EDDIE ROBINSON COACH OF THE YEAR FINALISTS NAMED

Suprised that SOS/HBC/JR didn’t make the list.

I’m hopelessly biased, but…

Is anyone else at least mildly surprised that Coach Mike Shula has gotten virtually no national pub for taking a team riddled by probation, three head coaching changes (one complete with a Dee Snyder-lookalike stripper) in four years, and the worst three-year span of injury luck in the history of college football to a 9-2 record, with losses only to LSU (in OT) and AU, their in-state rival (although he absolutely screwed the pooch preparing for that one)? I mean, the guy’s team was the third undefeated, the BCS spoiler, going into the final two weeks of the season. Granted, it wasn’t always pretty — hell, it was almost never pretty, except against the Gators — but still…

I really cannot believe that Spurrier did not make the list. What he did with no veteran backs, no veteran qbs, an nearly all freshman receiver corps, and an almost non-existant D-line is amazing.

I say give it to O’Leary. Carroll kept his team undefeated, but when your team is that loaded it’s hard to make a claim for him doing the best coaching job of the year. Brown finally got his team to the big game, but it was a down year for the Big 12 and like Reggie Bush, Vince Young covers up for a lot of mistakes. Dorrell did a decent job, but with the big blowout losses the whole season has a sort of smoke and mirrors feel to it. JoePa had a talented team but should you really credit the guy considering he’s the one who got the program in that mess in the first place? Weis did a great job this year, but I don’t think he did as good a job as O’Leary. With 1/3 of the talent as the rest of the teams on this list, O’Leary took a team that had 0 wins last year and put them in a bowl game with 8 wins this year. Give the man something legitimate to put on his resume.

Pat, that last line was hilarious.

Fuck Alabama. Their schedule was easy as shit, and of the four legit teams they played, the two they beat were Florida (Urban Meyer learned a lot about the SEC in that game) and Tennessee (nuff said) while they went down to LSU and Auburn. They won multiple games with no touchdowns.

In short, I’m disagree with the idea of including Mike Shula on this list.

Mike DuBose is another story.

I’n sick of hearing about Paterno. As someone else mentioned, this year he simply cleaned up a mess he created himself. He’s responsible for the losing seasons the past few years, for not having any sort of functional offense, and for not playing Michael Robinson at QB before now. Then, he suddenly wakes up, listens to his assistants and makes changes this year, and he’s deserving of awards??? Besides, lets be honest, we all know Paterno doesn’t actually coach.

Weis or O’Leary would be my choice. At least they cleaned up messes that other people created. Weis’ team may be the best coached in all of football. He gets the maximum out of every player and he changed an entire attitude there. ANd you gotta give O’Leary credit for his team’s great turnaround and making that team competitive.

Spurrier took a team that went 6-5 last year and went….

7-4.

Wow, color me impressed. Granted, nice wins against Florida and Tennessee, but those don’t mean nearly as much as they would have in past years.

I’m not saying Spurrier should be there over O’Leary of Weis, but his 7-4 was a hell of a lot better than their 6-5 last season. That said, if he beat Clemson, he’s probably on the list.

I don’t think you can simply look at the record of said teams last year, see where they are this year, and use that as the defining criteria. I think that people need to start with what were preseason expectations. Couple that with how they handled wrinkles in the road and overall results, and that’s how you should determine coach of the year.
Carroll – Picked as a national championship contender at the start of the season, lost some DBs but had 5-star recruits behind them, no suspensions, sounds like a maintanence job to me.
Brown – Ditto. Not even any major injuries.
Dorrell – Picked to be UCLA, started out great, finished like UCLA, no major injuries. Maintanence.
Weis – Picked to struggle (remember when ESPN honks picked them to start 0-6?) so definately over achieved. Lost their starting DE, lost their starting FB to a DUI suspension for half the season. Still, the team was recognized to have a lot of talent on the sidelines.
Paterno – Picked to be a bottom feeder (last in the Big 1(1)0), but finished 3 seconds away from being a national championship contender. Lost their star WR and kept chugging along. Put him ahead of Chuck.
O’Leary – Picked to self-implode, now they’re in a bowl game with 8 wins. That’s all I know about UCF

However, I agree that Paterno created and got out of his own mess —kinda like me and taxes, and no one is giving me an award for that. Sounds like O’Leary to me.

