For those who have been out of the loop over the past 24 hours, the FootballScoop staff teamed up with SB Nation to hold the first-of-its-kind Coaches Draft. Ten of us drafted staffs of 12 coaches (head coach, nine assistants, plus a strength and recruiting director) among the FBS head coaching ranks and two graduate assistants from the lower levels. At least that was the plan. Things went a little haywire at the end.
Below are the first 25 picks:
Not among that group? The likes of Bob Stoops, Bill Snyder, Brian Kelly and dozens of other accomplished, smart coaches. In a way, this draft demonstrated how hard it is to win in major college football. Sure, your guy is great, but so is everyone else's. Butch Jones went 55th. Al Golden went 58th. Gary Pinkel went 69th. Charlie Weis went 104th. Washington's new coach was chosen 58 spots ahead of the coach it just lost to USC.
The hardest part, especially in the early rounds, was choosing the right-est answer when there really were no wrong answers, and to do it all in 30 seconds. Quick, would you rather have Dana Holgorsen coach your wide receivers or Gary Andersen coach your defensive line? What about quarterbacks coach Kevin Wilson or defensive backs coach Mark Stoops?
Further down the list you'd find a healthy representation of FCS, Division II and Division III coaches. Heck, Brian Floyd took Bob Sttit 14th overall. Doug plucked Wisconsin-Whitewater's Lance Liepold and North Dakota State's Chris Klieman (combined national titles: one billion), while I picked St. Thomas' Glenn Caruso and Mary Hardin-Baylor's Pete Fredenburg for some Division III flavor on my team. Scott named Murray State's Chris Hatcher and Brian Jenkins out of Bethune-Cookman. Perhaps the luckiest divisional coach, though, is Captial University's Craig Candeto for winding up on a staff headed by Nick Saban and funded by Joe Moglia.
Next time you get some down time with your buddies, I'd recommend conducting your own Coaches Draft. I'm already looking forward to the Second Annual FootballScoop/SB Nation Coaches Draft.
Here's how the FootballScoop staff drafted:
For a full breakdown of everyone's team, head over to SB Nation. We hear @EDSBS will hand out grades later.