Coach Basket Turnover - SEC Edition

In the last two seasons, only one coach has been replaced in the SEC. That changes this season, of course. Let’s take the first of what will probably be many looks at the coaching positions in the league, the coach’s relative safety, and why they are out the door. No one is safe in this league. No one.

First, the teams that will definitely have the same coach next season.

1) Kentucky.

And we’re done.

Next, the teams that in all likelihood will still have the same coach, but there’s just a tiny seed of doubt:

1) Alabama. The only thing keeping Nick Saban out of the first category is his affinity for LSU and the possibility of Les Miles leaving for Michigan. I honestly don’t think he would go back, but I can’t say that with absolute certainty so he’s here on the list to entertain the LSU fans who so vehemently want to have it both ways: “he’s really overrated, and we can’t wait for him to leave you to come back home.”

2) Vanderbilt - Like Saban, there’s very little doubt that Bobby Johnson will stay. However, he has Vandy on the cusp of a bowl bid and that is a monumental undertaking. Gerry DiNardo never really threatened it and it was good enough to get him the LSU job. Vandy is the kind of overly-sanitized program that is hard to fall in love with, so if the right opportunity comes along, Johnson could take it. Then again, his quirky brand of personal discipline and Vandy’s status as a tough school in a BCS conference isn’t likely to attract the right offer. I’m doubtful Nebraska looks here.

3) South Carolina - I only put Spurrier here because of his level of dissatisfaction with his university president. His age will make it unlikely that he gets serious consideration from a contending program.

4) Florida - Herban Meyer is rumored to have interest in the NFL and the interest seems to be mutual. Florida fans beware: one minute he’s telling you it’s not like that with the NFL. It’s just a mutual respect thing. The next minute you catch him behind the gym with his hand under the NFL’s sweater. Just sayin’.

5) Georgia - If Bowden says “the game has passed me by” and retires, then I think there is a 25% chance that Mark Richt goes to FSU next season. But if Bowden says, “I will retire if you will give my job to Mark Richt…” Well, I’m ready for the Mike Bobo era to begin anyway.

6) Mississippi State - If they get bowl eligible, and with a win over Ole Miss they will, then he’s safe. In fact, I would dare say that if they get eligible but don’t receive a bid, he’s even more secure in his job than if they get one and lose the game. A six win season four years into your tenure is not what Mississippi State envisioned when they hired him, but you know what else they can’t envision? Any coach in America wanting that job.

The next group of coaches are on the fence.

1) LSU - He’s 50/50 right now because the Ohio State - Michigan game is a pick ‘em, and the outcome of that game will determine if Les Miles spends next summer downgrading the quality of play in the SEC or the Big 10.

2) Auburn - I’m seriously debating moving them down to the next group, and here’s why: Auburn fans can talk about how loyal Tubs is, but Jay Jacobs can’t afford that kind of confidence. Texas A&M isn’t even pretending their list is longer than one name, so at this point, Auburn is in a coaching search. It just so happens that the coach at the top of their list is the same one that A&M is after, and Auburn fan, if you think that Tubs is going to stay making little more than half of what the coach in Tuscaloosa is making…well, I’ve got the other half of a national championship you’ve been looking for for half a century. The way I see it playing out, Tubs is going to go back to the BOT and say, “Hey, they want me over there for twice what you are paying me, but I love you guys, so I’ll do it for just a dollar more than Saban’s making.” And Bobby Lowder will say, “Sure thing, Tommy” and then draw up some contract with an insulting number of conditions and restrictions so that when Tubs walks, Lowder can say we offered him what he wanted–and probably toss in some nonsense about being an academic university first–so Tuberville gets to look like the bad guy.

The next group of coaches are gone, daddy, gone.

1) Tennessee - I don’t want to see Fulmer go. For better or for worse, he is one of the last four coaches who actually wouldn’t leave there team for a boatload of money (for the record, the other three are Bowden, Paterno, and Jim Leavitt). Love him or hate him, you have to respect that level of dedication, especially since it is almost never rewarded anymore. But the fact is, no one in power believes that Saban is going to take over the SEC completely, but they all acknowledge that Alabama isn’t a gimme anymore, and if you take away wins over the Tide the last few years, Tennessee’s record looks a lot more mediocre.

