COACHES HOT SEAT BLOG

February 30, 2008

 

Coaches Hot Seat

Sunday Briefing

 

First, we would be remiss if we did not recognize that today is the birthday of one of the great leaders of the past century, Winston Churchill.  One can only wonder what our world would look like today if not for the leadership of Churchill during the darkest days of when Germany had established dominance across the continent of Europe and were attacking Great Britain from the air.  Winston Churchill had such an incredible life and had so many personal and professional ups and downs that we can all learn much from what was one of the great leaders in the history of Western civilization.  One of our favorite quotes from Sir Winston Leonard Churchill is….

 

Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities… because it is the quality which guarantees all others.

 

Winston Churchill, born November 30, 1874 – died January 24, 1965.

 

One wonders how all of the players on all these college football teams played so hard in the past week when many of them have no chance to be a part of the BCS, because it seems that every IGNORNANT person on the North American continent gives credit to the BCS for everything from exciting college football games to the stock market going up last week.  Earth to IGNORNANT FOLKS out here, long before Roy Kramer dreamed up way for the BCS Boys to keep the postseason money away from the NCAA, college football players played hard and they played hard this week, BCS or no BCS.  Being able to hold that idea in your head, that the BCS is nothing more than a way for the BCS Boys to keep the postseason money away from the NCAA and also a system set-up for a bunch of commentators to talk, is the minimum requirement for being a US citizen!  Test in a week on the above….

 

1.  The SEC Championship Game is a National Semi-Final Game?  NOT SO FAST MY FRIENDS!  - Oh, the media and the BCS Boys try so hard to prop up the Bogus BCS, and they go to such great lengths to try and justify what is nothing less than the greatest fraud this side of Geraldo Rivera and Al Capone’s Vault adventure, but as we here at Coaches Hot Seat take a look at the last week’s Bogus BCS Rankings we see….

 

1.  Alabama

2.  Texas

3.  Oklahoma

4.  Florida

 

OK, let’s assume that the mysterious buffoons in the Harris Poll, many who didn’t get to see more than 1 game this weekend and then the Coaches Poll, and those damn computers (Computers are used to help decide a national championship in football?  Only a MORON OF A HIGH ORDER could defend that, and all of these ex-football players working as commentators should be ashamed for defending such a stupid idea…) will probably come out with the following Bogus BCS Rankings later today…

 

1.  Alabama

2.  Oklahoma

3.  Texas

4.  Florida

 

OK, so Alabama will be an underdog to Florida (Bama will be about an 8 point underdog to the Gators we are guessing) in the SEC Championship Game and what if Florida beats Alabama by a field goal in the fourth quarter.  Then, what if Oklahoma beats Missouri by a touchdown, or any score for that matter.  Do all the folks defending this Bogus BCS suddenly think that a favorite in Florida not beating Alabama in an impressive manner will SUDDENLY JUMP TEXAS IN THE POLLS!  Why does everyone just assume that Florida would jump Texas?  Because, everyone wants to try and PROP UP THE FRAUDULENT BCS!  Of course, if this scenario does happen, Florida barely beats Alabama in the SEC title game and Oklahoma beats Missouri, that means we may very well have a Bogus BCS title game of…

 

TEXAS vs. OKLAHOMA

 

Oh Boy, that will be exciting!  A rematch of the regular season game between the Sooners and Longhorns, which will make Bob Stoops and Mack Brown happy, but will leave 8 teams on the outside looking in with 1 loss or less at a Bogus BCS title game!  Yes, this makes lots of sense….

 

NOT SO FAST FOLKS!  Alabama vs. Florida is not a national semi-final game.  It is the SEC Championship Game, but in this Bogus BCS system, conference titles are meaningless anymore.  Yes, this system is a good idea…  By the way, Boise State and Utah have ZERO LOSSES, but they are just an afterthought in the BOGUS BCS.  How shameful that any American does not want to see this settled on the field of play.  Of course, lots of folks are scared of competition and what just might happen if teams had to earn a national title instead of being put into a BOGUS title game.  Can you say the Big Ten folks don’t have any interest in playing Utah or Boise State……  One wonder just what all these people are scared of….

 

ANY FORMER FOOTBALL PLAYER THAT DEFENDS THE BOGUS BCS just takes away the very hard work from all the college football players that have busted their asses, but now will be sent to play in MEANINGLESS EXHIBITION GAMES!

 

Yes, this makes a lot of sense…..If you are a COMMUNIST!  Certainly, there can’t be an American that would want a championship to be decided anywhere but on the field of play….  We certainly wouldn’t allow our children to participate in such an elitist system in their sports leagues, but it is OK for one sport in American, I-A college football?  Yes, there must be a lot of COMMUNISTS OUR THERE!

 

 

2.  Charlie, Charlie, Charlie that was just damn pitiful against the Trojans – As Joe Friday used to say, “Just the facts ma’am.”  The problem for Charlie Weis is that the FACTS tell a very damning story…

 

Charlie Weis (2005 – 2008)  28 – 21  (.571)

 

OK, the overall record at Notre Dame makes Charlie worthy of firing by itself, but let’s go to the boxscore from Saturday night’s game against USC.  Remember this was GAME 49 for Charlie Weis at Notre Dame.  GAME # 49!

 

Notre Dame stats vs. USC

 

First Downs                       4

Total Yards                        91

Passing Yards                   41

Rushing Yards                  50

 

Score:  USC – 38  Notre Dame – 3

 

Remember USC was GAME NUMBER 49 for Charlie Weis at Notre Dame! 

 

Conclusion:  We would have fired Weis before he left the Coliseum, regardless of the buyout number.

 

Seriously, anyone with a working brain watching THE HEAD COACH OF NOTRE DAME COACHING GAME NO. 49 AT THE SCHOOL last night and thinks that Charlie Weis should not have already been fired, then that is a person that knows nothing about the game of football.  Please, don’t give us the “young” excuse.  Charlie Weis is at the END of his fourth year at Notre Dame.  Look at how many “young” people that Saban is playing at Alabama and Meyer at Florida.  The excuses need to stop because right now Notre Dame has a PITIFUL head football coach that is an ARROGANT ASS to boot…  That is A DISASTROUS PROBLEM for Notre Dame and the Irish need to move quickly before the coach they would want to replace Weis, ends up at another school like what happened with Urban Meyer 4 years ago.

 

Note:  It looked to us that Pete Carroll was taking it easy on Ole’ Charlie and the Irish last night, because that score could have been 70 – 0!  Maybe Pete wants Charlie around for another year.  We are very sure that Carroll doesn’t want to see a legitimate head football coach in South Bend!

 

 

3.  Sly Croom Resignation – We can certainly say that we did not see Sly Croom resigning from Mississippi State yesterday.  Yes, Sly was on the Hot Seat and he certainly was going to be under pressure entering the ’09 season, but we really did not expect for Mississippi State to move to fire Croom.  Certainly, there cannot be anyone that thinks that a guy that played for Paul “Bear’ Bryant is the type of person that is going to “quit” at anything, so this “resignation” story sounds like a lot of crapola to us.  No doubt, the Mississippi State offense was a disaster, but what really got Croom was the ground shifting right under his feat, with Nick Saban’s arrival in Tuscaloosa and Houston Nutt in Oxford.  Also, Bobby Petrino in Arkansas and Larry Fedora down the road in Hattiesburg were not guys that were going to be really easy to deal with going forward.  We certainly wish Sly Croom and all of his assistants our best going forward.  The fellow that takes over for Coach Croom will find a football program that is in a much better place than it was only 5 years ago.

