Wow.  To think that this whole attendance issue is because of a cheerleader problem.  Who woulda thunk that?

I'd like to clear one thing up on the story. I wrote a good 4,000 words before I realized "oh crap, they want 1,500." Some things had to be cut, and I apologize for not making every transition perfect. That is 100 percent on me, not on my editors.

Here is my first draft of the "Chun needed someone he could trust" part of the article [I left in the typos for y'all]:

Dieter Kurtenbach said

"Interim head coach Brian Wright did a more-than-admirable job in finishing the 2013 season on a positive note, but his lack of experlence as a coach at the FBS level gave FAU AD Pat Chun little choice but to not retain him in the head coaching role.

Chun had targets that he went after – well-respected friends from his time at Ohio Dtate, but those advances brought him no closer to a coach.

He called former St. Thomas Aquinas coach George Smith – the king of South Florida football. And after he obliged Chun by going though his checklist, he let him know who the only candidate for the job was."

Chun wanted to keep Wright, but he had to be pragmatic. At a school like FAU, you need, first and foremost, a recruiter — you have the best talent in the US in your backyard, you cannot waste that. Brian Wright, for all his positives, is not an elite recruiter, not by a long shot.

Partridge is, as I said in my original "who should FAU hire next" column:

Who will be FAU's next head coach? - Sun Sentinel said

"Charlie Partridge — assistant head coach — Arkansas: The other theme of this list is "South Florida Recruiters" and in my opinion, Partridge is as good a South Florida recruiter as there is. He's a Plantation native, and a high-character guy who would bring immediate legitimacy to a program that has failed to endear itself to local high school coaches since 2011."

Pelini was a fantastic x's and o's guy on defense, but the program was going to stall at 6 or 7 wins because he was not a recruiter and he'd always be playing with an inferior product — sure he got some players here and there, but I recall some off-the-record conversations where it was clear to me that there was no recruiting plan in place, nor was there any interest in developing one. Pelini was a defensive coordinator and everything else was a waste of his time.

I don't know what kind of head coach Charlie Partridge will be. I sense that he'll allow his coordinators and position coaches to run the show.

"Interim head coach Brian Wright did a more-than-admirable job in finishing the 2013 season on a positive note, but his lack of experlence as a coach at the FBS level gave FAU AD Pat Chun little choice but to not retain him in the head coaching role."



Excellent response and a great article.

You've got an audience for that 5,000 word version right here!

I hope your sense of what type of coach he will be is correct.My belief is that head coaches must let their coordinators do their job. Charlie will go crazy if he tries to handle everything. At this level there are so many things going on other than coaching that he has to put trust in the coaches he selected. Great article. Nice job covering FAU . I can't wait to see what transpires in the next couple of days with recruiting.