We here at Coaches Hot Seat have attended about 25 USC games at the LA Coliseum in the last decade and Saturday’s night Stanford – USC game was easily one of the most exciting of those games and it came with the added bonus of once again the Stanford Cardinal football team silencing 90,000 plus USC fans which may be one of the most beautiful sights and sounds on Planet Earth beyond seeing or hearing our wives and children!
Deep into Saturday night and Sunday morning Coaches Hot Seat celebrated that BIG Stanford win over USC with lots of spirits, good food, laughs and impersonations of Lane Kiffin at the end of the game which we all got to see when watching a replay of the game that night. Oh, that look on Kiffin’s face when USC fumbled the ball in the third overtime that…
“Those SOB’s beat us again.”
….is what we would call PRICELESS and we are already planning to get that picture of Kiffin blown up to put on the wall at Coaches Hot Seat Central!
Early on Sunday morning while discussing the Stanford win over USC one CHS member recalled a lunch a few of us had almost a decade ago with one of the top professional golfers in the world and during that lunch one of us asked that well-known golfer what was the difference between the No. 1 player in the world and the No. 200 ranked player in the world.
That well-known golfer put his thumb and forefinger as close together as humanly possible without them touching and said….
“That much if not less.”
Anyone that has played golf on a competitive level knows that 1 stroke a round difference between two players is a lot when added up over 4 rounds of a golf tournament and the Stanford – USC game was just another great example of the very small differences between college football teams and how very small things done by small players on a football field can in the end make the difference between a team winning and losing a game.
We would have been proud of Stanford football whether they had won or lost on Saturday night against USC because they played hard, they played with guts, they left everything they had on the field and they showed pride in the way they played and what more can fans, a coach or anyone else expect from a football team and the individual players beyond them giving it all which Stanford is now doing on a regular basis which is sadly not the norm very much in the game of college football anymore.
There was a time when EVERY game really did count because there was a time in college football when winning a conference title actually meant something, but in the Age of the Candy Asses which is perfectly represented by the Bogus and Un-American BCS you don’t hear many people talking about winning conference title because they are too busy do what Candy Asses tend to do…
“They debate.”
…while REAL Americans demand…
“That teams settle championships on the Field of Play.”
Yes, there is ONE sure-fire way to know if you are seeing or listening to a Candy Ass and it is them saying something like…
“The BCS is only designed to place the No. 1 team against the No. 2 team.”
No, the Bogus BCS was designed to make a very few Pieces of Crapola that don’t give two rips about college football, college football teams and student-athletes very wealthy and since America is filled up with so many Candy Asses today that wouldn’t last five seconds in Afghanistan or Iraq there are of course lots of people that like to “debate” instead of “play,” and no doubt there is some Chinese government official hack watching that ESPN BCS Countdown Show each Sunday night while laughing to himself and thinking…
“First we had these Candy Ass Americans celebrating when getting to 6 wins so they could go to a bowl game and now they are debating Absolute Nonsense! Hell, who knew it would be so easy to take down the American Republic!”
Meanwhile back in America somehow the head coaches that don’t watch any games, the clueless Harris Poll voters that watch less football than Aunt Bee and the computer geeks that are on their 3 rd six-pack of Mountain Dew in one sitting are able to pump out a Bogus BCS ranking by Sunday night which is followed by a bunch of Candy Asses debating complete Nonsense.
Yes, that is America in 2011 alright!
The Land of the Candy Asses where screaming out “bowl eligible” means you have accomplished something when the truth is you are nothing more than average….but then in America in 2011 average is celebrated, championed and praised and then the so-called leaders of the county wonder where thing went wrong.
Yes, these are Very Stupid People.
Things go wrong when any American citizens buys into something as Bogus and Un-American as the BCS….but then let’s be honest here….if the people behind or that are debating the Bogus BCS were around in December 1941 and they were the one’s that would have had to take on Germany and Japan does anyone really think America would even be here today?
