Horns247 Board

I understand that hiring NFL coaches is a total wildcard but you act like this is similar to hiring Weiss or Sherman. Gruden is nothing like those coaches.

Mike Riley is another interesting candidate. Been a DC and an OC and a NFL head coach.

Arkansas and Gruden chatter beginning BTW.

Here's a Matt Hayes article about the subject. I won't post the link b/c I don't want to drive traffic to that prick but just some more fodder for discussion. Also, Tennessee, Arkansas and Auburn all coming open in the same year means some stupid money is going to be thrown out there.

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1. I don’t want to get on a soapbox but …
When it’s time for change, nothing holds back momentum. Not a hefty buyout, not personal relationships and certainly not the unknown of the next step.

Robb Akey was the first coach fired this season, and Idaho was so ready to get rid of one of the true good guys of the sport with two years remaining on his contract, they gave the interim job to a 33-year-old who two years ago was coaching high school football.

“It has been a whirlwind,” said Idaho interim coach Jason Gesser.

If you think that’s nutty, it’s about to get full-blown bat crazy.

The strange and awkward season of firing and hiring coaches has begun, and the closer we get to a flooded market, the quicker this reality arrives: a man who has lied to his employers everywhere he has coached will soon be the hottest commodity of the hiring season.

That’s right, everyone. We’re talking about Bobby Petrino.

Fired at Arkansas in April for lying to his bosses about an affair with a woman who worked for him. Lied or misled his bosses at Louisville multiple times before leaving for another job. Lied or misled his owner with the NFL’s Falcons multiple times before leaving for another job.

All it’s going to take is a slick president and/or athletic director to stand tall and state that Petrino’s problem at Arkansas was a personal misstep, not a professional failing. That he regrets his actions and is ready to move forward.

“If you don’t think that will happen,” says one BCS athletic director, “you obviously don’t know how important winning is to some folks.”

A brief breakdown of the coaching carousel:

It’s all over but the firing

1. Derek Dooley, Tennessee: Three years in Knoxville: 4-16 SEC record. Pfffft.

2. Joker Phillips, Kentucky: Three years at UK, marquee win: beating Tennessee (yes, Dooley’s Tennessee) for the first time in 27 years.

3. Frank Spaziani, Boston College: One win this season (vs. FCS Maine), and losers of 15 of the last 20 games. In an increasingly weak conference.

4. Gene Chizik, Auburn: What looked unthinkable even last month has now become the inevitable. Three straight top 15 recruiting classes have led to one victory this fall—over Louisiana-Monroe in overtime.

Better finish strong

1. Jeff Tedford, California: The buyout is hefty ($6.9 million), but so was the price for the (now half full) Memorial Stadium renovation.

2. Skip Holtz, USF: Heard the dreaded “we evaluate every coach after the season” statement from his athletic director, and his teams have lost 12 of their last 15 games. Key stretch: back-to-back winnable home games against Syracuse and UConn. Lose those two, and it’s over.

3. Dave Christensen, Wyoming: The losing is bad enough. But embarrassing your university will speed up things every time.

Icons on the edge

1. Mack Brown, Texas: Texas has lost its last nine games to ranked teams, and the trend line doesn’t look good. The Longhorns have given up 197 points—nearly 50 a game—in splitting their first four Big 12 games this fall. That’s bad, bad football for a program that gets its choice from the most talent-rich state in all of high school football.

2. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa: The last three weeks was a microcosm of the program under Ferentz: win a couple of games and feel good about the direction, then embarrass yourself and talk about getting better.

3. Gary Pinkel, Missouri: He has done too much for Mizzou, right? Well, if the Tigers don’t win in Year 1 in the SEC—and considering Pinkel’s DUI last year and his handling of QB James Franklin this fall—stranger things have happened.

2. Puppet Playhouse
Troy Calhoun: Howdy Doody (man of character).

Dave Christensen: Phineas T. Bluster (full of hot air).

3. No more Mr. Nice Duck
This is what happens when you score 43 points in the first 18:27 of a game, sub reserves and finish with a deceivingly close(er) victory: you drop to No. 4 in the BCS rankings.

So I’ve got some advice for the team that scored 2.353 points per minute (really, do the math) on the road, in a Thursday night game: run it up, baby.

If Oregon coach Chip Kelly hasn’t figured it out yet, this BCS contraption is a beauty pageant as much as a demolition derby. You have to avoid getting dinged up—and you damn well better look good doing it.

Unless, that is, you want to take your chances on what the voter in Waterloo, Iowa, sees in his Sunday morning paper when figuring his Top 25. Or what the computer math nerd thinks about your quartiles and variations when filling out his poll (of course he fills it out; you don’t really think a “formula” spits out a Top 25, do you?).

No more starters on the bench in the first half, no more easing off the pedal. Your job is to score points and make it all look pretty; their job is to stop you.

Good luck, Colorado. You’re gonna need it.

4. Next up
The top names you’ll hear in the hopper, and if they’ll leave their current job if a bigger program comes calling:

Art Briles, Baylor: Forget it. Loves Baylor, has a palace of a stadium being built. Can retire in Waco.

Larry Fedora, North Carolina: The more presidents talk to him, the more they’ll like him. Would he leave Chapel Hill after one season? Would you, with the academic fraud mess lingering?

Dana Holgorsen, West Virginia: Don’t judge him on the defense; that can be fixed. A pass-game innovator, and a guy who may just be tempted by a big SEC job (Tennessee, Auburn).

Butch Jones, Cincinnati: For a job in the Big Four (SEC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12)? Absolutely. If you’re coaching in the Big East, it’s one of two things: a steppingstone or a tombstone. You choose.

