Houston Nutt is a very good football coach, but he is also a very inconsistent coach as well. Looking at Nutt’s career record above, we note that Nutt has only lost less than 4 games in a season only 1 time at the I-A level, and that was in his first year at Arkansas. As the 2009 season approaches Houston Nutt is setting on a goldmine full of talent at Ole Miss, many of the players that were recruited by Ed Orgeron and some by the current coaching staff and the challenge for Nutt will be to live up to the high expectations that have been set for him, especially when his record shows that he has not lived up to expectations in the past. Long before Nutt had his problems with QB Mitch Mustain and the “Springdale” group at Arkansas, Nutt was already under pressure after putting up 2 straight losing seasons in ’04 and ’05, and not meeting the expectations of the fans was what really undid Nutt’s support among Razorback fans. Flash-forward to 2009 and Nutt has gotten himself through his natural enthusiasm and ability to field a very good team in his first year at Ole Miss into a spot where anything less than a trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game will be a disappointment to Rebel fans. With Jevan Snead under center and plenty of playmakers on offense coupled with a very good defense, Ole Miss fans look at the schedule and don’t see a team with more talent, and they quickly add up 12 wins, especially with a very manageable out-of-conference schedule. Ole Miss 12-0 in 2009 and in Atlanta in early December playing for a right to go to the national title game? Could that actually happen? Well, it COULD happen, but if one takes a hard look at Nutt’s coaching career, a couple of stumbles along the way would seem to be in order (as Ole Miss stumbled in ’08 against Vandy and South Carolina). With that thought in mind, where possibly could Ole Miss stumble this season and what if anything could Nutt do to avoid the letdowns that have plagued his coaching career would seem to the most important questions to answer. Our picks for the individual games are below, so let’s look at what Nutt could do avoid any lapses and actually put up a 12-0 record at Ole Miss this season.
Houston Nutt and Ole Miss 12-0 in ’09, but how?
1. A more even keel throughout the season – Anyone that has gotten a chance to see a Houston Nutt speech before a football game knows why he is called the “Right Reverend,” but getting a team very fired up every week of the season is very hard to do and is also counter-productive to actually winning every game. A more productive route is to try and keep the team on as even keel as possible in every game and save the “fire and brimstone” speeches for when you really need them, like when the team is down at halftime to Alabama or needs to rally in the 4th quarter to beat South Carolina on the road.
2. Players need to play with more discipline – If there is one thing that has characterized Houston Nutt coached teams in recent years is how often that his players have made bad decisions in very critical situations during big games. Sometimes it is a foolish penalty, or a player being out of position, or a player missing an important assignment, but whatever it is, in some of the biggest games that Nutt has coached in, there has often been a “breakdown” moment that has cost his team the football game. Those kinds of mistakes are almost always due to a lack of focus and if a team is to stay in focus the coaching staff must…
3. Nutt needs to stay in control on the sidelines – One has to love the passion that Houston Nutt brings to the game of football, but sometimes that passion can get in the way of clear decision-making when he and his coaching staff are going crazy on the sidelines. Besides the chance that too much emotion can lead to less than the best decisions, the Ole Miss players, both the one’s that are in the game and on the sidelines are watching Nutt and the coaching staff to see how they react to events during the game and when the coaches go crazy on every single thing that happens in the game the players come to believe that everything is of equal importance. There are plenty of things that should get a coach fired up on the sidelines, or cause him to get after a referee, but if a head coach is out-of-control on almost every play it will take away the focus of the team from the most important thing, making plays on the field. Stay in control Houston and be thinking ahead, not only to the next play, but to everything that could happen in the upcoming series of plays and how you will react to the possible scenarios, because not only is the TV camera watching, your team is as well.
Now that we have given Houston Nutt our best advice, let’s get to the ’09 season….
Coaches Hot Seat Bottom Line
We predict that Houston Nutt and Ole Miss will have a _______ record in 2009.
Conference Championship Games and the Importance and Advantages of Stability for Successful Title Games
The conferences that have championship games need to take a hard look at the SEC and why their championship game has been so successful over the years and then apply those lessons to their title games.The ACC and Big 12 conferences have been moving around the championship games in recent years and we believe that our experience at the SEC Championship Game in the past dozen years provides some great lessons for the ACC and Big 12 that should consider as they make plans for future title games.
There are a lot of great reasons to keep a conference championship game in once place, but let us list a few reasons that come to mind to us:
1.With the title game in one place year after year the conference is able to plan for the game and for the events surrounding the game without concern for the location.
2.College football fans come to expect the conference title game to be in that one location and they can make plans around either attending the game in person or watching it on television at the same location year after year
3.With a permanent location for the conference title game the teams in the conference know that they are shooting for a “trip to Atlanta” as in the SEC and that idea of winning one’s way to the title game and to a particular location becomes important in the mind of the football players in the conference and to the fans as well.
4. A title game in location for years allows the conference to build strong ties with the local community and businesses and as the game is played year after year in one spot the city the game is held in comes to see the conference title game as an important part of their community and thus they are much more likely to support the game.
5.Lastly, and most importantly, with a conference title game in one location the conference is able to build very strong “brand awareness” around the championship game that both builds the brand of the title game, the teams, and also of the conference.
From a more personal perspective for those of us here at Coaches Hot Seat, we view the SEC Championship Game as one of the great events in any sport today, and one of the main reasons we feel that way is that the game is so strongly identified in our minds as being held in Atlanta in early December of every year and everything that comes with being confident that we know exactly the great experience we will have in attending the game.
The SEC Championship Game has become much more than just a title game to crown the SEC Champion each year, it is also a gathering spot for SEC fans even from teams that are not playing in the game and we can tell you that from first-hand experience because we see year after year at the SEC Championship Game the same fans, many of them who are at the game not to root for a particular team, but to watch SEC football and to support the conference teams.Besides seeing what has become our friends among fans of SEC teams each year in Atlanta, having the SEC title game in Atlanta each year allows for those of us here at Coaches Hot Seat to plan way in advance, even 6 months in advance for what hotel we will be staying at and our air transportation arrangements, and we are able to make those plans way in advance because we know that not only is the SEC committed to holding the game in Atlanta each year, we also know it will be a great event no matter what teams play in the game.
Besides the ability to plan way in advance, for us here at Coaches Hot Seat and for all fans of SEC football, to attend the SEC Championship Game, we also look forward to going to Atlanta each year because it is such a great city to attend a sporting event because there is so much to do, restaurants,bars, museums, golf (when it is warm enough!), etc., and we look forward each year to not only visiting our old haunts and finding new places to hang out, we also get to see a great football game to boot.Whether it be the restaurants and nightlife of Buckhead, Virginia-Highlands, and Downtown/Midtown or venturing out from town to play golf or visit places like Stone Mountain or Callaway Gardens, we know that a trip to Atlanta each December to see some great football and visit a great town makes the SEC Championship one of the best sporting events in the country.
All of the above, at least from our perception, and from the perception of many of our friends and fans that we run into in Atlanta each year has all been created BECAUSE the SEC has made such a strong commitment to holding the SEC Championship in Atlanta each year and to creating events around their title game that makes it great fun to attend the event.The SEC has been able to during its time in Atlanta to not only build a strong brand around “Getting to Atlanta,” but to also create some very strong and deep relationships with the local community and we are sure that being so committed to Atlanta serves the SEC very well, in good times and bad.
With all of the above in mind, we would certainly recommend to the ACC and Big 12 that they find the best place, with both facilities and the local city/community in mind, to hold their conference championship game and then make at least a 5-year commitment to hold the title game at that location.If the ACC and Big 12 did move to hold their conference title game in one premier location they would be able to build some long-term and very strong brand awareness around that particular city in their conference, with the fans of their teams, with the teams and players, and even with college football fans across the country.
As for particular places, if we were running the ACC, we would hold the ACC Championship Game in Charlotte, North Carolina every year and then work very hard to build a strong presence in that city.Charlotte is a great town and that community has proved with the PGA Tour tournament in the area, that they will turn out for a quality event and Charlotte also has a very strong business community that can be a big help to making the ACC Championship Game in Charlotte a big success.
For the Big 12, how could the conference go wrong in making a long-term commitment to the new Cowboys Stadium, which sounds like one of the greatest sports facilities ever built on the planet?Besides the new Cowboys Stadium, the Dallas – Ft. Worth area is a great place to hold an event like the Big 12 Championship Game and there are great opportunities to build strong brand awareness around Big 12 teams winning their way to Dallas each year.If the Big 12 would commit to Cowboys Stadium for at least 5 years, we believe the conference would receive a lot more support from the many communities and businesses in the Dallas – Ft. Worth area and it makes all the sense in the world over the next 5 years for the Big 12 to play their title game in Dallas and keep it there long-term.
