COACHES HOT SEAT BLOG

Flashing Before Our Eyes in the Last Week

 

In the last week of holiday parties, family events, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the opening of presents there were several things in and around the game of college football that caught our attention…

 

What a great college football game last Tuesday between TCU and Boise State – It is a real shame that such a good football game between TCU and Boise State was only for the Poinsettia Bowl trophy, because this is exactly the type of game that would be great in a postseason college football tournament.  TCU played terrific in the second half and shut down a very potent Boise State offense and now TCU is sitting with a 11-2 record with losses only to Oklahoma and Utah in the regular season, and yet they do not have an opportunity to advance to play for a legitimate national title in college football.  In the Coaches Hot Seat College Football National Championship Tournament TCU was the No. 11 seed (16-team tournament) at the conclusion of the regular season and Boise State was the No. 8 seed, and this game would have been a classic postseason upset and would have sent an underdog team in TCU forward towards a chance to win something beyond a meaningless bowl trophy….  How sad, how pitiful, how embarrassing the college football postseason is….but all of that is going to change….  Yes, that will be a great day in America….

 

Speaking of surprises…..

 

Notre Dame just crushed Hawaii on Christmas Eve – We were not surprised that Notre Dame beat Hawaii, but we were surprised by the final score, Irish 49 – Warriors 21, and this game to us actually raises more questions than it answered…

 

Where was this Notre Dame offense all year?  Notre Dame only scored 23 points on pitiful Syracuse and were shut out by Boston College, so how can the Irish put up 49 points on Hawaii?  Very strange indeed…

 

Did Notre Dame play better because Weis was in the booth or did Weis call better offensive plays from the booth?  With Charlie in the booth calling plays Notre Dame seemed to play a lot looser and with a lot more confidence on both sides of the ball and the offensive play-calling also seemed to be a lot more in sync than it has been since Weis’ second year at ND.  Again, very strange indeed…

 

How good is Hawaii?  This may be the most critical question, because Notre Dame may have very well crushed a pitiful football team, but one looks back at Hawaii’s final regular season game against a very good Cincinnati team and the Warriors had the Bearcats beat.  Again, very strange indeed….

 

No doubt, Charlie Weis will move down the Final 2008-09 Coaches Hot Seat Rankings from his No. 1 spot when we post them in early January after the Bogus BCS title game, but how far will he move down is the question.  Even with a nice win over Hawaii, most of us still think that Weis will enter the 2009 season with a smoking rear-end, but he will most certainly not be on the No. 1 Hot Seat after an impressive bowl win by his Irish…

 

Of course, after Greg McMackin’s team laid an egg on their home field in the “Hawaii” Bowl we can imagine that Greg will find himself moving onto the Hot Seat after putting up a 7-7 (.500) record.  We hear that McMackin was none too happy to find himself on the Hot Seat earlier this year, but when your team basically lays down in a home bowl game, you deserve to be on the Hot Seat and we see McMackin’s rear-end starting to heat up….

 

Cal Poly’s Rich Ellerson to Army – We cannot tell you how good of a hire Rich Ellerson was by Army, because Rich was one of the best football coaches in the I-AA division and his competitive drive and very potent option attack is just a perfect fit for Army.  Ellerson being hired at West Point is very bad news for Niumatalolo at Navy and Calhoun at Air Force, because Ellerson will have Army playing some very good football in Year One.  One thing we always did here at Coaches Hot Seat when presented with the opportunity was get to Cal Poly football games in the last few years, and Ellerson only proved what we already knew about his coaching skills when his Cal Poly team almost beat Wisconsin in Madison the final game of the regular season.  Needless to say, Rich Ellerson is a great hire by Army.  Good Luck to you Coach Ellerson at one of our favorite places in this Republic, West Point.

 

We thought Gene Chizik was going back to old-fashioned “Auburn football” but then he goes out and hires Gus Malzahn – Don’t get us wrong, we think Malzahn has a great offensive attack and what he has done in his high school coaching career and at Tulsa is nothing short of remarkable, but we just flat do not understand how Malzahn fits in with “Auburn football” which we take to be lining up and running the football.  Malzhan’s offense may even be more pass happy than what Tony Franklin wanted to, but was not allowed to run at Auburn, and it just baffles us how Chizik believe Malzahn fits in with the vision that Chizik painted for Auburn at his introductory press conference.  Now, if Malzahn is allowed to run “his” offense we have no doubt that it will create a lot of havoc in the SEC, but is Chizik going to have a say in adapting the Malzahn offense what Chizik believes “Auburn football” is supposed to be?  If you listen to former Auburn head coach Pat Dye, who many believe had a hand in the hiring of Gene Chizik, we don’t understand how Gus Malzahn fits into what Dye thought Chizik would be bringing to Auburn.  Listen to this interview with Pat Dye on the Paul Finebaum show shortly after Chizik was hired:  http://www.finebaum.com/media/archives/show/20081217_PFRN_Hour1.mp3

 

Yes, Gus Malzahn is a very strange hire to run the “Auburn offense” but if he is allowed to do what he has done during his coaching career, which is a wide-open pass happy spread offense, then this may be great fun on the Plains over the next few years….

 

Several of us were at the Emerald Bowl at AT&T Park in San Francisco on Saturday night and this was another very good postseason game between two very good football teams and both of these teams should be very good in ’09.  Randy Shannon had a boatload of players out of the game on suspension, including one of his main QBs in Robert Marve (What the hell is Robert Marve thinking not going to class?  Does Marve know how many people on this planet that would do about anything to be on scholarship at a school like Miami?  Truly, if Marve just quit going to class, he is an IDIOT and he deserved to be suspended from the team) but Miami was still very competitive against Cal in what was clearly a home game for the Bears.  Randy Shannon is completely reshaping the Miami football program and we are confident that Shannon will win a lot of games at Miami and that he will continue to bring in great recruiting classes because parents will want to send their kids to play for Shannon with his approach to football and to doing things the right way.  Randy Shannon, Turner Gill, Derek Dooley, Todd Graham, Kevin Sumlin, Ken Niumatalolo and plenty of other first or second year coaches are proving that things can be done the right way AND that winning football can be played and we expect to see most if not all coaches start to hold their football players to higher standards off the field in coming years as players find fewer and fewer places where they can get away with not being totally committed to playing college football….

 

Speaking of new coaches…..

 

After what Turner Gill has done at Buffalo and other coaches in both the NFL and college (What a job Tony Sparano had done at Miami this year!) we are instituting what we are calling the “Turner Gill Rule” on how to measure a new head coach’s success.  Turner Gill has proved at Buffalo that a good or great head coach can win ANYWHERE within 3 years and if Turner Gill can win a conference championship at Buffalo by his third season, there is NO excuse any more for any coach at any school that will be accepted any longer at Coaches Hot Seat.  Here are the new standards for new head coaches:

 

1.  The first year is a transition year but progress must be discernible, especially off the field.

2.  Measureable progress in the second year, over the first year and what the previous coach had done is A MUST.

3.  Serious and strong progress by the third year and a team that can compete with almost every team in conference is A MUST

4.  From the third season on staying competitive in the conference every year and winning a conference title every five to six years is also A MUST for coaches that want to stay off the HOT SEAT!

