Column: Jerry Glanville a bad fit at Eastern Michigan

January 19, 2013; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; East head coach Jerry Glanville in the East-West Shrine Game at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Griffith-USA TODAY Sports
Jerry Glanville hasn’t coached a college football team since 2009. Eastern Michigan would be wise to keep the former NFL coach’s resume unchanged.

Glanville told USA Today Sports on Monday that he wants to coach at Eastern Michigan and has applied for the open position. That’s where this conversation should end.

The 72-year-old coach is a poor fit at EMU, despite Glanville’s history as a linebacker at Northern Michigan and an assist with the Detroit Lions. He isn’t the person who can save the Eagles football program. Shoot, for what it’s worth, he doesn’t have the potential to save Grambling State, a team worse than EMU that is marred by abysmal finances, facilities and hope at the FCS level.

That fact is EMU has a great opportunity to hire a coach who can turn the Eagles into a team the small town of Ypsilanti deserves. Ypsi deserves a coach who can out-recruit lower-level Big Ten Conference teams in Detroit, Northern Ohio and the Midwest. It deserves a coach who can win the Mid-American West Division title each year. It deserves a coach who is hungrier for a win than the diehards who attend each EMU game at Rynearson Stadium.

EMU must hire a young, energetic coach who can fire up the Eagles fan base, raise money and recruit some of the best talent in the Midwest. That’s exactly what EMU’s rival down I-94 is doing. Despite Western Michigan’s 1-10 season, P.J. Fleck has garnered national attention with his hash-tag-laden approach to coaching football. The Broncos have a top-40 recruiting class with 29 commitments – a class ranked higher than several Big Ten, American and ACC powers. They also have a brand new football field and updated facilities.

If WMU can win off the field, why can’t EMU? Why can’t EMU get a coach who has what it takes to catapult the Eagles into national relevance for the first time in program history?

EMU hired Heather Lyke as its new athletic director prior to the 2013 football season, so it will be her job to pick the Eagles’ next coach. Lyke worked under Ohio State AD Gene Smith and it was Smith who recommended Lyke for the gig in Ypsi. If I was a betting man, I’d imagine the next coach the Eagles get has Ohio State ties.

Although it’s admirable Glanville has interest in EMU, EMU shouldn’t have interest in Glanville.