There is no exact science to hiring a football coach. Sometimes a school goes through a great hiring process, dots all its Is, crosses all its Ts and lands on a perfect candidate -- somebody who checks every box and is hailed by fans and media alike as a grand slam hire. Then, the next thing you know, three years have passed and that incredible hire is being cut a huge check to stop coaching for you because it's been an abject failure.

Sometimes you have a terrible process, get turned down by everybody you go after, miss out on candidates who didn't wait around waiting for your call and end up with a horrible hire. Then, sometimes you stumble into success. Sometimes you watch all your top targets get raises and extensions at their current jobs, and you end up making a great hire anyway.

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