COACHES HOT SEAT BLOG

Below is an instructional video for Clemson fans if their head football coach Tommy Bowden doesn’t get off his VERY HOT rear end and start coaching his football team.

 

 

 

Of course, we are kidding, but wouldn’t Oliver Cromwell have been a hell of a head football coach?  In the movie Cromwell (a great movie by the way), Oliver Cromwell is played by Richard Harris, who we would cast as the type of head coach that Clemson really needs, and Sir Alec Guinness plays King Charles I, who is dressed up like a “dandy” at the end of the video clip.  The problem for Clemson fans is that Tommy Bowden has way too much King Charles I in him, and to little Oliver Cromwell.  The really bad news for Tommy Bowden is that Oliver Cromwell and Parliament had Charles’ head chopped off on January 30, 1649.  Could the same fate, non-literal of course, be awaiting Tommy Bowden if the ’08 season doesn’t go right?  We are hearing some very troubling things from Clemson fans on Tommy Bowden’s future which we will share when the Week 1 Coaches Hot Seat Rankings come out on Tuesday morning.  Bottom-Line for Tommy Bowden AND Clemson AD Terry Don Phillips:  Mediocrity is no longer going to be accepted at Clemson.

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There is always one constant in the game of college football, no matter how much preparation, planning, good intentions, and time spent getting a football team ready to play, coaching disasters happen.  On the first Saturday of the 2008 college football season there were several disasters to chronicle, and here are the coaching disasters for Week 1:

 

Dave Wannstedt, Pitt – With Pitt being ranked entering the season and with everyone in the mainstream media touting their greatness, Dave Wannstedt and the Panthers laid an egg on Saturday with a home loss to MAC conference team Bowling Green.  Same problems, different game for the Pitt Panthers:  Missed tackles, mistakes, inconsistency, and most striking a lack of execution at key moments in the game.  Clearly, a loss to Bowling Green was a disaster for Dave Wannstedt in game 1.  It is time to fire up the Hot Seat in Pittsburgh!

 

Al Groh, Virginia – 52-7 loss to USC?  The Virginia Cavaliers looked so pitiful in their game against the Trojans that the UVA football team should go ahead and petition to see if they can join the Ivy League where there’s some competition (and the type of men) that they can compete with.  Is anyone coaching this Virginia football team?  That is a damn important question after Groh and the Cavs had the entire offseason to prepare for the Trojans, but looked like they just showed up on Saturday morning after a three-week drunken bender.  Maybe next time that USC appears on the Virginia schedule, UVA can send out their women’s volleyball team to play the Trojans, because at least the women’s volleyball team would play something like real men.  What an embarrassment that ugly loss to USC has to be for UVA and their head coach Al Groh.  Does anyone really believe that if Al Groh and his staff had just let the players coach themselves in fall camp that the UVA team that played against USC would have been any worse?  No, they would have probably been better.  Fire up the Hot Seat in the Land of Jefferson!

 

Tommy Bowden, Clemson – Talk about a disaster, Tommy Bowden’s Clemson team didn’t even bother to show up to play against Alabama.  Is anyone coaching this Clemson football team, which entered the game against Alabama with four times the experience and twice the talent of the Tide?  What a complete and total letdown by the Clemson Tigers, and their fans should be storming the Clemson football complex on Sunday morning once they get out of church.  What exactly is Clemson paying Tommy Bowden $1.85 million a year to do?  He is not coaching the Clemson football team, so it couldn’t be that, and this incredible no-show by Clemson in this game against Alabama raises some very serious questions to if anyone is in charge of the Clemson football program.  I guess it will be no surprise to anyone that come Tuesday morning Tommy Bowden will be right back in his usual spot, on the HOT SEAT!  What an embarrassment Tommy Bowden and Clemson are to the great Tiger fans, because Bowden and his football team basically just laid down on the field at the Georgia Dome and let Alabama run all over them with impunity.  Memo to Tommy Bowden:  If Tommy Bowden and his staff think they can coast in ’08, put up a losing season, and still keep their jobs, they are badly mistaken.  With all of the talent on this Clemson football team anything less than 10 wins would be coaching malpractice and a losing season would have to be followed by the immediate firing of anyone involved in running the Clemson football team.   If Tommy Bowden and his staff are not going to coach this Clemson football team, Coaches Hot Seat would be more than happy to fly to Clemson tonight to actually coach these Tiger players.  Be assured, if we were coaching Clemson, the next time they took the field there would be no doubt that the Clemson players actually wanted to play the game of football.  You see, we will be able to get the players attention, something the current coaching staff seems to not have a clue how to do.  Right now, it looks as if no one on the Clemson coaching, or on the football team gives two rips about representing their university in the appropriate way.  Can you say the HOTTEST SEAT in the country come Tuesday morning for Tommy Bowden and Company?  If Bowden is not going bother coaching his football team, then yes, he should be under tremendous pressure and on the HOT SEAT!