No, America would not be here today and that reality should scare the Hell out of you if you give a Damn about your children’s and grandchildren’s futures….not that most Americans have any understanding of how the world is going to change in the coming decades with the Candy Asses leading America into an absolute disaster and of course in the background idiots yelling out stupid things like…”We’re bowl eligible, we’re bowl eligible!”
Congratulations to the Stanford football team for a great performance against USC and for a great season….to this point that is because one game no more makes a football season than 1 six-pack of Mountain Dews and a box of Ho-Ho’s are enough to keep these computer geeks going to get their computers rankings pumped out by Sunday noon each week!
Struggling Oregon State is up next for Stanford in Corvallis and in our experience the tendency after a big win when taking on a weaker foe in the next game is to let-up (see Texas Tech’s collapse against Iowa State after beating Oklahoma just this past Saturday) and let things coast thinking that talent will win the day. We have always found that the best approach after a big win is not to get too overly excited or hyped up for the next game or to take too low key of an approach, but rather to take on the challenges of the week in a determined go to work and get the job done way which is the exact way Stanford has been playing football for 2.5 years now and we expect the same this coming Saturday in Corvallis.
1. Houston Nutt, Ole Miss – After the 41 – 23 loss to Auburn the Ole Miss season and Houston Nutt’s coaching career has come down to 4 games against…
At Kentucky La. Tech LSU At Mississippi State
….and with Rebels record now sitting at 2 – 6 (0 – 5 in the SEC) it would seem that only 4 wins in those 4 remaining games can save Nutt’s job in Oxford. Yes, if Houston Nutt can beat Kentucky, La. Tech, LSU and Mississippi State and get to 6 wins which in the Land of the Candy Asses that used to be called “America” will make Ole Miss “bowl eligible” (which is the Call of the Candy Asses) then Nutt could make a good case that he should be given 1 more season to get things straightened out at Mississippi especially since Houston Nutt’s contract calls for a $6 Million Dollar buyout if he is fired this December.
Can Mississippi win its last 4 games in 2011? If they do we will send a case of Little Debbie Swiss Roll Cakes to Houston Nutt’s agent in Memphis and no doubt those Little Debbie Swiss Roll Cakes would quickly disappear from the face of the Earth shortly thereafter!
2. Paul Wulff, Washington State – We nor anyone else with an IQ above the temperature of the Pacific Ocean off of Oregon in the winter had any expectation that Washington State was going to beat the Ducks in Autzen on Saturday, but the Cougs played decent and gave Oregon a battle with a final score of 43 – 28….BUT….another loss is another loss and for Paul Wulff in 4 seasons at WSU those losses add up to:
Overall: 8 – 37 Pac-10/12: 3 – 29
No, the above Overall and Pac-10/12 records are not good enough for any Bogus BCS conference school and unless Wulff and his staff can turn things around in WSU’s last 4 games…
At California Arizona State Utah At Washington
…the Washington State job will more than likely be coming open come December. This Saturday’s game at AT&T Park in San Francisco vs. Cal is big for both Paul Wulff and Cal’s Jeff Tedford because neither coach can afford to lose this game….BUT….Jeff Tedford really cannot afford to lose this game because if Cal loses to Washington State at home then the last of Tedford’s support among the Cal fanbase will melt away like the San Francisco fog disappears on a hot day on the Bay area.
3. Neil Callaway, UAB – On this past Saturday morning in our hotel in Santa Monica as we watched college football and waited to leave for the Stanford – USC game we were talking to a friend of ours from Alabama on the phone and when we asked about the UAB job his comment was:
“UAB will never be Alabama, but there is no reason for UAB to be a losing football program when it sits within 100 miles of some of the best high school talent in the country.”
We couldn’t agree more and with Neil Callaway’s record now at…
Overall: 16 – 40 C-USA: 12 – 25
….and with the following games remaining…
Houston At Memphis Southern Miss At FAU
….and UAB’s record now at 1 – 7 the Blazers have the talent to win 2 of their last 4 games but even if UAB won 2 of their last 4 and finished at 3 – 9 is 5 straight losing seasons acceptable at a school that plays in C-USA and “sits within 100 miles of some of the best high school talent in the country.”
