Nearly 5 years later, we can already say that the 2017 coaching cycle was a total train wreck
I’ve grown to hate grading coach hires.
Analyzing them is one thing. That, I love. If you want a list of candidates within an hour of a job becoming available, I’m your guy. If you want to discuss how a new coach’s offense will mesh with the current personnel, tell me the time and the place you want to break that down.
But grading hires? Meh, no thanks.
I get it. It’s part of the job. We’re asked to make wholesale judgments based on a coach’s track record and not necessarily how they’ll handle the peaks and valleys of the job that awaits. The latter is nearly impossible.
“Hate” might be a strong word, but after a decade writing about college football, I realized that it’s OK to not have an immediate definitive take on whether a hire will succeed or fail.
There’s no better example of this than the 2017 coaching cycle.
If you recall, 12 different Power 5 programs made head coaching hires following the 2017 season. Well, I suppose that number is 13 if you include Matt Luke shedding his interim tag and getting the full-time gig in wake of the Hugh Freeze fallout at Ole Miss. In case you forgot, here’s who took a Power 5 gig following the 2017 season:
- Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M
- Scott Frost, Nebraska
- Dan Mullen, Florida
- Chip Kelly, UCLA
- Willie Taggart, Florida State
- Kevin Sumlin, Arizona
- Jonathan Smith, Oregon State
- Herm Edwards, Arizona State
- Joe Moorhead, Mississippi State
- Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee
- Chad Morris, Arkansas
- Mario Cristobal, Oregon
- Matt Luke, Ole Miss
Of those 13 head coaches, only Fisher, Frost, Kelly, Edwards and Smith are currently at their respective schools. In other words, only 5 of 13 reached Year 5. Two of those remaining 5 — Frost and Edwards — enter Year 5 firmly on the hot seat while Kelly’s seat cooled after a late 2021 push. Fisher will get a Year 6 because A&M isn’t about to fork over $86 million to fire him at season’s end (that’s a real number) and Smith is quietly one of the on-the-rise coaches after he led the Beavers to their first winning record in Pac-12 play since 2012.
Cristobal is the outlier here because he’s the only one of those 13 coaches who decided to leave for another Power 5 job. As in, without getting fired.
It sort of begs the question — how many of these fanbases would actually speak positively about their 2017 hires? I’d say at least 1 (Smith) and you could debate Fisher, Cristobal and Kelly. Even if Oregon fans appreciated Cristobal while he was in Eugene, I’d hardly argue a top-15 season and a post-Year 4 exit to Coral Gables would be considered a unanimous success, especially on the heels of Taggart’s 1-and-done.
Of those 13 Power 5 coaches from the 2017 cycle, 6 of them were gone by the end of Year 3, including 4 (Taggart, Moorhead, Morris and Luke) who didn’t coach in the 2020s. Instead, they got hefty buyouts after their short stints (before offset money was factored in):
- Moorhead — $7 million
- Luke — $9.6 million
- Morris — $10 million
- Taggart — $18 million
Including Mullen ($12 million) and Sumlin ($7 million), the fired coaches from that group of 13 were owed a combined $63.6 million in buyouts so far. That’s not including the $12.6 million that Pruitt would’ve earned if he was fired without cause, nor does it factor in the offset money in those contracts.
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Speaking of coaches who got buyouts, I may or may not have had my Moorhead hiring column appear in this Old Takes Exposed video, which was made to show how every 2017 move was being called “a home-run hire.”
New @captionedvideo: So far, almost every CFB hire has been a “home run.” Congrats to all! pic.twitter.com/TCH30zoW7a
— Freezing Cold Takes (@OldTakesExposed) December 5, 2017
Note that Old Takes Exposed made that video while the 2017 cycle was still in full swing. We got Cold Take’d before they coached a game! That’s how overly optimistic the 2017 cycle was.
(I’ll go to my grave saying that Moorhead deserved more than 2 years at MSU, regardless of what happens with Mike Leach. Still, I ate some crow for saying that Moorhead be a home run … and that he would win 10 regular season games in Year 1.)
What made me think about this cycle and the erased optimism was when Tennessee got its notice of allegations from the NCAA. A coup to get Jeremy Pruitt fired without paying that $12.6 million buyout resulted in the NCAA uncovering 18 Level-I violations, which was more than the 16 games he won during his 3 years in Knoxville. I debated with colleagues whether it was the worst SEC hire of the 21st century. In my opinion, though, it wasn’t even the worst SEC hire of the cycle.