 

 

4.  MAC conference job openings – With the firings of Montgomery at Miami (OH) and Brandon at Bowling Green the MAC conference now has 4 jobs openings counting Toledo and Eastern Michigan.  We believe that these job openings just point to how the top teams in the MAC are putting pressure on everyone else to raise their game.  Up and coming assistant coaches around the country would do well to fight for these MAC job openings if they believe one of the openings would fit well for them.  Job openings in Division I-A are become more precious all the time and assistants at top I-A programs can no longer turn their noses up at MAC openings hoping for a better job to come open down the road, because the MAC is a terrific place to start a head coaching career and a place to prove you have the chops to lead men and a football program.  Good Luck to all of these MAC programs in finding a new head coach and we certainly encourage the ADs looking for head coaches in the MAC to not undervalue their programs, because a head coaching opportunity is a rare thing indeed these days in I-A college football

 

 

5.  Tommy Tuberville living in a New World (Nick Saban’s World) – In 2007 Tuberville and the Auburn Tigers handled Alabama pretty easily in the Iron Bowl winning 17-10, but only a year later Tommy’s football team got blasted by the Tide 36-0 and never has there been a quicker and larger turning of the tables in an in-state rivalry in the history of college football than Saban’s flipping of the table on Tuberville.  With reports out of Auburn that Tuberville will be back for 2009, we only hope that Tommy really has the desire deep in his gut to get Auburn back to a level where they can play with Alabama, because if Tubbs is just going to play out the string at Auburn, 2009 will be his last season on the Plains.  Tuberville has had a nice 10 year run at Auburn, 85 – 40 (.680), but with only 1 SEC championship up on the board, if Alabama does beat the Gators in the SEC title game, the heat will just get that much hotter on Tommy.  No doubt, Tuberville will enter the 2009 season on the Hot Seat and be expected to get Auburn back to the top of the SEC West.  Just getting Auburn back to a winning record and a bowl game will not be good enough, and if in late November of 2009 when the Tide comes calling on The Plains, if Auburn is not playing for a spot in the SEC title game, that game will be the “Tommy Tuberville Appreciation Day” much like Fulmer just had at Tennessee.  Tommy, you said you wanted to come back, now we are about to find out if you really mean it for all the right reasons….  Good Luck to Tuberville and the Tigers in trying to slow down the juggernaut in Tuscaloosa that is about steamroll the entire SEC and reshape the Auburn – Alabama rivalry for years to come…

 

6.  Phil Fulmer coaching career at Tennessee – We certainly wish Phil Fulmer Good Luck as he moves into his post-UT life and we note that as Fulmer departs the head coaching job with the Vols that he is still ranked No. 10 in the Winningest Active Coaches Rankings with an overall record at Tennessee of 152 – 52  (.745).  With 2 SEC titles in 17 years at Tennessee, the biggest problem for Fulmer was that his last SEC title was 10 years ago in 1998, when Tennessee also won the national title.  We here at Coaches Hot Seat got a good close-up look of Tennessee in the opening weekend when the Vols played in the Rose Bowl against UCLA, as we watched from the field as Tennessee warmed-up and played the Bruins during the game.  The biggest thing we were surprised by with Tennessee is that they look a step or two slower than the other top teams in the SEC and elsewhere around the country, and we also never got the impression that there was any real pressure on the Tennessee staff to WIN the UCLA game.  Yes, Fulmer and the Vols wanted to beat UCLA, but they did not REALLY WANT TO BEAT UCLA.  Stand on the sidelines of USC, Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas and one will find on the bench an attitude that it will be a damn disaster if we do not win the game we are playing in, and that desperation and determination by top teams to win football games is a dynamic that all great football teams have.  We never got the impression from Tennessee that winning or losing football games REALLY MATTERED and that lack of desperation and determination to win games is what was really missing from UT football under Fulmer.  No football program, college, pro, or high school can become a champion unless winning every game is the most important thing in the world for those 3 hours that the game is going on and that a loss would be a damn disaster.  If a head football coach wants to know if he has a winning football program, he can look no further than the reaction by his team and coaching staff to a loss.  If they accept that loss at all, then that is a football program in decline….

 

 

It looks like we will have at least a couple of new head coaching announcements on Monday, with Lane Kiffin taking over at Tennessee and Missouri offensive coordinator Dave Christensen taking over at Wyoming. If those 2 jobs are filled that will leave 11 schools still looking for new head coaches (and maybe some more jobs opening up) and it will be very interesting to see just who all of these schools end up hiring.  Yes, that will be damn interesting….and we will be watching closely…..and commenting on the hires of course!

Tags: Uncategorized by Joe
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November 29, 2008

 

Coaches Hot Seat

Saturday GameDay Briefing

 

We have 3 undefeated teams that are not in the secret BCS club, Utah, Boise State, and Ball State and guess what the people that are really behind the bowls are interested in? – Here we sit almost at the end of the regular season and there are now 3 different teams that have undefeated regular seasons up on the board not in the BCS’s precious little club, Utah 12-0, Boise State 12-0, Ball State 12-0, and what are the folks down in Miami that are thinking about the Orange Bowl and the Bogus national title game worried about?  Here is a quote from a story in the Miami Herald by Douglas Hanks:

 

“A slumping tourism market will likely win the Seminoles some new fans among South Florida’s hotels Saturday afternoon.

 

Should the University of Florida team be upset by Florida State, it could cost the Gators a slot in the BCS national championship game being held in Dolphin Stadium on Jan. 8.

 

That would probably be good news for South Florida hotels, given the large number of local Gator fans who could retire to their own beds should their team play in the BCS bowl.

 

”Personally, I’d like to see Texas or Texas Tech,” said John Webb, senior vice president for sales at the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau. “If Alabama won and played either Texas or Texas Tech — or Oklahoma — that would be a tourism dream.”

 

The intricacies of the college football pecking order have combined with a gloomy tourism outlook to make this weekend of big games particularly important for local hotels.

 

Victories by teams with passionate and faraway fan bases could mean a bookings windfall in January.”

 

Hotel room and tourism!  That is what the BCS is about, not about crowning a legitimate national champion in college football, but about hotel rooms and filling restaurant tables.  How pitiful.  Those of us that are either not ignorant or are not feeding at the trough of the BCS have understood this essential truth for years, mainly because we have attended many of these bogus bowl games which are little more than meaningless exhibition games, except for the fraudulent title game, which is, A FRAUDULENT TITLE GAME.

 

If you really want to understand the ignorance of the people behind the BCS that care more about filling up hotel rooms than the players, the coaches, the schools, and the fans, if these morons at these bowl sites could see past next Tuesday they would understand that a postseason tournament in college football would hold games at these very same stadiums and would actually stage games that meant something because all of the teams in the tournament would be playing for a national title.

 

In a 16-team postseason college football tournament the First Round games would be played at the home field of the higher seeded team and then the final 8 teams/4 games would be played at a regional site and then the Final Four/2 games would be played at one city/site and then the National Title Game would be played at one site much like a BCS bowl game is now.  Fans of the teams in the tournament would travel in droves to these games, because these games would actually MEAN SOMETHING, instead of all of these very silly and very stupid bowl games that do nothing more than fill TV time for ESPN in the deadest part of the year’s sports schedule. 

NEVER FORGET: 

 

The BCS is not about determining a national champion….

THE BCS IS ABOUT SELLING HOTEL ROOMS!

 

You know you are talking or listening to a very IGNORANT PERSON if they say something like “The BCS makes the regular season more important!” – Yes, there are a lot of ignorant people in this world, but the people that believe that the BCS makes the regular season more important than it has been during the 100 years of college football before the monstrosity that is the BCS was dreamed up are particularly IGNORNANT.  It is not the BCS that makes the college football regular season great, but rather the players, the coaches, and the fans.  The coaches and players do not come to play every week during the regular season hoping they will play in a MEANINGLESS BOWL GAME or a FRAUDULENT TITLE GAME bur rather they play hard because they have a great passion for the game of college football.  Anyone over the age of 40 that remembers college football before the BCS was dreamed up by very evil people that were frightful that they would lose control of the money flow from the college football postseason to the NCAA, are especially and incredibly IGNORANT when they say the BCS impacts the regular season in a positive way.  One wonders how these IGNORANT FOOLS that claim the BCS makes the regular season better explain the great football games that were played yesterday between Arkansas and LSU and Colorado and Nebraska where teams were involved that have nothing at all to do with the BCS.  Could it be that the players on these teams actually give a damn about their teammates, their coaches, their fans and their school, and that is why the played hard?  Or, is some incredibly IGNORANT person going to say, “See the BCS does it again.”  There are some dumb, dumb people out there…

 