One of the reasons we wait until after the summer media events for the conferences to predict how teams will perform in the fall is that there is a lot that can be learned by listening closely to the head coaches and their players.The SEC Media Days last week was eye-opening in many ways, because never has an athletic conference had so many future College Football Hall of Fame coaching at the same time and likewise this week the Big Ten and Big 12 meetings have been very interesting as well.The Big Ten Conference is still way out front in being able to provide a comprehensive view of their teams and conference with their Big Ten Network, but the other conferences are working hard to get more media attention for their coaches, teams and players and hopefully a few years now every conference will have a network of their own or they will have partnered with national companies, like the SEC with ESPN, or with regional broadcast companies that can extend the reach of the conferences beyond the telecasted football games.Television has continued and even quickened its fragmentation into smaller and smaller groups of viewers watching channels and shows that they have a strong interest in and in the future what are considered small audiences today, less than 1 million on average, will be very valuable because advertisers will know that when they advertise a product to that group they will know exactly they type of people they are reaching, which is the ultimate goal of any company that hopes to sell a product or service.The Big Ten Network is ideally suited to take advantage of the fragmentation of the TV audience and the conferences that are able to establish a footprint now on TV and the Internet will be in that much stronger of a position to sell their viewers/audience to advertisers when the economy improves in the coming years.The SEC’s move to partner with ESPN is very important for both entities and if the folks involved in this partnership are smart they will make sure that they build a strong “SEC” brand and one that it is somewhat separated from the “ESPN” brand, which can sometimes be so large that it overwhelms the athletic events it covers.We will be watching the SEC/ESPN partnership closely in the coming years and we would certainly encourage all athletic conferences to push forward with expansion plans across all media platforms, because there are great opportunities to build conference brands and positions right now that may not be so easy to do in the future when the American economy returns to normal growth rates and normal economic activity.
former DC Bo Pelini, but with even some decent QB play and we believe the Tigers would have probably won the Alabama and Arkansas games, which would have added up to losses to only Florida and Georgia in ’08. Such is life that very selfish players believe they are above their team and teammates and clearly LSU paid dearly last year for the actions of Perrilloux, but as we said, such is life. Without Perrilloux it was the job of the coaching staff to get the backup QBs ready to play and when they went up against the best defenses in the SEC they made mistake after mistake and put the Tigers’ defense in some tough spots which was then compounded by mediocre, sloppy and undisciplined defensive play that almost hurt the LSU team as much as the offense did in ’09. Whatever went wrong during the ’08 regular season, LSU bounced back in the bowl game to crush a pretty good Georgia Tech team and the Tigers should have some momentum as they look towards the fall.
After three straight 11+ win seasons at LSU, Les Miles and the Tigers were almost due to take a fall and they did that in spades last season and now as they look forward to the fall the schedule is as daunting as ever and it is going to be fascinating to see if LSU has their QB situation under control and just what ex-Tennessee DC John Chavis can do with the defense in Baton Rouge. If Chavis can get the LSU defense back to where they were playing in 2007, LSU will have ever chance in the world to win every game on their schedule, but Chavis knows stopping some of the schools in the SEC is easier said than done. To have another big season Les Miles is going to need a few things to go right:
1. Consistent QB Play – Maybe some of the worst QB play in the country was at LSU last season and that play cost them big in the big games. Offensive coordinator Gary Crowton must get this quarterbacks ready to play and then get them into situations and plays where they have an above average chance of succeeding, something that LSU failed to do many times in ’09.
2. A return to play tough. hard-nosed defense – LSU was ranked No. 32 in Total Defense in 2008, giving up an average of 325+ yards per game, which is bad enough, but the Tigers were No. 73 in passing defense and that is an area that they must improve on along with continued tough play against the run as well. Letting receivers run all over the field and find open spots is something that must stop and it will be up to Chavis to give some bite to the LSU defenders, especially against the teams on their schedule that will look to throw the ball down the field.
4. Discipline on the field of play – Discipline was addressed by Les Miles last week at SEC Media Days and from what we have been able to gather there will some serious consequences for any Tiger players that lose control of themselves on the field this season. There is nothing wrong with playing aggressively, but some of the crap that LSU was doing last year, especially on defense, not only was incredibly foolish but also hurt the team terribly during some very key spots in games last season.
Can Les Miles and LSU bounce back in ’09 with the very difficult schedule they have to face? Let’s see what we think…..
Coaches Hot Seat Bottom Line
We predict that Les Miles and LSU will have a _________ record in 2009.Let’s take a look at LSU’s 2009 games:
The end of the Tour de France over the weekend and what “Sport is inherently based upon.”Yes, that’s right and it is the opposite of the BCS
We certainly hope that everyone got to see the end of the Tour de France on Sunday as the Tour finished in the beautiful city of Paris with Lance Armstrong finishing in a very brave third place.(Versus did a great job covering the Tour de France this year and what great fun it was to see both the great courage and intensity of the riders in the Tour and to see the stunning countryside of France, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, and Spain.The Tour de France goes through some beautiful country every year, but this race was particularly stunning and what a hellava job that Versus did in bringing the race to the US audience, but also the great job that French TV did in producing the Tour).It was not to be for Lance Armstrong this year as he took on the younger riders at least 10+ years his junior, but Armstrong will be back in 2010 and the entire Tour de France better watch out, because this time his team will be working for him entirely and that should make for a very entertaining race next year.
After the race ended the Versus commentators were talking about the 2009 Tour de France and Craig Hummer the anchor for the Versus crew made one of the most profound statements we have heard in years on sport:
“Sport in inherently based upon competition.”
How so very true, because all sports in the world, save the bogus BCS, is “based upon competition,” and the people running and the folks in the media propping up the fraudulent BCS should give the above quote a longhard look, because the BCS runs counter to the premise of that quote and to the principles that all of us here at Coaches Hot Seat were taught while growing up and playing dozens of different sports in America.
It is really is very a sad day in American history when Americans watch a bicycle race in France that actually determines their champion on the field of play and bunch of Candy Ass (more on the Candy Ass folks later) fools are doing whatever they can to keep a system in place that is fraud from top to bottom, the incredibly bogus BCS.
Yes, give that some thought you BCS Lovers, because you are supporting a fraud.Speaking of controversies, Coach Spurrier opened a window that the BCS Boys really didn’t want open….
Steve Spurrier laid bare the fraud that is the Coaches Poll and the BCS for that matter AND the Sadness that is Steve Spurrier
Yes, it was very sad watching Steve Spurrier trying to explain his vote for the SEC Preseason All-SEC team and Spurrier has clearly been beaten down by the performance of his teams at South Carolina.Although the non-Tebow vote embarrassed Spurrier, what is really eating at the ‘Ol Ball Coach is that he knows he doesn’t have a quarterback on his football team right now and the guy that he MUST rely on to start, Stephen Garcia, is a sorry excuse for college football player, forget about starting under center in the SEC.It is so bad that if Stephen Garcia flew out to San Francisco right now and tried out for the QB position on the Coaches Hot Seat flag-football team, he would right now be running FOURTH STRING after we recently picked up a QB that even at 38 years of age can run circles around Garcia with both his feet and throwing arm.Yes, it really is a very sad state of affairs that Steve Spurrier, one of the greatest QBs in SEC history, one of the greatest QB coaches in college football history, will have to rely on a QB like Stephen Garcia.One can really begin to understand what we think of Stephen Garcia, because in the history of Coaches Hot Seat and the CHS Blog, we can only think of one of two times when we commented negatively about an individual football player and yes somewhere right now in the Eastern United States we have no doubt Stephen Garcia is sitting on his ass and wasting time instead of getting himself ready to play in the upcoming season.Shame on Stephen Garcia, but even more shame on Steve Spurrier for relying on a guy that has proven himself in his short college career to be one of the most unreliable players in the game of college football.
Getting back to the meat of this story, after Steve Spurrier’s appearance at SEC Media Days last week, we here at Coaches Hot Seat are trying to figure out what we are surprised at more, that the general public and media are just figuring out the at the Coaches Poll is a total fraud or if there really is anyone on the planet that actually believes the BCS itself is anything but a fraud.Hard to imagine that anyone could support the BCS, that is anyone not raised in a commune, but doesn’t everyone know about the polls the BCS uses to come up with their bogus rankings?Please, don’t tell us that someone actually thinks the BCS is actually legitimate, but then again P. T. Barnun said on more than one….. (more on that later)…
Of course, there was a big hubbub last week when it was found out that Steve Spurrier and a South Carolina athletics staff member had accidently voted Ole Miss QB Jevan Snead as the SEC first team QB over Tim Tebow, but then Steve opened a window for everyone to see into that not only was the preseason coaches picks something that was done with little more than a whim with the “help” of athletic staff members, but that the Coaches Poll throughout the season is massively suspect as well.That the Coaches Poll may be little more than sports information directors putting together a list of teams each week that the head coach can look over is certainly not a surprise to anyone here at Coaches Hot Seat because we know exactly what is going on inside many of the I-A athletic departments and we have some news for everyone out there:
The Coaches Poll is a fraud because the head coaches don’t have the time to watch much football besides their team and the next opponent and then the sports information directors and athletic staff members are so busy during the week and on gameday as well that the Coaches Poll is a massive fraud, built upon personal and petty likes and dislikes of other coaches, built upon some coaches favoring and voting their friends teams over other teams, built upon a massive fraud, which is that whomever is really voting in the Coaches Poll, none of them really get to watch much football during the season.
Got all of that?Good, because all of the BCS Lovers out there should know that the Coaches Poll is a fraud because there is not a chance in Hell that head football coaches have the time or inclination to really know who the best teams are, unless they are next up on the schedule, but even the athletic staff members are so busy themselves that the Coaches Poll is not even worth the newspaper fish-wrapper it is printed upon.We thought everyone already knew that, especially people in the media, but it actually gets much worse….
