Alabama landed its top choice, as Anthony Grant has agreed to take over at Alabama. Grant has been a hot name in college basketball coaching for the last few years. He has been very careful, though, about finding a bigger job where he feels he can succeed.
The Billy Donovan protege has had great success with Virginia Commonwealth. He has been mentioned for several possible jobs and was nearly the successor at Florida when Donovan took then reversed field on the Orlando Magic gig. It almost seemed as if he has been waiting the last couple years to be sure that Donovan was not going anywhere.
The surgery at DCH Regional Medical Center, performed last Thursday by Dr. Les Fowler, was to remove scar tissue restricting range of motion on his ankle, the university said in a statement Monday.
The kicker:
He spent a month in the hospital after infection set in.
Yuck. And yet Joe Theismann is suffered to inflict woe upon all who behold his terrible visage at hundreds of dollars an hour. This is some Book of Job stuff going on right here. At this point Prothro is unlikely to ever play again. Emoticon of ultimate sadness :(
Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles is expected to step down this week. His departure is yet another symbol of the passing of one of college football's greatest generations, the great coaches who presided over the game from 1960 or so until the mid to late 1970's. Broyles coached the Razorbacks from 1958 to 1976 helping them win a championship and competing nationally in a great era against powers like Alabama, USC, Notre Dame and Michigan.
Another giant of his time has left us in the mortal sense: Bo Schembechler. Schembechler coached Michigan from 1969 to 1989 becoming the face of the program until his death just before the Michigan/Ohio State game last year.
Among the magnificent but dead is Alabama's Bear Bryant (1958-1982) who retired at the end of the 1982 season and promptly checked out of mortal existence. Ohio State's Woody Hayes (1951-1978) hung around until his death in 1987. Nebraska's Bob Devaney (1962-1972) checked out in 1997 and USC's comedic John McKay (1960-1975) lasted a little longer, passing away in 2001.
All those giants left the coaching ranks long ago, but each stewarded elite programs for a decade or more. To this day most of them remain the standard for which current coaches aspire to at each of their programs. Schembechler's death and Broyles' departure signal the end of their collective direct involvement in the college game.
They are the ones who were the game's caretakes from the mid to late 1970's until the late 1980's, an era of great transition and upheaval due to parity measures such as scholarship limits, the completion of racial integration and the rapid and dramatic death of plodding, run-heavy conventional offenses such as USC's "Student Body Right/Student Body Left" approach.
We'll save that analysis for another day, another time. Until then it's one final embrace of perhaps college football's "greatest generation" of coaches. Thanks for the memories, fellas.
I generally don't like to post rumors, but this one may be worth discussing (though keep in mind that these are very unconfirmed rumors). According to some folks over at ChiefsPlanet, Terry Shea, the Chiefs' QB coach, might be on the hot seat. A name that has been bandied about as his replacement? The recently-fired-for-Nick-Saban Alabama coach Mike Shula.
The theory is that Shula coached Brodie Croyle, so he would help facilitate Croyle's transition to starting quarterback of the Chiefs. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I like Croyle as the QB of the future, but I still think it's too soon for him to take over the reins. I also like Terry Shea, and think that his firing would only mean he was the targeted scapegoat for the Chiefs' abysmal performance in the playoffs. After all, it isn't his fault the wide receivers forgot how to catch and the offensive line forgot how to protect. Nor is it his fault that Trent Green had such a severe concussion and probably hadn't fully recovered. Shea also did a nice job in getting Damon Huard established as a starting quarterback.
Shula, meanwhile, has a bit of a spotty history. I suppose, in some sense, the marriage between Shula and Herm Edwards would work out, because they were successful in Tampa Bay together under Tony Dungy. Shula also facilitated a quicker-than-expected turnaround of the Crimson Tide. However, that turnaround was short-lived. Furthermore, the Chiefs suffered from a lack of offensive creativity, something that Shula does not seem ideal for countering.
Of course, this all depends on whether Shea gets fired or not. I'd like to know how much input Shea had on the playcalling this year before deciding whether he deserves his walking papers. Earlier this year, I liked the possibility of Mike Solari and Shea working together. My impression is that Shea didn't have much input, which would very much make him a scapegoat if he is fired. If he did have input, though, then maybe Edwards really is better off having coaches with whom he has an established working relationship.
Rafael Palmeiro. Bill Clinton. Nick Saban. The names are interchangeable. All publicly lied. All were caught. When Saban was introduced as coach at Alabama a few hours ago, he said all the right things.
"If I knew that my heart was someplace else in what I wanted to do, I don't think it would be fair to the organization if I stayed," said Saban.
"What I realized in the last two years is that we love college coaching because of the ability that it gives you to affect people, young people," he said.
If you're an Alabama fan how can you be sure he's telling the truth? Do parents really want their kids playing for a guy who only a week ago said, "I'm not going to be the Alabama coach." Is this what you want your university to stand for?
Honk if you've been offered the Alabama head coaching job. In a week in which Alabama has gone from Plan A to B and now to Plan C, the Crimson Tide football program has become the national punching bag for jokes. How bad is the situation in Tuscaloosa? It appears to be getting worse by the hour.
It's hard to understand how West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez could turn down a $6 million raise. We've all heard the excuses Alabama people are making. He was from West Virginia. He played at West Virginia. Yeah, yeah, whatever. There's more to it than meets the eye. A guy doesn't accept an offer on Thursday night and then back out on Friday morning without some serious second thoughts.
It's time for Alabama to face facts. The job is just not that attractive for established coaches. In consecutive weeks, the school has backed the Brinks truck up to the door to try and land a named coach. With "A" caliber coaches, Steve Spurrier and Nick Saban turning them down, everyone was certain that Bama would land a "B" coach in Rodriguez. Now that ship has sailed.
As you would expect, all the talk in the state of Alabama today is centering on the firing of head football coach Mike Shula. For the third time in four years, Alabama will yet again try to fill the shoes of the very late Paul "Bear" Bryant.
Listening to the syndicated Paul Finebaum Radio Show out of Birmingham on Monday, it's apparent how out of touch most Alabama fans are when it comes to college football in the 21st century. The vast majority of callers have put their stock in somehow luring South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier to the Capstone. Another often mentioned name is Miami Dolphins coach Nick Saban.
Do Alabama people honestly believe that either one of those men would remotely consider taking the Alabama job. First off, the jobs they have are better than the Tide job - yes South Carolina has much more upside these days than Alabama.
Alabama landed its top choice, as Anthony Grant has agreed to take over at Alabama. Grant has been a hot name in college basketball coaching for the last few years. He has been very careful, though, about finding a bigger job where he feels he can succeed.
Arkansas Athletic Director 
I generally don't like to post rumors, but this one may be worth discussing (though keep in mind that these are very unconfirmed rumors). 
Rafael Palmeiro. Bill Clinton. Nick Saban. The names are interchangeable. All publicly lied. All were caught. When Saban was introduced as coach at Alabama a few hours ago, he said all the right things.
Honk if you've been offered the Alabama head coaching job. In a week in which Alabama has gone from Plan A to B and now to Plan C, the Crimson Tide football program has become the national punching bag for jokes. How bad is the situation in Tuscaloosa? It appears to be getting worse by the hour.
As you would expect, all the talk in the state of Alabama today is centering on the firing of head football coach Mike Shula. For the third time in four years, Alabama will yet again try to fill the shoes of the very late Paul "Bear" Bryant.