 

Chuck Long, San Diego State – Chuck Long was 7-17 (.292) in 2 seasons at San Diego State entering this year, and instead of the Aztecs coming out and showing to their fans that they are serious about playing winning football, Long and SDSU lose their opener to Cal Poly.  Cal Poly?  What in the hell is going on at San Diego State that they could lose their opening game to Cal Poly?  Did the entire Aztec coaching staff spend the fall on the beaches eyeing the good looking ladies and surfing?  It sure looks that way after the Aztecs lost to CAL POLY!  If the staff was coaching, then there is a serious problem in the city of 365 sunny days each year.  Of course, it would be hard for Chuck Long’s rear-end to get much hotter, but hotter it must become….

 

Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech – If Frank Beamer is going to bother to bring his Hokie football team and all the Va. Tech fans to Charlotte to play a football game, one would think that his team would actually show a little passion about playing the game of football.  The Va. Tech football players looked asleep for most of the game against East Carolina, and that lack of passion and being prepared to play the game is the direct responsibility of Frank Beamer and the Va. Tech coaching staff.  ECU has a good football team, but that was just a pitiful performance by the Hokies, and if someone doesn’t get the attention of this Va. Tech football team soon, the ’08 season could turn into a disaster.  Frank Beamer on the Hot Seat?  Well, if he’s not going to coach his team, we don’t see why not…..

 

Mike Sherman, Texas A&M – Mike Sherman and Texas A&M lost to whom in College Station, Texas?  Arkansas State you say.  No.  No, it can’t be.  A&M under the vaunted former Green Bay Packers head coach who was going to bring highly-advanced NFL offensive schemes to the Big 12 lost to Sun Belt conference member Arkansas State?  You’re kidding, right?  Man that is just a hard one to explain, because there are several high school teams in Texas that could beat Arkansas State.  This loss to ASU (no not Arizona State, but Arkansas State) raises some serious questions to if Mike Sherman and his staff have any idea if they know what they are doing.  Coaches Hot Seat could have arrived on Friday evening and taken over the coaching of the A&M football team and beat Arkansas State on Saturday.  Even worse, eight 70 year old women from a retirement home in Houston could have been driven up to College Station on Saturday morning, given control of the A&M football team, and beaten Arkansas State.  Yes, it is that bad.  Mike Sherman, this is college football, not the NFL, and if Texas A&M can lose to Arkansas State, there might not be a team on the ’08 A&M schedule that they can beat.  Somebody in College Station better tell Mike Sherman this is not the Packers and the NFL where teams often show up for games with little fire, with little passion, and really only care about cashing a paycheck.  This is college football and the Big 12 conference, and the Aggies better start playing like a college football team, or Mike Sherman is going to find himself back in a coordinator position in the NFL a lot sooner than he can possibly realize or understand right now.  Texas A&M lost to Arkansas State at Kyle Field?  Come on, the Texas A&M women’s golf team could have beaten Arkansas State.  Can you say welcome to the Hot Seat Mike Sherman?

