Syracuse Football Coaching Search Profile: Mike Sanford, Notre Dame OC

Until the Syracuse Orange have a new football coach, we'll be previewing candidates that may be up for the job. One of these individuals might be leading the program. Or maybe it's someone else entirely. Sometimes we're wrong. Sorry.

Who's this guy?

Mike Sanford, son of Mike Sanford.

Where is he right now?

He is the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. You may have heard of them.

Where else has he been?

Starting out as a GA at UNLV, he worked his way up the assistant ladder at Stanford, Yale, Western Kentucky and then back to Stanford where he went from RB Coach to Recruiting Coordinator to WR Coach to QB Coach. From there he took the OC/QB Coach job at Boise State (where a certain Mark Coyle used to work) before taking the same jobs with Notre Dame this past year.

What do current fans think of him?

They seem to be pretty happy for the most part with the Irish offense, though maybe this is the wrong week to ask.

Random fun fact:

He got his first gig at Stanford thanks to some extremely-coincidental or fortuitous airplane seating:

When Harbaugh was hired as the head coach at Stanford in 2006, Sanford borrowed money from his father to fly from Las Vegas to San Jose for the news conference in Palo Alto, planning to make a cold pitch. By pure coincidence, he sat next to Harbaugh on the flight. Before the plane even landed, Sanford had all but secured a spot as an offensive assistant.

Six degrees of Syracuse:

While Sanford doesn't have Syracuse connections, he does have Mark Coyle connections. Coyle was the AD at Boise when Sanford was the OC there, so obviously there's a relationship there. Or at least a "hey, I remember you" acknowledgement.

Advantages to hiring him?

He's got the pedigree (son of a successful coach), he's got a lot of experience at high-level programs, he's got lots of recruiting experience at high-level programs and he'd be taking over an offense with a lot of weapons that have yet to be deployed at their top level.

Drawbacks to hiring him?

Unproven as a head coach. While he does have high-level coaching experience, he doesn't have THAT much experience. You don't want to hire a guy just because of his last name. Also, we'd probably have to schedule Indiana State at some point.

Odds it happens?

Sanford is probably getting wooed by a lot of schools in our range (especially Virginia). Don't be surprised if there's a bidding war for him and something tells me that if it comes down to money, Syracuse can't win that battle. Let's go with 10%.

Previous Profiles: Scott Frost, Ed Orgeron, Dino Babers, Joe Moglia