The House of Blue

1. Petrino 2. Kirby Smart 3. Mark Hudspeth off the top of my head.

1) Petrino - I know it's a long shot, but dammit I'd love to have him on the sidelines.

2) Chris Petersen - Dude does less with more. He's in friggin' IDAHO and putting a top 25 caliber team on the field on a yearly basis. I'm actually IN Idaho right now, and know for a fact there's not much here. He would be a great hire for UK.

3) Mark Hudspeth/Sonny Dykes - these are "lower" tier coaches, but they each have an "exciting" offense, and seem to be able to recruit pretty good.

4) Kirby Smart - probably a shot in the dark, but I love his defense at Alabama. I know we don't have the athletes to match, but it would be nice to see what he could do with the team.

Not a bad list - here's a few more of mine:

1. Tony Dungy - top of my 'it ain't happening but what the hey' list
2. Kirby Smart - probably not a lot more realistic than Dungy, but give it a shot anyway
3. Hue Jackson - currently a defensive asst for the Bengals. Was Bengal WR coach when they had Ocho & TJ. Carson Palmer's OC under Pete Carroll @ USC, Spurrier's OC for the Redskins and Petrino's OC for the Falcons. HC for the Raiders, but had to fall on his sword for the ill-fated Palmer trade.
4. Mark Hudspeth - HC @ UL- Lafayette - 3-9 before he got there - 9-3 his first year. HC @ No Texas for 7 years before a stint on Dan Mulen's SU squad
5. Mario Cristobol - HC @ FIU. Solid young HC with experience in the south
6. John Chavis - LSU DC - Fat Phil's DC @ UT for years before that - well-versed in SEC recruiting circuit
7. Manny Diaz - Texas DC
8. Gus Malzahn - HC @ Arkansas St - former Auburn OC
9. Pat Narduzzi - Mich St DC
10. Greg Roman - 49ers OC - finalist for the Vandy job

Personally I think if Tressel ever gets back into NCAA coaching, he would run a pretty clean slate. I believe he has learned his lesson. If you learn your lesson and right your ship, let NCAA camp in the parking lot. Tressel got caught up in trying to take care of a situation himself. Was it right, no. But I would bet a large sum of money many other coaches have "taken care of situations" on their own and just never got caught. Once they caught Tressel they used him and OSU to make an example to the rest. I would not be afraid to bring Tressel in house. The supporting cast he would bring with him in line of his staff would do as much for the program as Tressel himself. He has always surrounded himself with a good staff. This is just my opinion and could be debated all day long.

He was involved in some shady dealings while at Youngstown before he went to Ohio State

"In 1998, Tressel's reputation was tarnished when it emerged that Ray Isaac, quarterback on his first national champion, admitted to accepting massive benefits from Mickey Monus, the founder of Phar-Mor and former chairman of the Youngstown State board of trustees. The NCAA had been tipped off about the violations in 1994, but dropped its inquiry after a cursory internal investigation by Youngstown State. The nature of the violations only came to light when Isaac admitted to tampering with a juror in Monus' first corporate fraud trial. It later emerged that Tressel had never met with Isaac during the initial 1994 investigation. Monus subsequently testified that when Isaac initially came to Youngstown State in 1988, Tressel called Monus and asked him to work out a job for Isaac. Youngstown State subsequently admitted to a lack of institutional control and docked itself scholarships. The NCAA ultimately faulted Tressel and Youngstown State for their cursory 1994 investigation, but did not cite them for wrongdoing.[11] Youngstown State was also allowed to keep its 1991 title since the NCAA's statute of limitations had run out.[12] "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Tressel

Tressel is a known cheater...nothing else needs to be said...he has a 5 yr show cause or whatever the NCAA calls it..Mitch would never call him..

If your talking about Cal no. He was never mentioned in any NCAA report. As for Tressel he was named in both OSU and Youngstown. Anyway this thread shouldn't go down this road. Lets keep it on the original topic.

oh okay............

The only thing with Romans is no recruiting ties to the south, I could be wrong though. That's one reason I'm so intrigued by Diaz. He has pretty much always worked in the south and now Texas.

To me, recruiting is more about the assistants you hire. Head Coaches, in reality, don't spend much time at all on the road.

What would ya'll think of Brett Venables?

Not necessarily a big fan of this guy, but hearing Ron Zook's name being tossed around. Guy can definitely recruit but his coaching ability definitely questionable. If he can't win at FL with that talent how can he win at UK? But he did take Illinois to the Rose Bowl.