 

Yes, those are what we are calling the “Turner Gill Rule” because if Turner Gill can win a conference title at Buffalo, the excuses for all new and current coaches are OVER!

 

We are working on the Coaching Changes Analysis for the new coaches we have not commented on up to this point and we will putting those up in the CHS Blog in the next month or so…..

 

Speaking of new head coaches again…

 

What about the job that Mike Singletary has done with the San Francisco 49ers since he took over 9 games ago? – Man, what a great job that Mike Singletary has done with the 49ers, because this team was a damn disaster when he took over for pretty boy Mike Nolan (any coach that is more worried about what he is wearing on the sidelines than the actual coaching is not a football coach).  Anyone that has every run into Mike Singletary knows what an incredible man he is and the only question we had was if Mike was going to stay true to what he believes in and coach the 49ers the way he knew they had to be coached.  Answer:  Yes, as usual Mike Singletary stayed true and the 49ers are now a completely new football team.  We know a few 49er players and they just talk of Singletary in glowing terms and about how quickly he has turned the 49ers around and for his great skills as a leader of men.  Anyone that is old enough and lucky enough to have seen Mike Singletary play in the NFL with the Chicago Bears knows the man was a great football player and now he looks like he is going to have a great coaching career as well.  One thing for sure, we would play for Mike Singletary anytime, anywhere and that looks to be the attitude of the 49ers as well and if they can pick up a few more good players in the NFL draft next year, the Niners could really challenge next season for a division title.

 

Congratulations to Mike Singletary for the great job you have done and for being named the HEAD COACH OF THE SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS.  For the first time in year we all feel good about the 49ers football team going forward and we can’t wait to see what Singletary will do with this football club in the coming years.  Yes, it may just be great fun again to be back at Candlestick Park watching the 49ers play football again!

 

Let’s just admit the truth on the Dallas Cowboys QB Tony Romo – Tony Romo = PRETTY BOY!  That’s all that needs to be said about Romo…  He is a PRETTY BOY with a good looking girlfriend and that is about it….  Football player?  Please, Romo is a PRETTY BOY, especially when the chips are down and that has to really concern the folks with the Dallas Cowboys….

 

What about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense collapsing AFTER Monte Kiffin announces he is going to join his boy at Tennessee? – What is going on Monte?  We have been told that Monte Kiffin is one of the greatest defensive coordinators in the history of the NFL, but then how can that be with the way the Buccaneers defense just collapsed in the last 4 games of the season?  Answer:  Monte Kiffin quit coaching because his attention was on joining his boy in Knoxville….  This entire thing of Daddy working for his Boy just strikes us as very odd with Monte going to work for Lane, especially in the pressure cooker that is Tennessee football.  If Monte’s defense collapses at Tennessee the way it did with Tampa Bay Monte Kiffin will not just be yelled at by fans and written up by columnists, but he and his boy will be out of work, because a football team just laying down on the field and allowing a piss poor football team (the Raiders) to run all over them is actually taken serious in the SEC and more importantly, IS NOT TOLERATED!….  We are going to be fascinated to see how Monte Kiffin adapts to coaching in college ball, which he hasn’t coached in since 1982….  Can Monte and his Boy really handle the SEC?  That is something we are all going to find out and if things do not go well in year one at Tennessee, the Lane and Monte show is going to get old very quickly and we certainly hope that the Kiffin’s are ready for more pressure than either man has ever been under in their lifetimes, COMBINED….

 

We opened up this Blog entry with the phrase “Flashing Before Our Eyes” which we stole from one of our all-time favorite sports reporters, Dick Schapp, who wrote a great book, Flashing Before My Eyes: 50 Years of Headlines, Deadlines & Punchlines 

 

Dick Schapp interviews Dick Schapp….  We certainly miss you Mr. Schapp….

 

 

 

 

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December 23, 2008

 

Coaches Hot Seat

Tuesday Briefing

 

Everyone here at Coaches Hot Seat would watch two college football teams play in the local Safeway parking lot if we had to, but some of these bowl games are tough to watch and when we find ourselves getting distracted by our wives asking…

 

“Let’s take the kids out to look at Christmas lights.”

 

….and we go, that means there are way too many bowl games.  But, not all bowl games are created equal and tonight…

 

We have a great college football game between TCU and Boise State in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego – What Dirk Koetter, Dan Hawkins and Chris Peterson have accomplished at Boise State over the past 11 years is remarkable, a combined 114 – 24 (.826) for those three coaches, and what great fun it has been for us to watch Boise State play on TV and in person.  What a lot of people do not realize, but recruits learn after visiting, is that Boise, Idaho is one of the great towns in America and is terrific place to go to college.  Yes, it does get very cold in Boise in the winter, but with one of the great downtowns in the country, some of the nicest people around, and more to do outdoors than one could possibly do in a lifetime, Boise as a city is a keeper.  This is going to be great fun to watch a very physical and better on offense than expected TCU team play what is one of the most balanced teams in the country in Boise State. 

 

The Poinsettia Bowl is what the college football postseason supposed to be about.  Two teams that have achieved things in the regular season and deserve an opportunity to both have some fun in the postseason but also to show their team’s skills on a national stage.  If Boise State finds a way to beat TCU tonight, who can possibly say they cannot beat anyone in the country….  The Greedy Bastards at the BCS can attempt to say that with their bogus BCS, which really makes the BCS not only an absurd system to determine “our” champion in college football but an evil system as well because it denies teams an opportunity for teams to prove their worth ON THE FIELD OF PLAY.  Yes, this is a great bowl game tonight between TCU and Boise State, but it would be a magnificent postseason game if it actually meant something and the winner would keep moving forward to keep playing for a national title.  Yes, that is what the college football should be about, real football games that mean something, instead of all of these meaningless exhibition games that often involve mediocre football teams….  No, that is not America and the only thing we can say to that…  Damn these BCS Boys, Damn them to…..  Calm down, calm down, we have a President coming into office that is going to put these BCS Boys into their proper place….  My, that will be a great day in America when these Greedy BCS Boys Bastards are put into their place and the Bogus BCS is thrown onto the scrapheap of history of awful ideas like communism, socialism, and New Coke.

 

The Miami Hurricanes arrived in San Francisco yesterday and we hope they have a good time this week – Miami arrived in San Francisco yesterday for Saturday’s matchup against Cal in the Emerald Bowl in what is another very good bowl game and we hope the Hurricane players have a good time in the great City by the Bay.  Even though the folks at the Emerald Bowl do a terrific job and often end up with some interesting games, last week the director of the Emerald Bowl was on a local radio station and said one of the most outrageous things we have ever heard said by someone connected to the game of college football.  When discussing the current college football postseason the director of the Emerald Bowl said…

 

“The bowl system is great because you end up with 34 winners instead of 1 winner like you would have with a playoff.”