Dan Mullen, Mississippi State: In a word, yes. But it’s going to take a unique job.

Charlie Strong, Louisville: See Jones, Butch.

Tommy Tuberville, Texas Tech: Tubs was made to coach in the SEC.

The top non-BCS candidates

Dave Doeren, Northern Illinois: Former Wisconsin defensive coordinator is 20-4 since replacing Jerry Kill, and his Huskies look more like a Big Ten team than a majority of the current Big Ten teams.

Sonny Dykes, Louisiana Tech: Has quickly moved to the top of non-BCS coaches with his pass-oriented, attacking offense.

Mark Hudspeth, Louisiana-Lafayette: Proven winner at NCAA lower division, and in two seasons with Lafayette in FBS.

Gus Malzahn, Arkansas State: Proved his mettle as Auburn’s offensive coordinator, and has Arkansas State among the elite of the non-BCS.

Mike MacIntyre, San Jose State: What he has accomplished at SJSU – the worst FBS program when he arrived – has been miraculous. Single-handily saved the program.

Willie Taggart, Western Kentucky: He’s Jim Harbaugh – only 12 years younger. That’s a massive compliment.

5. The Weekly Five
Mack Brown finally admitted earlier this week he’s not thrilled about his forced commitments to the Longhorn Network. In the spirit of that revelation, we give you the top five highlights of the young LHN:

1. Convinced Nebraska it really could stand up for itself, and the Huskers finally walked away from Texas (when they should have long ago before the Big Eight became the Big 12).

2. Convinced the Pac-12 it really could expand and make billions on television contracts. Look, if you’re gonna pay to watch Texas volleyball, you’ll surely pay to watch Washington State play Utah in football.

3. Convinced Colorado it’s not worth getting your brains beat in while the big dogs get all the cash. Why not get your brains beat in with the Pac-12 and get an equal share?

4. Convinced Texas A&M it’s a burnt orange world—and the Aggies are just living in it. Why not get back at Texas by leaving for the SEC, giving the all-powerful conference a pipeline to fertile recruiting grounds and overflowing television dollars?

5. Convinced us—now beyond a reasonable doubt—that just because you have your own television network, it doesn’t mean you can tackle.

6. The Power of Urb
Ohio State (coached by Urban Meyer): 8-0.

Florida (formerly coach by Meyer): 7-0.

Louisville (coached by former Meyer assistant Charlie Strong): 7-0.

Mississippi State (coached by former Meyer assistant Mullen): 7-0.

Total record of teams associated with Meyer: 29-0.

7. The season begins this weekend
What if I told you an SEC team had a top-10 defense, and a top-30 offense? And that same team had a quarterback with a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 15:1? And that same team was unbeaten through seven weeks?

And that same team was getting ready to lose for the first time this week—by 30 points.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Enjoy them now at 7-0; they’ll be 7-3 in three weeks.

South Alabama, Jackson State and Troy are not Alabama, Texas A&M and LSU.

Woof.

8. Dollar signs
Am I wrong to think the NCAA is dragging its feet on Oregon because, well, you know. Do I really have to remind you?

Do you really think if this were a middling team in a middling conference, they’d be avoiding the NCAA’s wrath after paying $25,000 for useless recruiting information to get closer to a street agent (ahem, advisor) who controlled an elite recruit who eventually signed with the team?

Apparently, the NCAA doesn’t have a former Oregon football player on staff who works as an investigator. Because if they did, you better believe they’d get to the bottom of it. Pronto.

9. From bad to worse
Just when you thought the ACC could get no worse, we give you this unnerving truth:

N.C. State controls its destiny in the Atlantic Division, and can keep the ACC’s only legitimate national factor (Florida State) from the league’s championship game by winning out.

The same N.C. State team that lost to Tennessee by 14.

Just think, Pitt and Syracuse join the fun in 2013!

(Quick aside: if you think you hate the BCS now, do yourself a solid favor and thank N.C. State. But for that loss to the Wolfpack, FSU would be unbeaten and likely as high as No. 2 in the human polls—without playing a team of significance).

10. The path less traveled
And you people thought Cut made a big mistake three years ago by telling Tennessee no.

I wouldn't come back to college if I was him unless it was a top 5 job.

Petrino, Strong, Holgorson, Briles, Patterson, Butch Jones, Mullen, Tubberville and Fedora will all be tripping over themselves for Tennessee, Arkansas and Auburn.

...9-8 in last 17 homes games should get more media focus when they cover Mack's problems

Mike Riley has it made at Oregon State and that's home for him in a lot of ways. I think he's content. Plus there's so many other big names out there that have cut their teeth in the Big 12 and SEC that would be better fits.

I don't, but I would at least call and see if he is interested as part of a thorough coaching search.

While this would never happen, I would like to see Gruden at UT, however not touch the coaching staff, all while keeping Manny on a short 1 year leash...

Maybe Mack will get lucky and Miami will offer Diaz the job after he blows the interview out of the water.

What about Richt and Jawja? Seems like he was on the hot seat forever until last year's success, and then the beginning of this year. Does he make a return to the hot seat after he gets his hat handed to him by Florida?

BC could turn to MAC for next coach

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Frank Spaziani is all but gone as the head coach of Boston College -- at least that's the general consensus at this point in the season. It's time to start concentrating on potential replacements.

Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi and San Francisco 49ers' offensive coordinator Greg Roman were names floated prior to the season even beginning.

But Boston College does a lot of recruiting in the Midwest, and a promising MAC head coach could be the team's top target.