Since John Robinson, every hire has been a trendy hire beyond Hauck.
Sanford was the read option OC under Urban Meyer that had no prior history of success prior to Utah
Sanchez was a successful high school HC with no OC/DC experience
Hauck was a FCS HC that primarily coached special teams
Arroyo was an Oregon OC that had no history of success prior to Oregon
Meyer went 17-6 at Bowling Green of all places, with an innovative offense which got him the Utah job.
Hauck was a special teams guy but so was John Harbaugh who has done well at the NFL level.
Take Norvell and the current coach at San Jose State. Neither of them had amazing resumes. Norvelle's was solid, similiar to Sanford. In fact if they had been hired here people would have bitched about it.
But both have had pretty good success. Norvell took over a Reno program that has been at least decent for awhile. San Jose guy has made chicken salad out of the chicken crap he inherited at San Jose State.
We know the results. It's easy to question the hires now. But Hauck and Sanford had good enough resumes.
Sanford got close to turning it around in year 4. Had 2 P5 wins, beat a ranked ASU team at the time. Had 3 losses in games the Rebs were leading or tied going into the fourth quarter.
Year 5 was a step back. He backed into 5-7 and couldn't beat Reno.
Sanchez was a desperation hire. Program needed the money he could bring. He had a nice early trajectory his first three years. Was able to beat Reno a few times. Unfortunately year four and five the program stagnated. Defense failed to improve.
He hitched his wagon to Armani Rogers. I attended every practice that Spring where Stanton and Rogers battled for the starting spot.
There was no way Rogers was the better QB.
That may have changed in fall camp. But during the Spring Stanton was the better QB.
Arroyo's resume at first glance looks solid. Closer inspection, his offenses were never very good.
I know from pretty good sources who some of the other candidates were, and who was being considered. Of those names, Arroyo was down the list for me.
I can't say for sure, but other names I heard being looked at were Danny Gonzales (Now at New Mexico) and Morgan Scalley the Utah Defensive coordinator. (Scalley had an issue that would have made his hiring problematic).
I was high on Danny Gonzales. Rocky Long disciple..
Speaking of which, always thought Sanford should have gone after Long to be his DC after Long was fired from New Mexico. Guessing he didn't want to put his potential replacement on his staff...
