On Saturday, I provided a list of the top candidates to replace Steve Kragthorpe as head football coach at the University of Louisville. After looking at the most talked about candidates (Strong, Sumlin, Petersen, etc), I mentioned several others, but did not go too in depth on them because they did not appear to be realistic options. However, it has been brought to my attention that some of those names are not out of the realm of possibility and are indeed viable candidates. So here are some more names to consider:

Kyle Whittingham

Whittingham is in his 5th season as head coach at Utah and has established himself as a stud coach. He took over the Utah program when Urban Meyer left for Florida and they did not skip a beat. Under Whittingham, the Utes are 46-17 and a BCS bowl contender every year. This year, the Utes are 9-3 and will play in a decent bowl game for the 5th strait year under Whittingham. The man is also 4-0 in bowl games which includes last season’s Sugar Bowl win over Alabama.

Kyle Whittingham is a BYU alum and has coached his entire career out west, which is to say he as no recruiting ties to the southeast. UofL director of athletics has made it clear he would like his new coach to get back to recruiting the southeast and it would appear Whittingham would not fit since he does not recruit the southeast. However, Whittingham can flat out coach and John L. Smith did not have a problem recruiting the southeast despite coming from the west.

Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham

Bronco Mendenhall

Bronco Mendenhall, love that name by the way, is the head coach at Brigham Young University. Mendenhall took over at BYU in 2005 and all he’s done is reach a bowl game every season, win two Mountain West titles, and keep BYU in the top 25 consistently. His current coaching record is 48-15 and Mendenhall produced double digit victories in each season since 2006.

Like Kyle Whittingham at Utah, Mendenhall has coached entirely out west including stops at Northern Arizona where he was defensive coordinator. The athletic director at Northern Arizona during that time just happened to be Tom Jurich. Also like Whittingham, Bronco Mendenhall does not have any southeast recruiting ties, but there is no doubt he can coach football. 

BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall, LOVE. THAT. NAME.

Gary Patterson

Patterson has been coaching at Texas Christian University since 2001 and has won consistently since. He is 85-27 as head coach at TCU, including a 12-0 mark this season with a pending BCS bowl game yet to come. Patterson is a defensive oriented coach who served as defensive coordinator at New Mexico and TCU before becoming the head coach. He has won double digit games six times in the past eight seasons and is 5-3 in bowl games.

Much like Bronco Mendenhall and Kyle Whittingham, Patterson has not recruited in the southeast, but that is because he has the fertile recruiting ground of Texas at his disposal. And while southeast recruiting will be once again be a focus by Louisville, it is not necessarily a requirement for the next head coach at Louisville to be someone who is strongly rooted in the southeast. Patterson is a great coach and there is no doubt he knows how to win.

TCU head coach Gary Patterson

I really have a hard time finding a weak candidate from any of these three. The lowest winning percentage out of these three is 73% and they have won in the Mountain West conference. One could argue the Mountain West is just as difficult as the Big East, but I don’t think anyone will argue the Mountain West is a more difficult conference than Conference USA. My point being these coaches come from a conference that is not clearly less difficult than the current conference in which Louisville plays. Whittingham, Mendenhall, and Patterson are fantastic candidates in my opinion and I would be extremely excited if one of them were hired.