“Still, the team was recognized to have a lot of talent on the sidelines.”

Actually, for the past few years everyone has been saying ND didn’t have any talent. Weis gets there and starts coaching, and all of a sudden ND is super talented. More points for Weis, IMO.

I want to be Paterno. I want to screw up my job and do nothing for a couple of years, and then finally decide to get my act together and be rewarded with “Employee of the Year” and a bonus. Must be nice.

Give it to George.

Paterno, Dorrell, Carroll, and Brown are all just mentioned because they took good chicken and made a good salad. (to paraphrase Bear Bryant’s axiom of recruiting). That’s a job well done, but it’s not as impressive as cooking up something unexpected.

Weis has certainly earned all the credit he’s getting, due in no small part to the astronomical improvement in the Notre Dame offense. It’s widespread enough of an increase to point back to the gameplanning and coaching, (not just some players getting better as they get older). To continue the cooking analogy, it’s like Weis found some canned chicked and some leftovers in the fridge that hadn’t spoiled yet, and whipped them up into a gourmet meal.

However, the improvement in UCF is truly outstanding, especially because it doesn’t seem to be built around one uber-player (like Daunte Culpepper, for instance). It’s also worth noting that O’Leary has just about every reason to retire or take a lower profile job and finish out his career. Heck, he’s got enough NFL experience to just be an “advisor” for the next ten years. But, he took the tough road, and he ought to be rewarded for doing a damn fine job with it. He had chicken necks and giblets, and made it into a pretty good sandwich.

Mmmm… Giblet O’Leary

Alabama had a 5th “legit” team, South Carolina, who they waxed on the road, and a sixth if you count Southern Miss who is in a bowl game. Their schedule wasn’t “easy as shit”. Lastly, they won ONE game with no touchdowns, against Tennessee. The only school in the SEC that played a more difficult schedule is Florida, and that could be argued. They played every good team in the SEC except Georgia.

That being said, my vote is for O’Leary as well, with something being said for both Spurrier and Shula.

Weis didnt do anything impressive. He lost to Michigan State. He lost to USC. He beat Stanford in a miracle! The ONLY thing he has going for him is the name of his school. If he was the same coach at any other school and had the exact same record, he probably wouldnt even be in the top 10.

Urban will crush SOS next year.

Weis is overrated and fatter than Phil Fulmer. He lost to MICHIGAN STATE.

But Touchdown Jesus deserves that BCS bowl alright!

Notre Dame beat Stanford in a miracle? I must have missed the Hail Mary at the end. Criminy.

If there’s a token black nominee, why not Willingham? He doubled the win total at Washington, in just one year! Hell, they were only five or six plays from upsetting USC!

Look, I’m not saying Shula should win it, but shouldn’t he mentioned before Karl Dorrell? You know, the Karl Dorrell who got absolutely rolled by….ARIZONA? And pounded by his rival to the tune of 50 points?

Notre Dame lost to MSU by 3 points in OT. Ergo, the rest of the season, the improvement over last season, and all of the offensive records that were broken by a first-year coach with a team believed to have no talent are completely meaningless.

Dumbshit.

While I might be a bit biased (but not as much as the Ol’ Bawl Coach), you might think that I’d say CDub deserves the COY award. WRONG. I’d give it to ND’s former coach, O’Leary. To take a team that was 0-fer and get to 8 wins is quite impressive and he burnished that record on the field, not on paper…..CDub did well, but as he said himself, he’s not happy, as we finished 9-2. Have to like that attitude and apparently the players do to, which is most important. Despite an easy schedule, Shula did do a good job, given the injuries. I agree with the comments more or less on the others, EXCEPT for OBC. Remember, you can’t spell @SS without two Ss…..