Combine the Coaches Poll with a bunch of damn computers dreamed up by a bunch of dweebs that would be lucky to know how to put on a jock strap and then the Harris Poll, which is comprised of a bunch of people that have admitted they watch less football across the country than your Aunt Edna and you have a MASSIVE FRAUD, WHICH IS THE BCS.
All of the BCS Boys and Lovers should be very proud of their bogus system which is built upon one fraudulent thing after another which all adds up to what is a tremendous embarrassment to the United States of America, but don’t hold your breath waiting on the BCS Boys to admit what a fraud that BCS is, because most of these folks have done nothing in their life but shuffle paper, and when you have paper shufflers running the show you end up with something like the bogus BCS.What an upside-down world we have, paper-shufflers setting up a system in the BCS for a game played by real MEN.It should be the other way around, but in times of peace the paper-shufflers come to the forefront, and our country has pretty much been at peace since 1945.Peace is great, but it is terrible for the country, because the paper-shufflers and Candy Asses reign…(more on that later…)
Be proud BCS Boys and Lovers, but don’t call the supposed “BCS Champion’ the National Champion, because the entire damn shooting match is a fraud and anyone claiming anything different is only lying to themselves and to the country.
Let’s see what we have with the BCS:
1.A fraudulent voting system based upon head coaches that really don’t have a clue who the best team is because they see less football across the country each week than Aunt Edna and the athletic staff members that are helping to put together the poll for the head coach may watch even less football than the head coaches.Got all that?Just say fraudulent and you have it!
2.A Harris Poll full of any fool that has a TV with cable connected to it, but then doesn’t actually watch games across the country but they do vote on where the teams are ranked and that their poll is used to determine the top teams in the BCS.Yes, it would take a massive moron to come up this Harris Poll and the person that did come up with has proved time and time again to be a moron.
3.A bunch of dweebs sitting in dark rooms writing computer programs that are then used to rank football teams.We really wish someone could justify using computers to determine how teams are ranked in college football, because the last time we checked real MEN play football on real fields with real fans in the stands with real fans watching on TV.No, none of that has anything to do with a dweeb sitting in front of a computer, except of course in the BIZARRO LAND THAT IS THE BCS.
Oh, yes be very proud BCS Boys and Lovers, you have concocted a system that only an idiot and we mean that you ARE A MASSIVE IDIOT if you can possibly defend the FRAUD THAT IS THE BCS.Of course, what did P. T. Barnum say?”
“There’s a sucker born every minute.”
Oh P.T. how right you are, because the BCS Boys could COME UP WITH ANYTING and plenty of people in the media would just eat it up, because there are many in the media in college football that are not only intimidated by power, they also don’t quite understand that behind the curtain the people in power laugh and laugh and laugh at what a bunch of fools and idiots that there are still fools that will defend what any 5-year old can see is the most bogus thing in sport on the planet today, the BCS.
As we pointed out in our last blog post (*see below), the vast majority of the excuses related to a postseason playoff in college football are bogus, because an 8-team playoff would have the almost identical schedule of seven major bowl games, but for some reason there is no one in the media that really and we mean really has the guts to stand up to the BCS Boys and point out the obvious, namely that the entire BCS is a fraud and that college football should have the same system used by every other sport in collegiate athletics to determine the National Champion.A little thing called a playoff, which follows the regular season.
Yes, there will always be Candy Asses (Definition of Candy Ass below) around that rather enjoy beauty contests, parades, going to Sea World to kiss dolphins, lying around on the beach, going to parties, and playing MEANINGLESS EXHIBTION GAMES, but we haven’t run into any real MEN that would actually prefer the above over a legitimate way to crown the National Champion in college football.Yes, the Candy Asses will always be with us, and right now we have a group of Candy Asses among the BCS Boys that rather like going to bowl games and having those Candy Asses kissed.That is really what this is all about…., the Candy Ass Presidents and Chancellors, and the Candy Ass BCS Boys, and the Candy Ass members of the media actually enjoy MEANINGLES EXHIBTION GAMES, because none of the above Candy Asses can really handle the stark reality that comes with winning and losing.They don’t like the pain that comes with losing, and people with that type of mindset are very dangerous to the future of our country, because the Candy Asses want everyone to win and that is just not the way the real world worksYea, everyone is a winner, but unfortunately the country is a loser as a fraudulent system in the BCS goes forward and our college football players and even our kids learn that winning and losing is really not that important as long as the “kids” enjoy themselves.
This is all actually very simple:
If you are for the BCS you are a CANDY ASS.
If you are for championships being won on the field of play you are an AMERICAN.
What will it be, CANDY ASS or AMERICAN?We know where we stand here at Coaches Hot Seat, proudly with the greatest traditions of our Republic that freedom and thus championships must be earned on the battlefield and field of play, now how about you CANDY ASSES out there, care to rejoin the country?
Definition of Candy Ass:a timid or cowardly person; sissy.
Yes, it is rather entertaining pointing out the absurdity that is the BCS, but there are also some very serious principles at stake that have a lot to do with what the United States of America stands for, what we have been in our nation’s history, and what our country will be in the future.As we have said in the past, many of us here at Coaches Hot Seat know at least one college president or chancellor and we value the importance of the college presidents that are able to successfully run large colleges and universities, because it is not an easy thing to do.There are many of these presidents and chancellors that we admire for both the career they have forged in academia and for their ability to hold together and run the very complex organization that is an institution of higher learning.We disagree vehemently with Gordon Gee on the BCS and what the college football postseason should look like, but if we were tasked to draw up a list of 5 names to run a college or university that we were an alumni of, Gordon Gee would be on that list because Gordon has proved to us that he has the skill-set necessary to run a great institution like the Ohio State University.There are many other college presidents that we admire, but we also feel that the college presidents are often out of touch with the way the real world works and how important it is that college students learn the importance of both winning, and losing so that they are prepared to enter the workforce of the 21st century.
The current postseason system in college football is a travesty on so many levels, because it violates the basic tenets of our Declaration of Independence that proudly that “All Men Are Created Equal,” and it runs counter to the important lessons that we teach our children everyday on winning and losing in a fair and honest.The BCS is neither fair nor honest, and is in fact nothing more that a system that is the antithesis of the America, with a group of privileged elites being favored over other Americans based upon only their past history, not what they have done during the current year and season.In many ways America’s greatest tragedy and sin, slavery was based up on the same exact reasoning that the BCS is based upon, that because something has happened in the past and is thus “tradition,” is a good enough of a reason that it should continue into the future.In particular, Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman’s testimony before the Senate a few weeks back was particularly galling because he almost seemed to be making the argument that because the University of Nebraska is the University of Nebraska, then it and other “BCS” schools should be treated in a preferential way.That is an outrageous thought and we wonder how any leader in higher education could make the argument that certain schools somehow “deserve” to be treated in preferential way, but then again the entire BCS is based upon this very flawed, very illegal in our minds, and worst of all very un-American argument.What parent in America would possibly allow his children to play in a sports league that had the same rules as the BCS?Answer:None that gave a damn about his children, because every parent in America we have ever run into believes that championships must be won on the field of play and that “sport is indeed inherently about competition.”The BCS is the opposite of that belief and that is why the BCS poises such a great danger to the future of the America.If there are Americans that can actually come to believe that the BCS is anything other than bogus, as many members of the media seem to believe, then there could be other places in the country where the importance of winning, of achievement, of actually deserving the right to play for a championship or for that job promotion even, might be curtailed.Sadly, all of us know of places in our country where preferential treatment is both given and taken readily and then those very same privileged people will turn around and say they are not being treated fairly, when in fact they have had a leg-up on everyone else from the start.
We here at Coaches Hot Seat have always believed that the greatest thing about America is that for the most part in life, what you get is what you have earned, and that always in sport in our country, what you win is something that has been won on the field of play in a fair and equal way.We cannot think of any sports in American where a championship trophy is handed over to a coach or player where that trophy was not actually earned on the field of play, except for college football and the BCS.Therein lies the fundamental problem and brings us back to the college presidents and chancellors, because whether they know it or not in promoting a bogus system like the BCS, and the vast majority of Americans from the guy in the street to the President of the United States knows it is bogus, these college presidents are doing great harm and damage to our country.They are saying that unequal and unfair treatment is OK and that it is not important that a championship be earned on the field of play for all to see, not in the back rooms where petty grievances and long-term friendships can hold sway..
(cue the most gutless man in America, Grant Teaff, who if he tries to keep the final coaches poll votes secret even after the recent delay should think long and hard about the basic principles of right and wrong.Since Teaff is one of the most arrogant people, not men mind you, but people we have run across, we are not holding our breath on that front, because Teaff believes he has never done a wrong thing in his entire life, which is this sure mark of a pompous ass, and a gutless pompous ass to boot)
..and have one team elevated over another just because of how a coach or a clueless Harris Poll voter votes, or how some dweeb in a dark room wrote the code in computer software.No, that is not the way college football should conclude its season, with bogus votes and dweebs in dark rooms making the decisions.College football should be decided on the field of play by real men making real football plays so that everyone can see who is the best football team, and then and only then should we reward the team and players accordingly with a National Championship
As is often the case, an event in the history of our own country is very enlightening on the subject for people that would actually proclaim that some Americans should be treated in preferential way compared to other Americans.In 1858, when running for the US Senate in Illinois vs. Stephen A. Douglas, Abraham Lincoln made a speech in Chicago challenging Americans that would claim that all Americans were not created equal:
Abraham Lincoln speech in Chicago:
“I should like to know if taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle and making exceptions to it, where will it stop?If one man says it does not mean a negro why not another say it does not mean a German?If that Declaration is not the truth, let us go by the statute book in which we find and tear it out.Who is so bold as to do it?If it is not true, let us tear it out.”
