COACHES HOT SEAT BLOG

It is so very easy to overlook the Freedom that we have in the United States of America today, the Freedoms that millions of Americans have lived and died for in our country’s history that all of us here at Coaches Hot Seat make Damn sure that our families, our children and even ourselves keep uppermost in our minds, especially on this great day…

Independence Day, July 4 th

July 4 th, 2010 is the 234 th Anniversary of our country’s Declaration of Independence and We are very proud to call ourselves Americans on this greatest of days.

 

The Declaration of Independence did not merely declare that the 13 Colonies were declaring their Independence from Great Britain, but after thousands of years of despot and elitist rule that indeed…

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (and women) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

That may seem like old hat to some Americans in the 21 st Century, but Thomas Jefferson’s above words are so much more.  Those words are the throwing off of the chains of bondage, of kings and queens, of anyone that would lay claim to someone else’s life, and the very simple declaration that all Men (and women) have the right to live their lives as they see fit.

Mr. Jefferson affirms the above words by declaring how we will guarantee “these truths” by…..

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

The words of Declaration of Independence are the words of genius, because they empower All Of Us to live our lives as we choose, to pursue our own individual happiness and that WE THE PEOPLE have the right to form a government that will “most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”  Those are the words of revolution, the American Revolution which forever changed the world and forged the Greatest Country in the history of the planet.

Amen to Thomas Jefferson and his tremendous Declaration and to our Brave Founding Fathers that had to guts and courage to stand up to and throw off the despots of Great Britain and the Old World. 

 

Much like in the days of earlier America we here at Coaches Hot Seat read the words of Declaration of Independence and tell our children about the great men that wrote it and risked all for the Freedom they enjoy today and all Americans should take a moment to read those great words themselves on this day.

Thank You for our magnificent American Republic and God Bless the United States of America.

Yes, We here at Coaches Hot Seat take Thomas Jefferson’s words and the Founders that approved the Declaration of Independence very seriously and anyone that believes in the Founding Document of our country would also be outraged with anything like the Bogus and Un-American Bowl Championship.  To the Americans that support the Absurd and Un-American BCS we can only hope that one day you wake-up and remember what country that you live in…..Of course, we have noted that 99 percent of the people that are behind and support the BCS have not spent a day of their lives in the US military or have rarely done anything of any significance for their country, so it is not surprising that they would support something as repulsive and Un-American as the BCS. 

There are a lot of things we can disagree with other Americans about from political viewpoints to which beer is better on a hot summer day (more on alcohol in a moment), but something that we cannot and will not tolerate is any person claiming to be an American and then to say or do things that does not recognize the very simple fact that All Americans Are Created Equal.  The BCS violates that principle in spades and the Evil SOBs behind the BCS should be ashamed that in a country as grand as ours that is Founded upon A Principle that changed the world that they can dare stand behind something that says that “This American” is not Equal to “That American.”  That is OUTRAGEOUS!

We can understand the greedy bowl executives and even some of these Candy Asses conference commissioners that don’t have the guts to have national championships won and earned on the field of play, but by far the most outrageous violators of the Our Founding Principle of Our Country that All Men (and Women) Are Created Equal, are these Sorry Ass College Presidents that ironically are some of the most politically-correct people on Planet Earth.  These hypocritical college presidents will fight like Hell to make sure that this or that person doesn’t get slighted or bothered (a terrible outcome of PC BS!), but they will support something like the BCS that treats American student-athletes in different, unequal and Un-American ways.  That is Outrageous and Incredibly Un-American.

To All of You Sorry Ass and Hypocritical College Presidents that support the Bogus BCS here is a special 4 th of July Message to you from Real Americans. 

Note:  No way a Real American would or could never support the Bogus BCS.

Not that most College Presidents even know that they are Politically-Correct, because most of them are so busy negotiating which professor gets what parking spot that they forget and often don’t seem to give a Damn about the Principles that our Republic was Founded upon.

Thank Goodness that the Vast Majority of Americans believe that Championships and anything else worth having in our Republic are won and earned on the Field of Play and for you folks that don’t believe that fundamental principle of our country we can only wonder who the Hell raised you and where possibly could you have gone to school.

