I know he’s abrasive to say the least. I remember when I was going to Metro, I worked briefly for the paper at UCD next door and Marcus Houston and Craig Ochs were hotshot recruits for CU at the time, I was assigned to interview them and one other guy whose name I forget—not important.
Anyway, Ochs and the other guy were completely nice and cool and all, but Houston was beyond cool. It was only a conversation that lasted maybe half an hour at most but he could not have been more kind. Even called me back exactly when he said he would because he was busy with something the first time I called. Apparently he also mowed lawns in the neighborhood growing up to fund a program benefiting inner city kids or something like that. Class act.
So, what’s the point of this story? Gary Barnett (a true grade-A asshole if there ever was one) was head coach and Eric Bienemy was Offensive Coordinator (I think) at the time. Not long after the season started Houston and his brother who also played for CU got into a huge public spat with Biememy. Apparently he was openly mocking Marcus during practices and said some things that got the whole damn family after him. Didn’t help that Ochs openly feuded with Barnett as well. Just an ugly situation all around.
So…long story long, do I think Bienemy is a great guy? HELL no. In fact he had a rep even in his playing days. I’m not really even campaigning for him to get a HC gig. But I tell ya what, no way is he a demonstrably worse person than, say, Josh McDaniels, who has inexplicably gotten two Cush head coaching jobs in the NFL despite being an insufferably arrogant asshole and grossly incompetent leader. If nothing else, I’m just curious to see what kind of head coach he’d be.