Memo to the IGNORANT FOOLS (You know who you are) – The BCS does not make the college football regular season better, but rather takes a lot away from the game.  Commentators on TV talk incessantly about the “BCS Rankings” instead of about the football games and football teams and since the BCS has been instituted conference titles which used to mean a lot, and we mean a lot to everyone within the game are now little more than an afterthought.  Everyone is now calibrated to consider how games will effect the “BCS Rankings” and the focus is not on the regular season, but on a SERIES OF MEANINGLESS POSTSEASON EXHIBITION GAMES and a FRAUDULENT TITLE GAME.  One would have to be very IGNORANT to not understand the corrosive nature of the BCS on the game of college football  and no better example is the case on this Saturday of Texas pulling for Oklahoma to beat Oklahoma State, but not by too much!  You see, if Oklahoma State beats Oklahoma and Texas Tech beats Baylor, Texas Tech is the Big 12 South champion.  Thus, the Texas players, coaches, and fans will be sitting in front of their TVs hoping for a Sooner win, but not a big win.  Is that not the MOST IGNORNANT thing you have ever heard in your life?  Yes, there are a lot of IGNORANT FOOLS out there, and they start with the idiots that think the BCS makes every game count and that you have to win every game in the regular season or you are out of running for the national title….  Uhhh, no that is not the case….  Forrest Gump where are you?  There you are:

 

TO THE IGNORNANT FOOLS THAT PROP UP THE BCS:

“STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES”

 

Les Miles and the LSU Tigers got fat and happy with that National Title – OK, OK, Miles had to deal with losing his defensive coordinator in Bo Pelini and he had to toss his starting QB off the team in Perrilloux, but those two things do not explain why the LSU players are not playing hard on every play.  Yes, we said it, all of the LSU players on both offense and defense are not playing hard on every play and on top of that the LSU players have made dozens of colossal mistakes this season just as they did in the game against Arkansas on Friday.  Now after putting up a 7-5 record the LSU fans will be on Les Miles like the heat sticks to you in the summer in New Orleans and the 2009 season will be a critical one for Miles to get the Tigers back on track.  The first thing that Miles must do is find a defensive coordinator that can REALLY replace Bo Pelini and can also get the LSU defensive players to play both hard and smart.  The second thing that must happen is that Miles must demand his LSU players rededicate themselves to playing winning football again.  Right now the LSU players are committed to only one thing:  mediocrity.  The third thing that Les Miles must do is get his team focused, because after watching LSU play Arkansas it is clear the LSU players’ minds are somewhere else.  Where they are, who knows….., but not on the games….

 

Of course, in a parallel universe right now, Les Miles is the head coach at Michigan, Bo Pelini took Les Miles place at LSU, and Rich Rodriguez is still at West Virginia, but now he has already accepted a deal to take over at Clemson for Tommy Bowden.  Yes, in this parallel, and sane universe, Les Miles is where he belongs, at Michigan and Rich Rodriguez is very happy as he has put up another big year at West Virginia and he is about to take over at Clemson…  Yes, that would be a sane place to be…..  Of course, in that sane universe there is a 16-team College Football Postseason Tournament that determine a true and legitimate NCAA champion in I-A football.  My Oh My, that is SANE UNIVERSE!

 

In that sane universe a real postseason tournament with real games that actually meant something would look like….

College Football National Championship Tournament

 

Round 1 Games

 

Alabama – #1 Seed

Utah – #6 Seed

 

Ball State – #12 Seed

Oklahoma State – #10 Seed

 

Florida – #3 Seed

Houston – #16 Seed

 

Texas Tech – #9 Seed

Oregon State - #15 Seed

 

Boston College – #14 Seed

Penn State - #7 Seed

 

Oklahoma – #4 Seed

Boise State - #8 Seed

 

Missouri - #11 Seed

USC – #5 Seed

 

Cincinnati – #14 Seed

Texas – #2 Seed

 

Yes, those are LEGITIMATE AND MEAINGFUL GAMES as all of the above teams would be playing for a NATIONAL TITLE, instead of the playing in SILLY AND MEANINGLESS exhibition games that the BCS sets up each year.  16 teams with a chance to win a National Title or 4 Meaningless Exhibition Games and a Bogus title game, which one is best?  Any American male that would say the latter would have to be one of those kids that signed up for “Home Ec” in high school.  Yes, bake those cookies, bake those cookies!

 

Yes, we are going to have a playoff in college football…..and that will be…

 

WILL BE A GREAT DAY IN AMERICA!

 

 

Bo Pelini didn’t have his team ready to play but he still stole a win over Colorado – From the first whistle it was clear the Cornhuskers were not mentally prepared to play Colorado and Nebraska was playing catch up all day and they finally won on a 50+ yard field goal at the end of the game.  Dan Hawkins had the Buffs wound tight and ready to play football and took it to Nebraska and by all accounts should have won the football game, but “The Hawk” remains snake bit in Boulder.  The lesson for Bo Pelini and his coaching is that they must really guard against there team coming out flat against teams that are determined to beat them, which is all teams in the Big 12.  Whew, that was a close one for Pelini and the Huskers, because a loss to Colorado would have set them back after what has been an above average year up to this point.  Still, Nebraska got the win and is now 8-4, which includes an overtime loss to Texas Tech in Lubbock, and that is a very impressive year for Pelini and the Huskers.

 

Note to Bo Pelini:  On that fake field goal you tried that Colorado turned into a TD……Don’t forget you cannot trick a trickster and Dan Hawkins is a trickster…..

 

Dan Hawkins has built an above average Mountain West or WAC team at Colorado….the only problem is…. Colorado is in the Big 12 – We all know Dan Hawkins can coach the game of football, but “The Hawk” is going to have to fundamentally change the way he is coaching at Colorado to deal with what he and the Buffaloes are facing in the Big 12 conference.  First thing for Hawkins is that he is going to have recruit bigger guys and faster guys, but Hawkins knows that.  Second thing is that Colorado is going to have get bigger, stronger, and faster, and we mean really BIGGER, FASTER, AND STRONGER.  Thirdly, Dan Hawkins basic approach on offense of going around or over the opposing team’s defense is OK and will work in the Big 12, but on defense Colorado is going to have get much more physical to match up with teams in the conference.  Colorado must start smacking people in the mouth on defense and making opposing teams pay for every yard they get.  Colorado gave up 29.25 points per game in 2008, and if CU really wants to be a player in the Big 12 that point total must be reduced by about 10 points per game.  Yes, it is time for Colorado to get serious about playing Big 12 football and that is going to take a total dedication to building a REAL Big 12 team football team. 

 

Charlie Weis is Dead Irish Wake Man Walking – As we said in this blog earlier this week, we feel that Notre Dame must fire Charlie Weis, and that means if the buyout is $5 million, $20 million, or $100 million for that matter.  Charlie Weis does not represent the Notre Dame that we know, and as long as Charlie Weis is on the sidelines as the head football coach of the Irish, Notre Dame will be known as a school that has an arrogant ass as their head coach.

 

Our prediction for the Notre Dame – USC game:

 

USC 66 – Notre Dame 10

If that’s the score of the USC game, or if the score is anything like that, Charlie Weis will be fired from Notre Dame before noon on Monday.

 

Our recommended replacement for Charlie Weis:  Brian Kelly, Cincinnati head coach.  A winner on every level, would be a great representative for Notre Dame, great with the media, last name “Kelly” and he just fits at Notre Dame.

 

It is time to the end the nightmare that is Charlie Weis at Notre Dame…..

 

Lane Kiffin hired at Tennessee – We will have a lot more to say about Lane Kiffin when he is officially hired at Tennessee on Monday, but just the idea of Tennessee reaching so far down the coaching ranks to hire a guy that would probably not be on Utah State, San Diego State, New Mexico, Wyoming, Toledo, Eastern Michigan, and Syracuse’s list of legitimate candidates for a new head coach should tell you all that you need to know about Lane Kiffin getting hired at Tennessee.  A few of us here at Coaches Hot Seat know a few Oakland Raiders’ players and we are thinking about telling a few stories about Kiffin’s tenure at Oakland, but doing so may make Tennessee’s new hire look so dumb that they might change their mind, so we are still considering those stories.  Of course, the Raiders is a dysfunctional organization and Lane walked into a disaster in Oakland, but with his Dad being in the League so long we have to believe that Kiffin knew exactly what he was getting into and everyone tells us that it went south with Davis and the Raiders organization pretty quickly.  Lane Kiffin has a very unique personality and although we have never had a problem with Kiffin, he strikes us as someone that as Barry Switzer says…

 

“Is born on third base and thinks he hit a triple.”

