DO YOU NEED A BRAIN TO COACH COLLEGE FOOTBALL?

Bill Callahan strongly disagrees with this setiment. Brains are key, and you, people of the earth, have none.

JoePa disagrees – BRAINS!! are the reason he’s coached this long.

All you need are chesterfields, bourbon, and a fashionable hat.

Agreed. We may have a whole new piece here; things you need to succeed in college football.

We choose grizzle. All of our favorite coaches display a certain amount of unadulterated grizzle.

+1 Spartan Dan.

I am a Michigan fan, so there is an obligatory, "Dantonio will never win against Michigan, will make fun of Michigan’s midget recruits and will go and beat a Press Reporter. "

Sir —

Bobby Bowden has 373 career wins. Does that answer your question?

DG

you know im starting to get some real anti UT vibes coming off this particular college football “blog”

this might just be my sixth sense g

Jim Donnan’s UGA teams provide strong evidence against the proposition that talent wins, especially big games against division rivals.

I am sorry, but the system that a coach installs and play calling is what makes or breaks a team. The talent that is then brought in the execute that scheme is the difference between a team like Purdue and Ohio State.

However, there is a rare case of It working the other way. Take a look at Ole Miss last three years. ( I am now running for my life!)

Houston Nutt is strong evidence that no matter how much talent you have it can be squandered away by a jr high playbook. Brains are required.

Have you ever noticed that in the corporate world, intellect is almost a hindrance in terms of attaining success/wealth? Apparently the less cerebral traffic one may have, the more singular the focus.

Anyway, when Richt pulls the Natty, he’ll break the aforementioned mold.

I’ll politely call B$ on the Tressel name drop. Tressel screwed the pooch in back to back NC games (Florida much more so than LSU), but he was channeling Stephen freakin’ Hawking during the 2002 NC run. That ’02 team was all about two things: Defense and coaching.

Hell, as much as it hurts, I credit Les Miles for out-scheming OSU in January. He ran some crack-smokin’ formations that befuddled the Buckeyes D.

That’s right. Les Miles, titanic super genius, is here to bust your theory.

#10, Very intelligent people often have poor social skills, which I think addresses what you’re talking about. I’d also imagine that social skills would be important when recruiting..

Well, [Name Redacted] has already found more success in Illinois than he did in Florida. [Name Redacted]‘s Gators never received a sniff of BCS consideration. (Then again, [Name Redacted]’s Gators didn’t have the advantage of a Rose Bowl desperate for a Big 10-Pac 10 matchup)

Tressel’s not exactly the first guy you think of when you say “tactical genius,” though he’s not down there with, say, Chan Gailey, mind you.

He does have a national title and recruits his ass off, though. Thus the inclusion.

in any human endeavor it is always better to be lucky than good. but everyone’s luck eventually runs out and that’s where the being good kicks in.

I’d like to nominate Charlie Weis because when it’s Xs and Os time, his offenses have tactical advantage. ( cue Yakety Sax )

#15

You can say the same for Mack Brown. He doesn’t have to go far to recruit since we live in a state loaded with talent. High school players are well aware of the two programs in the state of Texas- UT and A&M, no marketing/public relations needed. UT tends to win out only because of the program and (most likely) A&M “traditions” don’t always appeal to young kids. Plus, the kids get to live in Austin (vs. College Station).

I’ve never met the man so I can’t comment on intelligence. I know some people that know him well and they think he is highly intelligent. Of course, they are past UT players and die-hard fan/big donors so they are somewhat biased.

I really never pictured Orson to be the type of guy to flip out on a guy for his football opinion.

Pundit One: Chris Leak isn’t a smart quarterback – he was just in a good system

OS: DON’T MAKE ME ANGRY – YOU WOULDN’T LIKE ME WHEN I’M ANGRY.

Pundit One: All I’m saying is he had talent around him and all he had to do is throw the ball.

OS: GRRHAJNDFNJKLASDFNJKLSNLK shirt tear, eye bulge, jort rip, iphone shatter
MuuuSSTTT KILL!

Mack Brown’s 2005 Playbook.

Ace Formation: Let Vince do whatever the hell he wants.

I-Formation: Let Vince do whatever the hell he wants.

Shotgun: Let Vince do whatever the hell he wants.

Punt Formation: Let Vince do whatever the hell he wants.

Most of the time he was right though.

