Landing your first head coaching job and being placed in the driver's seat to hire a staff of guys you trust, and that fit your vision for the program is an exciting idea for aspiring head coaches.
Tom Herman was one of those guys when the former Ohio State offensive coordinator landed the head coaching job at Houston, but he also explained to Mad Radio in Houston that he lost a lot of friends in the process as well.
"I lost a lot of friends in the process - or guys I thought were friends. They find out I get the job and call me up and say 'When am I coming?'"
"Now hang on. Maybe if it had been some other job, at some other place, at some other time, maybe that would have been right. But the NCAA only gives me nine full-time coaches and I've worked with over nine really good coaches, but these were the ones I felt fit the best."
If you're going to be successful at Houston, you've got to surround yourself with guys that can recruit in the most talent rich state in college football, and Herman (who coached at in state programs Sam Houston State, Texas, Texas Lutheran, Texas State, and Rice) clearly understood that when he took the job.
Of the nine full-time guys assistants that Herman brought on board, eight of them have a coaching or recruiting background in the state of Texas, and four of them came directly from another program inside the borders of the Lone Star state.
While we'll have to wait until the fall to see the on the field product for the first time, it's clear that Herman knew what he was doing when he put his staff together, drawing a distinct line between the his vision for the best fit for the program and who his "friends" were. If you're an aspiring head coach, you should take note.
If you haven't seen Houston's recruiting pitch video entitled "Become a part of history, we're writing it," you're going to want to make time for it.