We wait breathlessly here at Coaches Hot Seat for the release of…..

Oh, that should be a VERY GOOD BOOK!  Death to the BCS, Amazon.com release date of October 14, 2010

 

George AD Damon Evans DUI arrest

 

We haven’t a clue to what Damon Evans was up to in Atlanta earlier this week when he was arrested for Driving Under the Influence, but Evans clearly does not know about the Coaches Hot Seat Adult Beverage Policy or how public officials are supposed to act when in public.

The thing about Adult Beverages (alcohol, liquor, beer, etc..) is that they are a very powerful and potent drug and responsible adults that have things in life that are bigger than themselves, important jobs, families that count on them, a future worth living for, must be very clear what they will do and will not do when consuming Adult Beverages.

Here at Coaches Hot Seat we have a few very simple rules that we all follow which has kept us in good stead over the years when drinking Adult Beverages, with no DUI, DWI or any other arrests related to alcohol (or arrests for anything else for that matter!). 

The CHS Adult Beverage Policy is very simple:

1.  Maximum 2 drinks (beer, liquor, etc.) when at an event with our family, anything work related, or when in public around people we do not know or normally socialize with.

2.  If a member of CHS is at an event or someone’s house and has MORE than 2 drinks (beer, liquor, etc.) that person’s car does not move that night.  In fact, we have a strict policy that when someone has more than 2 alcohol drinks, the keys to that person’s car are put into a drawer that will not be opened until the morning.  How does that person that has had more than 2 drinks get home you ask?  Well, his wife might come pick him up (not always a good option as one can imagine!), a non-drinker that night will take him home, call a taxi/cab to take them home, the person will walk home, or the person will bed down for the night where he is at (if at friend’s home).  Whatever the outcome, the one hard and fast rule is that a person’s car never moves after someone has had more than 2 alcohol drinks, even if it is only 2 blocks up the street. 

Drinking alcohol is something not to be played around with, and if you are going to drink alcohol, which all adults can choose to or not, then one had better Damn have a personal or group policy in place when someone decides to have a few drinks or at some raucous party decides to “tie one on for the night!”

More than 2 drinks = The car does not move that night, or sometimes even in the morning!  Certainly not until the person driving that car is cold, stone sober!

As for Georgia AD Damon Evans, the DUI was bad enough, the 28 year old in the car with her panties between his legs when you are married with two children was worse, but the comments made by Evans and his “friend” during the arrest make Evans look like a fool and if Damon Evans is the athletic director at Georgia by next Wednesday then the University of Georgia will have sacrificed any standing it has claimed relative to its students and student-athletes going out and drinking, getting drunk, driving drunk, etc…

Of course Damon Evans will either resign or be fired, we just hope that Damon can get his life straight, save his marriage and family and come back and get what was a very promising career in college athletics back.  We have no doubt that Evans can come back from a firing at Georgia, but is Evans that will have to know he can come back and eventually get his good name restored.

Relative to holding a position like athletic director or head coach at a major university, if someone put any of us at Coaches Hot Seat into that type of  position tomorrow, needless to say we would always be on guard about our personal behavior and how we carried ourselves in the community, because an AD or head coach is ALWAYS representing the school he works, is setting an example for the young men and women he leads, and should be a great example of proper behavior for others to emulate. 

In the last few years we have heard about and even seen some disturbing and disappointing behavior by college presidents, ADs, head coaches, assistant coaches and college athletic department employees when they were in public, often far away from cameras or lots of peoples’ eyes and we have always wondered why that individual chose to act in a way that brings a lot of discredit on himself and the institution he works for.  Actually, a couple of years ago we witnessed an “event” with a fairly well known college athletic person and we debated for over a week if whether we should report that person’s behavior on the Coaches Hot Seat Blog.  We finally came down on the side of focusing the CHS Blog on our opinion of head coaches and people in collegiate athletics on the things they do in the public domain that has been seen by a large portion or all of the general population and we decided on that approach because a “rumor” even if it is something we saw personally, is much different than our opinion of a person or school.  Besides, often something we have been told, heard, or even seen personally ends up in our opinions and Coaches Hot Seat Rankings and how we view a head football coach or AD.

