Strong kicked ass at Louisville but can't cut it at Texas. This begs the big important question of why. This is where MBob & Co. need to go to work and do some investigating.
We will not be able to attract the perfect candidate. Of that I am convinced. What we CAN do is land a candidate who is capable of turning this program around but may have some imperfection on his resume that keeps the big boys from calling. The mistake Burke made with hiring Hazell was the failure to identify that his imperfections (short head coaching track record, lack of innovative schemes), made him a poor match for our program. The lesson learned is to find a candidate whose weakness (for example, not able to cope with the pressures of a Top 5 job) can be mitigated at Purdue.
Was it the assistant coaches, administration support, recruiting, differences in compliance, culture, or did he lose the fire? If MBob can find out the answers and feels confident that he can recreate more of a 'Louisville' atmosphere than a 'Texas' atmosphere, then Strong could be very high on the list.
With that said, one glaring concern is the motivation level of a 50-something sitting on a huge buyout. This rebuild is going to be an 80+ hour a week job.