 

By any measure Lane Kiffin is not qualified to be the head football coach at the University of Tennessee, and by any measure he is only marginally qualified to be the head football coach at San Diego State.  That should tell everyone, including everyone at Tennessee a lot…

 

Since we do trade in the firing and hiring of college football coaches here at Coaches Hot Seat, we do think about coaches that would have the ability to move up in the coaching profession from their current head and assistant coaches’ positions and to that point we have a large board up on the wall here at Coaches Hot Seat Central where we list the head and assistant coaches that we believe are most ready and qualified to move up to “Major” and “Minor” head coaching jobs and we rank those coaches from 1 on down until we get to the last coach we believe is ready for the “Major” and “Minor” coaching jobs.  We consider Tennessee a “Major” head coaching job, as is Clemson, Syracuse and Washington in our minds, and we believe there are approximately 40 to 45 “Major” head coaching jobs in I-A football today .  To that point there is a large board on the wall here that has as its title…

 

Head and Assistant Coaches Ready to Move Up to “Major” Head Coaching Jobs

 

…and here are those coaches starting from the No. 1 spot in order from 1 to 100 that we believe are ready to move to “Major” Head Coaching Jobs

 

1.  Chris Peterson, Boise State

2.  Mike Leach, Texas Tech

3.  Gary Patterson, TCU

4.  Bronco Mendenhall, BYU

5.  Kyle Whittingham, Utah

6.  Norm Chow, UCLA OC

7.  Troy Calhoun, Air Force

8.  Greg Schiano, Rutgers

9.  Pat Hill, Fresno State

10.  Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern

11.  Todd Graham, Tulsa

12.  Dave Christensen, Missouri OC

13.  Will Muschamp, Texas, DC

14.  Bud Foster, Virginia Tech, DC

15.  Brent Venables, Oklahoma DC

16.  Skip Holtz, East Carolina

16.  Brady Hoke, Ball State

17.  Butch Jones, Central Michigan

18.  Turner Gill, Buffalo

19.  Mike Locksley, Illinois OC

20.  David Bailiff, Rice

 

21 – 74.  Other Head and Assistant Coaches

 

75.  Mike Bobo, Georgia OC

76.  Tyrone Nix, Ole Miss DC

77.  Doc Holliday, West Virginia asst.

78.  Brock Spack, Purdue OC

79.  Paul Petrino, Arkansas OC

80.  Matt Eberfuls, Missouri DC

81.  Lane Kiffin, former Oakland Raiders HC

82.  Frank Spaziani, Boston College DC

82.  Shawn Watson, Nebraska, OC

83.  Michael Haywood, Notre Dame OC

84.  Mark Banker, Oregon State DC

85.  Sonny Dykes, Arizona OC

 

Yes, that’s right, we here at Coaches Hot Seat currently rank Lane Kiffin in the No. 81 spot as among Head and Assistant Coaches that are ready for the 40 to 45 “Major” Head Coaching Jobs in Division I-A.  Why Tennessee is reaching so far down the coaching ranks, over 80 “more qualified” Head and Assistant Coaches to hire Lane Kiffin is just baffling to us.  Maybe the people at Tennessee know more than we do about the head and assistant coaches across the country and they know more about Lane Kiffin……., but we doubt it….  No, we know more about both subjects and that lack of knowledge by Tennessee is going to come back to bite them in the ass….

 

We will have more to say on Lane Kiffin after he is officially hired at Tennessee.

 

With Rivalry Day upon us, how about an opening to the 1985 Iron Bowl by the Great Keith Jackson!  Let’s have a great day of college football!

Tags: Uncategorized by Joe
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February 28, 2008

 

Coaches Hot Seat

Friday Morning Briefing

 

1.  Mack Brown and Texas running up the score on A&M because the BCS MAKES THEM DO IT – Yes, this is a wonderful system in the BCS where you have a good man like Mack Brown that is forced to leave his Longhorn starters late into the game against A&M so that plenty of “style points” can be garnered for the voters.  Yes, that makes a lot of sense, encouraging unsportsmanlike actions by head football coaches, while the NCAA is running commercials about how student-athletes and fans should act both during games and off the field as well.  Has there ever been so much hypocrisy in any sport in the history of our country than the bizarre negatives machinations that BCS causes on a yearly basis?  No, and these BCS Boys, and Myles Brand for that matter because he has not had the guts to stand up and really call out the conference commissioners, bowl executives, and college presidents on the BCS, must really be squirming in their chairs as they sit a home and watch Texas running up the score to earn “style points”…….. Oh, that’s right the BCS Boys care about NOTHING, BUT

 

$ $ $ COUNTING MONEY AND HOLDING POWER! $ $ $

 

In the end, it will be the BCS Boys that will be squirming though, because they will go under oath on their actions in the past 15 or so to restrict competition in the United States of America and the BCS Boys should not think that “everyone” that has worked within the BCS structure is willing to carry water for their fraudulent system.  Far from it, and the BCS Boys should be very, and we mean, very concerned about conversations they have had amongst themselves to restrict competition in the United States, and we are including college presidents as one’s that should be damn worried about their past comments and actions on what we believe to be an illegal cartel in the BCS that was explicitly set-up to restrict competition under what the BCS Boys label and call “BCS” and “non-BCS.”  Those are THEIR labels, and those labels will be their undoing.  It is not legal to restrict competition in the United States and it is going to be great fun to get these BCS Boys under oath from our side, and to hopefully see the BCS Boys testifying before federal grand juries as well on the fraudulent system. 

 

Don’t think we will not get standing BCS Boys, because you believe you have everyone in the room and onboard at your meetings.  We will get standing in a court of law, because a college president and AD work for someone else and they are not the final arbiters on the policies for a college or university.  Of course, when we get standing and get these BCS Boys under oath, the BCS will in our opinion collapse before a deposition is ever taken, because the risk would be too great to the BCS Boys to answer questions about their actions relative to the restricting of competition and how the BCS in our opinion violates the basic civil rights of US citizens that are playing for “non-BCS” teams.  The BCS Boys and their attorneys would certainly know, that anything the BCS Boys said under oath about their actions in the past 15 years would immediately be turned over to the US Justice Department and that could possibly move the BCS Boys from a civil case to something different altogether, criminal violations that could lead to felonies for the actions described above…  Be forewarned BCS Boys, the question count right now for how many questions we have about your actions over the past 15 years relative to the BCS and how it restricts competition in the US and in our opinion violates the basic civil rights of US citizens that play on “non-BCS” teams is now up to 2,745 questions.  Many of those questions start like….

 

“On July 11, 2002, you (BCS Boy) were in Los Angeles and you met with “X” person on a matter pertaining to the BCS.  We have a statement here from a witness that says that the following was discussed at that meeting and I am going to read from the witnesses’ statement now.  “Read statement on meeting.”  Now, is it true that those issues as described by the witness were discussed at that meeting?  Yes or No.” 

 

Next question:

 

On August 11, 2002, you (BCS Boys) were in Atlanta and you met with “X” person….

 

I think the BCS Boys get the idea…. 