No, it’s not and when UAB goes looking for a new head football coach come December they should realize that the UAB job is 1 of 120 jobs in I-A (FBS) football which makes it a very valuable commodity and there is a coach out there that would not only be able to turn UAB football around and make it a winner but also a coach that could get that on-campus football stadium built by winning first, generating excitement second and making UAB football really competitive for the first time in its history.
The Bottom-Line is that if a commuter school in the middle of Idaho can be ranked in the Top 10 in college football on a regular basis and beats most of the Top Bogus BCS conference schools that it plays, that would be Boise State, then for Damn sure UAB sitting in Birmingham, Alabama can become at the very least a winning football program and it is a disgrace that the administration at UAB has allowed their football program to fall into such a pitiful state.
4. Jeff Tedford, California – Talk about a huge contrast a few hours after the great Stanford – USC game at the LA Coliseum a couple of our Cal-Berkeley alum friends joined us for dinner out in Santa Monica near the beach and it was a sad sight indeed to see the look on our Cal friends’ faces after witnessing a woeful UCLA team beat the Cal Bears in the Rose Bowl earlier in the evening.
Talk about two football programs going in two different directions that is the ultimate case right now for the Stanford and Cal football programs and one our Cal-Berkeley friends said it all after slumping into a chair at our celebratory dinner table on Saturday night:
“If Cal can’t beat a UCLA team that just got blown out by Arizona when Arizona had just fired its coach then what the Hell is going with Tedford and the Bears?”
CHS answer: “The problem with Cal is the problem with America. Low expectations lead to low performance and pretty soon you have people claiming that becoming eligible for a bowl game is an accomplishment and when that kind of thinking sets in at a school like Cal then the program is finished.”
Cal friend: “I hate to say it but you guys are right….Cal athletics is now all about mediocrity.”
Luckily our Cal friends are great sports and after a drink or two they were in full celebratory mode as we played back the last quarter and overtime of the Stanford – USC game for them and by the night turned into morning there was way too much Damn fun being had by all and that pitiful loss by Cal against UCLA was a forgotten memory.
Getting back to the Cold Hard Facts Jeff Tedford and Cal are now 4 – 4 Overall and 1 – 4 in the Pac-12 in 2011 and over the past the two seasons the Cal Bears are..
Overall: 9 – 11 Pac-10/12: 4 – 10
…and if that kind of record is acceptable in Berkeley then Cal football is back to where it was for most of Cal football’s history….almost non-existent.
Jeff Tedford and the Bears have left in 2011…
Washington State Oregon State At Stanford At Arizona State
…and Jeff Tedford really cannot afford to lose to either Washington State or Oregon State because a loss in either game would mean that the Cal Bears would not even be able to claim the Call of the Candy Asses otherwise known as being “bowl eligible” and if a football program like California cannot even get to a bowl game when they have 1 win over a I-AA team (Presbyterian) then what the Hell is the point of paying someone over $2.5 Million Dollars a year to coach Cal when any random geek from Silicon Valley could have coached Cal to 6 wins in 2011?
There is no point is the answer to that question.
5. Rick Neuheisel, UCLA – Rick Neuheisel and the Bruins got a nice win over Cal on Saturday night but that nice win was over….Cal…..which is like saying you beat wet paper sack and we are now down to brass tacks time in Westwood especially after T. J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times wrote this column for the Sunday morning edition AFTER UCLA had beaten Cal:
“Our Bruins beat reporter, Chris Foster, heard rumblings a few weeks back that someone had made preliminary overtures to Boise State football Coach Chris Petersen.
“Oh, is that right?” said UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero moments before Saturday’s kickoff in the Rose Bowl. “No rumblings; nothing from me; we would never do that.”
The fact that Foster hears voices is no surprise to those who know him. But what a coincidence to learn a few days later that Boise State was going to beef up Petersen’s existing five-year contract.
