It’s only appropriate for such a bizarre college football season that at least half a dozen head coaching positions have opened (and, in some cases, already been filled) before calendars have flipped over to the month of December.
Dennis Franchione at Texas A&M? Gone a day after leading his team to a second-straight victory over Texas. Nebraska’s Bill Callahan? Never fit in with the Cornhusker faithful and had more losing seasons in four years than the program has had in the previous 45. Houston Nutt? Long-term success apparently just isn’t good enough for the Razorback fans, who rank near the top of the “delirious fan” scale for their over-inflated sense of expectations. At least Nutt will parachute into the Ole Miss head coaching position, so Arkansas fans won’t have far to look to see what they’re missing; plus, the inevitable storylines next year more than make up for firing Ed Orgeron, who was a constant source of hilarity for SEC fans… well, just look up the videos on YouTube. Yaw-yaw, indeed.
And the coaches that might deserve a quicker hook than they’re going to get? Charlie Weis, anyone? Perhaps regime change should start at the top at Florida State, too? Mike Stoops at Arizona, a school that is nearing the 10th anniversary of its last bowl appearance?
How do you judge, as a fan base, how quickly to ask for your coaches’ head? It’s a truly touchy matter. What criteria should there be for an immediate hook? Well, maybe things like coaching indiscretions (see: Franchione’s e-mail outbox, Mike Price at Alabama) or complete meltdowns (Coach O laying an egg in the Egg Bowl to go 0-8 in conference).
Being a kind and generous soul, I’m rarely for a quick hook – minus one of the catastrophes that gets a program into NCAA sanctions. But the ever-present problem is how long do you let a rotting coach stay in charge? How many years of mediocrity – or, more precisely, years below your program’s level of expectations – are allowed?
And more importantly, when is the right time to let an iconic coach go?
I ask this because I fear Oregon’s fanbase could become like the Razorback fans in a few years. Expectations went so sky-high in Fayetteville that Nutt’s 8-4 season – including the McFadden-led triple overtime victory over LSU over Thanksgiving weekend – was enough to get him shuffled out the door. Granted, there’s a whole story behind why Arkansas fans wanted him gone (for proper research, turn to Every Day Should Be Saturday), but still, 8-4 may be the record the Oregon Ducks finish this college football season with, and coach Mike Bellotti isn’t exactly on the hot seat.
But he could be. Should Oregon fans and boosters go completely insane and start demanding to compete with USC and the elite BCS teams every season, would an 8-4 year be good enough? Oregon’s in a similar recruiting situation to Arkansas (who has to jockey against LSU, Auburn, Alabama and Texas) because the state itself isn’t exactly the most fertile soil for football recruits and it has to fight in one of the major football states – California – against major programs. A revitalization of Washington’s football team could be trouble, too, for northwest recruits.
So where should the line between realistic expectations and national aspirations be drawn? Hopefully not by fans who are quick to pull the hook.
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Please fans, don’t try to ride the coaching carousel
Daily Emerald
November 28, 2007
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