New Cornell football coach search

[Ken711]

Glad they are using a professional executive search company to assist in the national search.

[Local Motion]

While I feed badly for David Archer as he's a really good guy, but this is good news for the Cornell football program.   Go Big Red!!!

[Trotsky]

Glad they are using a professional executive search company to assist in the national search.

The last time that happened I think we wound up with Cheney as VP.

(OTOH, Cheney would figure out how to win.)

[billhoward]

(Re: Cheney: Don't go hunting in the afternoon with a guy who had a drink at lunch.)

[billhoward]

Bill Belichick should be available. He's a Wesleyan grad so he knows academic schools. But he's old. About as old as Bob Blackman when we hired him. Wait, Belichick is 71 and Blackman at Cornell came aboard at 59. When somebody around 60 shows up and you're a student or recent grad, it feels like he's an octogenarian.

[billhoward]

Glad they are using a professional executive search company to assist in the national search.

a) Definitely a help.
b) If it doesn't work out, it's CYA insurance.

My friends at Princeton who've played football say: Cornell should be the most successful football school in the Ivy League. You've got the freakin' ag school.

[Trotsky]

b) If it doesn't work out, it's CYA insurance.

"You don't hire the consultant to help you decide.  You hire the consultant to have somebody to blame."

It worked for the Sacklers.

[billhoward]

If you find the right coach and he's relatively young, you could look forward to several decades of winning football in the Ivy League. As Harvard has done.

The success profile is based on the Ivy coaches with 5+ years coaching an Ivy school: He might or might not be an alum, age was late 30s when hired, if he didn't catch fire immediately at least the new HC got the team headed upwards a year or two into his tenure. Cornell should be looking for the 2023 version of 1980s D3 head coach Al Bagnoli then at Union who for two decades at Penn won two-thirds of the games. The current winning Ivy coaches were hired from HC positions at other schools, not from assistant positions at big-time schools, and they have roots (growing up or coaching) in the Northeast.

Code Select Expand

[b]Ivy Head Coaches >5 Years Sorted by Win Pct.[/b]

[b]Harvard:         Tim Murphy[/b]
Years at H:      30 (including Covid year)
Age hired:       38*
Previous HC yrs: 7 (Maine 2, Cincinnati 5)
Record:          200-89 (0.692) Ivy
Ivy titles:      10    
Undergrad:       Springfield '78

[b]Yale:            Tony Reno[/b]
Years as P HC:   12
Age hired:       38
Previous HC yrs: --
Record:          67-43 (0.609)  
Undergrad:       Worcester State '97

[b]Princeton:       Bob Surace[/b]
Years as P HC :  14
Age hired:       42
Previous HC yrs: --
Record:          78-52 (0.600)  
Ivy titles:      4
Schools HC:      Western Connecticut (2), Princeton
Undergrad:       Princeton '90

[b]Penn:            Ray Priore[/b]
Years as P HC :  9
Age hired:       38
Previous HC yrs: --
Record:          47-32 (0.595)  
Ivy titles:      2
Undergrad:       SUNY Albany ~'85

* Age hired may be off by one year depending on time of year hired vs. birth date.

Others <5 years HC at Ivy school
Brown: James Perry, Brown '00, hired 2019, 7-23 (0.143) Ivy, 19-33 (0.273 overall). Brown by year: 2-8, covid year, 2-8, 3-7.  It will be interesting to see if Brown is patient with their alum as Cornell was with ours.
Columbia: Mark Fabish, Penn '97, 2023 (interim for Al Bagnoli)
Dartmouth: Sammy McCorkle, Florida '97, 2023 (for Buddy Teevens, died)

Two other coaches had extensive experience at two Ivy schools, both left recently for health reasons in 2023:

Al Bagnoli, Central Connecticut '75, was hired as Union HC in 1982, in 10 years went 86-19, 6X NCAA D3 playoffs, 2X title game, then 148-80 at Penn 1992-2014 and 9 Ivy titles. In hindsight, Cornell perhaps could have hired Bagnoli when Maxie Baughn was fired after the 1988 season (Zippergate not on-field issues) rather than Jim Fouts who lasted one year. Worn out (Bagnoli) from football, he retired after 2014, then was hired at Columbia for the 2015 season and went 35-35, then stepped down as HC August 2023 to "transition into a new role within the athletics department, where he will be mentoring Columbia's head coaches and spearheading fundraising initiatives. Columbia's offensive coordinator Mark Fabish will take over as interim head coach for the 2023 season."

