(01-29-2015 01:13 PM)ColinApocalypse Wrote: It's a mess because Enos left 2 weeks before signing day, which is well after the normal coaching carousel period. So the administration can either take a risk and hire someone quickly to hold together a recruiting class or they can take longer, do a thorough coaching search, and hope the 2015 class doesn't become 25 "walk-on level" players.
IMO CMU is probably managing a bad situation as best they can at this point: let what's left of Enos' staff try to keep as many of the current commits on board as possible. A handful will probably get poached, but all things considered, it is what it is. Who knows who they may truly be interested in hiring - no one here knew who P.J. Fleck was until the day he was hired - but if it's a current P5 assistant coach they're targeting, they're probably better off waiting until after signing day. The assistant coach may have more flexibility to leave (if he's interested in the job) after fully carrying out his recruiting duties at his current P5 school.
I was curious if there was any historical precedent for a coach departing (regardless of the circumstances) shortly (two weeks or less) before signing day and, if so, how the school in that situation handled it. I did a little research, and the only somewhat similar situation I could find was Army in 2007:
http://www.collegefootballpoll.com/coach..._2007.html
(If anyone is curious, you can use the links found in the upper right hand corner of this site to review FBS coaching hires over the past 15 years.)
Bobby Ross resigned at Army on January 29 of that year, and his OL coach was named head coach. There was no measurable short-term impact; Army was 3-9 in Ross' last year and 3-9 in the new coach's first year. Neither coach had long-term success there. Obviously, this isn't a perfect parallel to CMU's current situation.
The bottom line is there really isn't any recent historical precedent of an FBS school's head coach departing two weeks or less before signing day and the FBS school waiting until after signing day to hire a new head coach. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.