Chants’ Moglia willing to listen to other job offers

Type Coastal Carolina football coach Joe Moglia’s name into Google and the top results include stories and posts linking him to various open FBS-level coaching jobs.

There’s a Forbes’ headline from two weeks ago asking, “Should Joe Moglia be considered for a ‘Power 5’ college football head coaching job?’ There are stories listing him as a potential option at Syracuse and Rutgers.

So what does Moglia think about all of this?

“I know my name gets thrown around a lot as far as other opportunities go, but I’d say the exact same thing that I’ve always said and that is I’m privileged and honored to be the guy responsible for this program,” he said in his office Wednesday. “I love the role I play on this campus, I love working with Matt [Hogue], I think the world of Dr. DeCenzo, I really do like it here. But if I had an opportunity I really thought was a special opportunity, I would have to seriously consider that. Just like I would tell anybody I care about to consider that. From my perspective, that hasn’t changed at all.”

He says he has gotten some calls related to other jobs recently, but he noted that’s been par for the course the last few years.

“That doesn’t mean there’s anything specifically going on, but yeah, I get calls,” he said.

The Coastal Carolina football program is embarking on an interesting period. Coming off a remarkably successful four-year run under Moglia in which the Chanticleers went 41-13 with four straight FCS playoff appearances and reached No. 1 in the FCS Coaches Poll in two straight seasons, they now begin a two-year transition to the FBS level with their move to the Sun Belt Conference and won’t be eligible for any postseason play during that time.

If Moglia is ever going to make a move, it would seem the time is now as he’s 66 years old and has stated he doesn’t plan to be coaching well into his 70s. Along with no postseason possibilities the next two seasons, staying at Coastal Carolina would also mean enduring inevitable setbacks while moving up from the FCS to the FBS level, trying to build a program capable of competing in college football’s top tier. At the same time, Moglia is revered here and could add to the legacy he’s already built at the one school willing to take a chance on the former TD Ameritrade CEO.

Those are all factors he will have to consider ... if he is offered another job, that is.

But if such an offer were to come, Moglia is prepared to listen and weigh his options.

“If I had the opportunity to really be successful and win and potentially achieve some sort of national status at the BCS level, I think I would certainly have to consider that. If somebody thought I could help them win a Super Bowl, I would certainly have to consider that. So yeah, if I had that opportunity, but it has to be the right opportunity,” he said.

Asked what level of conference it would take to lure him away, he said it would be more about the individual school and he has an idea already what would and wouldn’t appeal to him.

“I kind of know what my mindset is. It’s not going to be difficult for me to make a decision. It’s not going to be difficult for me to determine how I would run a program. I know how to do those things,” he said. “... There might be a program you could ask me about that I would say yes blindly. There might be a program you could ask me about that I would say no blindly, but probably most of the time the type of program that would be interested in me, I’d have to know more about it. But I’d be interested in talking about it.”

Just as likely, though, he could be back with the Chants next season for his fifth year, so it’s been business as usual for Moglia and his staff this week.

Since the Chants were eliminated in the first round of the FCS playoffs with a 41-38 loss to The Citadel last Saturday, Moglia said he has not slowed down much.

“There’s too many things that need to get done, now is not a good time to get a break,” he said. “What happens in a lot of staffs is everybody jumps on the road right away, but the reality is we were kind of hoping we were still going to be in the playoffs so we knew this week was going to be a work week.”

The Coastal Carolina players have been busy with exams and end-of-season meetings with their coaches, and the staff has had its own meetings to plan out its final recruiting push while heading back on the road over the next few weeks.

Moglia says the Chants have received about 16 commitments so far. While the program will be gradually increasing these next two years from the FCS maximum of 63 scholarships to the FBS allowable 85, he was not sure how many they would add in this first year.

“Because we’re going up to the FBS we’re going to have more scholarships to work with. It would be a mistake to bring in too many freshmen because then you build up too big of a class, so I want to be able to balance that out a little more aggressively than maybe we’ve done in the past with older kids,” Moglia said. “So we would certainly look at JUCO transfers as well as some transfers ... and we might have interest in a greater number than we’ve had in the past.”

Meanwhile, there are other matters to address in the time being.

Asked if he is bringing his entire coaching staff back next season, Moglia said, “I’m in the process of making those decisions.”

“I think those are thought processes, you’re always thinking about your staff and what are the skill sets that we need to have to accomplish what we need to have going forward,” he said. “Are we all in sync philosophically? I’ve got good guys that have worked hard and accomplished a lot of things here, but I still always have to make decisions with regard to what I think is in the best long-term interests of the program with regard to philosophy as well as execution.”

He expects to have that decision made in the next week or two.

Regardless of what happens, it will be an interesting offseason for the Chants and their fans until all the dust settles.

This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 7:46 PM with the headline "Chants’ Moglia willing to listen to other job offers."