Guerrero conceded people are going to hear “rumblings” in the next few weeks. And he said he wouldn’t be surprised if some alum stepped out on their own to gauge the interest from a coach elsewhere.
But he said no decision has been made regarding Rick Neuheisel’s status, and there won’t be until season’s end.
In the meantime, this whole football experience at UCLA has a Paul Hackett feel to it — a half-empty stadium, mediocre football and the inevitability that someone else will be coaching the team next season.”
T. J. Simers is not going to write the above column unless Rick Neuheisel is on the Hottest of Hot Seats and that means that either Neuheisel keeps winning games….here is what UCLA has left this season….
Arizona State At Utah Colorado At USC
….or UCLA will be looking for a new head football coach come December.
When looking at UCLA’s play in 2011 they have lost 4 games to…
Houston Texas Stanford Arizona
…with 3 of those losses coming to Top 25 teams and that reality really makes that 48 – 12 loss to Arizona when Arizona had interim head coach stand-out because there really was no excuse for UCLA to play so badly in Tucson and in the end it may be that “Debacle in the Desert” that does Rick Neuheisel in because if a team like UCLA cannot win games it is supposed to win then how in the Hell can it win games when they are the underdogs….like this Saturday’s game in the Rose Bowl against Arizona State? (Arizona State is about a 10 point favorite over UCLA).
The above really makes this Saturday’s game against Arizona State THE game for Rick Neuheisel’s future at UCLA because a win over ASU and then wins over Utah and Colorado which are teams that UCLA must and should beat would put the Bruins record at 7 – 4 heading into the USC game at the LA Coliseum and that is always a game that can go either way.
Yes, there is a slight glimmer of hope at UCLA for Rick Neuheisel BUT the Bruins really need to beat Arizona State on Saturday because in Neuheisel’s 4 th year at UCLA there really is no excuse for the Bruins to be 10 point underdogs to Arizona State at home and there is no excuse for UCLA to lose to Arizona State at home in the Rose Bowl either.
Arizona State is Rick Neuheisel’s Little Big Horn…the only question is…
Is Neuheisel Custer or the Indians? We are about to find out.
6. Turner Gill, Kansas – There is a very good reason why we believe that “Information is Power” here at Coaches Hot Seat as it applies to life, to business and to college football and we believe that because it is the collective writing, opinions and trends that determine what is going to happen in the future and if you can predict even a small slice of future history then you will have lots of power to act today and that reality was brought home by a column written by Tom Keegan in the Lawrence Journal-World after the Kansas – Texas game on Saturday:
“For the second time in three years, a Kansas University football coach sitting on the hottest seat in college football came into Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium with his reeling team.
At least Mark Mangino had just one more game after leaving Austin with a six-game losing streak. Turner Gill, in the second year of a five-year, $10 million contract, had four games remaining when he walked off the field with a six-game losing streak Saturday, the scoreboard showing Texas 43, Kansas 0.
Both plank-walkings have had messy, sad sides to them. In the case of Mangino, who just two years earlier had coached his team to a 12-1 record and an Orange Bowl title, it was sad to see him as the object of an investigation launched by his boss, Lew Perkins, into his treatment of players. This gave former players, in some cases looking for someone to blame for their poor college careers, a chance to come forward and damage Mangino’s chances of landing another coaching job. The coach’s famous temper armed them with material they had held onto for years.
Turner Gill, hired to fix something that wasn’t broken and paid like a proven big-time winner to do it, has damaged his resume by sending ill-prepared, under-motivated teams to slaughter week after week.”
Yes, Turner Gill is on the Hot Seat at Kansas whether we or anyone else believes he should be on that Hot Seat or not and the Kansas record in 2011 now sits at 2 – 6 (0 – 5 in the Big 12) with the only two wins over I-AA McNeese State and Northern Illinois and KU has left this season…
At Iowa State Baylor At Texas A&M Missouri
…and based upon the way that KU has played in 2011 there has to be at least a 50 – 50 chance that the Jayhawks will not win another game this season. If KU doesn’t win another game in 2011 that would add up to 2 – 10 (0 – 9 in the Big 12) and just judging by what we are reading in the Kansas newspapers that would mean Kansas would be looking for a new head football coach come December.