2) Arkansas - The Razorbacks are eliminated from the SEC West race, putting them in exclusive company with Ole Miss. And unlike Tennessee, Houston Nutt doesn’t have the bright lights of a promising basketball season to distract them from the mess that is his football program. As it is, he’s one season removed from winning the SEC West and he probably can’t even trust his meal at a restaurant. Now that he’s a matchup with LSU away from a losing record in conference, he’s dead man walking. Of course, he can take solace in the fact that if he loses to Tennessee this weekend, he might not be around to lose to LSU.

3) Ole Miss - I hate to see this. He’s so entertaining and doggone loveable. But unfortunately, his supposed recruiting machine can’t get the kids qualified, and frankly, if you can’t qualify kids to receive an education in Mississippi, maybe your reputation is a bit undeserved. You simply can’t go winless in conference three years into your coaching tenure anywhere, and if they let you stay, it only further reinforces the mistake they made when they fired David Cutcliffe. Though to be fair, you never hear an Ole Miss fan or representative bring up the fact that Cutcliffe sat out the next season due to heart problems.

All in all, a quarter of the league is guaranteed to turn, and I won’t be surprised to see five new coaches in the league next year.

-TideFanInTN

UPDATE (11/6/2007) - Pete Fuitak of College Football News

has his own opinion on the coaching situation. He and I do not agree on most of the coaches in the SEC. His list includes all 119 jobs in Division 1-A (or The Bowl Subdivision. Whatever).

Never have I been more proud to be a Bama fan

First off, I’m only 21 and was not around for much of the glory days.  I never saw Bear Bryant, don’t know much about Perkins or Curry, or really care for that matter.  But since I can remember, Alabama football has been my life.  I don’t remember the ‘93 championship game (although I’ve seen the game a million times).  I don’t really know what it’s like to be on top of the football world as a fan like some of the older Bama fans do.  My first real memories of Alabama football came in the mid to late 90s, with names such as Shaun Alexander, Fernando Bryant, Chris Samuels, Paul Hogan, etc.  My first Bama game was as a small child, the ‘89 Iron Bowl, but I don’t remember anything about it.  It wasn’t until the 2003 Oklahoma game that I attended my first game that I will forever remember.  

My favorite Tide player, Shaun Alexander stiff arms a UT defender.

Although my years as an Alabama fan have been few, I know about the history and tradition and all the championships, etc.  It kinda comes with being a Bama fan I guess.  Even though I know those were the days, Saturday was my proudest moment.  They say that there are no moral victories in football.  Fair enough.  But for me, I look at it as inspiration and desire.  As heart.  As pride.  I know we lost, and I know we probably should have won, but what I saw on that field Saturday night against #3 LSU was like nothing else.  In all my years of watching Bama football I have never seen a team compete like that.  There were so many highs and lows of that game.  I’m just used to seeing my team fall apart when something went wrong and never recover.  But Saturday was a different day, a new day.  I saw a team that was heavily mismatched but who bounced back time and time again.  

I’ve been to several Alabama games since 2003 and I’ve never seen our fans like they were.  I’ve never seen our players act or show emotion like they were.  I’ve never heard a louder stadium and I’ve been to many loud ones before.  When Javier Arenas returned a 4th quarter punt for a touchdown, Bryant-Denny Stadium was shaking, literally.  I sat right in front of our band, as I always do, and could not hear them playing “Yea, Alabama” at all.  I stood there in disbelief as I looked around and saw people going crazy.  Recruits were going crazy, our players and coaches were going crazy, heck even the old folks that sit on their hands the entire game were going crazy.  At that point I knew that this is what made Alabama football so great for so long.  I felt like I was in the game, playing every snap, trading blood and sweat between the trenches.  It was like a heavy weight fight, Ali versus Frazier, or a scene from Rocky.  The movie “Crimson Tide” kept popping into my head when Capt. Ramsey and crew chant, “Go Bama, Roll Tide!” 

