FanHouse Ncaa Fb Coaching

If there's a recession in college football, it has yet to reach the coaching ranks. Well, not the head-coaching ranks, anyway. In the past week, three head coaches, Bob Stoops, Pat Fitzgerald, and Brian Kelly, have signed contract extensions that will keep them at their present jobs for a while longer.

We start at Oklahoma, where Bob Stoops is now signed through the 2015 season. Despite several big-bowl bloopers, the people in and around the Oklahoma program are happy with their head coach, and who can blame them? In addition to the extension, Stoops also gets a $250,000 raise to $3.675 million a year, plus $700,000 each July if he remains at OU. If he doesn't stay, they are so defriending him.

ORLANDO -- The NCAA has a problem that is so glaring, it makes people cringe every time they see the numbers. It makes Charlotte Westerhaus mad.

It should make you mad, too.

"It's appalling, disturbing, embarrassing,'' Westerhaus said. "People should be asking why this is still like it is. People should be asking questions every time there is an opening.''

Westerhaus is the NCAA vice-president of Diversity and Inclusion, and she isn't shy about letting you know her opinion on the lack of minorities that are head football coaches throughout her organization.

Of the 582 schools that play either Division I, II or III football (excluding the historically black universities), only 3.9 percent have head coaches of color.

Former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer says he's moved on. He doesn't dwell on his decision that stunned Sooner nation and crippled the football program 20 years ago Thursday when he suddenly resigned.

OU was in a heap of trouble back then, with five players being arrested on various felony charges and the program had been slapped with three years of NCAA probation for recruiting violations. Who could forget a tearful Switzer admitting on June 19, 1989, that too much had transpired for him to continue on as the Sooners coach?

Over the weekend, the Florida Gator brain trust decided one way to respond to the 24 football player arrests in the past four years was to send the football team on ride alongs with the local Gainesville police. The theory, apparently, is that if players can see what police do on a daily basis from the front seat of a police cruiser they'll be more likely to stay out of the back seat.

Of course, it also makes it more likely that the police will know the name of the player they happen to be arresting. So everybody wins.

For the last month, a video was available on UCLA's official YouTube channel that showed head football coach Rick Neuheisel saying he's "ticked off" at his crosstown rival, USC coach Pete Carroll, and promising to "get after their ass." But after the Orange County Register publicized the video Tuesday, UCLA pulled it down.

What had Neuheisel so upset is that Carroll voted against Neuheisel's proposal to allow coaches to have their children with them on the sidelines during games. Neuheisel explained on the video that the Pac-10 has a rule that children aren't permitted on the sidelines during games, but Neuheisel wanted a waiver for coaches' children, because he thinks fathers and sons can bond on the sidelines during games. Neuheisel said the proposal was put to a vote at a meeting of Pac-10 coaches, and that the vote was 9-1, with only Carroll opposed.

I don't know if the NCAA will officially release a statement acknowledging that their Web site overloaded this afternoon at 2 PM CT when the penalties against Alabama were posted, but for one hour around that time, it was impossible to access the site.

It would be fascinating to see the data of where the site traffic was coming from. My guess is the state of Alabama in first place, and the state of Tennessee in second place. Third place? The state of Louisiana. Followed by Mississippi and Georgia in fourth and fifth place. Seeing data on a day like this would serve to objectively catalog the relative hate and strength of rivalries in the Southland once and for all. But that's too much to ask, the NCAA can't even keep their Web site functioning. This was the message on the front page of the site:

NCAA.org is experiencing temporary technical problems. Please try again in a few minutes. Some services can still be accessed through the links below.

UPDATE: Play4Brew.com's blog page no longer carries the bio mentioned in this post. A call to the university's Athletic Communications office was referred to the football office. They have yet to return FanHouse's call for comment.

Nowadays, college football coaches are all over the Internet. Minnesota's Tim Brewster is no exception to this.

He has a Web site, is on Facebook, and also posts updates on Twitter. Part of Brewster's online empire is a blog that is regularly updated. On that blog is a bio that talks about Brewster's 20-plus years of coaching football. It is there that Brewster stretches the truth a bit to make himself look like an awfully successful coach.

In all honesty, this story shouldn't be viewed as one of sadness, anger, bitterness, or back-stabbing.

Instead, it should serve as a cautionary tale. After all, the pressures and rigors involved with big-time college football aren't for anyone. As offensive coordinator Tony Franklin learned last year at Auburn, it certainly isn't for him.

First-year Iowa State football coach Paul Rhoads is definitely trying to drum up support for his program anyway he can.

Rhoads has joined a recent trend of football coaches across the country, jumping aboard a tour bus and coming face-to-face with the Cyclones faithful in Iowa. In scenes reminiscent of our nation's latest presidential campaign, Rhoads is shaking hands, kissing babies and making big promises during his city-to-city Tailgate Tour.

Chip Kelly has yet to coach a game for the Oregon Ducks, and in this much-anticipated season, he is already three players down following recent transfers. Kelly took over for Mike Bellotti, who moved on to athletic director after 14 seasons, and the first thing he did was name QB Jeremiah Masoli the starter for next season. That prompted the transfer of Justin Roper, who started the first three games last season before a knee injury against Purdue.

Receiver Aaron Pflugrad then followed Roper out of the door, and Tuesday the school announced WR Chris Harper was leaving to be closer to his Wichita, Kan. home. Harper was a true freshman last season and will have three years of eligibility remaining.