it wouldn't surprise me if those folks at Kentucky and Florida State have an idea of when it's going to occur."

For Phillips, it should occur in five more years. For Fisher, Bowden is supposed to step aside in three more years; otherwise Fisher's contract can be bought out.

But for Burke, who was groomed in corporate America before landing at Purdue, a succession plan is nothing more than second nature. He executed one already with legendary basketball coach Gene Keady stepping aside for Matt Painter after the 2004-05 season and he'll oversee the school's next major athletic transition, as well.

"I came out of private business, and I can tell you when I would go and make my annual business plan presentation to the board, one of the things the board always asked you is who your successors are," Burke said. "That's a little bit foreign for the public sector, for an academic institution. But it's a pretty solid human resource principle. I'm not saying everyone will do it this way, but if the circumstances fit... you don't see a company like General Electric or IBM going outside their company very often to hire people unless they feel there's a need for a change."

Considering how college football has become big business, it only makes sense that more and more schools operate as such. Almost universally across the board, companies would rather promote from within than hire an outsider. And it's not like those outsiders have a great track record, either.

"There's as many examples of hot coaches who've come into programs who were going to save them who have failed...There are more of those, probably, than those who have brought the program back," Burke said.

The list is endless, from John L. Smith at Michigan State and Ty Willingham at Notre Dame to Ed Orgeron at Ole Miss and Bill Callahan at Nebraska.

So maybe the way to go is to name your next head coach a few years in advance. If anything, naming that successor gives you peace of mind and that, in a game where money is everything, is a priceless commodity.