 

What?  This fellow must have been educated in California where teachers routinely tell kids that write 2 + 2 = 3 that “they are right, it is the math that is wrong” because only in the bizarro world could any red-blooded American believe that a team winning a meaningless postseason bowl game should be called a “winner.”  No, in the postseason the winner is the team that hosts the championship trophy and because of the greed of a very small group of men, mostly white men, we end up with lots of foolishness and absurd comments like the one made above by the fellow that runs the Emerald Bowl.  There are far too many people in America today who are afraid for individuals, especially our kids to be called “winners” because that implies that a loser must be designated as well.  What an outrageous way to look at the world, to think that everyone must be a winner, because losing has always had a very important place in our society, because often it is the losers who learn from their losses and come back that much stronger.  With everyone be “anointed” as winners when they really did not win anything only hurts our Republic and gets us away from all the things that made our country great.  As Woody Hayes once said…

 

“Without winners, there wouldn’t even be any civilization.”

 

You are so right Woody, OH SO RIGHT….  What we need is a legitimate national champion in college football and that is what we are going to get… Don’t believe that, just ask the President-elect….

 

Yes, the Emerald Bowl is a very intriguing game between Miami and Cal, but that is about it…. 

 

Have a good time Hurricanes in the great city of San Francisco…

 

Another very intriguing bowl game is Notre Dame at Hawaii and we certainly hope the Irish are ready to play this game – After starting the season like they were asleep the Hawaii Warriors suddenly found themselves by midseason and they are almost back to the intensity level that they played when June Jones was still in Honolulu.  Put a gold helmet, a name like Notre Dame, and a bunch of football players that think they can just roll over a team like Hawaii in front of the Warriors and the Irish might just find themselves in a lot of trouble come Christmas Eve.  Most Christmas Eves in past years have been sitting around waiting on Santa Claus and wondering if we got your wife the right thing for Christmas, but not this year as we get to see if the Warriors are going to roast the Irish like a pig a luau.  If the Irish do find themselves at a luau tomorrow night and they are not the guest of honor, in other words, they are the pig and Notre Dame loses to Hawaii, Charlie Weis is going find himself over a very hot fire that will make a luau look like a bake sale and maybe only a VERY, VERY BIG SEASON in 2009 will be able to put out.  No, the Irish better not come out asleep against Hawaii, or it will be “dinner time!” in Honolulu and “baked Irish” will be on the main entrée on the menu!

 

 

Yes, there are three interesting bowl games coming up…

 

Poinsettia Bowl – TCU vs. Boise State, Tuesday December 23, 2008

 

Sheraton Hawaii – Notre Dame vs. Hawaii, Wednesday December 24, 2008

 

Emerald Bowl – Miami vs. Cal, Saturday, December 27, 2008

 

 

Although the weather forecast calls for on an off rain in the San Francisco Bay area, all of us here at Coaches Hot Seat intuitively know that rain in the Bay in this time of the year means SNOW AT LAKE TAHOE!.  Several of us are up at Lake Tahoe right now and Sun is out, the snow is deep and it is time to ski!  Take a look at the web cam page for Squaw Valley USA…

 

Web Cam webpage for Squaw Valley USA

 

  

Let’s go skiing!

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December 21, 2008

 

Coaches Hot Seat

Sunday Morning Briefing

 

 

1.  Congratulations to Mike London and his Richmond football team for winning a NCAA National Championship – Anyone that took the time to watch the I-AA NCAA National Championship Game on Friday night saw two very well coached football teams in Montana and Richmond with Richmond playing an almost flawless title game.  Clearly Mike London is destined for great things in the coaching business and his experiences in his personal life only give him that much more insight into what is really important in this journey we are all on.  Both Bobby Hauck of Montana and Mike London of Richmond had terrific seasons with their football teams and both men should be proud of what they, their staffs, and their players have accomplished in 2008.  Congratulations to… The Richmond Spiders, NCAA National Champions! (A legitimate national champion by the way..)

 

2.  Paul Rhoads to Iowa State.  Who could have guessed that ironic move? – It’s often funny how life works out, because a few days ago Paul Rhoads was out of a job and now he is in his dream job.  Is this “A Wonderful Life” or what?  Well, at least for Paul Rhoads it must all seem like a dream to go from the unemployment line to the job he would have walked from Auburn to Iowa for during all of his career, but especially last week.  When Rhoads left Pittsburgh for Auburn last year it looked like Rhoads was getting away from Pitt just before Dave Wannstedt was sent packing, but then Wannstedt turns around Pitt and he is now on very firm footing.  Rhoads goes to Auburn which looked to have one of the safest coaches in the game in Tommy Tuberville then  Tubbs gets forced out after a year of absolute chaos on the Plains.  Congratulations Paul Rhoads for your new position, but we must warn you….coach hard or you could end up where Gene Chizik was when he was hired by Auburn….on the HOT SEAT!

 

3.  How about this story, “JoePa, Penn State coaches arrive early for Rose Bowl” – What?  Coach Paterno and the Penn State coaches arrived on December 20, 2008 in Los Angeles to get ready for a football game that will not be played until January 1, 2009!  Now that is just ABSURD!  No, we don’t have any time for a playoff, but the Penn State football coaches and team arrive in Los Angeles almost two weeks before the Rose Bowl?  Yes, that makes a lot of sense…  What in the world is Penn State going to do in LA for almost 2 weeks?  Do these Penn State players not get to spend Christmas at home with their family?  Even if they had arrived on the day after Christmas, that is still 7 days before the Rose Bowl will be kicked off.  This just shows the ABSOLUTE ABSURDITY of the BOGUS BCS that the Penn State football team will be lying around southern California for two weeks almost prior to the Rose Bowl.  Just stupid…  As Joe Paterno has often said when asked about why there is no playoff in college football:  “Bogus reasons.  Bogus!  What else can I say?”  How true JoePa, how true.  Also…

 

HAPPY 82 BIRTHDAY TO JOE PATERNO

 

A coaching legend and a hell of man.  Let’s hope for many more years of JoePa in Happy Valley, but….if you don’t keep performing JoePa we will put you on the….

 

…HOT SEAT JOEPA!

 

4.  Notre Dame and Charlie Weis already in Hawaii for bowl game – What a fascinating game this is going to be watching the Irish play Hawaii, because this is one of the few bowl games where a team just cannot lose their game…..meaning Hawaii and Weis really do not want to lose this game to the Warriors, because a loss in this spot and the Irish fans will really turn the heat up on Weis and will make the offseason very tough indeed.  A win in this game against Hawaii and Charlie might be able to get out of that very treacherous No. 1 Hot Seat position and no doubt Charlie really, really, really wants to win this game.  As for ’09, we believe it is either BCS game or bust for ND and Weis, no matter what happens against Hawaii on Christmas Eve.  Yes, this is going to be a very interesting game to watch between the Irish and the Warriors… Notre Dame is about a 1.5 point favorite….Hmmm, if we were bettors we would want some of that action, Hawaii +1.5 THAT IS!