 

Well, there you have it, 6 Coaching Disasters from Saturday’s college football action.  From the early returns, it looks like the ’08 season is going to be very entertaining for us here at Coaches Hot Seat!

 

If any of the above coaches lose in Week 2 we are going to have to come up with a new category to rank them with.  We will call it:  A Football Field Away from the Surface of the Sun!

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On Saturday morning we listed 12 head coaches that could not afford a loss in their opening game.  Let’s see how those coaches did along with our initial comments:

 

1.  Tommy Bowden, Clemson – LOST TO ALABAMA – “An unmitigated disaster for Bowden and Clemson.  More to come on this embarrassing game for the Clemson football program and all Clemson fans.”

 

2.  Les Miles, LSU – CONVINCING WIN OVER APPALACHIAN STATE – “LSU takes up right where it left off after last season.  Nice win for the Tigers”

 

3.  Dave Wannstedt, Pitt – LOST TO BOWLING GREEN – “A terrible performance by Wannstedt and his Pitt team.”

 

4.  Joe Glenn, Wyoming – BEAT OHIO - “Glenn and the Cowboys got a tough win over Ohio.”

 

5.  Ralph Friedgen, Maryland – BEAT I-AA DELAWARE – “Friedgen and the Terps got a tough win over a very good I-AA team in Delaware.”

 

6.  Tommy Tuberville, Auburn – BEAT LA. MONROE – “A sloppy win for Tuberville and Auburn, but a win.”

 

7.  Tim Brewster, Minnesota – BEAT NORTHERN ILLINOIS – “It was a close win over NIU, but Brewster and the Gophers got the win, and that is what counts.”

 

8.  Mack Brown, Texas – BEAT FAU IN A CONVINCING MANNER – “Mack Brown and the Longhorns look like they are back, but this has usually been the time that Texas has let-up in recent years.  Let’s see if the Longhorns can keep this going through the entire season.”

 

9.  Jeff Jagodzinski, Boston College – BEAT KENT STATE IN CLEVELAND – “Not a sizzling win over MAC team Kent State, but a win is a win, and any win by an ACC team over a non-conference foe is a time to celebrate these days.”

 

10.  Jeff Tedford, California – BEAT A GOOD MICHIGAN STATE TEAM – “In a very tough game, Tedford and Cal got a much needed win at home.”

 

11.  Mike Bellotti, Oregon – BEAT WASHINGTON – “Bellotti and Oregon had to beat Washington and they did.”

 

12.  Mike Sanford, UNLV – BEAT UTAH STATE – “Mike Sanford and UNLV needed this win and they got it.  Now they must keep it up.”

12 Coaches That Had to Win Their Opening Game Record:  10-2

 

There was some nice preparation and coaching by most of the coaches that had to have a win on the opening weekend, but two of the coaches did not come through in must-win games, Tommy Bowden and Dave Wannstedt, and both of those coaches are going to find that their football teams’ performance is going to put them under tremendous pressure as the new working week dawns.  The Coaches Hot Seat team that is on the ground in Los Angeles getting ready for the Tennessee – UCLA game on Monday night at the Rose Bowl, are putting together their thoughts on several coaches’ performance over the weekend, and we will bring that to you soonest.  The Week 1 Coaches Hot Seat Rankings will be out on Tuesday morning due to the Labor Day Weekend and extended game schedule.  We still have some very good football games to be played over the next couple of days.

 

Stay tuned, because things are just starting to get heated up!

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There is nothing like new beginnings, and the anticipation that comes with a new college football season is similar to that feeling that many of us had on Christmas Eve as children as we anxiously awaited to see what ‘Ole Saint Nick had left under the tree.  The opening game for college head football coaches must be filled with all kinds of thoughts as well, from anticipation to anxiety and probably some fear as well, but if a coach has done all that can be done, then there is little left to do but play the games.  As is the nature of the competitive society that we live in, there are some head football coaches that REALLY cannot afford a loss in their opening game, and thus we look at some of those coaches and what they face in Week 1.