 

Yes, that was a disgraceful scene to see Texas running up the score last night and these unsportsmanlike actions that are not only required but demanded by a fraudulent BCS system is one great example of why the BCS MUST go away, but former Georgia coach Bill Donnan appearing on the Paul Finebaum Radio Network (Jim Donnan on rivalry games, BCS, playoffs (audio) - Paul Finebaum Radio Network) put a stake in another reason why people say a playoff cannot possibly work, with that issue being academics.  Bill Donnan rightly pointed out that the players on the college basketball teams that are now playing in the basketball tournament in Hawaii will more class time from this one tournament than all college football teams put together would miss with a 16-team postseason playoff tournament.  Yes, that is just another fraudulent argument of the BCS that it would affect players’ attendance in class or their studies, because basketball, baseball, golf, soccer, and plenty of other collegiate sports ALL miss much more class time than college football players and all of those sports have a postseason tournament to determine a legitimate national champion.  One really wonder how the Gordon Gee’s (Ohio State president) of the world sleep with themselves when they make such outlandish claims that a postseason tournament in football would impact student-athletes, when Gee has Ohio State sports teams that miss by a factor of 10 more class time right now than the Ohio State football team, including if it played in a 16-team postseason tournament.  Everyone here at Coaches Hot Seat knows what Gordon Gee is all about, because we have to deal with his kind all the time here in California.  We call them “limousine liberals” because they talk a great game about being liberal and supporting academics, but when they come across an issue that clearly violates their long-held liberal views, but goes against what they really want, they turn into Ronald Reagan conservatives.  Yes, we know all about the Gordon Gee’s of the world, because we are loaded to the gills with them in California.  They can be found on Friday leading a protest march at the San Francisco City Hall for some foolish liberal policy, but on Saturday night they are dining with Republicans in swanky and expensive restaurants laughing about politics and then later they are at the SF Opera kissing the rear-ends of more Republicans.  Hypocrites?  Well, not as bad as the BCS Boys, but they are bad…

 

 

2.  What if we had a 16-team postseason tournament to determine a legitimate national champion in football – Yes, what if, because the current system is an embarrassment to the game of college football and to our country, but what if indeed?

 

Coaches Hot Seat has been running a simulation this season of what a College Football National Championship Tournament would look like, which you can find a link to here:

 

College Football National Championship Tournament

 

To set up the First Round games in this tournament we utilize the Coaches Hot Seat Power Playoff Poll which helps us to determine which 7 “At-Large” teams will join the 9 conference champions in the postseason tournament.

 

Here is the Coaches Hot Seat Power Playoff Poll as of November 23, 2008

 

Coaches Hot Seat

Power Playoff Poll

November 23, 2008

 

1.  Alabama*

2.  Texas*

3.  Florida#

4.  Oklahoma#

5.  USC#

6.  Utah*

7.  Penn State*

8.  Boise State#

9.  Texas Tech# 

10.  Oklahoma State#

11.  Missouri#

12.  Ohio State 

13.  Georgia

14.  Ball State*

15.  TCU

16.  Cincinnati*

17.  BYU

18.  Boston College*

19.  Oregon State*

20.  Virginia Tech

 

*Projected Conf. Champs

#At-Large Teams

 

Other Conference Champs

C-USA/SB:  Houston*

 

As one can see from the Coaches Hot Seat Power Playoff Poll we give automatic berths into the tournament for the 9 conference champions (we combine a couple of the conferences or have them play each other in a championship game) and then the next 7 teams in the poll fill out the 16-team field with “At-Large” berths.  Notice from the above poll that not only would the Big Ten Champion Penn State have an automatic seed into the tournament and a chance to play for the national title, but also Ohio State is on the verge of being an “At-Large” team as well with a couple of the teams above them more than likely losing games later this season.  Yes, that’s right if a 16-team tournament was in place this season, the Big Ten would have two teams in that tournament with an opportunity to play for and win a national title.  What a difference a 16-team postseason tournament is to the Bogus BCS which is little more than a series of MEANINGLESS EXHIBITON GAMES followed by a BOGUS BCS TITLE GAME.  Yes, the BCS is joke and we continue to be amazed that anyone with a working brain would defend the BCS and the evil people behind it that deny teams and players that have achieved a lot (like conference titles!) during the season the right to play for a national title.  How anyone could possibly say that Utah and Boise State do not deserve a right to play for a national title are very simply, people that we would not want anything to do with, because that is a very un-American sentiment.  Guess what, President-elect Obama agrees with us, and that is VERY BAD NEWS for these evil BCS Boys…

 

What would the First Round games of a College Football National Championship Tournament look like if the season had ended after last week’s games? 

 

College Football National Championship Tournament

 

Round 1 Games

 

Alabama – #1 Seed

Utah – #6 Seed

 

Ball State – #12 Seed

Oklahoma State – #10 Seed

 

Florida – #3 Seed

Houston – #16 Seed

 

Texas Tech – #9 Seed

Oregon State - #15 Seed

 

Boston College – #14 Seed

Penn State - #7 Seed

 

Oklahoma – #4 Seed

Boise State - #8 Seed

 

Missouri - #11 Seed

USC – #5 Seed

 

Cincinnati – #14 Seed

Texas – #2 Seed

 

Yes, those are LEGITIMATE AND MEAINGFUL GAMES as all of the above teams would be playing for a NATIONAL TITLE, instead of the playing in SILLY AND MEANINGLESS exhibition games that the BCS sets up each year.  16 teams with a chance to win a National Title or 4 Meaningless Exhibition Games and a Bogus title game, which one is best?  Any American male that would say the latter would have to be one of those kids that signed up for “Home Ec” in high school.  Yes, bake those cookies, bake those cookies!

 

Yes, we are going to have a playoff in college football…..and that will be…

 

WILL BE A GREAT DAY IN AMERICA!

 

 

3.  Texas A&M’s Mike Sherman is now on the clock – After getting blasted by the Texas Longhorns, a team that Texas A&M had beaten the last two years, Mike Sherman is about to come face-to-face with the fact that he is now coaching for his job in the next year.  Yes, 365 days, or however many days it is until the Texas – Texas A&M game in College Station in 2009, that is the window that Mike Sherman has to work in to remain employed as the head coach of the Aggies.  Mike Sherman took over a Texas A&M football program that under Dennis Franchione had gone 9-4 and 7-5 in ’06 and ’07 and promptly turned them in a 4-8 team in ’08.  That makes no sense, and there is no excuse for anyone, including any random person selected off any street in America, to lose 8 games as the head coach at Texas A&M, especially when that head coach is being paid $1.8 million dollars a year to coach this Aggie football team.  Yes, that is right, any random person selected off any street in America could have led the Aggies to 4 wins in 2008, and that raises the question….

 

Just what in the hell has Mike Sherman been doing in the last year?

 

A better question is…..

 

What the hell was Texas A&M AD thinking in hiring Mike Sherman in the first place?

 

Bill Byrne with his hiring of Mike Sherman has moved the Texas A&M football program from average to a little above average status in the Big 12, to a “total disaster” and that Sherman was only able to win 4 games in his first year raises a lot of questions in College Station that have no good answers for the people in power. 

 

Relative to Mike Sherman, we are wondering if the Houston Chronicle is spiking their drinking fountains and coffee with hallucinatory drugs because Chronicle columnist Richard Justice was out with a story yesterday, Rest easy, Sherman will get it done.  What?  Richard Justice must be drinking that Chronicle water and coffee, because he is living in fantasyland if believes Sherman will be able to make any headway in what is turning into the toughest conference in the country in the Big 12.  Just which team and head coach is Mike Sherman going to get it done against in the Big 12?  Bob Stoops and Oklahoma?  Mack Brown and Texas?  Mike Leach and Texas Tech?  Mike Gundy and Oklahoma State? Or even….Art Briles and Baylor?  Please! 