#10

Can you imagine having Houston Nutt stop by your house for a recruiting visit? I’ve been at someone’s house when coaches/recruiters were there. The air was thick with BS and boring. At least Nutt would make it an entertaining evening.

#20

But Brown was the one that got Young to come to UT.

One of the marks of a good/smart leader is to surround yourself with good people. That includes assistant coaches and players.

With what happened last year…we’ll see if that theory holds up. A lot of programs would like to 9-3. (Or 10-3 with the bowl game?) Unfortunately, Austin is not a place that accepts several years of 3 losses, especially when we continue to lose to OU and A&M. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few years.

tyrone willingham would argue that you need to be smart. it has gone a long way for him.

Is that a pattern at Texas? I have no doubts that DKR was a pretty smart fella – what with comin’ up with that whole offense thingy like he did. But really:

Earl up the middle.

Earl to the left.

Earl to the right.

Or as you put it: Hike it and give it to Earl and let him do whatever he wants.

I would think John Mackovic’s name would come up at some point. Ricky Williams, FB. (CFB RW, not NFL RW).

it helps to have a ton of big, fast athletes. and brown probably could not have gotten young to come to nc

The air was thick with boring? Must have been a bitch to air that house out.

#22

yeah, just poking fun… but it was amazing the transformation that offense made when they finally let Vince be Vince.

#20

Took the words right out of my mouth. That was a clear example straight talent winning out. Hell, I’d venture to guess that USC (while also un-Godly talented that year) had a playbook of Callahanian proportions when compared to that of Mack Brown’s.

ARP! ARP! ARP!

Football comes down, first and foremost, to player talent. If Rich Rod does the smart thing this fall and tries to simply pound the ball up the middle play after play, Michigan’s recruiting advantage will win 9 games.

Which is why [name redacted] both restored Illinois to prominence and yet will never take them to greatness. His recruiting skills brought in talent that will win games simply by being more athletic than the competition. His bone-headed gameday coaching decisions, on the other hand, will lose at least 2 games every year— just enough to ensure no MNC bid for the Illini.

The problem he had at Florida is that everyone expected greatness, not just good-enough-ness. Illinois doesn’t have that expectation.

#25

I know. But you were right, Brown was smart enough to let Young be Young…

Now, if he would just find another Vince Young, or one with at least half the talent, we would back in business as usual.

#23

We don’t like to think about the JM years, but he did recruit R. Williams.

DKR was brilliant as well. Most people don’t remember or even realize that UT was down to the third string quarterback because of injuries and they still won with Earl Campbell. What is that quote from DKR- three things happen when you pass and two of them are bad? Something like that. We haven’t been a big quarterback school. I’m sure that will shock a few of you who aren’t familiar with UT’s program…

Two things here:
Orson, as a fellow Gator, you must never forget the pain of losing to Miss. State. They lost to Fucking MAINE!! How [NAME REDACTED] let that happen is beyond me.

2. Post #19 in defense of Leak, he had 3 offensive coordinators in 4 years. and he wasn’t exactly a “dove tail” fit in the Meyer/Mullen offense.

Tressel did win a bunch of championships at Youngstown State without the talent. No homo!

1. It should have said the air was thick with BS and the evening was boring.

I was trapped and couldn’t leave. I told them I was not coming back until the kid has decided on a school. I love CFB but that part of it must make coaches want to quit. I can’t imagine parents enjoy having all those strangers in their house for months and the incessant phone calls.

I think the question that’s really at the core of this debate, is what defines a “good coach” (for the record, a great coach is winning + time. that’s the only way a coach with no national championships like Bo Schembechler can be regarded as better than somebody like, say, Dennis Erickson, who has 2).

We all say Ron Zook is a bad coach, but he’s 2-1 versus Mark Richt, who’s pretty good. I know Zook had some loaded Florida teams, but those Georgia teams (especially in ‘02) weren’t the little sisters of the poor. Nevermind the fact that Phil Fulmer has pantsed the Dawgs the past two seasons in a row…

1. - You know a lot of Illini faithful? You know nothing…

1. - He did win and would have kept winning there. He was getting amazing talent that probably could not get into a Big Ten school in a talent rich state.

Overall, I pretty much agree with the article about schools with talent and their head coaches.

This is not a zero sum equation, but there is some truth to what the NFL fan stated.

Superior talent compensates for inferior coaching, see Vince Young winning the national title, I mean Texas winning the national title, but at some point the scale will be tipped in favor of inferior talent with the superior coaching, what Oklahoma had when Stoops first arrived in Norman.

