If you follow college football much, you've probably observed hand-wringing about the number of black coaches. And this is fair. There are only (with the hiring of New Mexico's new coach) four out of 118 head coaches who are black in a sport where about half the players are black. (What I wonder is: where does the disparity start? How many black assistant coaches are there? If there aren't enough black coaches on that level, then there's where any changes would need to start, because it's no use trying to increase the number of head coaches if there just aren't qualified guys.)
Plus, if you look at the case of Auburn, there's clearly a problem. On the one hand, they could have hired Turner Gill, who took the historically terrible Buffalo program to a conference championship (by soundly beating the formerly unbeaten Ball State) and their FIRST EVER bowl game. On the other hand, they had Gene Chizik, who took the historically terrible Iowa State program, which had comparatively flourished under its previous coach, back to its regularly-scheduled terribleness, winning 5 games in two years, including ending this season on a 10-game losing streak. Aaaaaand they picked Chizik. (Hint: this was a stupid hire no matter who else was in the running. Of course, you'd expect a stupid hire from the athletic department who forced out Tommy Tuberville for having one mediocre season. Idiots.)
Just because Charles Barkley agrees with me doesn't mean I'm wrong.
However!
This is not the only way in which college football hiring is, as indicated, unfair.
Mike Leach is still the coach at Texas Tech, despite having a really great season and putting himself out there for a whole bunch of jobs. It really seems like he wanted to leave, so why didn't anybody take him?
The answer: he's weird. (Google search "Mike Leach weird." You will come up with many relevant pages.)
Clearly, atheletic diretors look at his record, look at what he's done with a school with a lot of disadvantages (facilities, location, history, neighboring powerhouses), and despite all the good that says about him, once they interview him or get him on the phone, they're like " . . . Nah."
Example the second!
What kind of coach gets mentioned for vacancies? Picture this guy: he coaches under Jim Tressel, Bill Snyder during the good years at K-State, then becomes offensive coordinator for a team that wins the national championship. He then becomes the head coach at a major conference school, though one that has traditionally languished in mediocrity, but after a few years, takes it to a BCS bowl. Wouldn't the guy you pictured come up in every Coaching Carousel discussion?
What if you pictured him like this:
Seriously--nobody talks about Mark Mangino as highly sought-after. And when you think about it, why not? I contend that it's because, you know, He Big.
Do the bird-people’s tree(?)-houses have roofs?
2 hours ago
4 comments:
Mike Leach is crazy, but people here LOVE him...including me. I have a pirate sign in my front window. Leach may, in fact, want to stay in Lubbock. Crazy, I know, but it seems to suit him. No one would embrace his insanity like we have. And if he screws up somewhere else, he could easily be let go, where we'll probably give him as many chances as he needs. We love it when he goes for it on 4th and 8, even if we don't get it. And we also love pirates...a lot.
Well, the reason I feel like he doesn't want to stay in Lubbock is because he puts himself out there for lots of jobs. He goes on interviews and he talks to other athletic departments on the phone.
That said, I do think he and Tech are a good fit for each other, both being kind of offbeat. I don't think he's unhappy there, at least as far as the recruits or fanbase are concerned, I think it's just a case of his being ambitious and always wanting the bigger job--which is how many good coaches operate.
Yeah, makes sense. I know it's only a matter of time before he leaves for a bigger and better market. Just seems like he would've taken the UCLA job last year if he really wanted to leave, being a West Coast guy and all. I'm sure he's just playing crazy mind games...with other schools and Tech. The man is certifiably insane.
OMG this is awesome.
It's awesome because it's true.
But it is awesomer for the following reason.
I was reading my "other" blogs - sports, uni-related stuff, and other non-news non-political stuff. And this one slipped in there with them, and I thought it was from an ESPN writer.
I love Rachel.
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