I trust Danny White.
Maybe that's a cop-out, but he's shown repeatedly he knows what he's doing. Caldwell has a great record, but lacks D-1 experience, but White sees something in her that he didn't see in other candidates, and that's good enough for me.
The real question IMO is going to be whether she can recruit. Harper's biggest issue wasn't coaching, so much as it was recruiting
Let's correct this myth--which apparently emerged because Heupel has had one good season in three--that White is some sort
of hiring guru. He's not.
Johnny Dawkins, the current men's BB coach at Central Florida, hired by White, has a 500 conference record in, I think, 7 or so
seasons--72 and 72. In the last 4 years his teams have finished 6th twice, 7th once and 9th (this past season) in the conference. His
seat is surely getting warm. It's interesting that White hired Dawkins because he was not good at Stanford, his previous job--an under
.500 conference record and he was sacked.
Bobby Hurley, whom White hired at Buffalo, has been a complete flop at Arizona State. His conference win rate over his 8 seasons
is 46 percent--and that in a Pac12 conference that is WEAK in basketball. I have no idea why he hasn't yet been fired. Perhaps it's because
Arizona State has never been good in BB and because Hurley won two titles when he played at Duke and his brother (much better coach) is
about to win his 2nd-straight national title with UConn.
Abrahamson-Henderson, whom he hired as WBB coach at UCF, did well there, but has struggled in her two years at Georgia. She was 9-7 in the SEC in her first season--and last year was 3-13, the Bulldogs finishing next to last in the conference.
Nate Oats, whom he hired at Buffalo, has been successful at Bama.
I think this myth was also bolstered by the false idea that many had that White hired Vitello--the baseball coach. He didn't. Currie hired him. The best coaches at Tennessee--Barnes, Kredich, Woodruff and Vitello--were not hired by White. And neither was Pensky, the soccer coach who left and just won a national title at FSU. White did hire Pensky's replacement--and 20 wins completely dropped to 11 and then 9.
I've got nothing against White, I'm glad that our athletics overall have been strong, but all this slobbering over the guy is off the mark. Caldwell is a major roll of the dice, no question about it. Let's see how she does. Our last two WBB coaches were not proven winners at the major-college level and did not succeed, and that is why most everybody believed we needed an established coach to revive the program. White has done the opposite--made the same sort of hire that got the program in trouble. Third time a charm? I will say that personality is a factor in coaching success, and I don't think Warlick or Harper had it. Does Caldwell? We shall see.