7. Mike Riley, Oregon State – After beating Washington State in Week 8 to move the Oregon State record to 2 – 6 (2 – 2 in the Pac-12) the one thing that Mike Riley and the Beavers needed was a win over Utah in Salt Lake City…BUT…a 27 – 8 loss to the Utes was the final score of that game and people in Corvallis and OSU fans everywhere must be wondering…
“Just what the Hell is wrong with Oregon State?”
Damn good question. With losses to….
Sacramento State Wisconsin UCLA Arizona State BYU Utah
…and wins over…
Arizona Washington State
…and with games left against…
Stanford At California Washington At Oregon
…the 2011 season is turning into a nightmare for Mike Riley and the Beavers.
Over the past 20 games Oregon State is…
Overall: 7 – 13 Pac-10/12: 6 – 8
….and even at Oregon State that kind of record is not acceptable which leads us to this question?
What if Oregon State loses out and the Beavers finish at…
Overall: 2 – 10 Pac-10/12: 2 – 7
…would Mike Riley lose his job in Corvallis?
We would guess….No….but then that doesn’t take into account how mad some of the big boosters at Oregon State might be if the season did end with 5 straight losses and what would be if OSU lost to Oregon this season FOUR straight losses to the Ducks.
Yes, Oregon State and Mike Riley really need a win this Saturday over Stanford and that reality should wake-up the Cardinal because this could be one of those Jim Harbaugh inspired “bar fights” in Corvallis and it takes a real fighter to win two straight bar fights and that just be what Stanford could be walking into against Oregon State.
8. Frank Spaziani, Boston College – With the win over Maryland the BC Eagles got their first win over a I-A (FBS) team in 2011, but beating Maryland in 2011 is like beating that old wet paper sack and with BC now 2- 6 (1 – 4 in the ACC) the Florida State Seminoles are coming to Boston this Thursday night and if Frank Spaziani ever needed a win on a big stage it is this Thursday against FSU.
Frank Spaziani is now just barely above the “I am average” line with an overall record of..
18 – 17
..in three seasons at BC….
But BC under Spaziani is…
10 – 11
…in ACC play and with these teams left on the 2011 schedule…
Florida State NC State At Notre Dame At Miami
….there is a real chance that Boston College finishes with a record of…
3 – 9 overall 2 – 6 ACC play
….in 2011 but don’t forget at Boston College as long as you are kissing BC AD Gene DeFilippo’s ass you can hang onto your job no matter what your team does on the field of play!
Funny thing….if we start kissing the asses of our bosses they start wondering what is wrong with the company because the very last thing our bosses want is for us to kiss their asses….what they want and demand is performance and if we don’t perform we never even see the Hot Seat but rather some sorry SOB in a $2,000 dollar suit and a very cold glaze pays a visit to our offices and says something like…
“Your services are no longer required at this company and here is a check for the money we owe you on your contract. You have 1 hour to get your stuff together and leave the building.”
Oh, it would be great to be on the Hot Seat for a few weeks before we got fired to at least know that we needed to turn our and our company’s performance up a few notches before we were shown the door!
9. Steve Fairchild, Colorado State – After the loss to a struggling UNLV team on Saturday Steve Fairchild’s Colorado State team fell to 3 – 5 (1 – 2 in the MWC) on the year and they have left…
San Diego State At TCU Air Force Wyoming
….and there has to be a better than 50 – 50 chance that CSU will finish with a losing record for the third straight year and that reality can’t be making the proud Colorado State fans in Ft. Collins in very happy. One big problem for Steve Fairchild would be if Colorado State falters down the stretch and loses to Wyoming for the third straight season which would be a disaster and probably lead to a coaching change at CSU which means Fairchild is coaching for his job starting with the game against San Diego State on Saturday.
