RAIN OF HAMMERS, CONT’D, CONT’D: BOWERS, ROBINSON, ETC
The Day of the Long pen-Knives continues as resignation letters and “sources” chirp away.
Jeff Bower, longtime Southern Miss coach, is out after a 17 year tenure. SMQ, the blogosphere’s resident Golden Eagle fan, promises pending commentary. Our own input on the situation is that coaches with a 17-year run of taking a mid-size football program in Hattiesburg, Mississippi to bowl games are rare, and should be kept as long as possible. Unless they’ve pulled the coup of the century and are prepared to announce Nick Saban as their new coach, they have misjudged their human resource situation gravely.
Ted Roof, Duke coach, is fired after six wins in his entire four year tenure as Duke coach. Coach K thinks they should only field sports in which they will be competitive, because you know what a drain the football program’s been on the success of the Duke basketball team over the years.
Northern Illinois head coach Joe Novak is retiring, opening up another spot in the MAC. (HT: DevilGrad, who has nothing but nice things to say about Novak and his job putting the NIU program together from little more than old twine and hope.)
And finally, the next hammer to strike home will allegedly be Greg Robinson, Syracuse coach, who looks thrilled to be where he is right now.
About to sneeze. Please don’t ruin it. This is all I have left: sneeze-rush endorphines.
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macker @60 - so very true. Every school thinks it’s their birthright to be among the elite programs and contend for NCs. But, as you rightly point out it’s cyclical no matter a school’s best efforts to be at the very top year after year. Look where USC was in the 60s and 70s, then look at the down years, and then the revival. Just one example. It’s not that firing a coach is never warranted, but right now it’s completely out of control, pushed ahead by psychotic fans, the internet, ADs with no balls, and grown adult boosters whose only identity is as an alum of their college or university.
Comment by D-nice — November 26, 2007 @ 7:41 pm
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USM firing Bower means that we’re officially through the rabbit hole and have entered an incredibly delusional time in college football. People need to take a deep breath, step back and realize that even if the BEST programs who have proven to be NC winners or contenders alternated years, each of these programs would have to wait around 20 years before their turn came around again. Add in the pretenders and idiots who think the saving grace for their university is to join the ranks of elite programs and you have a lot of people reaching for the brass ring. Then these guys get fired for not being the dominant team in the country…….
I am FAR from a VA Tech fan, but stop and consider that if Beamer would have been subject to this unofficial rule of having to be a world-beater in 3 years, he’d be the defensive coordinator at Roanoke College right now instead of being given the time to build that program in to what it is. Ironic that several of these wannabes point to Tech as an example of what’s possible. If you want to point to them, have the admin grow some ‘nads and stave off the alumni that expect undefeated seasons every year. Combine better HS development with reduced scholarship numbers at each school and you’ll get the answer that NOBODY is going to be dominant year after year any more.
Whew…….that feels better.
Comment by macker — November 26, 2007 @ 7:29 pm