 

5.  On the BCA (Black Coaches Association) suing someone to get more black coaches hired into head coaching positions – In the last couple of days we have talked to a few attorneys about the BCA suing someone, we suppose the schools, to force the schools to hire black head coaches on the idea that black coaches’ Civil Rights have been violated.  Most attorneys told us that any argument along these lines would be very hard to prove, even though there are very few black head coaches in I-A football right now, and even if the BCA got a judgment against “?,” the next problem would be forcing a school to hire a black head football coach.  No, we seriously doubt if that is ever going to happen in the United States, because  it will be next to impossible to prove outright discrimination, and the potential backlash against the black head football coach at the school that was “forced” to be hired by a school could do some real damage to that school and to the game of college football.  No, a lawsuit, although it may sound like a good idea, might prove disastrous and actually hurt black football coaches from getting hired into head coaching jobs.  That’s not to say that Floyd Keith and the BCA shouldn’t push hard against schools and the NCAA over the lack of black head coaches in I-A football, because they should push very hard at every pressure point they can find, but if the BCS moves to the courts to try and attempt to “force” schools to hire black head coaches we predict…trouble… 

 

Black coaches not getting hired into head coaching positions is not George Wallace in the schoolhouse door, but rather from our point of view, a very small number of black coaches that are in coordinator positions right now and are also ready to take over a I-A football program.  Right now, if Ron English gets hired at Eastern Michigan, we only count 4 current black assistant coaches that are ready, in our opinion, to be a head coach at a I-A program (5 coaches when you count Richmond’s Mike London). There needs to be 15 to 20 black coaches every year that are ready to move up to I-A programs to insure that there are a wide variety of minority coaches that are ready to make that big move to a head coaching position.  More African-Americans in coordinator and athletic department positions should be what the BCA is really working on as it also pushes schools to hire black coaches into head coaching positions.  If 5 years from now there are 2o to 25 black coaches in coordinator positions at I-A schools and more black ADs, then that will be some real and measureable progress that the BCA could the point to and say for real that there are plenty of qualified head coaching candidates out there to be hired….  Right now, we just don’t think that anyone can honestly say that the pool of black coaches that are ready to take over I-A football program is very deep. 

 

6.  We certainly don’t envy New Mexico State AD McKinley Boston – Talk about pressure, NMSU athletic director McKinley Boston must be under tremendous pressure to hire a black head coach to replace Hal Mumme, especially because McKinley Boston is an African-American himself.  The BCA has been talking to Boston about the NMSU job and potential black candidates for that job, but Boston in the face of that pressure says…

 

“I am going to find the best coach available,” Boston said. “I am going to find someone who we can afford and who’s in the best interest of the university.”

 

Bravo to Mr. Boston.  “Best coach available” is something we love to hear, because white, black, green or blue, that is what every AD should be doing when he is hiring a head football coach.

 

In that same story on NMSU’s head coach opening, a member of the local Las Cruces NAACP, a Mr. Clarence Fielder says…

 

“We want a good coach, period. Ethnic background is not important,” Fielder said. “We haven’t had a good one here in years. There needs to be a thorough search, his background, where he comes from, if he has the necessary qualities. Let’s not hire someone because of their name. Let’s hire the best man for the job.”

 

Bravo to Mr. Fielder!  Mr. Boston seems to have a list of very good football coaches and he should be able to hire a good coach to take over the NMSU football program….

 

You want to see something cool?  Watch this KLM flight take off from San Francisco International and fly over the Golden Gate Bridge…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, the San Francisco Bay area is a wonderful and beautiful place to live which Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) found out long ago.  Below is the text of a letter from Clemens (Twain) written from San Francisco on September 25, 1864 to his mother back in Missouri (For those of you snow bound elsewhere in the country notice Clemens’ description of San Francisco’s weather!):

 

My Dear Mother & Sister

You can see by my picture that this superb climate agrees with me. And it ought, after living where I was never out of sight of snow-banks 24 hours during 3 years. Here we have neither snow nor cold weather, fires are never lighted, & yet summer clothes are never worn—you were wear spring clothing the year round.

Steve Gillis, who has been my comrade for 2 years, & who came down here with me, is to be married, in a week or two, to a very pretty girl worth $130,000 in her own right2—& then I shall be alone again, until they build a house, which they will do shortly.

We have been here only 4 months, yet we have changed our lodgings 5 times, & our hotel twice. We are very comfortably fixed where we are, & h now, & have no fault to find with the rooms or with the people—we are the only lodgers in a well-to-do private family, with one grown daughter in & a piano in the parlor adjoining our room. But I need a change, & must move again. I have taken rooms further down the street. I shall stay in this little quiet street, because it is full of gardens & shrubbery, & there are none but dwelling houses in it.3

I am taking life easy, now, & I mean to keep it up for a while. I don’t work at night any more. I told the “Call” folks to pay me $25 a week, & let me work only in daylight. So I get up at 10 in the morning, & quit work at 5 or 6 in the afternoon. You ask if I work for greenbacks? Hardly. I What do you suppose I could do with greenbacks here?4

I have engaged to write for the new literary paper—the “Californian”—same pay I used to receive on the “Golden Era”—one article a week, fifty dollars a month. I quit the “Era,” long ago. It wasn’t high-toned enough. I thought that whether I was a literary “jackleg” or not, I wouldn’t class myself with that style of people, anyhow. The “Californian” circulates among the highest class of the community, & is a paper the best weekly literary paper in the United States—& I suppose I ought to know.5

I work as I always did—by fits & starts. I wrote two articles last night for the Californian, so that lets me out for 2 weeks.6 That would be about seventy-five dollars, in greenbacks, wouldn’t it?

Been down to San José (generally pronounced Sannozay—emphasis on last syllable)—today—50 miles from here, by Railroad. Town of 6,000 inhabitants, buried in flowers & shrubbery. The climate is finer than ours here, because it is not so close to the ocean, & is protected from the winds by the coast range.

I had an invitation today, to d go down on an excursion to San Luis Obispo & from thence to the city of Mexico, to be gone 6 or 8 weeks, or possibly longer, but I could not accept, on account of my contract to act as chief mourner or groomsman at Steve’s funeral. wedding.

I have triumphed. They refused me & other reporters some information at a branch of the Coroner’s office—Massey’s undertaker establishment, a few weeks ago. I published the wickedest article on them I ever wrote in my life, & you can rest assured we got all the information we wanted after that. It made Mr. Massey come to his milk, mighty quick. Next week the Coroner died, & when they came to fill the vacancy, I had a candidate pledged to take the lucrative job out of Massey’s hands, & I went into the Board of Supervisors & button- holed hold every member & worked like a slave against for my man. When I began he hadn’t a friend in the Board,. He was elected, just like a knife, & Mr Massey is out in the cold.7 I learned to pull wires in the Washoe Legislature, & my x experience is, that when a bill is to be put through a body like that, the only thing necessary to insure success is to get the reporters to log-roll for it.

What has become of that girl of mine that got married? I mean Laura Wright.

I wrote to Aunt Ella 3 months ago. I don’t hear often from Orion & Mollie. I hardly ever write. When you write to me, write through Orion.

By the new census, San Francisco has a population of $ 130,000. They don’t count the hordes of Chinamen.

Yrs afftly

Sam.

I send a picture for Annie, & one for Aunt Ella—that is, if she will have it.8

 

 

Yes, Mark Twain was quite a character!