Yes, where will it stop?The BCS Boys with their bogus BCS claim that some football programs and thus some student-athletes are not equal to the “BCS” programs, but yet there are still Americans in the media and elsewhere that blindly and easily accept this outrageous claim and we here at Coaches Hot Seat ask of the greedy bastards that have their boot on neck of college football, the same question that Abraham Lincoln posed to the people that supported slavery.Where will it stop?If a the Catholic school Notre Dame University can be treated in a preferential way to a Mormon school like BYU, then anyone can be discriminated against for no other reason than the bastards running the BCS claim that because something has happened in the past, that it must continue into the future.No, that is not right, and that is not the American way, but still there are still incredibly liberal and incredibly politically-correct college presidents that are now standing alongside and supporting what is not only one of the most discriminatory power structures in America today in the BCS and these college presidents do not even realize what great discriminators they really are.The BCS Boys have convinced the college presidents that a playoff is evil, when in fact the BCS Boys are some of the most evil bastards in America today because they stand opposite to the principles of our country, to our Nation’s founding documents, and in fact opposite to the history of our country from the Civil War forward.The BCS Boys want to keep the sports equivalent of “Jim Crow” laws in place in college football, because this is way it has always been done, but they are still discriminators in the awful tradition of every discriminator that has come down the pike.
Yes indeed, where does it end?It ends when the BCS is thrown onto the dustbin of history along with slavery, discrimination, poll taxes, Jim Crow laws and every other power structure that has been defended in our country’s history just because that is “the way it has always been done.”
No, the battle is not over BCS Boys, for you are very evil people, because not only does the BCS run counter to the American principle that championships in sport are earned and won on the field of play, but these BCS Boys are also evil because they fundamentally believe that All Americans are not created equal.To that BCS Boys, you should be ashamed, but we know you are not, because deep down none of you give two rips about anything but money and power and it will take an intervention of the US Government to wipe away the unfair, the unequal, and in our minds, the illegal BCS, because it is stain upon sport in America and the fundamental principles that our country found on.
One group of Americans is not less of an American just because of a group of greedy bastards in the BCS Boys says so, and it is only right that Americans stand up for the underlying principle of our Republic:
The BCS violates the most important principle of the United States of America as first written by Thomas Jefferson over 233 years ago and it cannot be allowed to stand and with the good work of the American people it will go the way of slavery and that will be another great day in America when right will win over inequality, unfairness, and yes, even evil.Yes, anyone that will stand against the organizing and fundamental principle of the United States of America, that “All Men Are Created Equal” is evil, because they show their disdain for our country and for all the men and women that have fought and died for our freedom and the right for every man to stand up and claim though the hard work of his own hands and heart, what is rightfully is…..Don’t believe that?Tell Utah what more they could have done last season and then get back to us….
The BCS is the opposite of that basic principle and anyone that would question that fact is either kidding himself, afraid to question power, or badly in need of an education in US history.
*Playoff and Final 7 Bowls Would Have Almost Identical Schedule:
An 8-team postseason in college football would involve 8 teams and 7 games, the 4 quarterfinal games, the 2 semifinal games and 1 National Championship Game.For this 8-team playoff we are going to use the Gator Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Rose Bowl, the Orange Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl and the BCS National Championship Game.
Now an 8-team playoff would need 3 weeks of game for the 3 rounds, the quarterfinal, semifinal and championship rounds and looking back at the December 2008 calendar the conference championship games were played on Saturday, December 6 and thus the 8-team postseason playoff, using the above 7 bowl games would start on Saturday, December 27, 2008 with the four quarterfinal games.Just for the sake of argument we will use the Final Coaches Hot Seat Power Playoff Poll of 2008 and we will seed the 8-team tournament with the top 8 teams in the final poll (We would recommend that a committee actually pick the 8 teams that would participate in the playoff, just as the NCAA basketball tournament does to pick its teams).
Next we would move to the Semifinal Round of the 8-team playoff, and below are our predicted matchups for the next round in the Bowl Games in the Semifinal Round.
One of the most important ways to measure the success of a head college football coach is to put him up against his peers, both current and in the past. To completely understand what Mark Richt has achieved in 8 years as the head coach at the University of Georgia, we will compare Richt’s record to the two coaches that preceded him at Georgia, Jim Donnan and Ray Goff.
Ray Goff, Georgia head coach, 1989 to 1995
46-34-1 (.574)
No SEC titles
Jim Donnan, Georgia head coach, 1996 to 2000
40-19 (.678)
No SEC titles
Record of Goff and Donnan combined, 1989 to 2000
86-53-1 (.614)
No SEC titles
and now Mark Richt’s record at Georgia:
Mark Richt, Georgia head coach, 2001 to 2008
82-22 (.788)
2 SEC titles
4 trips to SEC Championship Game
There really is no comparison between what Richt has accomplished at Georgia to what the two coaches did before him, but to really get an understand of what kind of record Richt is putting up in Athens, let’s compare his record to one of the great head football coaches in SEC history, former Georgia head coach Vince Dooley.
Vince Dooley, Georgia head coach, 1964 to 1988
201-77-10 (.715)
1 National Championship
6 SEC Titles
20 bowl games
Mark Richt, Georgia head coach, 2001 to 2008
82-22 (.788)
2 SEC titles
4 trips to SEC Championship Game
Yes, Mark Richt’s record stands up very well in comparison to Vince Dooley, and Richt even has a better winning percentage and 2 SEC titles in 8 seasons and 4 total trips to the SEC Championship Game which in this day and age of the SEC is almost a Co-SEC Title if the regular season really ended with the last game as it did during Dooley’s coaching career.
Now let’s drill down a little more and compare Richt’s record at Georgia to Vince Dooley’s best run at UGA, which was from 1980 to 1988.
Vince Dooley’s Best Run as Georgia Head Coach, 1980 to 1988, 9 seasons
74-21-4 (.747)
1 National Title
3 SEC Titles
Mark Richt, Georgia head coach, 2001 to 2008
82-22 (.788)
2 SEC titles
4 trips to SEC Championship Game
Even compared to Vince Dooley’s best period at Georgia, 1980 to 1988, Mark Richt still has a better winning percentage and he has 2 SEC Titles and 4 trips to the SEC Championship Game, compared to Dooley’s 1 National Title and 3 SEC Titles.
Yes, Vince Dooley did win a National Title at Georgia, but it came in his SEVENTEENTH season at Georgia, and Richt is just entering his NINTH season in 2009.
By any comparison, whether it be against the two coaches that preceded Mark Richt at Georgia, one in Jim Donnan that is now a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and was a very good football coach at Oklahoma as an assistant under Switzer and at Marshall and Georgia as a head coach, or against the legendary Vince Dooley, Mark Richt has put up a very strong record at Georgia.
Of course, it will be up to Mark Richt to keep the train rolling forward at Georgia and we do see a few storm clouds on the horizon and 2009 should be a great test to see if Richt and his staff can put up wins when they might not have a big talent advantage over many of the teams on the schedule. With 3 very tough non-conference games in ’09 and the tough SEC to get through, Richt and the Bulldogs will probably struggle to get to 10 wins, but if they do it will not be the first time that Richt and Company has proved us wrong.
Coaches Hot Seat Bottom Line
We predict that Mark Richt and Georgia will have an ________ record in 2009. Let’s take a look at Georgia’s 2009 games:
Would there be a difference between the 7 top bowl games and an 8-team playoff utilizing those same 7 top bowl games?Answer:Next to no difference, except college football would crown a legitimate National Champion for the first time in the history of the game.Yet, that would make way too much sense for these BCS Boys!Calling Forest Gump, Calling Forest Gump, because this BCS is not only Foolish, it is STUPID!
To really understand how absurd the BCS is and the foolishness of the resistance to putting into place a very simple 8-team playoff to determine a legitimate National Champion in college football, let’s just look at the bowl schedule from last season and how an 8-team playoff would easily fit within that schedule and actually turn MEANINGLESS EXHIBTION GAMES into something that not only really means something to the teams playing in the games, but something that would lead to the crowing of a real National Champion in college football.Far from being complicated or even advanced brain surgery as claimed by the folks standing behind the BCS curtain, an 8-team playoff would be very simple to implement with the current bowl calendar without very much trouble at all.
An 8-team postseason in college football would involve 8 teams and 7 games, the 4 quarterfinal games, the 2 semifinal games and 1 National Championship Game.For this 8-team playoff we are going to use the Gator Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Rose Bowl, the Orange Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl and the BCS National Championship Game.