 

A head coach that has already lost a key opening game:

 

Mike Price, UTEP – Price and the Miners already laid an egg on Thursday with a loss to Buffalo, and no doubt the pressure is increasing on Price to get the UTEP football program back on track.  Price is 25-24 (.510) in now his fifth season in El Paso, and UTEP has Texas coming to town next Saturday.  It is already hot in south Texas, but the temperature is rising even more….

 

12 Coaches that will face LOTS of heat on their derrière if they lose their opening game:

 

1.  Tommy Bowden, Clemson – If there is any coach that cannot afford a loss on opening day it is Tommy Bowden at Clemson.  Bowden is entering his tenth season at Clemson, and has recruited a very talented group of players onto this ’08 team, but there is no excuse in the world for Bowden and the Tigers to lose to a second year coach that took over what was nothing less than a demoralized football program when Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa in January of 2007.  Bowden has everything going for him in this game, and a loss to Alabama in a game that Clemson should not only win, but dominate what is an undermanned Crimson Tide team is not only necessary for the Tigers, the ramifications of a loss are almost to dire to consider.  Tommy Bowden enters Saturday night’s game against Alabama ”Oh so very close” to being on the Hot Seat in front of the entire nation, and we will be very interested to see if Bowden can step-up and prove he deserves to be mentioned with the best coaches in the game.  Lose to Bama, and it might lead to the entire season unraveling for Clemson, and we are going to be fascinated to watch how Bowden and his team perform under the pressure of the national spotlight. 

 

2.  Les Miles, LSU – Les Miles has done an incredible job taking over for Nick Saban at LSU, but he cannot afford a loss against a very good Appalachian State team today.  People say the Alabama fans are demanding, but the LSU fans really do not tolerate losing well, and a loss to start the ’08 season, even against a good I-AA team, could mean storm clouds ahead for the Tigers.  (Besides Hurricane Gustav that is….)

 

3.  Dave Wannstedt, Pitt – Wannstedt faces a no-win situation in week 1 with a very good MAC team in Bowling Green visiting Pittsburgh, and loss in this game would put Wannstedt in a very perilous situation, very early in the season.  This game against Bowling Green is MUST WIN for Dave Wannstedt.

 

4.  Joe Glenn, Wyoming – Frank Solich brings his Ohio football team to the great western plains of America, and this is just flat-out a game that Joe Glenn and the Cowboys cannot lose.  Glenn needs to get some momentum going for the ’08 season, and an opening week loss would lead to more questions, more problems, and an even hotter rear-end.  Play hard Cowboys!

 

5.  Ralph Friedgen, Maryland – One of the best playcallers in the game of football, Ralph Friedgen, has handed over the playcalling to his offensive coordinator James Franklin, and there better not be much rust for the Terps in their opening game matchup with a very good I-AA team Delaware.  Friedgen cannot afford to lose to any teams he is supposed to win anymore, and an opening game loss to the Hens would get the ’08 season off to a terrible start.  The pressure is already on Friedgen, and a loss to Delaware would really heat things up in College Park, Maryland.

 

6.  Tommy Tuberville, Auburn – Questions abound about Auburn’s new offensive and defensive coordinators, and the Tigers have a very interesting game against La. Monroe, the team that beat cross-state rival Alabama less than a year ago.  Auburn should come out fired-up and ready to play in this game, but if things don’t go right and La. Monroe finds a way to pull off a huge upset, things could get very ugly, very quickly on the Plains.  The Auburn fans are feeling slighted lately, with all of the attention that Nick Saban and Alabama are getting, and every Tigers’ fan wants their team to explode out of the blocks in the ’08 season, and anything less than a convincing win in week 1 will be a disappointment.  A loss to La. Monroe would be an unmitigated disaster for Tuberville and Auburn.

 

7.  Tim Brewster, Minnesota – If they is any coach in the country that cannot lose his opening game, it is Tim Brewster at Minnesota.  Jerry Kill brings his new Northern Illinois team to Minneapolis, and if a first year coach at a MAC school can beat a second year coach at a Big Ten school, then there are serious problems, and we mean really serious problems in River City.  The bottom-line:  Tim Brewster and the Gophers MUST BEAT Northern Illinois or…..Brewster’s rear-end will be hotter than a sidewalk in Atlanta in the middle of August.