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December 19, 2008

 

Coaches Hot Seat

Friday Morning Briefing

 

As we move towards the end of a very eventual 2008 with many of us heading into our day jobs for the final time in this year (Our conclusion on working around the Holidays:  What’s the point in having people coming to work, nobody is really working anyway so we have our company parties to attend today and then it is Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and we will see you on January 5, 2009!) we cannot help but reflect back upon a dramatic year for our Republic.  A new president, that is both young and seems to have a positive direction to take the country, incredible upheaval in our financial markets that have seemingly been capped by one of the great Ponzi schemes of all time (As a member of Coaches Hot Seat recently said about the people that believed what Bernard Madoff was doing could have actually been legitimate:  “These folks that trusted their money with Madoff, some even ALL of their family’s life savings, were at the Nexis of foolishness, stupidity, and greed.”  Steady 12 percent returns is impossibility, especially with the options trading strategy which Madoff supposedly used, because he would have had to do at least “10 times the options contracts” that currently trade on US exchanges.  It is just amazing that even astute investors and hedge funds would invest money with this clown Madoff when even a cursory examination of his activities would have raised HUGE red flags.  More amazing to us is that someone that could make $1 million dollars or more (not given them to by family but earning $1 million dollars) would turn that money over to someone to invest without that person knowing exactly what he was investing their money in.  If you can make $1 million dollars you can do your own investing, or at the very least you can damn well can supervise on a daily basis the people investing that money for you.  Just stupid, but as P.T. Barnum noted, “There is a sucker born every minute” and there were a lot of suckers that Madoff took to the cleaners.  Just amazing…). 

 

Who really knows what 2009 holds for our country, but we do believe it is going to get tougher and that our country is going to need to buck up and becoming a little harder, a little leaner, and a little more determined to get things back on track after these GREEDY BASTARDS ON WALL STREET have taken our country to the edge of economic collapse.  Never forget about this credit crunch, that around 94 percent of mortgages in this country are being paid on time even right now, but Wall Street in all their intelligence saw fit to make massive bets, TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF BETS WITH BORROWED MONEY, on the subprime mortgages that make up the vast majority of mortgages that are now in trouble or in foreclosure.  If Wall Street had not “levered up” and made all of these incredibly stupid bets on these subprime mortgages, the actual value of ALL of the bad mortgages would be about $700 Billion dollars.  In other words, the US government could have bought every bad mortgage in the country for $700 Billion dollars, but because these Wall Street Wizards (Actually incredibly stupid greedy morons) made Trillions of dollars in bets on top of (so they could earn billions in salaries and bonuses) those subprime mortgages the cost of the bailout between the US Treasury and Federal Reserve Bank is as of today north of $7 TRILLION…….and these Wall Street Wizards will be back for much more money to continue to bail their sorry asses out…..  BASTARDS!  ABSOLUTE BASTARDS….      

 

Now back to the great game of college football that also has its own group of Greedy Bastards, The BCS Boys, who are why we are not getting ready to watch the national quarterfinal games this weekend for a College Football National Championship Tournament.  Yes, the entire country is not engrossed in a college football postseason tournament right now, the same way we all are during March Madness for college basketball every year is very…..STUPID….  That will change though, it certainly is going to change….

 

So Jean-Jacques Taylor of the Dallas Morning News believes the folks at Auburn are “RACISTS” and that recruits should now boycott and not sign with Auburn University? – Sometimes we read things in newspapers that we disagree with, but rarely have we read something that we so completely disagree with but is also incredibly IGNORANT, but Jean-Jacques Taylor’s latest in the Dallas Morning, “Recruits who boycott Auburn send message about racist hirings” has certainly got to be the most asinine thing we have read in an American newspaper in the past 20 years.  So Mr. Taylor believes that the people at Auburn are “Racists” because they chose Gene Chizik over Turner Gill and that recruits should thus not sign with Auburn.  Really?  We wonder why Mr. Taylor did not call for recruits to not sign with Syracuse, who has a BLACK ATHELTIC DIRECTOR in Darryl Gross but “Wo ‘n Behold” Mr. Gross hired a white coach in Doug Marrone.  No, Mr. Taylor did not call Darryl Gross “RACIST” nor call for recruits to boycott Syracuse (or the other schools that did not hire black head coaches this year) and that should really concern the editors at the Dallas Morning News because they have someone on their staff in Mr. Taylor that is applying a very clear double-standard to different schools and somehow in his warped thinking believes that by punishing Auburn that colleges will start hiring in droves black head football coaches.  No, in fact Mr. Taylor writing this type of column only takes this debate in the wrong direction, because he is assuming a whole lot when Auburn decided to hire Gene Chizik because Auburn said that Chizik was the “best fit” for Auburn, because those are almost precisely the same words used by a the BLACK ATHLETIC DIRECTOR at Syracuse Darryl Gross used when he introduced their new head coach Doug Marrone (A WHITE MAN!).  No, columns like Mr. Taylor’s only push back the important question of more minority candidates being hired as head football coaches in division I-A and Mr. Taylor should be ashamed that he would try to damage a school by calling for a boycott of Auburn.  Does Mr. Taylor not understand that the black players on the Auburn football team will be damaged if recruits actually followed through on his recommend boycott, or is Mr. Taylor so out of touch with the real world that he doesn’t give a damn about anything as long as he can count up 10 or 20 or even 30 black coaches in head coaching positions in I-A football?  We have news for Mr. Taylor…  There are barely 10 black football coaches in the entire country that are ready to take over I-A football programs and for programs like Auburn that are playing in conferences like the SEC we believe there are only 3 maybe 4 black coaches in the country that are ready for that big of a job.  Hell, there are probably not 10 white football coaches in the country that are really ready and capable to take over the Auburn job and it is our opinion that Gene Chizik is not one of those men.  We cannot explain why Gene Chizik was hired at Auburn, whether it be over Gary Patterson, Houston Nutt, Steve Spurrier, or a few other coaches, but we do believe that not only was Chizik not qualified for the Auburn job, Turner Gill wasn’t qualified or ready for that job either…..

 

So Mr. Taylor wants recruits to boycott Auburn because Auburn is evidently full of “RACISTS.”  What an outrageous assumption that Mr. Taylor has made by labeling people RACIST that we seriously doubt he has ever had any contact with and what an outrageous proposal to ask recruits to boycott a school over the hiring of a football coach.  What about the 50 plus percent of blacks NOW on the Auburn football team Mr. Taylor or the 10 plus percent of blacks that make up the Auburn student body?  We guess these young men and women mean nothing to Mr. Taylor, but then again when someone would write such an IGNORANT column I think we all know what Mr. Taylor is really after….

 

We don’t think Auburn hiring Gene Chizik was a “RACIST” move, but rather it was a “STUPID” move considering what Auburn is now facing with Nick Saban and Alabama cranking it up in Tuscaloosa…. 