Now an 8-team playoff would need 3 weeks of game for the 3 rounds, the quarterfinal, semifinal and championship rounds and looking back at the December 2008 calendar the conference championship games were played on Saturday, December 6 and thus the 8-team postseason playoff, using the above 7 bowl games would start on Saturday, December 27, 2008 with the four quarterfinal games.Just for the sake of argument we will use the Final Coaches Hot Seat Power Playoff Poll of 2008 and we will seed the 8-team tournament with the top 8 teams in the final poll (We would recommend that a committee actually pick the 8 teams that would participate in the playoff, just as the NCAA basketball tournament does to pick its teams).
Next we would move to the Semifinal Round of the 8-team playoff, and below are our predicted matchups for the next round in the Bowl Games in the Semifinal Round.
January 3, 2009, Saturday
Sugar Bowl – Oklahoma vs. USC
Tostitos Fiesta Bowl – Texas vs. Florida
January 10, 2009, Saturday
BCS National Championship Game – USC vs. Florida
Now we would love for someone with the BCS Boys or anyone else in America to explain to us here at Coaches Hot Seat why the above 8-team playoff using the 7 top bowl games would somehow be hard to implement, because not only does the above system almost practically lay over the current bowl dates with no more than a 3 day difference, the above games would ACTUALLY MEAN SOMETHING!What we really cannot understand is that there would be a bowl executive anywhere that would possibly argue against a postseason playoff system that would actually pair teams against each other in very meaningful games that would lead towards a legitimate National Championship Game.Who could possibly be against the above scenario, because the bowl games are still used and the schedule is not changed more than 3 days, and that is mainly because we play the playoff games on Saturdays, which is the day of the week that college football games should be played.One of the most stupid things that the BCS does is play some of their bowl games on weeknights, because there is a reason that the Super Bowl is played on a Sunday, and that is because Americans can gather around the TV together to watch the game, something that is rarely done on weeknights when people have to both get the kids to bed and have work in mind for the next day, and that is something which should never be mixed together on a weeknight with any championship game in college football.
If you rotate the above bowl games each year with the bowls rotating through the first two quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, which would lead to every one of these bowls getting a shot to have some very significant games in their bowls compared to the MEANGINLESS EXHIBITION GAMES they now get to host.Why would any bowl executive choose to host two teams to play in a MEANINGLESS EXHIBTION GAME compared to a game that would help determine the National Champion?If there is a bowl executive that would take two teams to play in a MEANINGLESS GAME, over the type of games above between great teams ACTUALLY PLAYING FOR SOMETHING REAL then that bowl executive is very stupid person.
The rest of the college football bowl season could go on as it has in the past, with 27 additional bowl games (Can you believe that number?27 bowl games, in addition to the 7 bowl games listed above?That is madness, but if mediocre must be celebrated, then celebrate it, but don’t call us when these football players figure out one day that mediocrity doesn’t cut it in the real world), but how about the BCS Boys and college football coming together to institute an 8-team playoff over the top of the current bowl system to determine a legitimate National Champion.Why would that be hard to do, as the BCS Boys claim?Answer:It would be very simple to do and we have no doubt that not only would fans follow their teams to these additional 3 games, one would not be able to buy tickets to these games and the TV ratings, can you imagine the TV ratings if college football actually crowned a legitimate National Champion?Can you say HUGE!Why yes we can, because the TV ratings for a college football postseason playoff would be HUGE and what a great culmination to the college football season where the traditional bowl games would be used to crown the National Champion, especially when contrasted with these MEANINGLESS EXHIBTION GAMES!Please, someone get Forrest Gump on the phone, because if these BCS Boys cannot figure this out, THEY ARE VERY STUPID!
Is there really an American citizen that could possibly argue with the above 8-team playoff scenario using the current top 7 bowl games?If there is, then our educational system has failed us all!
One thing we are very confident about, is that ESPN would do a great job covering the above 8-team playoff and it would be great fun in those 3 weeks to be a college football fan, especially compared to the BOGUS AND MEANINGLESS EXHIBITION GAMES that are now played that everyone with an IQ over the pressure in your car tires knows that this entire BCS thing is a bogus as a 3 Dollar Bill!
Well, BCS Boys either institute an 8-team playoff or one will be forced upon you.Your choice, but that choice will not exist forever, and the bowls might not even be involved in the end if we have to go down that path, and that should really give the bowl executives a lot to think about….
The most disappointing thing about President Obama is something he could be doing that could directly impact the cost of health care in America – Getting America to put down the Ho-Ho’s, getting off the couch and out into the real world exercising each and every day
As President Obama has pushed his proposal to reform our health care system and health insurance we have heard a lot of Democrats talking about the idea that if we could get everyone to carry health insurance we could do a lot more preventive care and that would then drive down the cost of health care.We have some news for the people making the claim that more preventive care would lower the cost of health care costs in America, because in fact the exact opposite is actually true.If millions of more people are added to the insurance rolls, whether it be on a plan run by the federal government or via private health insurance plans, that insurance will be used as people will flood doctor’s offices for the health care they have not been able to access in the past.As more and more people visit their doctors and more preventive care is done there will be millions more tests and procedures done that are not being done today and that will drastically drive up the costs of health care and in the short to medium term “preventive care” will clearly drive up the cost of health care for the government and for private health insurance plans.Now, when one thinks on a long-term basis, probably 10-plus years out, the more people that got preventive care earlier in their life or earlier in the cycle of when they first start feeling bad, then preventive care might very well bring down the cost of health care in America, but we believe that would be way off in the future.
Therein lies the real problem with our healthcare system, is that Americans utilize the medical system far too much, and if we ever hope to get the out-of-control costs associated with our healthcare system under control then not only will Americans have to fundamentally alter how often and in what way they use the medical system, but Americans must all get off their asses and get out and exercise.This is where President Obama comes into the picture.
It is obvious to us that President Obama must work out a good bit and watch his diet as well, because he looks to be in pretty good shape for a guy heading towards 50 years of age and Obama’s good health is something that the President must put up as an example for all Americans, because an American President is someone that can impact how people go about their daily lives.Clearly if one looks around each day as one goes about his/her daily business, there are plenty of people walking around in our country that are both out of shape and way overweight.If President Obama really wants to impact the cost of health care in American, one of the best things he could do is to get the American people off their lazy asses and out in the real world doing exercise each and every day.
We like to think that we have a kick-ass flag-football team here at Coaches Hot Seat (or rather a flag-football team that kicks ass!It is really quite a sight to see the Coaches Hot Seat flag-football team arrive at the field as we bring a first-aid kit with plenty of gauze and Neosporin, often with a nurse to bandage us up, and of course a Boom-Box that has Eagles Live – CD 1 with Hotel California ready to play.When someone on the opposing flag-football team sees us setting up on the sidelines and we have this huge first-aid kit, they often ask why we need all that gauze to play flag-football, then they see us start Hotel California and start to warm-up and then they realize why we brought the first aid kit and gauze, which usually leads to us winning the “flag-football” game big!) and if you are going to have a kick-ass flag-football team then one has to have people that are in at least decent shape.Several of us here at Coaches Hot Seat have a rule for ourselves that we exercise everyday, and we mean everyday of the year, for at least 45 minutes and up to 2 hours if possible, and that if we are on foot either running, jogging or walking we hope to cover 5 miles at a minimum and if on a bicycle we like to cover at least 10 miles during each exercise event.If you just get out each day and walk 45 minutes you will be in much better shape in only a few months and with better shape will come better health and with better health will come lower health care costs.
This is where President Obama enters the picture again, because it would be very helpful to the country if we could get Americans off the couch and out in the real world to exercise everyday if possible, but at least 5 days a week for 45 minutes at a time.President Obama is already in very good shape for his age, but his PR folks need to put together a program that utilizes The President’s Challengeand/or the fitness standards at thePresident’s Council on Physical Education and Sports, which was a program that many of us here at Coaches Hot Seat were involved in when we were in school.Of course, we not only need to get our kids off their butts and doing exercise each day, but we really need to get all Americans up and about and exercising each day, even if it is only taking a 30 minute walk.
The United States of America has a whole array of challenges that face us right now, but if we are unhealthy as a people and we are not getting out each day and getting exercise we will have a very difficult time even getting to the real problems and that is why President Obama needs to get some people on his staff to put together some PR events that showcase the President working out and setting a good example for the American people by getting out and exercising every day if possible.Several of us here at Coaches Hot Seat remember that the first President Bush utilized Arnold Schwarzenegger to promote fitness and President Obama should find some celebrities and famous fitness folks that can help the President in getting the American people off their asses.
Yes, if President Obama and the folks in Washington really want to impact health care costs, then let’s get the American people up and moving about each day and getting some exercise and President Obama can lead this revolution in getting America back into shape, but only if he promotes it and sets a good example for country.
Put down that Ho-Ho America, get off the couch and get out and exercise!