 

Mike Sherman is in deep trouble and he must surely know that he is in deep trouble and he is going to have to make some positive changes before he faces the 2009 A&M schedule:

 

2009 TEXAS A&M FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Sept. 5 NEW MEXICO Kyle Field

Sept. 19 UTAH STATE Kyle Field

Sept. 26 UAB Kyle Field

Oct. 3 vs. Arkansas (Cowboys Stadium) Arlington, TX

Oct. 10 OKLAHOMA STATE Kyle Field

Oct. 17 at Kansas State Manhattan, KS

Oct. 24 at Texas Tech Lubbock, TX

Oct. 31 IOWA STATE Kyle Field

Nov. 7 at Colorado Boulder, CO

Nov. 14 at Oklahoma Norman, OK

Nov. 21 BAYLOR Kyle Field

Nov. 26 TEXAS (ESPN) Kyle Field

 

OK, Sherman and A&M open with teams that will have new head coaches (New Mexico and Utah State) at Kyle Field and then woeful UAB so if the Aggies don’t start 3-0 Sherman should be fired on the spot.  Then the season really starts with Arkansas in Arlington and then the Aggies begin the Big 12 schedule.  Even with a 3-0 start, does anyone believe that A&M will get 6 wins in ’08 with this schedule?  OK, with a 3-0 start, a Hippo from the Houston zoo coaching the Aggies in ’08 could find 3 more wins on the schedule, but…….  We shall see……

 

With everyone at Coaches Hot Seat off from work today we will be gathered at Coaches Hot Seat Central to watch football, grill steaks and chicken and drink some of that cold beer from the kegs we picked up on Wednesday.  Yes, the two best days of football of the year, the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving with a Friday where we don’t have to work and we are all within walking distance to our homes (or able to ride ferries across the Bay to our homes) once the game are over.  No drinking and driving at Coaches Hot Seat!  Although it is very early here on the West Coast, someone here at CHS Central has already stuck a CD of the Great Huey Lewis and The News in the player.  Huey Lewis and The News were one of the great bar bands of all time in San Francisco and several of us remember sitting with Huey at bars like the Sweetwater in Mill Valley, California drinking in the beer and taking in the women.  Yes, those were great days, when you would be buying drinks for Huey Lewis at the bar hoping to pick up any of the women he left behind!  Huey Lewis is one of the all-time great guys and when he does grace us with his presence or we run into him on a local golf course, he always couldn’t be nicer, unless you have him 3 down with 3 holes left and he is on the verge of losing $100 bucks to you…..then he can be a little testy!

 

Enjoy the Great Huey Lewis and The News

 

Heart and Soul

 

 

Heart of Rock ‘n Roll

 

 

 

The Power of Love

 

 

 

Do You Believe in Love

Tags: Uncategorized by Joe
220 Comments »

November 27, 2008

 

Coaches Hot Seat

Thanksgiving Day Briefing

 

1.  The Wall Street Journal’s Editorials on Thanksgiving and our Country – For those of us that have worked in the world of business for most of our lives the daily reading of the Wall Street Journal, for decades with the actual paper but online in recent years, is as constant to us as the Sun coming up every morning.  No, it is not possible to “love” an inanimate object such as a newspaper, but for those of that value the information and depth of business intelligence that the Wall Street Journal provides, the WSJ is something we would rather not live without.  We have all exchanged stories about the different and remote places where we have come across the Wall Street Journal, because the newspaper truly does reach into every corner of the globe.  Now with the Wall Street Journal completely online at WSJ.com the paper is never further away than our laptop and an Internet connection, but it was interesting back in the day to turn a corner in a small town in Europe or Asia and find the Wall Street Journal on a newspaper rack.  Yes, commerce and business goes on everywhere.

 

Perhaps the wildest story about “finding” a Wall Street Journal was when one of was in the US Navy on an USS ship way out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on the way to the Mediterranean/Middle East for deployment when the ship rendezvoused with an oil tanker to take on fuel.  Anyone that has not seen or experienced a US naval ship pulling alongside a refueling tanker in the middle of an ocean, throwing the lines over, hauling over the fuel and supply lines, and then both ships sailing parallel for an hour or so to onload the fuel and supplies if necessary, has missed quite an experience.  On a beautiful night in the very dark Atlantic, where everything is so dark and the stars look like you could reach out and touch them, as we were standing out on the bridge wing monitoring the refueling and resupply operation a light message came over that the captain of the refueling supply tanker wondered if the captain of our ship wanted the newspapers that they had picked up recently in Spain and had already read.  The message went back to send the newspapers over and then on the supply line between the two ships came a satchel full of newspapers.  The bag was hauled down off the line and opened, and inside were the last two weeks worth of the Wall Street Journal.  That got a good laugh and as always the WSJ was an entertaining read between bridge and CIC watches, which held several of us over until the ship stopped just outside the Suez Canal for a few hours to onload an engine part when another couple of days of WSJ were procured from a local newsstand, and on we went…. 

 

In recent years Rupert Murdoch has begun to put his unique stamp on the Wall Street Journal and although WSJ is not what it once was, it is still one hell of a newspaper and an invaluable resource to those of that go to battle in the world of commerce and business each day.  One of the greatest things about the Wall Street Journal is its editorial page where the large and important arguments and issues of the day in business, politics, and sometimes life are debated amongst the people that give a damn enough to lay their opinion and view on the line for everyone else to see.  Since 1961 the Wall Street Journal editorial page has printed a couple of editorials that address the importance of Thanksgiving and the challenges that faced the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony and the eternal optimism out in the land that is within our heart and soul and really is America and the thing that makes our Republic get up and go…

 

The first Wall Street Journal Editorial is…

 

The Desolate Wilderness

 

“Here beginneth the chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620, as recorded by Nathaniel Morton, keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based on the account of William Bradford, sometime governor thereof:

 

So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leyden, which had been their resting-place for above eleven years, but they knew that they were pilgrims and strangers here below, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest country, where God hath prepared for them a city (Heb. XI, 16), and therein quieted their spirits.

 

When they came to Delfs-Haven they found the ship and all things ready, and such of their friends as could not come with them followed after them, and sundry came from Amsterdam to see them shipt, and to take their leaves of them. One night was spent with little sleep with the most, but with friendly entertainment and Christian discourse, and other real expressions of true Christian love…”

 

Read the rest of The Desolate Wilderness….

 

The second Wall Street Journal Editorial is below and this perhaps is our favorite editorial each year because it sums up the magnificence of our country….

 

And the Fair Land

 

“But we can all remind ourselves that the richness of this country was not born in the resources of the earth, though they be plentiful, but in the men that took its measure. For that reminder is everywhere — in the cities, towns, farms, roads, factories, homes, hospitals, schools that spread everywhere over that wilderness.

 

We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Being so, we are the marvel and the mystery of the world, for that enduring liberty is no less a blessing than the abundance of the earth.

 

And we might remind ourselves also, that if those men setting out from Delftshaven had been daunted by the troubles they saw around them, then we could not this autumn be thankful for a fair land.”

 

Read the rest of And the Fair Land…

 

Thanks to the Wall Street Journal for keeping us informed and often entertained  going on four decades now.  http://www.wsj.com/

 

2.  Lane Kiffin to Tennessee? – Several of us here at Coaches Hot Seat reacted with astonishment when stories started breaking out of Knoxville on Tuesday and Wednesday that Tennessee had hired Lane Kiffin to replace Phil Fulmer as the head coach of the Vols.  We were astonished by these stories on Kiffin to Tennessee, because we just could not believe that the folks making the hiring and firing decisions in Knoxville could possibly be so foolish to put a man in head coaching job at Tennessee that has done nothing in his coaching career to deserve such a job.  We agree completely with the sentiments of Ron Higgins on Lane Kiffin, a columnist for the Memphis Commercial-Appeal, in a column he wrote for today’s paper…

 

Kiffin unqualified to be Vol coach

 

….and if it has reached the point that Tennessee has offered or is planning to offer the head coaching job to Kiffin, we can only say:  “What in hell are you thinking?

 

Now, everyone here at Coaches Hot Seat likes Lane Kiffin and believes that he got jobbed by Al Davis and the Raiders, but the mere fact that Kiffin ever took the Raiders job in the first place says a lot about the young man’s judgment.  There is no one here at Coaches Hot Seat that would do any job with the Raiders for any amount of money and Kiffin badly underestimated what he would face at Oakland, but with just a little research Lane could have found out that Al Davis is a fruitcake.  Hell, spend 5 minutes with Al Davis and you will realize Davis is a fruitcake.  Getting back to Tennessee, we just don’t see anything in Lane Kiffin’s coaching career that would remotely qualify him for a head coaching job at any school in the SEC, especially a job as big as Tennessee.  Kiffin would be a very good candidate for the many non-BCS jobs that are now open, but Tennessee?  Please!  Lane Kiffin coaching against Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Mark Richt, Steve Spurrier, Les Miles, Tommy Tuberville, Houston Nutt, Bobby Petrino?  Come on, Lane Kiffin to Tennessee must be a huge joke, right?  It is a joke for us to imagine that there is anyone in Knoxville that actually is seriously thinking about hiring Lane Kiffin for the Vols job, but then again Alabama hired Mike Dubose, Dennis Franchione, Mike Price, and Mike Shula, who all were either not qualified for the job or were terrible fits at Alabama.  IF for some absolutely bizzarro reason that Tennessee does hire Lane Kiffin, we would recommend that Tennessee AD Mike Hamilton go ahead and get his affairs in order and get his life prepared for being unemployed, because the SEC will blast Tennessee for the next couple of years as a very young coach tries to learn to be a head coach in the toughest conference in college football.  There is only one way this Kiffin at Tennessee story will end, and that will be with two straight losing seasons, AD Mike Hamilton being fired, and then Lane Kiffin being fired.

