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Matty V. reports that Mark Whipple era 2.0 is not far-fetched.
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Other names mentioned in Matty's article include:
Neal Brown-- Offensive coordinator at Kentucky. Brown is one of my favorites. He's a young on-the-rise coach and is already a offensive guru. He applied for the UMass job twice before. He's a former Minutemen player and coach. As Matty mentioned, he'd probably take a salary cut to come to UMass, but I think he'd do it to become head coach. He and the Minutemen program could do each other a favor by coming to UMass. UMass would build a program and Brown could expect a lucrative head coaching offer offer from a BCS school in four years or so.
Mark Whipple-- Whipple did it before. He knows the school and knows the various difficulties associated with the faculty and the unique local press. Whipple also brought in two of the best QB's ever to play for UMass-- Todd Bankhead and Jeff Krohn. UMass currently needs a quarterback like the Titanic needed surface search radar.
Rob Ambrose-- He turned one of the CAA's worst programs into a winner. The Tigers (and several ex-Minutemen) play for the FCS National Championship shortly. As Matty says, Ambrose was also involved in a player mistreatment scandal at Towson. I would think the UMass administration would be gun shy unless he has a really, really good explanation.
Bob Shoop-- There's an old football saying that says offense sells the tickets, but defense wins the games. Don Brown did it at UMass with a killer defense and Bob Shoop probably would offer a quicker road to respectability than offensive coaches. Shoop coached at UMass so he knows some of the liabilities we face. Like Neal Brown, Shoop would face a salary cut to become HC at UMass, but Shoop could expect a big contract HC offer from a BCS school in a few years if he built UMass into a winner.
Don Brown-- Brown is a New England coach. He probably knows the talent pool and what it takes to be a winner in the North East better than anyone. He was approachable and liked by his players. One negative is that in his last year, he apparently let what ever frustrations that come with the HC job at UMass affect his attitude to the school administration. One rule of coaching-- never burn bridges, it could come back to bite you in the ass. Brown has the same advantage as Shoop, a good defense would probably be the quickest road to respectability. Brown has jumped around a lot in his career. His history suggests if he was at UMass a year and a SEC job was offered, he'd take it.
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