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.
There will be 23 new head coaches this year in college football. With 119 teams in DIA, my shaky math tells me that means nearly one in every five schools has a new head coach. I don't have numbers from previous years but that's an incredible turnover rate and will mark 2007 as a year of transition in college football.
So what goes along with the whole "year of transition" tag? Well, sloppy play perhaps. Obviously not every coach will fall on his face in his first year, but many teams are bound to take an early performance hit as they reshuffle their lineups, learn a new system and compete against more cohesive opponents.
It also effectively eliminates these 23 teams from a legitimate chance to win the national championship. I simply don't see a Larry Coker type situation where a coach inherited a team at Miami's mini-dynasty level who could simply pilot the goodship S.S. Championship for a year and then put his stamp on things later.
However, we do have a few championship type coaches now in the ranks. The splashiest and most controversial hire this offseason was Dolphins (and former LSU) coach Nick Saban to Alabama. Butch Davis, who created the Miami monster that Larry Coker so capably led to a championship has found a home at North Carolina. And then there's Dennis Erickson who led Miami to a pair of titles and has traveled to the desert to revive Arizona State.
For more on these 23 coaches, I recommend taking a look at this article by Olin Buchanan at Rivals.com. It lists all 23 coaches with short bios and a blackjack theme on whether to double down, hit, or stay with the various coaches.
As reported pretty much everywhere today, audio was released of Alabama coach Nick Saban using a derogatory slur.
During a meeting with Florida reporters, Saban relayed a story about a phone call from a friend on the LSU board of trustees who had an unusual encounter with a cajun-accented LSU fan (full audio here).
"He was walking down the street yesterday before the Sugar Bowl," Saban said on the taped comments. "He calls me. There was a guy working in the ditch, one of those coonass guys that talk funny.
"I can't talk like them, but he can. Most people in Louisiana can."
Continuing to tell the story, Saban then quoted the worker's vulgar comment about Saban going to Alabama.
Saban has since apologized, asking that it be understood he was merely relaying the friend's story and that he himself finds the term offensive.
Expect this to get a lot of play the rest of his career. And a beatdown from one Ed Orgeron. And maybe The Waterboy as well as I think they're both offended.
"Mama says alligators are ornery cause they got all them teeth and no toothbrush. Mama says Nick Saban's the devil."
But we all know he's not really the devil, it's just his medulla oblongata.
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.
With just seconds to go in Saturday's Iron Bowl, Alabama linebacker Terrence Jones took a cheap shot at Auburn as Brandon Cox was taking a knee. Later, Auburn cornerback David Irons was hit in the face with a full water bottle. Numerous glass bottle were hurled at Auburn players as they left the field.
This is what has become of a once proud Alabama football program. Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville shrugged it off as frustration on Alabama's part. I suppose that can happen when your program is in total meltdown.
Alabama's football program is a shell of what it was in the mid 1990's. In a way, those years under Gene Stallings were a mirage, masking the spiraling of a great 20th century team. Let's face it, Alabama is no longer a player on the national stage. Similar to what has happened to Army and Navy, the Crimson Tide serve as nothing more than a reminder of what used to be.
A lot of writers around the South have written that the Iron Bowl is forgettable this year because of the way both teams come into the game. Every time I read something like that, it makes me realize that a lot of people in the media (even local) still don't get it. The fact that both Auburn and Alabama are coming off losses means nothing to this game.
I read with amusement this morning the column by Troy Johnson of the Columbus (Ga.) Ledger-Enquirer. In the story titled, "This One Doesn't Have The Sizzle," Johnson slams the Iron Bowl for its lack of interest around the country. He talks about how the entire nation will be fixated on the Ohio State-Michigan game and concludes that virtually no one outside of the state of Alabama will tune in to the game on CBS.
Johnson muses about how the series for many years has lacked any kind of meaning beyond the state of Alabama. "Anyone who truly knows this rivalry must also know that it has lost whatever cache it used to possess beyond the state's borders," Johnson writes. "The results of this game haven't truly registered in a national championship race once since an 11th-ranked Auburn team knocked off a No. 2 Alabama team in 1989."
On Thursday nights during football season I always think about what Pat Dye would say on his weekly radio call-in show. He would always say, "well, the hay's in the barn." And it's safe to say that again on this Thursday night.
Auburn and Alabama have completed their final preparations for Saturday's 71st Iron Bowl. All that's left to do is wait and maybe analyze a little more. So we'll do that now. Here are some quick hits to get you ready for Saturday...
For the first time in school history, Auburn has both a career 2,000 yard rusher in Kenny Irons and a 2,000 yard receiver in Courtney Taylor on the same team.
Courtney Taylor needs only four catches to become Auburn's all-time leading pass catcher.
If linebacker Will Herring starts as expected, he will set a new Auburn record for consecutive starts at 48.
"When we get out on the field, all that hollering about 'Fear the Thumb' will stop after the first play when we hit them on the mouth."
Ah, through the mouths of babes. That piece of divine wisdom is courtesy of Alabama fullback Le'Ron McClain. My question is, when has McClain hit anything... a running lane?... an opponent?... the end-zone? And this is from a fullback. That's barely a step up from a punter.
If my tailback was Kenneth Darby, I'd keep my mouth shut. Le'Ron obviously hasn't done his job this year. His offense hasn't sniffed the goal line when he's been in the game. It hasn't sniffed the goal line period.
Even Darby has gotten into the act. "I get angry when I hear that," said the Alabama tailback, who has a photo of Tuberville's four-finger salute hanging in his locker. "Everybody on this team feels that way. That's like disrespect and a slap in the face to us."
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.
There will be 23 new head coaches this year in college football. With 119 teams in DIA, my shaky math tells me that means nearly one in every five schools has a new head coach. I don't have numbers from previous years but that's an incredible turnover rate and will mark 2007 as a year of transition in college football.
As reported pretty much everywhere today, audio was released of Alabama coach Nick Saban using a derogatory slur.
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.
With just seconds to go in Saturday's Iron Bowl, Alabama linebacker Terrence Jones took a cheap shot at Auburn as Brandon Cox was taking a knee. Later, Auburn cornerback David Irons was hit in the face with a full water bottle. Numerous glass bottle were hurled at Auburn players as they left the field.
A lot of writers around the South have written that the Iron Bowl is forgettable this year because of the way both teams come into the game. Every time I read something like that, it makes me realize that a lot of people in the media (even local) still don't get it. The fact that both Auburn and Alabama are coming off losses means nothing to this game.
On Thursday nights during football season I always think about what Pat Dye would say on his weekly radio call-in show. He would always say, "well, the hay's in the barn." And it's safe to say that again on this Thursday night.
"When we get out on the field, all that hollering about 'Fear the Thumb' will stop after the first play when we hit them on the mouth."