Capt. Ramsey addressing his crew before boarding the USS Alabama.

As I left Bryant-Denny Stadium Saturday night, I couldn’t help but smile.  I was proud of my team.  I was proud to be a Bama fan.  I was proud that LSU fans were so happy to beat us.  I was proud that the LSU players were mocking our crowd.  The reason, well, it’s really quite simple.  Alabama is once again hated by everyone but Bama fans.  Alabama is now the story on every news station.  Alabama is now gaining back all the respect they lost over the past decade and a half.  It’s a new day, and even though I missed the glory days, I have a feeling that this is what it felt like;  and I like it.        

The Capstone King

Catching up with: Clint Stoerner

As Houston Nutt brings his Arkansas Razorbacks into Neyland Stadium for this week’s 11:30 showdown against Tennessee, we at 3SIB thought we’d revisit some happier times for the Tennessee football program. We thought we’d try to track down one of the most valuable players from the Vols’ 1998 National Championship season, former Arkansas quarterback Clint Stoerner. Clinging to a 24-22 lead late in the fourth quarter of a game of unbeatens deep into November that year, all the Hogs needed was a first down to salt away the game. But on second down, Stoerner rolled out, stumbled and dropped the ball with nobody touching him with 1:43 remaining. The Vols recovered and drove for the winning touchdown to give them a 28-24 improbable victory that helped catapult them to the first ever BCS title.

Nine years later, several professional football stops has not lessened the pain Stoerner will forever feel.

A Big Orange Hero Revisited

By Ghost of Neyland

BALD KNOB, Ark. – Deep in the dingy basement of an Asian massage parlor in this dusty town, a man’s 30-year-old hands fumble rolling paper as he tries to make the day’s first cigarette.

The man is shirtless, unshaven, and his long hair hangs like a hundred tiny nooses around his bloodshot eyes. A nearly-empty bottle of George Dickel sits on the nightstand beside a loaded Ruger and a crumpled tobacco tin. A heavily tattooed Asian hooker is asleep on the far side of a double bed stained with coffee and forgotten nights.

He picks up the ruined flakes of tobacco that have scattered on the cot he shares with Ming Pow, the owner and madam who runs the hideaway “massage parlor” on Honey Holler Road.

“Ain’t the first thing I fumbled,” Clint Stoerner says, shaking his head and crumpling the cigarette into a wispy mush of tobacco before flinging it across the room.

“Guess that’s all you need to see, huh? Fits my life.”

Stoerner scratches the scars on two fingers on his right hand, the ones he tried to sever with a bottle opener late last March after one hallucinogenic memory of that 1998 game — the one that made him a legend in one SEC town and a loser in another.

Pulling on dirty boxer-briefs, Stoerner rises from the bed, briefly waking his mistress. He darts for the far side of the tiny room where a refrigerator stands between tables stacked with dirty dishes and dirty magazines.

Alabama-LSU Live Blog

Or “CD tries the Impossible: Live-Blogging while watching his 9 month old Son”

3:55 - My first attempt at live-blogging. As serious as I get during football games, if this resembles anything humorous it will be a minor miracle. The house is a wreck, I pray Crimson Mama doesn’t come home before the game is over. I’ve been at home alone all day with Bear Jr. All I can say is thank goodness for DVR….

4:00 - And right on cue, kickoff and Bear Jr. is upset. (Sigh) Pause…..

4:20 - So now technically this is no longer a “live” blog. That was on ordeal. I force-fed him a bottle and put him down for a nap. If I get through this game before midnight, I’ll be lucky. Since I’m behind on the time, I’ll just post by Quarters. I love DVR, but it doesn’t feel right yelling at a player for something that actually happened about 30 minutes ago….

First Quarter

I told Boomtown a few weeks back that for Bama to have a chance that we must be +2 in turnover margin and Arenas has to have a big play in the return department…