 

Speaking of more minorities getting hired as head coaching in I-A football…

 

The Black Coaches Association is kicking around a possible lawsuit to force college to hire more black head coaches – When we saw this story come across the wire yesterday that Floyd Keith of the Black Coaches Association is considering suing someone (the schools, the NCAA?) over the lack of black coaches getting hired in I-A football it struck us as a very dubious move.  We guess a case could possibly be made under the Civil Rights Act that black coaches are not getting an opportunity to coach at the I-A level, but that seems like quite a stretch, especially since the pool of black coaches that are really read to take over I-A college football programs is not very large.  Earlier this year we here at Coaches Hot Seat compiled the Top 100 Assistant Coaches in I-A football and we created a separate page that listed the African-American coaches that were in our Top 100 Assistant Coaches list and we ended with only 16 African-American coaches within the Top 100. Of those 16 African-American coaches, we only believe that as of today that 5, maybe 6 of them are ready to take over I-A programs, and one of those coaches was hired last week at New Mexico, Mike Locksley (and Joker Phillips is slated to take over at Kentucky when Rich Brooks retires).  With Mike Locksley now hired it is our opinion that there are probably 5 African-American coaches that are now assistants that are ready to take over I-A programs and that there are only 1 or 2 that ready to take over big-time programs like Auburn.  That is not to say that the 16 African-Americans in our Top 100 Assistant Coaches list aren’t very good football coaches, because all of them are very good coaches, but that the pool of black coaches that are really ready to take over I-A programs is just not very deep right now and that we believe this is where Floyd Keith and others that are concerned about blacks getting I-A head coaching jobs should be focusing their attention.  College football needs more black coaches in coordinator positions.

 

Another place that Floyd Keith should really be focusing on is the lack of African-Americans that are working athletic administration positions at colleges around the country.  Even as more black coaches get opportunities to be coordinators at I-A programs if African-Americans are not in athletic administration positions then it will probably be hard for black coaches to really believe they are getting a fair shake when they apply for head coaching jobs.  Of course, as we all saw last week, a black athletic director at Syracuse in Darryl Gross ended up hiring a white coach in Doug Marrone and even though we understand Gross interviewed a lot of candidates, this is the second white coach Gross has hired at Syracuse which makes us wonder….what possible good could come from a lawsuit by the BCS?  Does the Black Coaches Association actually believe they will win a court case and then a school will BE MADE to hire an African-American coach?  Please, there is know way in the United States of America that will ever happen, and if it did happen, the a particular school was FORCED to hire an African-American as their head coach, then that could be disastrous for the fans of that school and for college football.

 

We certainly agree with the Black Coaches Association that more minorities need to be hired as head coaches at the I-A level, but we also believe that the current pool of minority coaches that are ready to take over I-A football programs is not very deep and that is where the BCA should really be focusing its attention.  Get more black coaches into coordinator positions and more black coaches will get hired into head coaching positions, of that we are confident….

 

Speaking of a black head football coach that is doing a hell of a job…..

 

Tonight on ESPN 2 at 8:00 PM EST Mike Long leads his Richmond football team against Bobby Hauck’s Montana team in the NCAA National Championship Game for I-AA football – Yes, a real championship game that is filled with two teams that have EARNED their way into the right to play for a title instead of the Bogus BCS which relies on coaches that have agendas, buffoons in another poll that don’t have a clue, and a bunch of DAMN COMPUTERS.  Can you believe we actually use computers to determine who plays for a national title?  That is one thing and one thing only….INCREDIBLY STUPID.  Back to this I-AA NCAA National Title Game, which should be a great football game with two coaches in Bobby Hauck and Mike London that look to us to be ready to take over I-A football programs.  Yes, this should be a hellava football game so remember to tune in tonight!

 

Speaking of head coaches, Paul Johnson just signed…

 

Paul Johnson of Georgia Tech just signed a new 7-year deal that will pay him an average of $2.45 million over that seven year period – What came immediately mind to us when we saw the $700K or so yearly raise that Paul Johnson got from his current employer is if Auburn really tried to hire Paul Johnson with a blockbuster offer that he could not have turned down.  We thought that Paul Johnson would have been an ideal coach for Auburn in this spot where they need to really ramp things up against their cross-state rival in Nick Saban at Alabama and if we were at Auburn last week we would have driven up the Interstate to Atlanta and met with Johnson or his agent and offered a deal that would have paid him in the neighborhood of $3.5 million a year over 7 years.  If Auburn had offered Paul Johnson $3.5 million a year over 7 years and Tech’s current offers was about $2.45 million a year over 7 years that would mean…

 

Georgia Tech offer over 7 years:  $17.15 million dollars

Auburn offer over 7 years:  $24.5 million dollars

 

OK, would Paul Johnson have really turned down an extra $1 million dollars a year or $7.35 million over 7 years?  Hard to imagine, but if he did, we would have then offered Johnson “Saban Money” which is an average of $4 million a year, or $28 million dollars over the next 7 years.  Then the difference would be a $1.55 million dollars a year difference or $10.85 million dollars over 7 years.  Would Paul Johnson have turned that down?  If he would have turned that down, he would be CRAZY!

 

We certainly wish Gene Chizik Good Luck at Auburn, but we really wonder if Auburn really tried to hire a proven winning head coach, which is REALLY what the Tigers needed at Auburn in this spot…..

 

 

We were glad to see that Colorado AD Mike Bohn believes that his head football coach is not on the Hot Seat, but when a head coach at any school, especially the University of Colorado is 13-24 (.351) we have a news flash for AD Mike Bohn…

 

Dan Hawkins is on the HOT SEAT!

 

All of us, including Mike Bohn, certainly expected Hawkins to have put a better record by his third year in Boulder and surely the expectations will be much higher in year four…  What does Hawkins need in ’09 to take the heat off and let everyone know that the CU program is moving in the right direction?  We say at least 8 wins in the regular season and winning 8 games in the Big 12 these days is not easy.  Of course, at the Colorado senior banquet the other night, Dan Hawkins said the goal for the 2009 season is

 

“10 wins and no excuses.”

 

Wow!  10 wins at Colorado in 2009?  That would almost equal the number of wins that The Hawk has in three years in Boulder, but why not shoot for the stars?  No reason not too…..

 

As for what the expectations are at Colorado, all coaches at CU are measured against Bill McCartney and McCartney didn’t get off to the best of starts at CU but he sure ended his coaching career strong…

 

Bill McCartney, 1982 – 1994, Colorado

 

1982                               2-8-1

1983                               4-7

1984                               1-10

1985                               7-5

1986                               6-6

1987                               7-4

1988                              8-4

1989                               11-1

1990                               11-1-1

1991                                8-3-1

1992                               9-2-1

1993                               8-3-1

1994                               11-1

 

After three years McCartney was 7-25-1 (.212) compared to Hawkins 13-24 (.351), but we think most people would agree that McCartney took over a worst much off Colorado football program than Hawkins….  In Gary Barnett’s last three seasons before Hawkins got to Boulder, Barnett went 5-7, 7-5, 8-5 or 20-17 (.541).  OK, there were some problems at CU when Hawkins got there, but Hawkins is not even winning at the pace of the man that he replaced, who was fired from Colorado, and when you don’t do better than the guy that was fired before you that can only mean one thing, and whether the Colorado AD agrees or not Dan Hawkins is on the…

 

HOT SEAT!

 

Coach Hard Hawk!

 

Well, we are off to work this morning to wrap up what has been a busy week at work at our day jobs, but will be a pretty useless last day of work before we see everyone again in 2009.  Of course, Coaches Hot Seat will be fully manned through the Holidays as we follow all of these crazy bowl games and the Bogus BCS.  Speaking of the BCS, two websites that we have had great fun with lately have been…

 

The BCS Watchdog – These Boys at The BCS Watchdog are after our hearts.  Just some great info on the Bogus BCS!

