Boston College Coaching Candidate: Cleveland State Head Coach Dennis Gates

He has personal connections to the program, could Gates be a fit with the Eagles.

Boston College fired head coach Jim Christian on Monday after seven seasons with the Eagles. As the coaching search begins, we will break down each potential candidate, from the realistic to the far reaches. We have already looked at a handful of other candidates that are located at the bottom of this article, now we are going to talk about Dennis Gates

Name: Dennis Gates

Age: 41
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Playing Career: California
Previous Experience: Assistant at Marquette, Florida State, California, Northern Illinois, and Nevada. Head coach at Cleveland State since 2020
Connections to Boston College: Married to senior associate athletic director Jocelyn Gates

Pros: Young African American coach, that has had a huge year at Cleveland State, a program that he turned around in just a year. The Vikings recently clinched the regular season title for the Horizon Conference. Went from 11 to 17 wins in a single season. An up and coming young coach, who has experience in the ACC given his time at Florida State.

Cons: Very limited experience as a head coach (two seasons), would be a huge gamble. Has only one winning season, but to be fair his first year as a head coach Cleveland State lost most of their talent. 

Other Factors: Having his wife work at the program would give Gates an overall feel for the program, and understanding of some of the challenges he would face at Boston College. 

Odds of becoming Boston College Head Coach: Low. Given what I have heard Boston College is looking for in a coach, a proven track record of winning seems to be paramount for Pat Kraft. Gates could be a talented coach, we just haven't seen enough to prove it yet as he has one of the smallest head coaching resumes of anyone we have profiled so far. Have to imagine that he would be a second tier candidate at this point. 

Other Candidates:
Ed Cooley
John Beilein
Mark Schmidt
Howard Eisley
John Becker
Kevin Willard
Bill Coen
Porter Moser

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