Mike Jarvis is the Right Hire for FAU

I'm not surprised that he was hired. The only shocker was that it took so long.

Mike Jarvis was the logical choice for a program that needs a big name coach to be taken seriously. Until the men's basketball team can consistently win more than they lose, splashy hires like this (and Matt Doherty in 2005) are necessary.

Hopefully Jarvis, in his senior citizenship and with high-profile jobs in the rear-view mirror will be comparable to Howard Schnellenberger on the football side. Maybe Jarvis is just old enough to be content at FAU, but still young enough to inspire winning play.

Schnellenberger has the formula down pat, and has built the football program into a winner. Jarvis enters with talented players, a renovated arena and a resume that demands respect. FAU has a bleak basketball history that provides the perfect canvas for Jarvis to paint his final coaching masterpiece.

Pay little attention to the negativity that surrounded his departure from St. John's several years back. It seems to have been an unfortunate blip in an otherwise upstanding (not to mention winning) career.

Signs indicate that Jarvis isn't taking this job as a retirement hobby. He has a clear-cut mission that will drive his competitiveness: He wants to become just the second coach to win 100 games at four D-I men's basketball programs.

So, while there is a risk that Jarvis' transgression at St. John's was a true insight into the kind of coach he really is, it is a risk that FAU needs to take in order to bring men's basketball up to the level of it's record-setting football team.

Here is a story about the official hiring.