Por (cg) on February 25, 2009 (Suggest removal)

I must have missed the report on Ekeler being offered the DC job. If he turned it down, he is crazy for the amount of time he has been coaching…

Por (Hector Jimenez) on February 25, 2009 (Suggest removal)

Sylevester Croom…..why not?

Por (Sam) on February 25, 2009 (Suggest removal)

Brett your post doesn’t have a source saying either one was offered the DC spot by USF. Please elaborate your making it sound like USF is a somehow not a attractive place to work.Seems to me it is an awesome opportunity in a BCS confrence that alot of people would jump at!

Por (Ben Forlaw) on February 25, 2009 (Suggest removal)

Wow.  That sucks.  Champaign, Illinois, or Tampa, FL?  Come on, dude.  That stings.  Out of the names mentioned, I think Tresey should get a job offer.  It’s just a bad time to be looking for a coordinator.  How about Chuck Amato at FSU, maybe?  Just a thought.

Por (TonyG) on February 25, 2009 (Suggest removal)

If the job has been turned down as seems to be indicated, maybe the USF admin needs to take some notes. Probably these guys have been given some incentives to stay at their current schools (namely money). Did CJL and the powers that be try to get Burnham to stay on? I have heard that basically CJL never once asked Burnham to stay or say he would go see what he could do or ask what it would take for him to stay. But then again some say he never thought Burnham would leave! Brett you may know more of the details. Was there an attempt to keep him? Maybe Jim should call him up and make an offer that cannot be turned down and bring junior in too. Just kidding! There has to be a line a mile long for this job!

Por (Ben Forlaw) on February 25, 2009 (Suggest removal)

Sam, get real, man.  USF has its pros and cons just like any other school, but one thing it is notorious for is low-pay for assistant coaches.  But still, I can’t imagine not giving up a co-defensive coordinator position for the full thing in Tampa.  Does he not want to advance his career?  Is he scared to recruit in the best football state in the country?  Does he not consider himself worthy to coach some of the best athletes he’ll ever run across?

Por (Mike) on February 25, 2009 (Suggest removal)

Seriously. What’s the deal with the deception? Why cover a USF “blog” when majority of your work is negative or has an element of sarcasm in it? You would make a great sidekick for Steve Dueming.

Por (GrowlerBull) on February 25, 2009 (Suggest removal)

How do we know that Ekeler was either offered or turned down the job? Unless you have unnamed sources that you didn’t mention yesterday when you didn’t know if Ekeler was even offered the job. did something change or is this just random speculation on your part?

Por (Brett McMurphy) on February 25, 2009 (Suggest removal)

CG, Sam, my sources of Ekeler and Disch turning down the jobs are the same sources that provided the information when I broke the news that Tresey, Disch, Demarest, Genyk, et al, interviewed with USF. Mike, I don’t understand your question. What sarcasm do you mean? I simply reported the news. TonyG, Burnham told me that Leavitt made no attempt to keep him. I asked Leavitt if he made an attempt and Leavitt said “we can’t compete with the SEC and Big 12 schools. That’s a different world.”

Por (Brett McMurphy) on February 25, 2009 (Suggest removal)

Growler Bull, just saw your comment - when Disch became involved with the USF DC job, I checked with my sources again and was told Ekeler turned it down.

Por (USF95) on February 25, 2009 (Suggest removal)

Disch is a great recruiter for Jacksonville based on his experience in that area and would have fit in nicely to replace our Jacksonville recruiting pipeline.  However, when hiring a coordinator coaching comes first in my opinion.  With position coaches it’s recruiting that comes first.  Disch’s defenses were swiss cheese very often at Illinois and he worries me as a coordinator.  I was torn with Disch as I am with Tresey.  If we could merge the recruiting of Disch with the coaching of Tresey then you have the perfect DC.  Tresey is a great defensive coordinator and would fit well.  However, it would take time for him to develop a name in Florida recruiting since he has no ties to this State.

Por (GrowlerBull) on February 25, 2009 (Suggest removal)

Ok—its just that you are the first person reporting that he had been offered the job.