Buddy Teevens, Dartmouth '79, coached Maine, Dartmouth 1987-91 (2 Ivy titles), Tulane (11-45), 5 years as Illinois/Florida assistant jobs, 3 years at Stanford (10-23), then back to Dartmouth 2005-2022 (3 more titles), then was hit by a pickup March 2023 and died six months later at 66. Dartmouth overall record, 117-101-2. Two interesting career notes: He was, like David Archer, seen as a nice guy and even appeared at the announcement of his Stanford firing; he also played Dartmouth hockey and was on the 1979 Dartmouth team that was third at the NCAA tournament.

For Cornell, we've been down so long, anything looks like it's up. The school with the largest Ivy enrollment has yet to win an unshared Ivy League title. The closest Cornell came was 8-1 in Ed Marinario's senior year, the lone loss to Dartmouth when Cornell's top receivers were sick and that allowed Dartmouth's defense to concentrate on Marinaro. Yeah, I'm still bitter about the outcome but not as bad as about the OT loss to Wisconsin in the 1973 NCAA hockey semifinal.

[billhoward]

Glad they are using a professional executive search company to assist in the national search.

Glad Cornell made public the change just 25 hours after the season ended. Maybe the search company can accelerate the search process. Maybe Cornell can have a new head coach by end-of-year. Or January. Ivy league players don't sign letters or intent as at scholarship schools. But at least they want to know who they'll be playing for.

With freshmen eligible to play Ivy sports since 1993, at most there's one lost recruiting year in the wake of a coaching change.

[scoop85]

On Parker's website (that's the search company), they say their average turn around time on a head coaching search is 10-14 days. I assume that's the timeframe for identifying recommended candidates.

[George64]

On Parker's website (that's the search company), they say their average turn around time on a head coaching search is 10-14 days. I assume that's the timeframe for identifying recommended candidates.

Considering that Archer's departure and choice of a search firm were announced simultaneously, I think both decisions were made prior to the Columbia game.

[Ken711]

On Parker's website (that's the search company), they say their average turn around time on a head coaching search is 10-14 days. I assume that's the timeframe for identifying recommended candidates.

Considering that Archer's departure and choice of a search firm were announced simultaneously, I think both decisions were made prior to the Columbia game.

I agree with you.  It looks like they decided to move on from Archer before the Columbia game. Anyway, an earlier search and selection will assist with recruiting and player development before next season.

[George64]

On Parker's website (that's the search company), they say their average turn around time on a head coaching search is 10-14 days. I assume that's the timeframe for identifying recommended candidates.

Considering that Archer's departure and choice of a search firm were announced simultaneously, I think both decisions were made prior to the Columbia game.

I agree with you.  It looks like they decided to move on from Archer before the Columbia game. Anyway, an earlier search and selection will assist with recruiting and player development before next season.

And perhaps make use of the transfer portal.

[tycho]

Here is the link to the official position listing on the website of Parker Executive Search, for those interested (or those interested in applying or nominating, I suppose). Note that the position will entail "outdoor activites in variable and/or inclement weather conditions" and will require a "clean and valid driver's license" at the time of employment.

[scoop85]

Here is the link to the official position listing on the website of Parker Executive Search, for those interested (or those interested in applying or nominating, I suppose). Note that the position will entail "outdoor activites in variable and/or inclement weather conditions" and will require a "clean and valid driver's license" at the time of employment.

"Typically lifts 30 to 50 lbs"?