10. Tom O’Brien, NC State – Now at 4 – 4 (1 – 3 in ACC play) the biggest problem Tom O’Brien has going at NC State is that O’Brien is now in his 5 th season with the Wolfpack and he only has ONE winning season up on the board. NC State has left this season…
North Carolina At Boston College Clemson Maryland
…and if the Wolfpack would like to do the Call of the Candy Asses…”We’re bowl eligible, we’re bowl eligible”…then they better find a way to get 2 wins in the last 4 games because a losing season in 2011 would mean FOUR less than .500 seasons in FIVE years for O’Brien at NC State and….that is not acceptable…even at NC State.
Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Monday, October 31, 2011 – Plato
“A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.”
And
“A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men.”
And
“And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.”
And
“Courage is knowing what not to fear.”
And
“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.”
And
“For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.”
And
“I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.”
And
“Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.”
And
“Life must be lived as play.”
And
“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
And
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
And
“Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.”
And
“If on the other hand I tell you that to let no day pass without discussing goodness and all the other subjects about which you hear me talking and examining both myself and others is really the very best thing that a man can do, and that life without this sort of examination is not worth living.”
And
“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”
And
“Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.”
Coaches Hot Seat Quotes of the Day – Sunday, October 30, 2011 – Jimmy Stewart
“Frank called me one day and said, ‘I have an idea for a movie, why don’t you come over and I’ll tell you?’ So I went over and we sat down and he said, ‘This picture starts in heaven’. That shook me.”
And
“I always told Hitch that it would have been better to put seats around the set and sell tickets.”
And
“I was going to be an architect. I graduated with a degree in architecture and I had a scholarship to go back to Princeton and get my Masters in architecture. I’d done theatricals in college, but I’d done them because it was fun.”
And
“We had an apartment on west side of Central Park. The rent was very reasonable. We found out later that it belonged to a gangster called Legs Diamond and it was a front to his headquarters. It was fine.”"
And
“Never treat your audience as customers, always as partners.”
And
“My mother approved, my father just didn’t accept the idea of my being an actor. I think that’s the reason he kept the hardware store in operation, because I think he was pretty sure that I was going to be found out sooner or later, and he wanted to have a job for me to come back to.”
And
“I think one day you’ll find that you’re the hero you’ve been looking for.” An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
And
“If we don’t try we don’t do. And if we don’t do, what are we on this earth for?” Shenandoah
And
“There’s not much I can tell you about this war. It’s like all wars, I guess. The undertakers are winning.” Shenandoah 1965 James Stewart War
And
“Don’t believe everything you hear and only half of what you see.” The Greatest Show on Earth
And
“Liberty is too precious to be buried in books. Men should hold it up in front of them every single day of their lives and say, ‘I’m free.’” Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
And
“He used to say to me, “Have you ever noticed how grateful you are to see daylight again after coming through a long dark tunnel?”…Always try to see life around you as if you’d just come out of a tunnel.” Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
And
“You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money! Well, it doesn’t, Mr. Potter! In the whole vast configuration of things, I’d say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider!” It’s A Wonderful Life
And
“I’ve always been skeptical of people who say they lose themselves in a part. Someone once came up to Spencer Tracy and asked, “Aren’t you tired of always playing Tracy?” Tracy replied, “What am I supposed to do, play Bogart?” You have to develop a style that suits you and pursue it, not just develop a bag of tricks.”
And
“I’d like people to remember me as someone who was good at his job and seemed to mean what he said.”
And
“If a western is a good western, it gives you a sense of that world and some of the qualities those men had – their comradeship, loyalty, and physical courage. The vogue for the new kind of western seems pretty unimportant to me. They try to destroy something that has been vital to people for so long.”
And
“I suppose people can relate to being me, while they dream about being John Wayne.”
And
“I cannot tell you, Mr President, just how happy I am to finally be able to call you my Commander-in-Chief.” — to longtime friend Ronald Reagan, on his inauguration as US President on 1/20/81.