 

8.  Mack Brown, Texas – Even though Mack Brown and Texas are reeling off 10 win seasons on a regular basis, Brown and the Longhorns know that something is not quite right in Austin.  The Longhorns have gotten soft, and they sometimes looked in ’07 like the passion to play the game of football was not there anymore.  A renewed spirit by the Longhorn players in the ’07 bowl game against Arizona State was a start, and a convincing win against FAU in the ’08 opener would be even better.  What we would love to see from the Texas players is some passion, some fire, and a desire again to play the game of football.  It is time for the Longhorns to hit somebody instead of getting hit, and what better place to ignite that fire than against a very good FAU team in the opener.  Have the Texas football players lost their fire to play the game of football?  We are about to find out.

 

9.  Jeff Jagodzinski, Boston College – Jagodzinski had a great first season at Boston College with Matt Ryan at the helm, but now he has to prove he can win at BC without a NFL first-round QB under center.  An opening game against MAC team Kent State at a neutral site in Cleveland, Ohio provides the perfect venue to launch the post-Ryan era at BC, but a loss to Kent State and everyone is going to be asking the same question:  Was it Jagodzinski or Ryan that was responsible for BC’s 11 wins in ’07?  That is a question that Jagodzinski needs to answer in the affirmative for him in week 1 with a convincing win over Kent State in the opener.  A loss to Kent State by BC and the heat will begin to be turned up….

 

10,  Jeff Tedford, California – Jeff Tedford and the Bears open the season against a very good team in Michigan State, but after a disastrous ’07 season for Cal down the stretch, it is time for Tedford and Cal to prove that they actually play the game of football in the “fruitcake” town of Berkeley (Please get those idiots out of the trees!).  Several times last year we wondered if some of the Cal players really gave a damn about playing the game of football, but the stories coming out of the Cal fall camp seem to be saying that the entire team is back on message and ready to play the game again.  It is time for the Cal football team under Tedford to go out and hit someone, to make something happen, and most of all to win football games.  Is Cal a serious football program or was Tedford’s first few years in Berkeley just a fluke?  Win or lose to Michigan State, that question must be answered today vs. the Spartans.  Lose badly to Michigan State, and the questions will begin about Tedford’s control of the Cal football program.

 

11.  Mike Bellotti, Oregon – Bottom Line:  Mike Bellotti and Oregon CANNOT LOSE to Ty Willingham and Washington.  If Oregon does find a way to lose to an undermanned Washington team at home in Autzen Stadium, then that will be the beginning of the end of the Bellotti era at Oregon.  The Oregon football program is like that Big Wheel that many of us rode around as children:  Makes a lot of noise, but doesn’t get us very far, and it will be interesting to see if the Oregon players will actually show up to play every game in ’08, or if they will take a couple of games off this season, like they have in many recent years.  Do the Duck football players want to play the game of football, or do they want to play chess and backgammon?  That is a serious question that must be answered, because too often in recent years the Oregon players and football program talk a big game, but then fall flat on their face.  Lose to Washington, and Mike Bellotti will have one of the Hottest Seats in the country come Tuesday morning.

 

12.  Mike Sanford, UNLV – The true Hot Seat game of the day as Hot Seat coach Mike Sanford of UNLV takes on Hot Seat coach Brent Guy of Utah State.  Bottom Line:  Mike Sanford and the Rebels cannot lose this game.  If UNLV does lose to Utah State, the UNLV administration might as well start looking for a new head football coach, because there is just no excuse in the world for UNLV to drop this game against Utah State at home. 

