I'm starting to run out of candidate profiles here Zenger, let's get this thing done. In all seriousness this is somewhat the winding down of the list as it seems the list of candidates that Zenger is likely looking at is both shrinking and we also have to be getting close to the end. At least one would hope.
At this point it looks like Fedora is off the board. Despite all the Fulmer talk there are some pretty definitive claims that he is NOT in the running. That leaves us with a list of guys such as Dave Christensen, Troy Calhoun, Sonny Dykes, Gus Malzahn etc. One person we haven't explored is Dirk Koetter. Koetter's name jumped on the radar early and has quietly remained in play. He fits a lot of what Zenger is looking at and the longer this drags out the more realistic it would seem that he is in play.
So let's find out a little more about Jacksonville Jaguars Head Coach Dirk Koetter.
Koetter is an Idaho native, Pocatello to be exact, where he was born in 1959. That puts him at 52 for the moment so he's experienced but there is plenty of tread left on the tires. In college Koetter would attend Idaho State where he would play quarterback and receive his bachelors in 1981 and his masters in 1982.
Koetter would then immediately jump into the coaching ranks starting at the high school level at Highland. Koetter would coach two seasons at Highland before following an opportunity to jump into the college ranks as an offensive coordinator at San Francisco State.
It was on the offensive side of the ball that Koetter would make his mark and where he would climb up the chain of command at some fairly well known Universities. One season at SFS would be followed by three years as offensive coordinator at UTEP and then a four year run at MISSOURI. Look the other way folks, this was a LONG time ago.
In 1994 Koetter would move on to Boston College for two seasons and then make his final coordinator stop as the offensive coordinator at Oregon from 1996-1998.
That's when Koetter had the opportunity to return to his home state and coach the now famous Boise State Broncos. At the time Boise State was pretty much an afterthought. They probably still had the blue field but other than that no one really knew about them. Well Koetter was the first to get things moving. During his three season stint with the Broncos Koetter would finish with an overall record of 26-10. The Broncos would win two conference championships and win two bowl games. That success would lead to an offer from Arizona State after just three seasons and Koetter would depart for BCS land and his first big time head coaching gig.
While at Arizona State the results were mixed. Koetter finished with an overall record of 40-34 making four bowl games in that time. In all reality it was a pretty solid stretch for the Sun Devils with records of 4-7, 8-6, 5-7, 9-3, 7-5 and 7-6. Koetter never posted a losing season in his final three before being asked to leave his post in Tempe. The 1-11 record against top 10 teams and a 2-19 record against ranked teams seemed to play a factor and that is probably fair, but Koetter did have the Sun Devils competing and playing in Bowl games during his tenure.
Following his departure from Tempe, Koetter would jump to the NFL ranks in 2007 where he would coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars. In his first season the Jaguars finished seventh in the NFL in total offense. Obviously the Jags have fallen on some darker times right now but Koetter has done a nice job managing that offense during his five season stretch. One would assume that the Jaguars are moving in a different direction at season end as they have already parted ways with longtime head coach Jack Del Rio, so it might be just the right time for Koetter to jump back to the college game and that might make him a perfect fit for a program like Kansas.