Whoa

From Pete Thamel:

Sources: Boise State is hiring UC Davis OC Tim Plough as offensive coordinator. Plough worked for Dan Hawkins at UC Davis, which has the most total passing yards at the FCS level the past three seasons. Plough was a finalist for Baylor OC job. Key hire for new coach Andy Avalos.

Link: https://mobile.twitter.com/PeteThamel/status/1348450449112920064

Good for Plough. It really felt like he was being groomed as the heir apparent for when Hawk decided to hang them up. Best of luck to him up in Boise!

Also, I'm sure Hawk has already been in the process of finding a new guy if Plough was out there looking to make the jump to FBS.

Cody Hawkins movie' on up

Hopefully Dan will be able to objectively look at performance going forward. I wish Cody all the best in shaping the aggie offense.

Plough is a rising star. He was a finalist for the Baylor OC. I can see him having a short stop in Boise on his way to a head coaching job or as a Power 5 OC.

Coach ran into controversy recruiting and coaching Cody at Colorado. Now moving him into OC doesn’t seem prudent to me. I wonder if the position was recruited?

I think if you look at it objectively Cody is well qualified for the job. Cody also performed well as a player, and was qualified to play at that level. The controversy stemmed largely from play calling that was perceived to be influenced by a desire for Cody to look good that ended up costing the team. True or not, I don’t think that dynamic is at play in this situation.

I am curious how offensive schemes will change at all. I would be surprised if it didn't change at all, but there also isn't a ton of time between now and the supposed start of the season to install an entirely new and flushed out system. I will say that I was more happy than not with Plough's tenure, but there were definitely still instances of total head scratchers along the way.

It would be nice if we had a accomplished receiver among the coaches. We have some great athletes who might need some individual skill coaching among the wide receivers.

Young DC (34) & OC (32).

Others:

Kenny Dillingham, Florida State OC (31)
Matt Guerrieri, Duke, Co-DC (30)
Glenn Schumann, Georgia, co-DC (30)
Zach Kittley, Houston Baptist, OC (29)
Tommy Rees, Notre Dame, OC (28)
Charlie Weis Jr. ., South Florida, OC (27)

I don’t see how they could have looked outside based on the timing ( Boise coach named this weekend, spring ball around the corner). Seems like the logical choice within the program.

Yeah, i guess i would have expected Cody to be named interim OC and then do a position search. Similar to what we did with the AD position. Maybe that approach is only done for high level positions?

Great opportunity for Plough, hope he has great success

It must be confusing having two coaches named Cody and two coaches named Hawkins; someone needs a pseudonym.

Plough is around 35 and he’s been an OC since 2015.

I wonder if preseason interim-OCs frowned upon from a "just a few months left to get the team to gel and learn the playbook" perspective

I kinda groaned internally when I saw Cody would get the nod because my mind like everyone else's went to the controversy at Colorado, but I admit he is qualified and I'm certainly not going to advocate doing any in-person netowrking or interviews or anything these days.

Considering how long a an assistant coach usually hangs around aren’t they all interim?
I know nothing about Cody Hawkins personality and personality
is a big factor. But playing and coaching under his dad isn’t a negative in my opinion. Cody was an outstanding high school player, a two time state most valuable player when mot playing for his dad.
No one understands his dads coaching philosophy better than Cody does. We’re unlikely to find someone who is more knowledgeable about the current offense than Cody since he.s been coaching in it. I hope he does great.

Not going to miss him--we had some painfully conservative play calling the past few years

In a lot of businesses father/son combos work great because of deep shared understanding (and sometimes intense kitchen table refereeing from the Mrs.) Seems like most small plumbing contractors and moving companies do it this way and it works. At a publicly-funded entity, this is a little tricky because whoever is doing the hiring has fiduciary responsibility to get the best candidate and hold them objectively accountable for results. Within the shadow of nepotism, real and perceived accountability are always going to be tough and using an "intermediary as supervisor" usually doesn't improve the look if results are lacking. Sort of how Teresa Gould was but wasn't Ron's supervisor. I hope Cody turns out to be a great OC. But if it doesn't work out, things need to be handled the same as any other assistant.

Well put.

Why the reference to “intermediary as supervisor” who is that in this case?

Seems like many if not most football assistant jobs go to someone with prior ties to the head coach, not necessarily the “best candidate”. I think many if not most assistant jobs are filled without a “search”. The head coach has freedom to hire who he wants to work with knowing that his job is ultimately on the line. Whether his son is the offensive coordinator or someone else is, Dan Hawkins still bears responsibility for how the offense performs.

This isn’t like the Colorado situation where Dan is alleged to have called inappropriate plays to benefit his son’s stats and the team blew a big lead. I can’t think of an analogous situation in their current roles.

I’m writing from the assumption that assistants are UC employees, in which case I think policy prevents family members from directly supervising each other, at least on paper with the HR department. I would agree that assistant coaches typically do not get a national search committee, but when you are presumably handling taxpayer or student fee money, you want to both be and appear above board. While cooking the stat books may not be on the table, questions about fairness on performance reviews, raises, or HR complaints become more complicated when it’s all in the family at a government entity.

Yep. I’m thinking the AD would be the supervisor on record, sign of reviews, etc. Maybe were over thinking this.

it’s not like having an AD who had a spouse as a head coach. That would be crazy

Sports are unlike most UC activities in having clear deliverables understandable to the public at large. I think the difference in transparency minimizes the fairness and fiduciary concerns.

I haven’t noticed any mention of Cody Hawkins being QB coach in addition to offensive coordinator. ; although Plough handled both roles. That may be a lot for a new OC to handle given our inexperienced QBs.

From footballsccoop:

Boise State: UC Davis (FCS) offensive line coach Tim Keane has joined the staff in the same capacity. He follows offensive coordinator Tim Plough, who also came from UC Davis.

I have a feeling that Cal Poly Safety coach Cody VonApen might follow Plough and Keane to Boise State. He was a Grad Assistant last year in Boise.