 

Seriously, if Lane Kiffin’s Dad was not Monte Kiffin, would Lane be anything other than an assistant at USC right now, if that?  If anyone answers that question with anything besides that Lane would still be working for Pete Carroll at USC, then they are living in a fantasyland that no amount of electric-shock treatment would be able to jar one from….

 

No, not Lane Kiffin, but Tennessee should be trying to hire their next head coach off the below list:

 

Art Briles, Baylor

Mark Dantonio, Michigan State

Derek Dooley, La. Tech

Brady Hoke, Ball State

Butch Jones, Central Michigan

Brian Kelly, Cincinnati

Mike Leach, Texas Tech

Gary Patterson, TCU

 

Personally, if we were in the AD chair at Tennessee right now looking to replace Phil Fulmer our choice would be, in order…

 

1.  Mike Leach, Texas Tech

2.  Gary Patterson, TCU

3.  Brian Kelly, Cincinnati

4.  Mark Dantonio, Michigan State

5.  Derek Dooley, La. Tech

 

We believe that all 5 of the above head coaches will have better than a 50/50 shot of being College Football Hall of Fame inductees when their coaching careers are finished.  Lane Kiffin?  Lane Kiffin is an unproven commodity and only very foolish people put unproven commodities in big-time jobs like the University of Tennessee.  Is Tennessee really going to hire a guy that has never been a head coach in college and was barely an offensive coordinator when the Raiders hired him?  If so, the people in Knoxville are dumber than the people that brought back Bill Snyder to Kansas State, and we believe that bringing back Snyder was the stupidest decision in the history of college football.

 

Like we did last season, we here at Coaches Hot Seat will rate and do an analysis of every I-A coach hiring this year, and part of that rating will be a 1 to 10 scale with 1 being that the coach hiring is an absolute disaster for the school and 10 that the hiring is a grand slam home run.  We sent out an email to our 41 Coaches Hot Seat members on Tuesday to rate a Lane Kiffin hiring at Tennessee on the 1 to 10 scale.  The result:

 

 

1.78

 

 

That’s right, not quite an “absolute disaster,” but damn close….  Enough said on Lane Kiffin as we watch the very interesting coaching search at Tennessee unfold.

 

3.  Still don’t understand Will Muschamp “Coach in Waiting” deal at Texas – Even though we are a week gone from the announcement that Will Muschamp is now the “Coach in Waiting” behind Mack Brown at Texas, we still do not understand what Muschamp’s motivation is to be the No. 2 behind Brown at Texas for an “undetermined” length of time.  There have been reports that the University of Washington made a run at Muschamp, because of UW president Mark Emmert’s past dealings with Muschamp at LSU, and if that is the case Muschamp has got to be out of his mind to sit in the No. 2 spot at any school, rather than take a big-time job like Washington.  Now, we don’t happen to think that Muschamp is a very good fit at UW, mainly because he is a Georgia boy with a lot of fire and there are not many Georgia boys with lots of fire in the Seattle area, but we have no doubt that Muschamp could have lit a fire under the UW football program and that program needs not a fire lit under it, but a BONFIRE lit under it!  Will Muschamp could have lit that BONFIRE! 

 

There is not a soul here at Coaches Hot Seat that would for a second accept the No. 2 spot at Texas or anywhere else if there was a big-time school coming after us like Washington, and we really wonder if Muschamp has really thought through this entire “Coach in Waiting” idea.  From where we sit we would guess that Mack Brown will coach at a MINIMUM FIVE MORE YEARS at Texas, so we hope Will Muschamp has a lot of patience…  Will Muschamp with patience?  Please!

 

Our humble advice to Will Muschamp:  Will, life is short and people don’t get many shots to be a head coach at big-time schools and if you do have an offer on the table to take a big-time job….TAKE IT!  Don’t settle for second at anything, especially for the No. 2 job behind a guy that is desperate to keep a very good defensive coordinator on board…  If you haven’t signed that “Coach in Waiting” contract yet, don’t sign it, and just tell Brown and Dodds that if they want you to be the head football coach at Texas, then offer you the job.  Until they do that, you will be keeping your options open, and if you have a job offer at a big-time school right now…TAKE IT FAST!  To do anything different would run counter to your nature and personality, and we just hope that if you are going to sit in that No. 2 spot at Texas, that you get used to being called No. 2 for years to come…. “No. 2”  Hey, that has a nice ring to it!  NOT!  Will Muschamp is not a “No. 2” type of guy, so the question here is why is he in a “No. 2” type of job?  That is a damn good question….

 

 

4.  Dueling reports on Charlie Weis’ buyout at Notre Dame – The general public, college football fans, and the supporters of Notre Dame football were treated to a couple of dueling leaks on Wednesday as first Chicago Tribune columnist Teddy Greenstein was out with a story that Weis’ buyout was in the $5 million dollar range and then ESPN’s Joe Schad reporting that Weis’ buyout figure is “stupefying.”   The general public would get a kick out of just how these reports get into the media, whether it be “prominent alumni” or coaches agents or of course our all-time favorite the “unnamed source.”  Whatever Charlie Weis’ buyout is, and it probably falls between $5 million and $20 million dollars, it is our opinion that Notre Dame has no alternative but to pay that buyout to rid Notre Dame of what has become a corrosive force on the University.  We are of course talking about the incredibly arrogant Charlie Weis who by his own actions insures that Notre Dame football is not about Notre Dame football, but rather always about Charlie Weis.  Notre Dame currently has a $ 7 BILLION dollar endowment and their football broadcast deal with NBC brings in around $10 million a year, so whatever the actual buyout is for Charlie Weis, IT WOULD BE WORTH EVERY PENNY TO PAY IT.

 

No, we don’t have anything personally against Charlie Weis, but we here at Coaches Hot Seat have been traveling to Notre Dame football games individually and as a group for over a decade now and we do not like what Charlie Weis has wrought on the Irish football program.  Charlie Weis is too much about Charlie Weis and for some incredibly unknown reason to us he seems to believe that is bigger than the Notre Dame football program and the stories we hear when we are at Irish football games on Weis’ arrogance even towards former ND football players and alumni boggles the mind.  We really wonder if Weis really does give a rip about Notre Dame, or if this is just one massive ego trip for the man, because from where we sit he doesn’t really seem to care about all of the things that go into making a quality head football coach, or a human being for that matter.

 

Yes, it is time for Notre Dame to cut the strings on Charlie Weis, no matter what the cost, because there is immense damage being done to not only the reputation of the Irish football program when they perform as they did against Syracuse, but also often to the University when Weis speaks in public and makes an incredible ass of himself.  Making an ass of oneself is not Notre Dame University, and Notre Dame should not be employing a head football coach that does not reflect the essential nature of the University.  Notre Dame is a great American institution of higher learning and the Irish football program deserves a head football coach that embodies everything that ND stands for, both on and off the field of play.  The Notre Dame motto is:

 

“Vita, Dulcedo, Spes” (which means in English)

 

“Life, Sweetness, Hope”

 

No, that is not Charlie Weis, and the folks at Notre Dame need to put this foolish contract they signed with Weis behind them, write the check to send Charlie packing, and end the Weis regime in South Bend.  We have no doubt that once those things happen, that the fog will lift that currently surrounds the Irish football program and Notre Dame can go out and hire a coach that will respect the fans, the alumni, the former players, the current players, the faculty, the administration, and most importantly Notre Dame University itself

 

Write the check Notre Dame and be done with it…..  Sorry Charlie….

