The news that Richmond was going to interview Virginia Tech's Bryan Stinespring for its vacant head coaching job was met with a lot of sarcastic cheers from Hokie fans eager to rid themselves of the embattled offensive coordinator. While EBJ from Beer Control Offense is on the mark with his assessment of the fans' enthusiasm, I believe Stinespring would be a good fit at Richmond.
Last year I posted a sarcasm-soaked letter to Ball State's athletics director asking him to hire Stinespring. But there's no sarcasm here. The same recruiting ties Mike London had are shared by Stinespring. He could step in at UR and keep the flow of talent coming in as the Spiders move into a new stadium.
There is one thing Stinespring would have to do to be a successful head coach, though. He would need to hire an offensive coordinator. My primary contention with Stinespring has always been his playcalling. If he can find someone he trusts to run the system he wants to install it would work out a lot better than if he tried to call plays and be the head coach.
Who knows what kind of offense Stinespring would want if he were in charge. Right now he runs the system Frank Beamer wants him to run. Whether or not that's what he wants to run is something we won't know unless he gets the reins of his own program, be it Richmond or an FCS or FBS in the future.
Stinespring is a solid recruiter, organizer and delegater. He is a great coordinator of the offense and its system, but struggles at playcalling. I think he has the attributes that would lead to being a successful head coach. However, I don't think he'll get the chance to prove me right at Richmond and who knows if he'll ever get that chance.
And for those of you rooting for Stinespring's departure, remember that he's one of our top recruiters. We certainly would be able to find a better play-caller than Stinespring, but I don't think we'd have nearly as easy a time replacing him on the recruiting trail.