Broyles Award. Yea, you really can't go any higher than that.
But would that imply that VanGorder hit his ceiling years ago at Georgia?
VanGorder won the Broyles twice as I remember it.
And, I think any time an assistant hits the top of his profession, the way things are set here in America he should try his hand at the next level. But I also believe that only a small percentage of the best assistants are really good head coaching material. I have nothing concrete to base this on, but I bet there are many assistants that are not as good that form a better potential talent pool for successful head coaching candidates.
My feeling is that someone that is a tip top assistant may be so because that is what he is great at. Where an overall great head coach candidate may be good at it because of his football related abilities, but may have an ego that gets in the way of being great at anything but a head coach.
Many times the years need to sort out these differences. So a great coach that is a great assistant, with experience can take over one side of the ball and run it as part of the "team" within the staff that he forms with the head coach. When a guy like Brian Kelly turns over the defense, he needs a top assistant, with plenty of depth. I think a coach like BVG with a wide range of backgrounds is a huge plus. I also don't think BVG needs to go anywhere, and has a multi-faceted view on playing defense that will grow up ND's current defensive effort. That is how I would look at it, a good beginning, now let BVG take over and grow it up.
The only thing I didn't like was the wafting of a flavor of elitism that I occasionally got a whiff of, previously. I think BVG and his attitude and personality will be a great antidote, and that alone will help in opening up recruiting more broadly, and deeper, on defense.