POST SEASON
Frank
Solich fired.
You had to see this one coming.
From the day he was introduced as the successor to Tom Osborne, he had
the look of a 5’5” person in about 6’ of water.
Throw a new AD into the mix and he never had a chance. Hiring the loyal assistant of a departing
legend is not always the best way to go.
Look for Penn State to make the same mistake whenever Joe Paterno becomes momentarily lucid enough to realize he has
no football players, no chance of winning and no idea whatsoever why he is
still coaching. Fran Ganter
will then proceed to oversee the Nittany’s continued
slide into the second division of the Big Ten.
In his time at the Cornhusker helm Solich
exhibited almost as much charisma and excitement as the Nebraska offense. Running
the option and throwing only out of desperation, not only won’t win in the Big
12, it won’t attract the out of state talent needed to feed the Husker
machine. They can recruit all the
instate talent they want, but without some out of state speed they won’t beat Iowa State. How many
DB’s, or receivers want to leave Florida, California
or Texas, to run the Husker’s 1960’s offense in beautiful Lincoln, Nebraska. Nebraska needs to be able to recruit nationally. They are the only traditional power in a
small-population state. OK, but the Sooners recruit
heavily from Baja Oklahoma, known to some as Texas. Think about
it …. All of your powerhouses are in or near big population bases and/or
hotbeds of high school football. Nebraska is a small state surrounded by small states. This job may not be the plum the Nebraska faithful think it to be. Will the Husker Nation insist that their new
leader have Nebraska bloodlines? If
so, how about Barry
Alvarez? Does Barry really want this
headache badly enough to leave his dual role as AD and football coach at Wisconsin? ESPN analyst Trev Alberts seems to know
everything there is to know about college football, or at least thinks he does
and is a Husker. Just because he was
the biggest bust in the NFL since Tony Mandarich
should not keep him from taking this job AND GETTING THE HELL OFF ESPN!!! OK, just wishful thinking on my part. Tampa Bay Defensive Coordinator Monte Kiffen is highly regarded and played for the Huskers.
However, he played for Bob Devaney way, way, way back
in 1959-1963. How old that would make
him is beyond my limited math skills, but anyone eligible for social security
should is unlikely to provide the new blood this program needs. Nebraska needs change and a big name. Given the connection to AD Steve Pederson,
Walt Harris is an obvious candidate.
Despite his train wreck of a game plan against Miami last week, Harris’ reputation as an offensive guru
survives. Harris, however, impresses me
as a guy who often outthinks himself.
Using the best receiver in college football exclusively as a decoy made
as much sense as using the A-Bomb as a distraction while our infantry stormed
the beaches of Japan. Miami thanks you very much.
Memo to Walt: You got a horse…. Ride the horse. If not Harris, how about
his old boss? John Cooper has
proven to be a masterful recruiter, could easily adapt his Tennessee twang to a rural plains brogue. With OU in the southern division of the Big
12, Nebraska does not have the one huge rival for Coop to lose to…… EVERY
DAMN TIME!! Excuse me but 2-10-1 leaves some wounds which are slow to heal. Maybe Jim Colletto
is available (why the hell wouldn’t he be available?) to be the Offensive
Coordinator. We might even see old Bill
Young bring back his infamous Read, React and (Get) Run
over defense. And best of all, this
could mean a return to the airwaves, via KORN TV, for the lovely Cindy Cooper. I assume, by now, Cindy has completed her
English as a second language program.
Mike Stoops to Arizona. This will be
interesting. Duplicating brother Bob’s success would seem out of the question, but
winning the Pac 10 might not be.
Presently only USC plays defense in that league and they seem to be
doing pretty well. Still Mike seems to
lack Bob’s presence. Maybe it’s me, but
Mike seems to play “the Beav” to Bob’s “Wally”. We shall see.
If you saw the Florida - Florida State game did you feel that it was the same ACC
officiating crew who stumbled blindly around Ohio Stadium on September 13? It had to be didn’t it? No conference could
have two crews that bad, could they?
Notre Dame abused Stanford in the Tyrone Bowl by a
score of 57-7. Still the question looms as to which school
is happier that Coach Willingham is at Notre Dame. 57 points, fake punts in
the 4th quarter, what gives Coach T? Who are you mad at? You weren’t fired, you left Stanford of your own volition. Are you angry that Stanford let you go to
Notre Dame?
Not
that anyone cares, but the University of Cincinnati fired Rick Minter as they attempt to upgrade to what is left of the
Big East. Minter may have committed the
sin of embarrassing Bob Huggins by graduating more players than Huggy has. One would
be more. But in Huggins’ defense, it is
difficult for an 18-20 year old to find time to go to class what with
basketball practice, community service and meetings with parole officers all
interfering.
Tommy
Tuberville’s situation at Auburn took an interesting twist. Tuberville was told he could
keep his job, only after his university president made a not-so secret trip to Louisville to try to lure the UL coach du
jour, Bobby Petrino to Auburn. Louisville seems to have issues with discretion. Didn’t word leak out at half time of their
bowl game last year that John L. Smith was leaving for Michigan Stateas soons as the Gatorade was
dry. Tuberville
was the one who helped his assistant, Petrino, get the Louisville job in the first place. So much for loyalty.
Although, previously thought to be impossible, the coaching soap opera in Auburn and
at Alabama, has managed
to make the rest of the SEC look respectable.
All of a
sudden LSU looks slightly awesome. Now
they get to play a Georgia team they have already beaten this year. By beating them again, the Tigers will knock Georgia out of the top ten and cost themselves precious BCS
quality-win points. Losing would be
worse. Maybe LSU should pull a TCU and
schedule final exams this Saturday so they could pull out of the SEC
Championship game for academic reasons.
I’m sorry, I just used the word academic in the
same sentence as SEC. I’m sure that
violates some grammatical rule if not a law of nature.