 

The Field of 16/What If Sports – These Boys have a great website and they have played out a 16-team postseason playoff and the main website What If Sports has all kind of “What If” Scenarios for other sports to entertain one for hours….  Great website…

 

Have a great Friday and don’t forget to tune in tonight for the I-AA National Championship Game between Montana and Richmond at 8:00 PM EST on ESPN 2.  Most of us are leaving our Holiday work parties early today to gather at Coaches Hot Seat Central to catch the game and to discuss and debate the latest coaching hires, the pitiful postseason in I-A college football, and what wineries in Napa/Sonoma do we need to hit next week to buy a few cases of wine (we buy the cold beer at Safeway when we get to the Lake!) on the way up to Lake Tahoe to go skiing (the snow is really coming down now!  Lake Tahoe Webcams).  It’s time to go skiing at beautiful Lake Tahoe!

 

Good Friday to you!

 

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December 16, 2008

 

Coaches Hot Seat

Tuesday Afternoon Briefing

 

The incredible hypocrisy in the national media on race never surprises us, but the attack upon Auburn on the hiring of Gene Chizik is just incredibly over the top.  Why is Auburn AD Jay Jacobs held to a different standard than Syracuse AD Darryl Gross? – In a world full of politically correct bullshit, the attack on Auburn for the hiring of Gene Chizik over what people are guessing was the choosing of Gene Chizik over Turner Gill is so far beyond the pale we wonder how many of national media folks can sleep at night.  Last week, Syracuse University that has a BLACK ATHLETIC DIRECTOR  in Darryl Gross hired Doug Marrone A WHITE GUY that had less experience THAN TURNER GILL, but there has not been a word anywhere in the national media about the Marrone hire at Syracuse. 

 

Why is Syracuse AD Darryl Gross being held to a different standard than Auburn AD Jay Jacobs one must really wonder? 

 

That is an easy question to answer:  That Auburn University that is in the deep South would choose Gene Chizik over poor little Turner Gill FITS THE NARRATIVE that the national media loves to serve up to anyone will listen, but that Syracuse AD Darryl Gross hired a WHITE GUY in Doug Marrone, an assistant from the NFL, who seems to be much less qualified for the Syracuse job than poor little Turner Gill DOES NOT FIT THE NARRATIVE, so it is not written about by the politically correct gang that makes up the national media. 

 

Of course, there was know one screaming from the hills when Lane Kiffin was hired at Tennessee over several black coaching candidates that seem to be as qualified or MORE QUALIFIED than Lane Kiffin, but again no one in the national media has the guts to write anything negative about Lane Kiffin.  One wonders why that is, but then again when one understands the AGENDA of the national media and the NARRATIVE THAT IT WANTS TO WRITE ABOUT, this is all very easy to understand….

 

To the underlying point of Gene Chizik being hired at Auburn, we don’t think Gene Chizik OR Turner Gill are remotely qualified to be the head coach at Auburn in this spot with Alabama on the rise under Nick Saban, but if we were doing the hiring at Auburn and we were forced to choose between Chizik and Gill, we would have chose Chizik every time.  Gene Chizik has coached most of his life in the southern United States and he has coached at Auburn before under Tuberville and Turner Gill has never even coached one down of football in the SEC.  Of course, that Auburn “seemed” to choose Chizik over Gill FITS THE NARRATIVE that the national media loves to write about which has nothing to do with black coaches getting hired at I-A schools, but has everything to do with “pigeon-holing” certain groups or areas of the country into their “predetermined” place and stereotype.  That a BLACK ATHLETIC DIRECTOR in Darryl Gross hired a WHITE GUY at Syracuse in Doug Marrone that looks to us to not be as qualified to be a head coach in college (certainly not more qualified than Turner Gill) does not fit into national media’s “stereotype” and the NARRATIVE they want to write about, so Darryl Gross is given a free pass. 

 

Forget about that Darryl Gross, who is a BLACK MAN by the way, has hired two coaches at Syracuse and both have been WHITE MEN that have NEVER BEEN HEAD COACHES BEFORE.  No, that Darryl Gross did not hire a BLACK COACH does not seem to register at all on the national scene and that is because the folks in the national media do not care about that fact because they it DOES NOT FIT INTO THE PREDETERMINED STEREOTYPE of what they “think” is going on in our society.  Of course, what these fools “think” is going on in our society and what is actually going on are two different things entirely, but the national media folks don’t concern themselves with that because again it does not fit “THE NARRATIVE.”  Let’s get to what is actually going on in the United States of America.

 

To really understand how outrageous it is that the national, and even the Southern media, jumped all over Auburn for the hiring of Gene Chizik, one has to understand what is really going on in our country as it pertains to the real integration of the races, white, black, asian, hispanic, etc. around the country.  What those of us here at Coaches Hot Seat have found as we have traveled around the country is that the most “liberal leaning areas” like San Francisco and New York ARE THE MOST SEGREATED as it pertains to race and that the most conservative areas of the country, Atlanta, Charlotte, Orlando ARE THE MOST DESEGREATED as it pertains to race when it comes to living and working together on a daily basis.  Here in the San Francisco Bay area the races do mix, but the races only the races if you take out the upper-middle class and upper-class white people. 

 

For white people that work in professional jobs in San Francisco often the only people of race that one encounters on a daily basis are people working in service jobs, clerks, restaurant jobs, cab drivers, cleaning people, etc, but that in actual office and work meetings the people sitting across the table from you are almost always white.  When white professionals in San Francisco go home at night they almost always go to areas of San Francisco that are predominantly white or out in the suburbs that are 95% percent white or very close to that number.  Yes, that’s right, the San Francisco Bay area, one of the most liberal places in the United State is also ONE OF THE MOST SEGREATED when it comes to race.  Guess what?  The same is true for New York, as the rich suburbs around New York City on Long Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey are also filled with white folks and are very SEGREATED as it pertains to race.  We know that, because several of us here at Coaches Hot Seat lived and worked in New York City before we came to the San Francisco Bay area.

 

Now let’s take a look at the area of the country that the folks in the national media love to write about and the area of the country that FITS THE NARRATIVE that they love to write about, and that NARRATIVE ROUGHLY TRANSLATES TO = THOSE DAMN RACISTS IN THE SOUTH ARE DOING ALL KIND OF DASTARDLY DEEDS….

 

Yes, let’s look at the Southern US as we have experienced it when traveling to Atlanta, Charlotte, Orlando and other cities on business or for college football games that are played near those large metropolitan areas.  In every one of the above cities and in other southern cities, both large and small, we do not find the races segregated in the workplace, but often when we sit down for a meeting we see black faces across the table from us and when we go to dinner later that night there are white and black faces in every restaurant we have ever visited in the South.  Yes, that is right the very area of the country that the national media folks love to write about and fits THEIR NARRATIVE VERY WELL on the supposed “Chizik hiring over Gill” scenario at Auburn is MORE DESGREATED AND HAS MORE MIXING OF THE RACES than the areas of the country where many of these national media folks live.  INCREDIBLE HYPOCRITES comes to mind for some reason, but the real problem with these hypocrites in the national media is they really have never really spent ANY serious time with folks of different races.  We are not talking about seeing other races at work, but really having interaction with folks of different races in very serious situations where they have to get important things done and race is always the last thing on everyone’s mind.