Por (TonyG) on February 25, 2009 (Suggest removal)

Brett…I think you are a great reporter and you call things like you see them and as you know them to be based on your contacts. I have been friends with the coaches throughout the years and hear a lot of the same things.
Now to my question.Even if USF could not have matched Iowa’s offer, would it not have been worth the effort to make an attempt? My understanding was that CJL was aware that Burnham was interviewing. Apparently there was no “I don’t want to lose you and am going to do what I can to keep you”. Was CJL ready for Burnham to leave either by retiring or another job (which in thought/theory was a long shot considering his age)? Do you(any of you) think he should’ve made an effort to keep him?Some thoughts for conversation!

Por (Brett McMurphy) on February 25, 2009 (Suggest removal)

TonyG, I think if you have a valued employee (like Burnham), you try to get him to stay. In the past when others have left (Kravitz, Frey, Rod Smith), Leavitt’s quotes have been “if they don’t want to be here, then we don’t want them here.” When Kravitz left, JL said, “Rick’s got the biggest [coaching] office, what else does he want?” Based on that thinking, no one would ever leave USF, or any school, for that matter. And that’s not realistic. Would Burnham have stayed if JL made an offer? I don’t know, but if no offer is made, you certainly have no chance. I don’t think JL wanted Burnham to leave, especially with the success of the defense the past 6-7 years and Burnham will coach at least another 4-5 years, I’d guess.

Por (TonyG) on February 25, 2009 (Suggest removal)

Thanks Brett. Another thought or two. And it is all hindsight, after the fact, doesn’t really matter now thoughts. Was there really NO space for trying to negotiate something with Burnham? Taking in all the I know, which is limited in comparison to others I am sure, it seems to me CJL was very quick to dismiss the notion that Burnham would leave. Therefore he kinda laughed it off and got caught like a sitting duck. Now it seems that his reputation as a boss/people manager is in question and possibly effecting the hiring process.
Again I will say, so that I do not get assaulted, there are many coaches out there who are dying to get a job coaching in an up and coming Florida university. And someone come along and fit the bill.

Por (jh) on February 26, 2009 (Suggest removal)

cg…maybe he wanted to stick around to learn from one of the best defensive minded coaches in the game with a program that is on the rise.

Por (Charlie Jimenez) on February 26, 2009 (Suggest removal)

cg? Is that you Cody Glenn?

Por (Jason Jones) on February 26, 2009 (Suggest removal)

Killer mustache Brett!!

Por (Brett McMurphy) on February 26, 2009 (Suggest removal)

TonyG, the only reason I can think of Leavitt not trying to make a counter offer for Burnham is that it wouldn’t matter, so why waste his time. Burnham had already made up his mind. Jason, glad you like it. It’s amazing what you can do with a strip of velcro these days.

Por (tmwalls) on February 27, 2009 (Suggest removal)

Chuck Amato, how funny. Did a bang up job at NCSTATE.

Por (Mike) on February 27, 2009 (Suggest removal)

Brett- I read these blogs but rarely post but have an opinion about this.  Don’t think Burnham had made up his mind when he went in to talk to CJL. I think CJL’s response or lack of,spoke volumes. When you have someone work their tail off for 9 years and you don’t tell them you will see what you can do cause you want to keep them if possible, how do you think that comes across. Once again, there is a lot of I in jIm.

Por (menlo) on February 27, 2009 (Suggest removal)

Okay….. let’s see….
Univcersity of Nebraska or…..University of South FL? Hhhmmmm… I don’t know. One seems to be a football Mecca with 6 National Championships. The other, a nobody.

So, lets see, which job would YOU take?

I think we all know the answer (salaries and titles nonwithstanding)

Por (Jake Farmer) on February 27, 2009 (Suggest removal)

I can understand Eckeler turning down the job. If you go read the NE papers, he was basically prodded by Bo Pelini interview for the experience. I don’t think Ekeler had any designs of leaving Nebraska.

I think menlo (post below) makes the point: Nebraska, regardless of position has all the tradition and facilites that USFL could only dream about. That and that fact that Pelini is arguably one of the best Defensive minds in the game.

Lets not underestimate that Ekeler probably wanted to get some leverage for a pay hike

Por (SuperD) on March 02, 2009 (Suggest removal)

Five National Championships, not six.