UMass athletic director reports strong interest in football coaching job
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University of Massachusetts athletic director John McCutcheon said he hasn't spoken to any candidates for the school's vacant football coaching job yet, but the search is well underway.
He said a consultative committee, which will assist him in the search process, will be announced shortly, possibly as soon as today.
McCutcheon said the interest from potential candidates has been considerable.
"There's always an initial big wave then there's a sifting process and us following up on the research that's been done even before anything happens," McCutcheon said. "There's a couple of moving parts."
After quite a few firings around the Bowl Subdivision over the past few days, UMass now has plenty of company on the crowded coaching carousel. Penn State, Kansas, UCLA, Illinois, Ole Miss, Memphis, Alabama-Birmingham, Arkon and Arizona State are among the many high-profile schools that are now looking for a new football coach and several others could be added to that list soon.
McCutcheon said that while many schools are looking, they aren't necessarily looking at similar candidates.
"Our situation is different than a lot of situations," McCutcheon said. "We're not probably looking in the same candidate pool as say Kansas would."
Most of those bigger programs can pay considerably more than UMass will.
A DIVERSE POOL - According to Black Coaches and Administrators Executive Director Floyd Keith, McCutcheon is one of a long list of athletic directors to reach out to his organization during their current coaching searches.
"There are a lot of folks in that organization that we want to be aware of," McCutcheon said. "They sent us some information and we'll evaluate that as we move forward."
The BCA both advocates for its members and evaluates and grades football coaching searches at Bowl and Championship Subdivision schools.
"We make suggestions and a lot of times we bring names forward that maybe they're familiar with or we corroborate on names that they're already familiar with," Keith said. "UMass called immediately and we exchanged information."
Keith said across the nation candidate pools have become more diverse in recent years. In 2003 there were just three head coaches listed by the BCA as "ethnic minorities" in Bowl Subdivision schools. Last offseason alone there were seven new coaches hired who fit that distinction. In 2011 there were 19 head coaches listed as ethnic minorities leading FBS programs: 17 were African American, one was Latino and one was Polynesian.
"The last couple years the numbers have spoken for themselves," said Keith, who has a longterm goal in mind. "I think the representation on the sideline should reflect the participation on the field. I think that's fair. When that gets to be the case, I think we'd be at an area where the report card isn't necessary. I think that's an honest expectation."
The report card is the BCA's annual evaluation of all Division I football hirings.
The BCA gives each coaching search a grade based on four criteria:
1. Communication - According the 2011 report card on BCASports.org: "Each school is measured by the number of direct telephone communications with the Executive Director of the Black Coaches and Administrators (BCA) and/or the Chair of the Minority Opportunity Interests Committee (MOIC). If an institution has two or more communications, they earn an A. If there is one communication, they earn a B, and no communications results in an F."
UMass, which has already spoken to Keith at least once, could receive no less than a B.
2. Hiring/Search Committee - This measures the makeup of the search committee, or in UMass' case the consultative committee that will advise McCutcheon.
The BCA evaluates it as follows:
"After the percentage of people of color on the search committee is determined, it is then converted into a letter grade: A= 30 percent or above people of color on the search committee; B= 20-29 percent people of color; C=10-19 percent people of color; F= 9 percent or less people of color on the search committee."
3. Candidates Interviewed - This measures the diversity of the candidates in each school's pool. According to the BCA: "After the percentage of people of color in the candidate pool is determined, it is then converted into a letter grade that adheres to the following grading scale: A= 30 percent or more of people of color in the candidate pool; B= 20-29 percent; C=10-19 percent; F= 9 percent or fewer."
4. Search duration - A longer search benefits a program's grade. According to the BCA:
"This measurement is made objective by examining previous patterns of head coaching hiring decision time frames by experts in the hiring process of head football coaches. The grading category for a reasonable time is as follows: A= two weeks or longer to make a final decision, B= 6-13 days, C= 4-5, D= 2-3 days, and F= one day or less to make a decision. When more time is allowed during the search process, more potential applicants become aware of the open position and the search committee has the chance to seek out additional candidates. Thus, a longer hiring process can help to ensure that the most qualified candidates are able to apply, which is why longer time frames earned higher grades."
UMass seems almost assured of an A in this category. Its search length will hit two weeks on Monday, and it seems unlikely that a new coach would be hired by then.
Grades from the four areas are averaged together. Schools which hired a coach of color received a bonus to their final score.
"That's the formula that we suggest to the universities to achieve diversity and inclusion in their particular process," Keith said. "No one argues with who gets hired. It's the process and how it works."
UMass received an A for its coaching search in 2009 and a B in 2004.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at http://www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.