 

Several of us here at Coaches Hot Seat have done something that less than 1 percent of the country has now every done and that is serve in the US military where people’s lives are on the line if people do not do their jobs right and where the particular race of someone is a complete non-issue because the people that can get the job done is who you end up trusting.  This is especially true when under the gun in combat or in high-tempo operations when a wrong or foolish decision could cost people their lives and for all of us here at Coaches Hot Seat that served during combat in the US military we always divided people not by race, but by who were really competent in their jobs and who REALLY could be counted on in situations where people’s lives were on the line.  After a person experiences a situation where they are throw together with different races and people eventually either earn the respect of other people or not on how well they do their job, one can never look at the world in the same way, but sadly that is not the case for many in our country today.  Many people, and almost everyone in the national media, still see things in “black and white” and look around the country and count how many black coaches there are and then decry that “there are very few black head coaches.”  Then when a BLACK ATHLETIC DIRECTOR in Darryl Gross at Syracuse hires a WHITE GUY, for the SECOND TIME to be the Orangemen head coach the national media folks do not say a word. 

 

Yes, these national media types are INCREDIBLE HYPOCRITES and they will scream from the highest mountain that Auburn is filled with a bunch of racists, but they DO NOT SAY A WORD about a BLACK ATHLETIC DIRECTOR in Darryl Gross hiring a WHITE GUY who is not as qualified as Turner Gill.  Hypocrites, just incredible hypocrites, but don’t expect anyone in the national media to write about Darryl Gross hiring a WHITE GUY at Syracuse, because it DOES NOT FIT THE NARRATIVE that they want to and MUST write about in the politically correct world that we live.

 

In the Outside the Lines segment over the weekend about the number of black coaches in I-A football, current Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said that college football needed more black coaches in coordinator positions at I-A schools, but we would remind Gene Smith that as a BLACK MAN that if BLACK ATHLETIC DIRECTORS like Darryl Gross will not hire a BLACK HEAD COACH at Syracuse where it looks to us that Turner Gill is MORE QUALIFIED than the coach Syracuse ended up hiring, then just what in the hell is going on here?  Of course, now that Gene Smith is on the record, if Smith is still the AD at Ohio State when Jim Tressel retires if Smith or Ohio State for that matter does not hire A BLACK HEAD COACH then Ohio State should get ready for a massive backlash.  Will that backlash happen if Ohio State does not hire a black head football coach?  No, because it DOES NOT FIT THE NARRATIVE that the national media wants to write about.  Of course, that is a stupid thought that Ohio State MUST hire a coach of any particular race, but that is the kind of things that will be whipped up if the national media keep making judgments that are INCREDIBLY HYPOCRITCAL and one’s that only fit the NARRATIVE THAT THEY WANT TO AND MUST WRITE ABOUT. 

 

We will not be holding our breath waiting for the national media to hold Syracuse AD Darryl Gross to the same standard they are holding Auburn AD Jay Jacobs to, but then again a BLACK ATHLETIC DIRECTOR hiring a WHITE GUY over a BLACK GUY in Turner Gill does not fit THE NARRATIVE that the national media is ONLY interested in writing about.  The idea that the national media is holding Auburn to a different standard than Syracuse is outrageous and strikes us as a type of “McCarthyism” that we thought was dead and buried in our country.  Yes, there is racism in the United States today and we have no doubt that people are denied jobs everyday in our Republic because of the color of their skin (Hell, we would love to see more African-American candidates applying for jobs in the companies we work at for day jobs, but only 1 out of every 100 applicants is African-American for professional or high tech jobs.  Yes, that is very troubling and something we work on and worry about all the time), but it is outrageous that the national media, and even media in the South, are holding different schools and different athletic directors to different standards.  What comes to our mind is why is Mississippi State and Tennessee are not being held to the same standard as Auburn, because national media folks have heralded the hiring of Mullen and Kiffin at Miss. State and Tennessee, but were there any black candidates even considered for those jobs?  Who knows because the national media will not write or comment on the Miss. State or Tennessee coaching searches.

 

This entire minority head coaching issue is very interesting to us and anyone that has read this Coaches Hot Seat Blog since January 2007 knows we have been at the forefront of both encouraging the hiring of minority coaches on the I-A level and the identification of up-and-coming coaches at both the coordinator and assistant coaching levels.  What most interests us going forward is that qualified minority candidates both get a shot to interview for head coaching jobs (and coordinators jobs for that matter) and that minority candidates get their chance to lead I-A college football programs.  It does no one any good for people in the national media to hold Auburn to one standard and Syracuse to another standard, but we understand that is just what the national media does and that these INCREDBILE HYPOCRITES will continue to do that because that garners them attention and higher TV ratings…  No, it does not serve our Republic, nor even minority coaching candidates for the national media to have two different standards in place, because in fact two different standards is what causes all of the problems related to race in the first place, which really makes what the national media is doing when covering Auburn and Syracuse looks REALLY STUPID AND INCREDIBLY HYPOCRITCAL.

 

Meanwhile, we head back to work in San Francisco which is one of the most beautiful spots in the world, one of the most liberal places on the planet, but which is also one of the MOST SEGREATED when it comes to race one can find in the United States of America.  Don’t believe us?  Just go to the work areas in downtown San Francisco or to the rich residential neighborhoods in the City or out in the suburbs in the Bay area and guess what you will find….you can color it WHITE…  Do the liberals recognize that San Francisco is INCREDIBLY SEGREATED and that the rich white folks generally work and live with rich white folks?  No, and frankly they don’t care, because the liberals in San Francisco may be BIGGER HYPOCRITES THAN THE FOLKS IN THE NATIONAL MEDIA…

 

Here’s to Turner Gill getting a head coaching job at a school that has a real chance to win a big-time conference title and to go to a decent postseason game.  Any readers of this Blog know we think the world of Turner Gill and we would send our kids to go play for him in second.  There would be no worry at all to us entrusting our kids to Turner Gill, just like there would be no thought to sending our kids to play for Pete Carroll, Jim Tressel, Bob Stoops, Mack Brown, Nick Saban, Paul Johnson and many other head coaches.  Turner Gill is a very good football coach and we believe he will be a very good if not great head football coach at a big-time school before his coaching career is over, but many of us have been to Auburn many times for football games and we do not believe that Auburn was a particularly good fit for Gill for several reasons, although we do believe that Gill would have won at Auburn.  Would he have won BIG?  Who knows…

 

As for Charles Barkley, the other 119 I-A schools can be thankful they do not have Charles Barkley as a former standout sports star or graduate (does Barkley have his degree from Auburn?).  Very simply, Charles Barkley is an idiot and he is now doing tremendous damage to Auburn University Barkley and knows he is doing tremendous damage to Auburn University, and frankly Barkley does not care or not if destroyed the entire institution.  We do not have a dog in this fight, but if a former stand-out sports star was saying these things about our school, we would not stand still and just accept it.  Barkley can say what he wants, but we also could say what we thought about him, and right now there is no one at Auburn that has the guts to stand up and call Charles Barkley what he really is….  I think we all know what Charles Barkley is…..  Yes, we all know what Charles Barkley is all about and what Charles Barkley really cares about….  Charles Barkley cares about Charles Barkley and nothing else…..

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