 

Everyone here at Coaches Hot Seat certainly wishes everyone out there, whether in America or elsewhere around the globe a Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels as you move about the country or your local town to see family and friends.  We have certainly had a nice college football season up to this point and we look forward to this week’s rivalry football games to add a little more heat to the fire…

 

Of course, for some of us here at Coaches Hot Seat Thanksgiving means the year is coming to an end and for us some trips out into the great American West.  For those of you out there in this great Republic that have not been out West to our wide open spaces, our great national parks and the incredible beauty of the West, we certainly encourage to get out there and see this great country of ours.  By this time of the year we are tired of the concrete and our offices and most of us will happily be heading out for some R&R far from the City… (We will of course keep Coaches Hot Seat rolling along and Coaches Hot Seat Central manned about 20 out 24 hours each day as some of us roll in and out of town over the next few weeks)

 

Yes, it will be good to get out there…

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November 26, 2008

 

Coaches Hot Seat

Pre-Thanksgiving Briefing

 

Western Michigan and Ball State Game and the MAC Champion – Anyone that took the time last night to watch a very entertaining game between MAC teams Western Michigan and Ball State found two very well coached teams that are playing football at a very high level.  What were MAC teams vs. the Big Ten this year?  4-0.  Yet, it is the Big Ten champion that gets the automatic bid into the Rose Bowl, which is nothing more than a meaningless exhibition game that includes a parade and queen.  What does a parade and a queen have to do with the game of college football?  Nothing, and that is why the Rose Bowl is nothing more than a way to fill TV time for two teams to play in a meaningless exhibition game AFTER they have had a 30+ day layoff from their last game.  Yes, that makes a lot of sense.  It makes sense if a group of buffoons are making the decisions that is….

 

That was a great MAC game last night and it sets up what should be a terrific MAC Championship Game between undefeated Ball State coached by Brady Hoke and a very good Buffalo football team coached by Turner Gill.  That the MAC conference teams and champion are treated like “second-class” citizens by being classified as “non-BCS” by the BCS Buffoons points to the absolute absurdity and what will be in the end a system that breaks US laws (in our opinion by) illegally restricting competition in the United States.  We didn’t catch the name of the color analyst on last night game W. Michigan – Ball State game, but he must have been raised by socialists or communists because he kept saying that the MAC champion, and Utah, Boise State, and any other “non-BCS” team that was mentioned by the play-by-play commentator that they did not “deserve” to play for the national title.  One must really wonder why that color analyst buffoon or the BCS Buffoons have a right to say who does and who does not have a right to play for a national title, when all of these team play in the same Division I-A.  In the end, once we get these BCS Boys under oath and they have to answer very specific questions about what they were discussing on specific days, with specific people and how those conversations involved denying some I-A teams the right to be a member of their little secret society called the BCS, the BCS Boys will in our opinion be put in an impossible situation relative to the laws on competition in our country.  We also remind the BCS Boys that not only in our opinion have they set up an illegal system with the BCS that violates laws pertaining to competition in the United States, but that there are also a lot of minorities playing on current “non-BCS” teams and that have played on “non-BCS” teams in the past and we certainly hope the BCS Boys have not also violated anyone’s civil rights in this country.  If it does get to that, that the BCS Boys have set-up bogus system that violates US laws pertaining to competition (Sherman Antitrust Act another U.S. laws) AND they also have violated Civil Rights laws in the United States, then they will have opened themselves and the BCS schools they represent to massive amounts of liability.  Yes, BCS Boys, all of these public statements you have made in the past 10 years bragging about restricting competition in the U.S. and how “non-BCS” teams have “their place” in college football, might just really come back to bite the BCS Boys in the ass.  Keep laughing, BCS Boys, but the last thing you want is the Civil Rights division of the U.S. Justice Department on your ass, but it may just come down to that….  A lot more to come on this subject…

 

As for an undefeated regular season MAC team like Ball State, if there is an American that says Ball State, or Utah and Boise State does not have the “right” to play for a national title then that is not an American that we would want anything to do with.  Only an elitist snob would make such a statement that these very good football teams do not have a right to play for a national title in I-A college football, and the color analyst last night during the ESPN game and the BCS Boys are a classic examples of elitists that represent everything that is wrong about America.  No, in America if you work your ass off and perform at the highest of levels, you should have the right to play for a championship (Isn’t that what we tell our kids?  What must these BCS Boys be telling their children and grandchildren?  One can only wonder…), and when we get done with the BCB Boys, the Ball State’s, Utah’s, Boise State’s and other teams that perform at high levels will have that right to play for a national title.  Of that you can be assured…..  As for these elitists, you, your arrogance, your socialist/communists beliefs can GO TO HELL!  One wonder how these elitist snobs sleep at night, but then again they are so busy counting money that they probably don’t have much time for sleep…..

 

 

Charlie Weis in deep trouble at Notre Dame and the buyout is not as big as expected – With a report by Teddy Greenstein in the today’s Chicago Tribune that Charlie Weis’ buyout is much lower than many of us believed (many thought that Weis’ buyout was between $15 and $12 million, but now it seems it is only in the $4.5 million area) this new revelation really puts Weis in peril of losing his job.  Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times also makes some great points about Charlie Weis and in story today when he quotes the Notre Dame senior class president as saying:

 

“When he came here our freshman year, with all of our blissful Notre Dame pride, we loved Charlie Weis,” said Joey Brown, Notre Dame senior class president. “But now I’d say he’s lost us.”

 

“It’s really hard for a Notre Dame student to ever say anything negative about the football team, it’s such a beloved part of our school,” Brown said. “But many of us agree, Charlie is just not the guy.”

 

Ouch!  Now, there is a student Notre Dame can be proud of because he speaks truth to power and that truth is going to end Charlie Weis’ run in South Bend.

 

In our minds, there is probably nothing short of the Irish beating the USC Trojans in the Coliseum that could save Weis’ job, and we fully expect USC to be as motivated or more motivated in this game than they were against Ohio State earlier this year.  Yes, USC will beat Notre Dame and we expect the people in power at Notre Dame to end the disaster that has been the Weis’ regime in South Bend and that brings up that question of who will be the next head football coach at Notre Dame.  The next head coach of the Irish cannot be another mistake and they are going to need to hire a proven winner from the college game and from where we sit the following 6 coaches should be at the head of the line (alphabetical by last name).

 

Troy Calhoun, Air Force – In only two years at Air Force he has impressed people across the game of college football and although he is alum of the Air Force Academy we expect Calhoun to move up a big job in the near future.

 

Jeff Jagodzinksi, Boston College – Only in his second year at BC, but looks to be a very good head coach that is going to be winning lots of games for a long time. 

 

Brian Kelly, Cincinnati – A proven winner on every level he has coached and has a great name and personal background that would fit very well at Notre Dame.

 

Urban Meyer, Notre Dame – Seems destined to coach at Notre Dame (or Ohio State) one day, but Meyer may not be ready to move from Florida……yet.

 

Gary Patterson, TCU – Has won a lot of games at TCU, but is Notre Dame the right fit for Patterson?  Only he would really know that, but Patterson has proved he can coach the game of football.

 

Chris Peterson, Boise State – One of the brightest young minds in the game, but would he want to deal with the fish bowl that is Notre Dame football?  Doubtful….

 

Yes, all of the above head coaches would immediately change the culture from the Weis regime in South Bend and we mean positive change that would again make Notre Dame fans and alumni look at their football team and head coach with pride and respect.  Right now, Notre Dame has a football coach that seems to not care about the Irish fans or anyone else within the Irish family for that matter and we believe that the firing of Charlie Weis would lift the 1,000 pound gorilla that is hovering of a football program that should stand for a lot more than the arrogance of its head coach.  We here at Coaches Hot Seat believe that Notre Dame is much better than Charlie Weis, much, much better and we want to see Notre Dame again standing for what it supposed to stand for, and the Irish playing winning football again.  The only way that will happen is if Charlie Weis is fired and a proven winner that will give a damn about the university, its alumni, and its fans is hired in his place.

 

Yes, it is time to end the madness that has been the Charlie Weis regime at Notre Dame. 

 

We hope everyone stays safe traveling over the next couple of days and we here at Coaches Hot Seat certainly wish everyone a….

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

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