Oregon State University and football coach Gary Andersen mutually parted ways Monday after a 1-5 start to the season, leaving many to wonder what went wrong during his two-plus seasons at the helm.
Nowhere was the turmoil more apparent than on the recruiting trail, where dysfunction and mixed messages among the coaches led to a disjointed effort.
On Tuesday, The Oregonian/OregonLive's Andrew Nemec was joined by Madison coach/area recruiting expert Don Johnson, who was approached for a possible recruiting consultant job by Oregon State last year, to discuss what went wrong in Corvallis.
Miscommunication between coaches, a lack of quality evaluation and a coaching reset with the departures of Kalani Sitake (BYU) and Brent Brennan (San Jose State) were discussed.
A few of the key takeaways:
Andrew Nemec: "I think what went on and where this started to go sideways... I think Gary Andersen's initial plan was he would take care of the JC, immediate help. He would have Coach Sitake and Coach (Ilaisa)Tuiaki be that Polynesian pipeline with Coach Chad (Kauha'aha'a), and they would bring in Polynesian players. Their identity would be toughness, their identity would be second chance, essentially. And then you had Telly Lockette working Florida, the rest of the staff working California."
"When Coach Sitake left for BYU, that took away some of the recruiting identity that they had established. I think the plan was JC and Poly guys, and Sitake leaving really was a pullaway from the program, was an identity that left a void that Gary Andersen was unable to fill after Sitake left."
Don Johnson: "I think that being a head coach, you leave it up to your recruiting department, and some of those guys inside that building do things that you don't do. Coming from Wisconsin and other schools, I think those guys took a lazy chair back in not understanding that Corvallis is a different ballgame and different fight. I don't think Gary was part of the reason certain people weren't on (the recruiting big) board or weren't being toured on that campus. Gary is a football coach. He is not a recruiting coordinator. He's not the guy putting names on the board. It's just a different ballgame. He tried to fix those areas... but it just didn't work out. I wish him the best of luck. I think he's a great coach."
Listen here:
-- Andrew Nemec
anemec@oregonian.com
@AndrewNemec