Report: Eric Bieniemy remains a “strong candidate” for Colorado job

[KC Wolf]

Getty Images

Eric Bieniemy is unlikely to take the head-coaching job at the University of Colorado. Unless he isn’t.

A day after Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com reported that the Chiefs offensive coordinator is “unlikely” to jump from the NFL to a college program that has become a Michigan State stepping-stone, Mike Klis of 9News.com reported that Bieniemy, the all-time leading rusher at Colorado, remains a “strong candidate” for the job.

According to Klis, the school and Bieniemy “have been in periodic contact,” but “there are still many questions and decisions to be made on both sides.”

For Bieniemy, the biggest decision is whether he wants to be a head coach badly enough to walk away from an offense that features one of the best quarterbacks the NFL has ever seen — and the short-list 2021 head-coaching opportunity that should go along with another year of working with Patrick Mahomes. While there’s no guarantee Bieniemy will become an NFL head coach in 2021 if he stays put, it becomes highly unlikely that he’ll become an NFL head coach in 2021 if he leaves. First, he likely won’t want to bail on Colorado after only one season. Second, by stepping into a mid-level college program, Bieniemy necessarily will yield his spot on the NFL’s “A” list to others.

I’ve previously argued that Bieniemy should stay where he is. In the end, however, only he can decide what’s best for him. More than a week after the Colorado job became available, he has yet to definitively decline the potential opportunity.