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How anyone could possibly argue that Ohio State’s Jim Tressel does not deserve the raise he got today to $3.5 million a year is completely beyond us.  Besides being a great football coach, Jim Tressel is a great example of the type of leader that our young people need, and how anyone could question Ohio State paying Tressel a market rate for his work is hard to understand.  Ohio State football will generate $60 million plus in revenues for OSU athletics in 2008, and paying Tressel $3.5 million a year is certainly in line with what other top football programs in the country are paying their head football coaches. 

 

America is a wonderful country, but there is an undercurrent in our society that seems to want to punish high achievers and diminish their accomplishments.  Sometimes it is just jealousy that fuels people’s criticism of individuals that earn high compensation for their work, but much worse than jealousy are the people that demonize and degrade personal achievement and believe that there is something wrong in rewarding appropriately the bright lights in our country.  It is outrageous for a person to believe that there is any other way to pay the productive achievers in our society, but to pay them by their worth and personal contributions to the world.  At the heart of people’s complaints about individuals earning large salaries is a lack of a basic understanding of what happens to those salaries once they are paid out.  Jim Tressel really only has three different things that he can do with his paycheck each week, spend the money, invest or save the money, or donate the money to worthwhile causes.  All of the above three things help our economy and society, and Jim Tressel through his productive work not only achieves a lot in his job and for Ohio State, but with his earnings he promotes the general welfare of our Republic.  Far too often there is a basic misunderstanding that the high-earners in our country are taking away things from other people with their big paychecks, when in fact the exact inverse is true, which is certainly the case with Jim Tressel.  It is too bad that Ayn Rand’s books, Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, are not read regularly in our high schools anymore, because American citizens needs a basic understanding of how high achievement by individuals in our society has been far more healthy and prosperous for everyone by allowing, encouraging and rewarding self-reliance and individual achievement. Independence and personal happiness flourish to the extent that people are given the opportunity to follow their dreams and achieve big goals, and people that tear down our high achievers only hurt our country, not help it.  Jim Tressel being rewarded today with a new contract, with a salary of $3.5 million a year, should be seen as the culmination of years of hard work by Tressel in his lifetime, and all Americans should celebrate Tressel’s achievements, not criticize them.  Bully to Ohio State for paying Jim Tressel what he is worth, and with Tressel now making the market rate for his work, we now designate Bronco Mendenhall of BYU as the most underpaid college head football coach in the land.

 

Top 10 Underpaid College Head Football Coaches

Name, School – Coach’s Salary – Amount Underpaid

 

1.  Bronco Mendenhall, BYU – $650,000 – $1,500,000+

2.  Mark Richt, Georgia – $2,800,000 – $1,000,000+

3.  Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech – $2,100,000 – $1,000,000+

4.  Gary Pinkel, Missouri – $1,875,000 – $1,000,000+

5.  Mike Leach, Texas Tech – $1,750,000 – $1,000,000+

6.  Bret Bielema, Wisconsin – $1,400,000 – $1,000,000+

7.  Jim Grobe, Wake Forest – $1,200,000 – $1,000,000+

8.  Jeff Tedford, California – $1,875,000 – $700,000+

9.  Gary Patterson, TCU – $1,300,000 – $700,000+

10.  Mack Brown, Texas – $2,910,000 – $500,000+

 

Today should be a day of celebration in college football and in our country, because Jim Tressel was rightfully rewarded for his years of hard work, and that is a lot of what this entire shooting match called America is about.  Congratulations are in order for Coach Tressel on another great day in America where a man can be paid $3.5 million a year for coaching football.  If this isn’t the greatest country on the planet, all of here at Coaches Hot Seat will wear ”Tressel Red Sweater Vests” to the USC game in two weeks at the Coliseum (There is no chance we will be wearing a sweater vest at the Coliseum!) 

 

If any American is not familiar with the basic concepts that Ayn Rand promotes in her books, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, they should get a copy of each of those books and read them, which will certainly help anyone understand why it is better for all of us and our Republic when high achievers like Jim Tressel are rewarded for their hard work.  (Ayn Rand Institute).

 

Ayn Randy interviewed by Phil Donahue

 

 

 

Howard Roark (Gary Cooper) Speech – The Fountainhead

  

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