The phrase, “it is not the Xs and Os, but the Jimmys and Joes,” is true, but only true to an extent.

This is why a coach like Spurrier could do wonders with QBs that threw like rag arm girls, see Wuerffel, Danny, seriously who throws a balloon to a WR only 15 yards down the field, but Jeff Bowden’s scheming ruined QBs who could have been NFL players.

You get a good to great coach with very good to great talent, depending on position, and you have USC.

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Darrell Royal

Or preparation can be just hanging in there forever, i.e. Paterno, Schembechler, etc.

If the 2000 Georgia defense couldn’t talent their way to more than 8 wins, then I think that myth is busted with a capital mustache.

@ 39

Paterno? Really? Do you watch college football outside the Big 12?

Oh, and Paterno bitch slapped Darrell Royal and Texas in the Cotton Bowl in ’74, and is 3-2 overall versus the Horns.

Paterno had at least 4 undefeated seasons, won multiple national titles, and has won all of the major bowls, Rose, Cotton (at one time), Sugar, Orange, and Fiesta (now).

And, he did almost all of the above prior to 1990. Rose Bowl win came in 1994.

Now, maybe, today, he is past his prime, but otherwise…

#5: Last year we had you beat until Dantonio inexplicably called in the prevent with 8 minutes to go (when our pass rush and Henne’s bad arm had resulted in total fail for your offense the entire second half to that point). Assuming he’s capable of learning from mistakes, that won’t happen again. (Then again, he’s clearly not capable of learning from his predecessor’s mistakes – that decision had JLS written all over it.)

I won’t pretend he’s going to bring us up to the level of a national powerhouse – after all, this year looks like a possible disaster for you guys and we’ll still be lucky to finish more than a game ahead (maybe even lucky to manage that much). And realistically, we won’t be evening the series anytime soon – but even JLS managed to take two out of four to OT and had a chance to tie on the final play in another. As long as Dantonio isn’t a complete failure in the clutch, if we can keep the games close like that, sooner or later, we’ve got to pull one of them out, right?

#41

This wasn’t meant as a comment as past their prime. They have been around coaching a long time and hung in there long enough to earn their due. Unlike coaches today, who leave on whim.

#41

And by the way, I do watch other teams besides the Big 12 and I am very impressed with your recall of game stats and win/loss records.

3 years in the NFL?? Gators don’t last that long

In ‘08 Illinois gets Mizzou @ a neutral site, Penn State, Michigan, and Wisconsin on the road, and they have home dates with Ohio State and Iowa. What’s this draftnik’s opinion of “good again?”

Cause they’re gonna have to pull one or two more mammoth road upsets to top 6-6 or 7-5

1. I agree with you about the expectations for Zook at Florida, to try and look as unbiased as I can hiring Zook at Florida was probably not a good hire, if for no other reason than he had no previous head coaching experience any where college I-A or AA. An untested coach replacing a coach who was both a legend and had won the NC only 5 years before. 7 to 8 wins a season is not going to cut it, no matter the recruiting triumphs.

     That said if you put a consistent 7 to 8 win team in Champaign, with a conference championship once every like 5 years, The University of Illinois would jump at it immediatley. Look at our 20 year win loss record, there is reason we became a basketball school. I know he isn’t the best coach we’ll say “strategically” but frankly I’ll take a bonehead with talent blowing a game against Michigan than losing to Northwestern every year.

Two random thoughts-

One, all gater fans should be GLAD you got Croomed & lost [NAME REDACTED] in the process. BTW, SOS didn’t fare too well in Starksville (0-2).

Two, imagine you’re being recruited by The Orgeron, who is now replaced by GIGGETY Enough to give a young man brain damage.

In the football factory conferences (namely the SEC), it takes equal parts talent and coaching, IMO. You might call the SEC a microcosm of the NFL – the top 50% of the conference has more or less equal talent; the rest is coaching (not just the in-game stuff – player development, position coaches, etc…). This is why you see such a glut of coaching talent in the SEC (among other reasons). Incidentally, if you just looked at the top 32 teams in college football (rather than a specific conference), you would get the same result: generally equal talent; the rest is coaching (and luck).

I kind of miss [NAME REDACTED], to be honest with you. He looks like Lumbergh, from Office Space. Arp.

Brains trumps talent most of the time.

Phil had Peyton Manning – couldn’t win a NC and went 0-4 against Gators.

Spurrier had Danny – who beat the Vols and won the NC.