FanHouse JohnLSmith

Its a thankless job coaching Utah State football. It's the No. 3 football program in a state with two good ones -- Utah and BYU. There's not much recruiting appeal, as selling talented young men with options on hiking Logan Canyon can only take you so far. He tried, but failed.

His termination had been rumored for months, but now is final. Ultimately this likely came down to wins, of which he had a measly eight in nearly four seasons of work. The Salt Lake Tribune said he was given a bad hand, acquiring talent just in time to watch somebody else make something of it.

Guy is a meager 8-38 in his tenure. But whomever succeeds him won't have a bare cupboard like the one Guy inherited when he replaced Mick Dennehy in 2005.

Amusingly, slappy John L. Smith is rumored to be a candidate for the job but its also noted he could be a hot candidate for the Wyoming job. The entire college football world has been waiting with bated breath for Smith to resurface as a leading man somewhere. John L. Smith, we miss you so.

When Michigan met Ohio State last November, it was one of the headiest days in that's rivalry's long history. Both were undefeated. Ohio State was #1, Michigan #2. With all other serious contenders for the national championship sporting a loss, the possibility of a rematch between the teams, no matter who won, was batted about breathlessly. Yea, verily, these were the best two teams in the country as anointed by ESPN, who knows all and sees all.

If you have followed college football at all or heard an SEC coach or fan speak over the past seven months you know what happened next. Michigan did what they always do: lose the Rose Bowl. The final score, 32-18, was buttressed by a late, meaningless Steve Breaston touchdown and didn't reflect the second half whipping delivered to the Michigan offensive line and secondary after a tense first half ended in a 3-3 tie. Then Ohio State emerged from the tunnel at the national championship game and returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown. But it was all downhill from there. Moments after Ted Ginn engaged ludicrous speed, he was in the endzone getting his ankle sprained by his own teammate. Then Florida scored, Ohio State punted, and Florida scored and Ohio State punted and that was basically the game. Three hours later the final was 41-14. Kirk Herbstreit would cliam the two games "set the Big Ten back ten years."

Yeah, so that didn't go so well. Weeks later, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany felt compelled to respond to a stupid column in the Chicago Sun-Times that made Classic Sportswriter Mistake #1 -- that thing that just happened is never going to stop happening -- with an "open letter" that had some salient points (in the last decade the Big Ten and SEC are dead even in their bowl matchups) and some dubious complaining that seemed very much like the insecure whining of a conference that had lost its way. Going into 2007, the Big Ten looks to re-establish itself in the eyes of its critics, who would overthrow a hundred years of tradition because of the outcome of a couple games. Fie on you. But other stuff happened, too. After the jump, 2006 superlatives.

The loss of John L Smith was a vicious blow to the community of people who love to sit around mocking various aspects of college football. (== me.) The self-slapping, exploding-at-halftime, Kilimanjaro-scaling Smith was a loose cannon around a microphone and God's gift to anyone bored with the same old coachspeak. But now he's gone. Fortunately for the chattering class, Dan Hawkins is poised to raise that freak flag high once again. The first indication was his infamous GO PLAY INTRAMURALS rant; now this Rocky Mountain News article indicates that the quixotic Colorado coach has the same taste for totally extreme action dear departed JLS did:

I went sky diving last offseason because . . .

"I wanted to be an example to our team to not be afraid to fail, to take a risk, to get out of their comfort zone."

I'm running a marathon this offseason in Australia because . . .

"Again, I'm trying to be an example of, 'Do the unthinkable, everything's possible, reinvent yourself by getting better.' It's all those concepts."

Continent hopping? Hilarious press conferences? A funky spread offensive system and a debatable ability to bring it to the big leagues? Oh, Dan, shave your head and slap yourself and I'll be yours forever.