President Obama, seriously this is spot, in getting the American people out exercising, where you can have a BIG impact on people living healthier lives and in helping to drive down health care costs in our country
With the Coaches Hot Seat Flag-Football team in mind, we of course have in mind the following song:
Bobby Johnson did the next to impossible in 2008 by getting Vanderbilt to a 6-6 record and then taking his team to and winning a bowl game over Boston College. Wins over South Carolina (for the second year in a row), at Ole Miss, Auburn and at Kentucky surprised everyone and Johnson must be given credit for both getting players to Vandy that can play in the SEC, but also getting them coached up to beat these very good conference teams. Going forward, Bobby Johnson will still face great challenges, but it looks to us that groundwork for making Vanderbilt a perennial .500 or better and bowl team is on place and that is very bad news for other teams in the SEC because that means there is no longer any easy spots on any teams conference schedule. Vanderbilt has a manageable schedule in 2009, but they have a brutal stretch starting with a trip to Army on October 10, followed by Georgia, at South Carolina, Georgia Tech, at Florida, Kentucky and at Tennessee to finish the year. Wow! We have Vandy going 2-5 in that stretch, but if they are able to go .500 in those games they will have a very good chance to get back to a bowl game for the second straight year.
At 59 years of age, Bobby Johnson may very well have a chance to move to a larger and more traditional BCS school in the next couple of years, because if Johnson can get Vanderbilt into the postseason we can only wonder what he could do at a school where he could recruit the top players in the country. If that opportunity is given to Johnson it will be very interesting to see what Johnson does, because he is very comfortable at Vandy and he has put a tremendous amount of work into building the Vanderbilt program and it would probably be very hard to leave all that hard work behind. We shall see….
Coaches Hot Seat Bottom Line
We predict that Bobby Johnson and Vanderbilt will have a _______ record in 2009. Let’s take a look at Vanderbilt’s 2009 games:
After three straight winning seasons it can be said that Rich Brooks has Kentucky going in the right direction if not turned around and now it will be up to Brooks and his coaching staff to keep this Wildcat train rolling. One of the things that really stands out to us when watching Kentucky in recent years is how physical they are on the offensive and defensive lines and how hard it is for most other teams to really get some momentum going against the Wildcat defense. Kentucky finished 2008 ranked #40 in total defense and #35 in scoring defense (21.46 points per game) and if the Wildcats can get that same kind of play on defense in 2009, the UK offense should be able to put up enough points to win a lot of football games this season. Kentucky has a very favorable schedule this season, but to really take a step forward they are going to need to get a big win over either Florida or Alabama early in the season to get the ball rolling. Florida may be a bridge to far with Tim Tebow in the shotgun (or under center this fall some?), but Alabama with a new QB and maybe looking ahead to Ole Miss the week after the Kentucky game, could be the spot for a big win for the Wildcats.
Can Rich Brooks and Kentucky keep it rolling in 2009? They can if they keep their intensity up throughout the season and avoid injuries. Brooks has increased the depth at Kentucky with recruiting in recent years, but the Wildcats cannot afford injuries in many spots before they will have to play some inexperienced people, and that is never very much fun in the SEC. Let’s take a look at the 2009 season….
Coaches Hot Seat Bottom Line
We predict that Rich Brooks and Kentucky will have an ______ record in 2009. Let’s take a look at Kentucky’s 2009 games:
SEC Media Days and Commissioner Mike Slive – New SEC/ESPN TV Deal and will ESPN change due to its new clients/customers?
It was very interesting listening to SEC commissioner Mike Slive on Day 1 of SEC Media Days on the new TV deal with ESPN and his comments on recruiting violations in the conference.
Clearly, the TV deal with ESPN is a big game-changer for the SEC, because the additional $10 million or so that each SEC team will get each year will open up all kinds of opportunities for schools to expand athletic programs and especially facilities by taking that guaranteed revenue flow and leveraging it to sell bonds against that revenue stream.$10 million dollars of guaranteed additional money is huge for any athletic program and SEC teams will have a huge advantage going forward and that will only separate SEC schools from EVERYONE else in the game.
As for ESPN, they have some very smart folks running the “Worldwide Leader” and we have no doubt that even with an eye-popping number like $3 billion over 15 years for the right to televise most SEC football games and other conference athletic events, that ESPN will make money on the deal.ESPN in recent years has transformed itself from a cash cow with inconsistent management to a cash cow that is now focused on delivering a quality product across all of its properties and we here at Coaches Hot Seat are amazed at how consistent ESPN has been in recent years in everything they do.All of us here at Coaches Hot Seat grew up with ESPN and remember the early days very well from Chris Berman in the end zone when Dwight Clark made that big catch against the hated Cowboys in the 1982 NFC Championship Game and we must have watched thousands of SportsCenters through college, while in the military, during single and married life and even still into our 40s we all still watch a lot of ESPN programming today.
The partnership between the SEC and ESPN is a big plus for both entities and both will benefit greatly by the partnership as they both grow with each other’s help into the future.The only downside we can see from this new TV deal would be if ESPN finds itself in any situations where they might have a conflict of interest in how it covers the SEC, because a negative story might actually affect the conference they are covering and thus ESPN might not cover that story completely.We have already seen a slight movement in the positions held by the on-air talent at ESPN on a playoff for the college football postseason in recent programming and we are going to be very interested to see if anyone at ESPN has been muzzled in criticizing the BCS, with ESPN now having signed contracts with all the major bowls for when the BCS deals with the Fox network ends. We picked up on some movement away by on-air talent in criticizing the BCS in the last year as ESPN was bidding for future BCS contracts and since we have noted over the last few years the public positions of ESPN’s on-air talent on the BCS and/or a postseason college football playoff we will be watching for any major changes in their opinions very closely.If there is a drastic shift in the position of ESPN’s on-air talent relative to their position towards a playoff for the college football postseason, then we will certainly notice it, and since simple mathematics and the current structure of college football (there are now simply just too many top-level teams in BCS and non-BCS conferences each year to leave only 2 teams standing that will be the clear No. 1 and No. 2 teams each season) guarantees that there will never again be a “clean” and/or legitimate BCS title game.As the controversy grows each season as it becomes clear that there will always 4 up to 16 teams that have a legitimate claim on being the best team each year, if ESPN’s on-air talent that has in the past mocked the BCS are suddenly quiet on the subject of what is clearly the most fraudulent postseason in any sport on the planet, then we will know that ESPN has muzzled its talent.We really doubt that anyone at ESPN would be stupid enough to muzzle their very strong personalities that they have covering their college football programming, but ESPN has become a very disciplined organization in recent years and when ESPN takes over the BCS it will be very tough to both promote and criticize a postseason system that one is televising, and more importantly selling advertising against, and that conflict may very well lead to a restriction of free speech at the “Worldwide Leader in Sports.”
Of course, the BCS Boys may have made a huge mistake by allowing what could very well be a inadvertent “Trojan Horse” under the tent that is the bogus BCS with ESPN and as more pressure builds from college football fans and from other very powerful entities to move to a system that actually represents the principles of the country and a postseason system that is similar to every other sport in collegiate athletics, ESPN will be sitting in the catbird seat and with their ability will be able to very quickly to come up with a plan to implement a college football playoff postseason tournament if tasked to by the U.S. government.The BCS Boys can wipe their brows and pat each other on the back each time they believe they have gotten by a Congressional hearing or by refusing requests for documents from government entities, but the real danger to the BCS lies ahead and the BCS Boys have not yet really been called on the carpet before the law of the land not only on the antitrust issue, but Civil Rights laws and statutes that deal with all Americans involved with public institutions (which is every college and university, private and public in Division I-A) that receive federal funds from the government to be treated in an equal, fair and most importantly, legal way.
College football fans are not going to tolerate a continuation forever of teams getting jobbed out of an opportunity to play for a National Championship when they have earned that right by their play in the regular season and the BCS Boys are only going to be able to hold the tide back for so long, before a demand is made by the people that are paying the freight for the entire game of college football, the fans, that an equitable system be put into place that will actually crown a legitimate National Champion.It is beyond absurd that things like Utah going undefeated and being regulated to a meaningless exhibition game that does not give them the chance to play for a title could possibly still be going on in 2009, but when power and money is at stake and the very core of the BCS you have a group of people that don’t care at all about crowning a legitimate National Champion, then you have a recipe for a disgusting system that runs counter to the principles of our country, the opinion of the vast majority of college football fans and worst of all a system that is an embarrassment and black eye upon the game of college football.Inclusion and participation in the BCS, which is really nothing more than a bogus BCS national title game and 4 meaningless exhibition games is not now nor never will be acceptable to anyone that actually believes that championships should be won on the field of play, because there is not ever a chance in Hell that the college football season will ever again going forward separate out two teams that are clearly the best two teams in the country.Because there will always be going forward between 4 and up to 16 teams that have a legitimate claim to be the best team in the country at the end of the regular season, it is not only a necessity that a postseason playoff tournament will be implemented in college football, but a certainty.
Mike Slive on SEC coaching breaking recruiting rules – Early Signing Day(s)
Of course, commissioner Slive is right to hold the coaches’ feet to the fire over recruiting violations, even secondary violations, because there is just no excuse for coaches to break rules doing things that they know that are wrong.Some of these NCAA recruiting rules are beyond stupid, but the coaches know where the line is and with all that is at stake if a coach, booster, or someone else makes a foolish mistake in attempting to recruit a player to a school, there really is just no reason for these coaches or anyone around these college football programs to break the rules.