Getting back to Damon Evans and any other athletic director, head football coach, or anyone else working at a college athletic department, how in the world could you have gotten into a car drunk, and with a woman that was not your wife?  That set of facts just defies belief and shows incredibly poor judgment on Evans’ part and poor judgment and stupid decisions is just something that cannot be tolerated by someone that is supposed to leading our young men and women in this great country of ours.

 

The Great Don Coryell

There is so much we could write about the Great Don Coryell, who passed away this week at the age of 85.  His incredible record at San Diego State (104-192-2) and the amazing run he had with the San Diego Chargers with Dan Fouts playing QB for the Bolts (By the way, on the subject of the Great Dan Fouts, who is one of our all-time favorite players and people here at Coaches Hot Seat, we could not understand why Fouts did not have a spot somewhere last year calling college football on TV.  We did catch Dan on a few NFL games and in some MWC games, but Dan Fouts passion for and knowledge of the game of college football is just unmatched and if Dan Fouts still wants to do college games, we haven’t asked him mind you, why hasn’t one of the networks of big cable channels hired the guy?  Very strange indeed…)

…..are the deeds of a great football coach.

Don Coryell was an amazing football coach who should already be in the NFL Hall of Fame, but rather than us trying to bang out some chicken scratch on the Great Man, John Maffei of the North County Times did that very thing recently a lot better than we ever could.

Memories of a shared history with Coryell

“When you work in a college sports information office, the phone rings constantly.

So when I answered a call in my San Diego State office early on a January morning in 1973, it was no big deal. What I heard from the other end knocked me off my feet.

“Hi, John. This is Irving Carp (not his real name) of the St. Louis Cardinals. We’re ready to announce Don Coryell as our new coach, and Don wanted me to give you a call so we could coordinate the announcement with you and the San Diego media.”

Coryell interviewing for a job with the NFL’s Cardinals was one of the best-kept secrets in the history of secrets.

Everyone at the school knew that Coach was upset with the lack of respect his team got from the academic side of campus. And we all knew he was fuming because his football players weren’t guaranteed preregistration for classes.

But no one — not the athletic director, not his assistant coaches, not his players and certainly not his stunned sports information director — knew he was in St. Louis.

Coryell died Thursday at age 85 after a long and storied career, and my phone hasn’t stopped ringing.

I first met Coach in 1969 and consider myself better for the association. I was working for the Daily Aztec, the college paper, playing baseball and living in an apartment complex with several of the star football players back in ‘69.

It was a simpler time back then. The athletes respected each other and hung out together. The media, whether the downtown dailies or the student paper, had open access to the athletes and coaches.

And I had triple access to Coach — I was an athlete, I worked for the school paper and I was taking his football class. So I saw him nearly every day — not in class, though, because he told me just to show up the final day and remind him to give me an A.

I took him up on that offer.

Coach was beyond the valley of intense. You never wanted to drive with him because he talked with his hands and never watched the road. That we didn’t lose him in an auto accident is amazing.

At the end of the 1969, my bond with Coach was forged.

The Aztecs were playing Boston University in the Rose Bowl. Before the team left for Pasadena, Coach approached me. He knew I had played at Pasadena City College, and he wondered if I knew three football players the Aztecs were recruiting.

At Pasadena City in those days, the football and baseball teams had lockers next to each other. So at the workout the day before the game, I delivered offensive lineman Martin Imhoff, running back Larry Mitchell and tight end Mike Reed to Coach.

Coach was stunned, and when the Aztecs landed all three players — all of whom would make an impact in the program — I was his man.”

That is some great writing John Maffei and everyone should read the rest of John’s column to get a full picture of just what an incredible football coach and man that Don Coryell was during his well-lived life.

Memories of a shared history with Coryell

God Speed to you Coach Coryell and be assured we will never forget some of those incredible football games you coached in your great career.

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