Honestly, I CAN'T see Arizona State hiring a coach as quickly as this, and I'd think that they would spend a little longer than two weeks searching.
With that said, here's just my own assessment looking at this "Top 6", with highs and lows of each.
Mike Price
Pros: Has PAC 10 Coaching experience at Washington State, where he compiled three 10-win seasons and five bowl appearances. Has developed some good QBs on the college level (although all of them, with the exception of Jordan Palmer who has an unknown future, bombed on the NFL level). Is the 10th winningest active coach in D1.
Cons: Price's teams seem to be hit or miss. In 8 out of 14 years at Wazzou, the Cougars finished with a lousy record, and out of the bowl picture. This trend continued at UTEP, where he put up two 8 win seasons (which was a big step forward), but regressed this season, falling to 5-7. We also all know the situation regarding his brief tenure as Head Coach of Alabama, so that goes without mentioning.
Dennis Erickson
Pros: Arguably has the best credentials of any of the other candidates, with two National Titles to his resume. Leading Oregon State to an 11-1 record and a BCS appearance isn't a bad resume booster either.
Cons: Left both Miami and Oregon State high and dry for "greener pastures". Who's to say he's not just biding his time waiting for the next big money offer to come around? Not to be ignored is the fact that when he left Miami, he left that school in a sanction riddled mess. Also, the 1989 Championship was largely Jimmy Johnson's recruits anyhow.
Norm Chow
Pros: He's a brilliant offensive mind, who has produced three Heisman winning quarterbacks, and seems to have a knack for building up high octane offenses. Shouldn't have any trouble building off what Koetter started with the offense if he is hired. Could actually boost the offense, and make them BETTER than they've been in the past.
Cons: Zero head coaching experience. This would be overlookable if he was 45 or 50, but at the start of the 2007 season, Chow will be 61 years old, which is kind of late to be starting your coaching career. Can he get out and recruit, or maintain success on BOTH sides of the ball? There's also reports that both Arizona and Stanford had stopped just short calling press conferences to name him coach before he interviewed with them for the jobs. Supposedly, his interview with U of A was so bad, one notable booster threatened to remove his name from the U of A picture if Chow was hired. The Stanford interview was rumored to be slightly better, but not by much. There's got to be a reason why BYU went outside the picture to hire LaVell Edwards replacement in 2000, without even giving Chow a look DESPITE the fact that he was on the Cougar staff for 27 years.
Mike Riley
Pros: Has Pac 10 and NFL Coaching experience, and reportedly is a very good recruiter.
Cons: Let's call a spade a spade here.. Riley's Oregon State teams have been slightly better than mediocre. He's yet to coach the Beavers to anything higher than the Sun Bowl, which really leaves you asking "If this is the best they could have gotten, why not just stick with what we had?" The fact that prior to beating USC, Riley was on the hot seat cannot be ignored.
Mike Martz
Pros: The only candidate with ASU ties, as he was part of the 1986 Rose Bowl squad. Can boast of a pretty respectable resume in the NFL, including coaching the Rams to a Super Bowl appearance and has a ring as an assistant. Is an innovative offensive mind, who more likely than not would run a pro-style offense that would bring the recruits in.
Cons: Has a crusty personality. As much as you can boast of a Super Bowl ring, and can boast of being able to run a pro offense, which would be helpful for those with pro aspirations, if you don't have the personality to be able to recruit, you're immediately behind the eight ball. I just can't forsee him being able to recruit well on the NFL level. Plus, let's face it.. St. Louis is a relatively passive market. Martz feuded with media there. Here, with cynics like Bob Kemp in town, Martz would get aten alive. Also, his heart ailment, which caused him to leave the Rams for an extended period of time, and ultimately may have factored in to him losing his job.
Steve Mariucci
Pros: Like Martz, has a well defined NFL pedigree (despite leaving the Lions in disgrace, after a poor tenure, his run in San Francisco was widely successful). He has the personality to be successful in recruiting, and did a fairly decent job in recruiting in his one year at Cal.
Cons: Reportedly would rather return to the NFL sidelines. Would ASU be a stop gap option for him, until an NFL squad came a knocking? With all the ties he has to Michigan State, and known knowledge that the Spartans would have stopped short of renaming the city of Lansing after him if he took the job, it makes you wonder why they instead went in a different direction, and leads me to believe that he is waiting for the NFL.
Here's a few candidates not being mentioned that if I'm putting together a top list, I have these guys on.
Jim Leavitt
Head Coach
South Florida
-- One of the most underrated and underappreciated coaches in College Football, Leavitt has proven he can literally build a program from the ground up, doing just that with South Florida's football program.
As for recruiting, let's face it.. If you can hold your own recruiting against Miami, Florida State and Florida yearly, recruiting against USC and Arizona is hardly a daunting task.
The only real downside of Leavitt is he has at times stated he wants to coach South Florida until he retires, but as we've seen in the past, money talks. Winning at South Florida's nice, winning in the Pac 10 puts you on a different level. He'd also make far more money here.
Paul Johnson
Head Coach
Navy
His tenure in Annapolis has been nothing short of amazing.
When he took over the near dead Midshipman program in 2002, he inherited a program that had gone 1-20 in the previous 2 seasons. After stumbling at first, going 2-10 in his first season at the helm, the Midshipmen have gone 26-10 and will be going to their third straight Bowl game this year.
Prior to coming to Navy, Johnson also had a ton of success at Georgia Southern, going 62-10 with 2 Division IAA National Championships.
For those who worry about recruiting issues, trust me if you can recruit people to play for the Naval Academy, which may be one of the hardest jobs to recruit for in all of college football, he'd do just fine at ASU.
Frank Solich
Head Coach
Ohio University
Not only would this make many Valley Husker Boosters pleased, it’d be a pretty respectable hire for Love, if Big Game experience is what she’s looking for in a Head Coach.
Solich’s success in Lincoln is not to be ignored. He had six consecutive Bowl appearances, won nine games or more in five out of six seasons and led the Huskers to a National Title appearance. Keep in mind, Solich had the daunting task of replacing a legend, succeeding Tom Osborne and actually had a moderate amount of success while filling a very big shadow.
In his last two years, he’s done a very good job building Ohio University from the ashes up, and have the Bobcats in a Bowl game for the first time since 1968.
Oh by the way? One added bonus? He’s from Johnstown, PA. Hey, last time the Sun Devils turned to a coach who hailed from the Johnstown area, things turned out relatively well for the Devils, right? (For those who don’t know, Kush is from Windber, PA-- roughly 15 minutes east of Johnstown).