Speaking of recruiting, we look at a lot of stories each day here at Coaches Hot Seat and there are literally hundreds of recruits committing to schools each week and we cannot understand why the NCAA does not go ahead and institute at least one and possibly more early signing days so that all of these young men that committing to schools could go ahead and make that commitment binding.Maybe college coaches would not want to sign a recruit before he has played his senior season of football, but if that is not an issue why not go ahead and let a recruit that is ready to commit to a school sign a letter of intent around the first of August before fall practice begins for the colleges.There could be another early signing day in early December after the regular season of college football has been completed and then we could still have the Signing Day in early February for anyone that has not signed during the early periods.It really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for players to be committing to schools and not going ahead and allowing them to go ahead and sign letter of intent, conditioned upon them continuing with their academic studies at a level consistent with what they have done in the past.In fact, an early signing period might even be motivational for players to bear down on their studies, because they would know that they might lose their scholarship offer if they did not make their grades.
“Thompson, speaking at the Mountain West media days outside Las Vegas, said expansion is discussed in nearly every meeting of league directors, but they haven’t gotten into specifics.
“We spent a lot of time talking in general about expansion specifically, not about particular institutions,” Thompson said. “I think the conversation typically at a directors level has centered on maybe a 10th will help us. But the real issue is practical scheduling.”
The Mountain West is concerned that a 10th team might force some schools to abandon rivalries with neighboring BCS schools and service academies, assuming the league adopts a nine-game league schedule.
“You really take away any scheduling for BCS purposes, if you will,” Thompson said. “Now, if conversely a team were to come in and really strengthen the BCS cause, that would be reason for focus. It’s something that we’ve looked at.”
Boise State is the only team available that would significantly pad the Mountain West’s BCS resume. The Broncos have gone undefeated in three of the past five regular seasons, and defeated Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl.”
As we here at Coaches Hot Seat have said several times over the past couple of years, what really makes sense for the MWC is to get the WAC conference on the phone and to figure out a way to put together those two conferences to create a new western United States super-conference.We are sure that the MWC would love to add Boise State to their conference to get to 10 teams, but to really get some economies of scale and to become a conference that can compete with the BCS conferences, we would recommend that the MWC and WAC merge, letting La. Tech leave to join a conference closer to their home in the southern U.S. and adding Colorado from the Big 12 to this new conference.La. Tech has no business playing in the WAC and Colorado would fit a lot better with the new MWC/WAC super-conference than the Big 12, especially if this new super-conference could work something out with the BCS Boys.Also a new MWC/WAC super-conference would give them a lot more leverage to negotiate TV contracts with cable and TV networks or even to put together a dedicated network just to cover conference athletic events.
Here is what the new MWC/WAC super-conference would look like (Drop La. Tech so they could join a conference in the southern U.S. and add Colorado)
MWC/WAC Super-Conference
18 Teams/9 Teams each Division
North
Utah
Brigham Young
Boise State
Nevada
Utah State
Idaho
Wyoming
UNLV
Hawaii
South
Colorado
Colorado State
Air Force
TCU
Fresno State
San Jose State
New Mexico State
New Mexico
San Diego State
Now that would be a great college sports conference and whatever has happened in the past between these 2 conferences, with the challenges that are going to be faced by all athletic departments and conferences in the coming years it only makes sense to get together which would make all the schools and the new super-conference that much stronger financially and on the athletic fields of play.Do we think that the MWC and WAC will get together to form a new western U.S. super-conference?Not really, but it would make a lot of sense and if they could work out some kind of co-commissioner arrangement between Thompson and Benson, then they should take a hard look at this idea.
As we enter Day 2 at SEC Media Days, Coaches Hot Seat recognizes the locale of the meeting with some good ole country music that would be very appropriate for the Alabama fans that will be crowding the lobby at the Wynfrey Hotel in Birmingham.Are Alabama fans crazy?Yes, but you have to love their passion!
Dixieland Delight, Alabama
The Closer You Get, Alabama
Feels So Right, Alabama
Roll On, Alabama
My Home’s in Alabama, Alabama
And for Alabama Football Fans, The Million Dollar Band
Sun Belt Conference– The Sun Belt Conference is in the middle of their “Videoconferencing” Media Days and the conference coaches voted the following way on what they believe will be the finishing order in 2009:
2009 Preseason Sun Belt Poll
As voted on by the league’s nine head coaches.First place votes in parentheses.
School
Points
Troy
72 (5)
Arkansas State
69
Florida Atlantic
61 (1)
Middle Tennessee
52
FIU
43 (1)
Louisiana-Lafayette
39 (1)
ULM
34 (1)
North Texas
18
WKU
17
We can’t really disagree with the Sun Belt coaches, but several teams could challenge for the conference title in 2009 and it should also be very interesting to see how the Sun Belt teams do in their out-of-conference teams this season.
As for the Sun Belt Conference overall, although we disagree vehemently with Commissioner Wright Waters on the BCS and what the college football postseason should look like (We believe college football should have an 8 or 16 team playoff with also 20 or so bowl games would make a lot more sense than the bogus BCS and that would both crown a legitimate national champion and give access to the postseason for an adequate number of football teams.Somewhere between 48 and 56 of 120 I-A teams would qualify for postseason play, which is plenty, unless you enjoy rewarding mediocrity.), Waters had done a very good job in moving the Sun Belt forward since taking over in 1998.Several years back Waters was reportedly up for the AD job at his alma mater Alabama and maybe he might be in the running for that job again when Mal Moore steps down, if Waters was still interested in the job.Going forward the Sun Belt is becoming a little more competitive in its out-of-conference football games and if the conference hopes to move forward it must continue that small but incremental progress.Looking down the road we have to think that either the Sun Belt will add a few more teams or be combined with another conference to create a super-conference that will give the teams in the conference an opportunity to really compete against the BCS schools.
If we were given a magic wand to change the Sun Belt, we would probably call up the commissioner of Conference USA and propose a combination with the Sun Belt along with taking La. Tech from the WAC.That would leave the combined Conference USA and Sun Belt with 22 teams and we would divide those teams into something along the following lines:
New Super-Conference combining Conference USA and Sun Belt + La. Tech
East
East Carolina
Southern Miss
Memphis
Marshall
UCF
UAB
Troy
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
Middle Tennessee State
Western Kentucky
West
Tulsa
Rice
Houston
UTEP
Tulane
SMU
La. Tech
La. Lafayette
La. Monroe
North Texas
Arkansas State
We would then play a championship football game between the winners of each division just like Conference USA does today.The above combination would probably not add a whole lot to Conference USA, but it would help out the Sun Belt Conference and schools a lot and it would get La. Tech into a conference where they are playing teams a lot closer to home, which will be especially important in the coming challenging times.The above Super-Conference would be a terrific basketball conference though and the non-revenue sports would be very entertaining to watch as well.
OK, let’s take a look at the Coaches Hot Seat’s Sun Belt Conference Coach and Team Predictions for 2009 (Final Predicted Standings Below):
Troy
Head Coach:Larry Blakeney – If not for being at Auburn under Pat Dye during the Eric Ramsey debacle, Larry Blakeney would probably be a head coach at a BCS conference school today.We see Blakeney and Troy have another big year in 20009.
2009 Coaches Hot Seat Prediction
@ Bowling Green – W
@ Florida – L
UAB – W
@ Arkansas State – W
Middle Tennessee State – W
@ FIU – W
North Texas – W
La. Monroe – W
@ Western Kentucky – W
@ Arkansas – L
Florida Atlantic – W
@ La. Lafayette – W
2009 Predicted Record:10-2
Larry Blakeney back for 2010? – YES
Louisiana-Lafayette
Head Coach:Ricky Bustle – La. Lafayette perked up a little in 2008 under Ricky Bustle, but a very tough out-of-conference schedule may put the Cajuns behind the 8-ball, but they will still have a shot to have another winning record in Sun Belt play.
2009 Coaches Hot Seat Prediction
Southern University – W
Kansas State – W
@ LSU – L
@ Nebraska – L
North Texas – W
@ Western Kentucky – W
Florida Atlantic – L
@ FIU – W
@ Arkansas State – L
@ Middle Tennessee State – L
La. Monroe – W
Troy – L
2009 Predicted Record:6-6
Ricky Bustle back for 2010? – YES
Florida Atlantic
Head Coach:Howard Schnellenberger – In 24 seasons as a head coach at 4 different schools (Miami (FL), Louisville, Oklahoma, and Florida Atlantic) , Coach Schnellenberger has put up a record of 148 – 125 – 3(.542), which is remarkable record considering the state of the programs he has coached at when he took those teams over.Besides his impressive record, Coach Schnellenberger has some incredible stories from his time both playing and coaching under Paul “Bear” Bryant, including his recruitment of Joe Namath to Alabama.One of the most approachable coaches in the game, whenever we have had the opportunity to run into Coach Schnellenberger, he has always been kind enough to talk to those of us here at Coaches Hot Seat.In his current gig at Florida Atlantic, Coach Schnellenberger has built a very solid program from nothing, and if you ever find yourself in the Boca Raton, Florida area stop by FAU and see the size of the school that has Coach Schnellenberger has turned into a real power in the Sun Belt conference.
2009 Coaches Hot Seat Prediction
@ Nebraska – L
@ South Carolina – L
La. Monroe – W
Wyoming – L
@ North Texas – W
@ La. Lafayette – W
Middle Tennessee State – W
@ UAB – L
Arkansas State – W
@ Troy – L
Western Kentucky – W
@ FIU – W
2009 Predicted Record:7-5
Howard Schnellenberger back for 2010? – YES
Arkansas State
Head Coach:Steve Roberts – Arkansas State has made some very small, but noticeable improvements in recent years under Steve Roberts and 2009 could be the year that ASU takes another step up.3 tough out-of-conference games against Nebraska, Iowa, and Louisville means the margin of error is small if the Red Wolves hope to go to a bowl game.
2009 Coaches Hot Seat Prediction
Miss. Valley State – W
@ Nebraska – L
Troy – L
@ Iowa – L
@ La. Monroe – W
FIU – W
@ Louisville – L
La. Lafayette – W
@ Florida Atlantic – L
@ Middle Tennessee State – L
North Texas – W
@ Western Kentucky – W
2009 Predicted Record:6-6
Steve Roberts back for 2010? – YES
Florida International
Head Coach:Mario Cristobal – Entering his third year at FIU, Mario Cristobal is building a program from almost ground zero and we expect FIU to surprise a few teams in 2009 as they continue to make incremental progress towards becoming competitive in the Sun Belt, but it is too soon yet though for FIU to be a player in the conference.
2009 Coaches Hot Seat Prediction
@ Alabama – L
@ Rutgers – L
Toledo – L
@ La. Monroe – L
@ Western Kentucky – W
Troy – L
@ Arkansas State – L
La. Lafayette – W
@ Middle Tennessee State – L
North Texas – W
@ Florida – L
Florida Atlantic – L
2009 Predicted Record:3-9
Mario Cristobal back for 2010? – YES
Middle Tennessee State
Head Coach:Rick Stockstill – Entering his fourth year at Middle Tennessee, Rick Stockstill has been close to getting the Blue Raiders to the .500 mark, but just like in past years some tough out-of-conference scheduling will be another heavy lift in ’09.With Clemson, Memphis, Maryland and Mississippi State out of the Sun Belt, to get to .500, MTSU will have to play very well in conference to have a shot at a post-season bowl.
2009 Coaches Hot Seat Prediction
@ Clemson – L
Memphis – W
@ Maryland – L
@ North Texas – W
@ Troy – L
Mississippi State – L
Western Kentucky – W
@ Florida Atlantic – L
FIU – W
La. Lafayette – W
Arkansas State – W
@ La. Monroe – L
2009 Predicted Record:6-6
Rick Stockstill back for 2010? – YES
Louisiana Monroe
Head Coach:Charlie Weatherbie – Winning football games at La. Monroe is not an easy thing to do and with only one .500 record or better in six seasons at ULM Charlie Weatherbie needs to have a solid season in 2009.With 3 very tough non-conference games against Texas, Arizona State, and Kentucky, every Sun Belt game will be vital if Weatherbie wants to get the Warhawks back to .500.We shall see…
2009 Coaches Hot Seat Prediction
@ Texas – L
Texas Southern – W
@ Arizona State – L
@ Florida Atlantic – L
FIU – W
Arkansas State – L
Western Kentucky – W
@ Kentucky – L
@Troy – L
@ North Texas – L
@ La. Lafayette – L
Middle Tennessee State – W
2009 Predicted Record:4-8
Charlie Weatherbie back for 2010? – YES
North Texas
Head Coach:Todd Dodge – Todd Dodge was a terrific high school coach, putting up a record of 124 – 46 in 13 seasons at 4 different high schools, including a great run at Southlake Carroll that included 5 state titles in 7 years.Winning in high school and winning at the I-A level are very different things and Dodge has struggled mightily in 3 seasons at North Texas with a 3 – 21 tally that is putting more pressure on Dodge everyday.Can Dodge get it going in 2009?We don’t see it, because the Sun Belt has some very good football teams in it right now and even 3 wins this fall might be a stretch.The real question is will Dodge get another year if he only wins 3 games in 2009?We believe so, but not if North Texas is not more competitive in more of its games in the upcoming season.
2009 Coaches Hot Seat Prediction
@ Ball State –L
Ohio – W
@ Alabama – L
Middle Tennessee State – L
@ La. Lafayette – L
Florida Atlantic – L
@ Troy – L
Western Kentucky – W
La. Monroe – W
@ FIU – L
Army – L
@ Arkansas State – L
2009 Predicted Record:3-9
Todd Dodge back for 2010? – YES
Western Kentucky
Head Coach:David Elson – David Elson has done a nice job at Western Kentucky, but moving up from I-AA to I-A in college football is not an easy task, and now WKU faces a Sun Belt conference that is becoming a tough neighborhood to hang around.With 3 tough non-conference games, Tennessee, South Florida, Navy, any wins in the conference will be welcomed, but we don’t see a lot of W’s on the ’09 schedule for the Hilltoppers.
2009 Coaches Hot Seat Prediction
@ Tennessee –L
South Florida – L
Central Arkansas – W
@ Navy – L
FIU – L
La. Lafayette – L
@ Middle Tennessee State – L
@ North Texas – L
Troy – L
@ La. Monroe – L
@ Florida Atlantic – L
Arkansas State – L
2009 Predicted Record:1-11
David Elson back for 2010? – YES
Coaches Hot Seat’s 2009 Sun Belt Conference Final Standing Prediction
School
W/L
Troy
10-2
Florida Atlantic
7-5
Middle Tennessee
6-6
La. Lafayette
6-6
Arkansas State
6-6
La. Monroe
4-8
FIU
3-9
North Texas
3-9
Western Kentucky
1-11
Last weekend a couple of us here at Coaches Hot Seat were riding our bicycles into San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge, when we came around a corner and saw a huge boat anchored just off the shore in Sausalito.Below are some pics we took of the yacht that day and from another angle earlier this week:
$50 Million Yacht off Sausalito # 1
$50 Million Yacht off Sausalito # 2
$50 Million Yacht off Sausalito # 3(Look at this yacht compared to SF Bay ferries nearby which can carry 200+ people)
$50 Million Yacht off Sausalito # 4(Yes, that is a helicopter on the back of that yacht!)
After checking the local newspapers we found out the following about the above yacht.
“She’s right on both counts. The massive 225-foot yacht, complete with helipad, is the Attessa III, the 14th largest yacht in America and 71st largest in the world, according to Power and Motoryacht magazine. The helicopter seats seven.
The yacht, which has been docked in Richardson Bay off Bridgeway and Main Street since Thursday, features an art deco design and is equipped with a movie theater, gym, massage room and two outdoor Jacuzzis.
It belongs to Dennis Washington, a Montana industrialist worth about $4.2 billion, good enough for 88th on the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans in 2008. Washington is founder of The Washington Companies, a group of companies in mining, transportation, environmental remediation, aviation and real estate development. Washington also owns a large estate on Stuart Island, British Columbia, that includes a luxury fishing lodge and golf course. The Washington-Grizzly Stadium for football at the University of Montana is named for him.
It’s unclear why Washington docked his yacht in Sausalito. An attendant at Washington Companies would only say that his top lieutenant, Lawrence Simkins, was unavailable to comment and that no one else could say why Washington’s boat was in the Bay Area. There are no regulations against recreational vessels docking in Richardson Bay as long as they are outside the shipping channel, according to Bill Price, harbor administrator for the Richardson’s Bay Regional Agency.
The Attessa was built by Feadship/Royal Van Lent Shipyard in the Netherlands in 1998. It was originally called the Aviva. Washington spent about $50 million to buy and restore the vessel after a 2001 fire, according to Forbes. The restoration added an extra deck formed from a single piece of plastic, the largest plastic composite ever constructed for a yacht. The Attessa isn’t Washington’s only toy, as he recently restored the Daedalus, Boeing’s former corporate yacht, as well as the 301-foot Evergreen, set to be finished in summer 2010.
Marin is no stranger to colossal boats. In September 2008 the Maltese Falcon, the 289-foot yacht of Belvedere financier Tom Perkins, sailed through the Golden Gate and docked off the coast of Belvedere after its arrival. The boat was in town as part of the Leukemia Cup Regatta, a two-day fundraising event by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
But the presence of a helicopter, which showed up after the boat pulled into Richardson Bay, seemed to cause the biggest stir among passers-by.
“I want to know how the helicopter lands – there is no room for error,” Greenberg said, noting the seemingly tiny helipad on the yacht. “It seems like the blade is maybe 6 inches from the deck.”
“He probably flies the helicopter back and forth from the yacht,” Steve Taylor said. “There are the haves and the have nots,” Steve Taylor said. “He must be one of the haves.””
We thought that this big yacht would be connected to college football in some way, with the owner Dennis Washington being a big booster of University of Montana athletics, which has a great I-AA football program.If you ever want to see some beautiful country start in the city where the University of Montana is located, Missoula, Montana, checking out a nice little town and school and then drive north to the Flathead Valley checking out Bigfork, Kalispell, Whitefish, Big Mountain ski resort and visit the stunning Glacier National Park (Below are videos on the Flathead Valley and Glacier National Park).Just some beautiful country and some great places to play golf, go fishing, hiking, whitewater rafter, etc., and the best time to go is in the summer months from June to August or visit Big Mountain ski resort in the winter to go skiing.
Needless to say, if you have the money to buy a $50 million dollar yacht then you have got some big bucks and to that we can only say, “Isn’t this a great country!”
At least there are some folks out there living the REALLY GOOD LIFE!