Why? Arkansas agreed to pay Morris $18 million for 2 years of work in which he failed to win an SEC game. That’ll be hard to top. At the time, though, nobody would’ve seen an ending like that.
Bill Bender, who does great work for Sporting News, ranked all the hires in the 2017 cycle. In terms of just the Power 5 moves, here’s what his ranking was back in 2017:
- Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M
- Scott Frost, Nebraska
- Chip Kelly, UCLA
- Dan Mullen, Florida
- Kevin Sumlin, Arizona
- Willie Taggart, FSU
- Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee
- Chad Morris, Arkansas
- Joe Moorhead, MSU
- Mario Cristobal, Oregon
- Jonathan Smith, Oregon State
- Matt Luke, Ole Miss
- Herm Edwards, Arizona State
I’m gonna give my guy Bill some credit here. In a cycle that ended up being loaded with turnover, his top 3 are at least all still at their respective schools (for now). Fisher ended up being the correct pick almost by default. The fact that he got over the Nick Saban hurdle and signed the highest-rated recruiting class of the 21st century suggests his best years could be forthcoming. He might not have gotten A&M to Atlanta yet, but in 2020, he led A&M to its best AP Poll finish since 1939. That has to count for something.
Personally, my 2017 ranking would’ve had Moorhead at least in the top 5 and perhaps even higher. I, too, would’ve been low on Cristobal, AKA the guy who was fired at FIU and was an in-house promotion after Taggart bolted for FSU after 1 season.
It seems only fair that I examine the 2017 cycle with some revisionist history based on the way these last (nearly) 5 years played out. Here’s a re-ranking of the 2017 cycle based on the way these coaches fared:
- Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M
- Mario Cristobal, Oregon
- Jonathan Smith, Oregon State
- Dan Mullen, Florida
- Chip Kelly, UCLA
- Herm Edwards, Arizona State
- Joe Moorhead, MSU
- Matt Luke, Ole Miss
- Scott Frost, Nebraska
- Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee
- Willie Taggart, FSU
- Kevin Sumlin, Arizona
- Chad Morris, Arkansas
I know, I know. How could 3 coaches be worse than Pruitt? So easily we forget that Pruitt at least delivered an 8-win season and had a winning record in SEC play in Year 2. That was quite the turnaround after 2017 was a dumpster fire that included a winless SEC season and a fiasco of a coaching search that ended with Pruitt getting the job.
Yes, Pruitt was bad at cheating and he bungled Tennessee’s quarterback room in horrific fashion, but the Vols at least won a Florida bowl game. If they escape his 18 Level-I violations without a bowl ban, I’d argue that the initial hire wasn’t as bad as some made it out to be. It was just an awful extension.
If Cristobal had stayed at Oregon instead of leaving for his alma mater, I would’ve put him at No. 1. But part of revisionist history is examining what a coach did to elevate the program, and it’s hard to say a guy leaving a proud program after 4 years made that job more appealing. That’s why I had Smith ahead of Mullen. Sure, Smith might not have won multiple New Year’s 6 Bowls like Mullen, but that wasn’t the bar to meet at Oregon State. Mullen didn’t elevate his program’s talent level, and he ultimately failed to change the national reputation of the Gators with their never-ending, post-Steve Spurrier era need to find some stability at head coach.
What’s crazy is that if you were ranking 2017 coaching cycle hires strictly based on wins, there’s a pretty steep drop-off after Cristobal, Fisher and Mullen:
- 1. Cristobal, 35 wins
- T2. Mullen, 34 wins
- T2. Fisher, 34 wins
- 4. Edwards, 25 wins
- 5. Kelly, 18 wins
- T6. Pruitt, 16 wins
- T6. Smith, 16 wins
- 8. Frost, 15 wins
- 9. Moorhead, 14 wins
- T10. Taggart, 9 wins
- T10. Luke, 9 wins (excluding 2017 interim season)
- T10. Sumlin, 9 wins
- 13. Morris, 4 wins
Yes, a pandemic-shortened 2020 season impacted those totals. Still, though. Cristobal was the only coach in that group to win a conference title. Those 13 coaches earned a combined 2 top-5 finishes and just 8 AP Top 25 finishes.
Nobody in their right mind would’ve predicted that kind of turnout for the 2017 coaching cycle. And to be fair, there were some solid Group of 5 hires mixed in like Billy Napier, Josh Heupel, and Sonny Dykes, all of whom have since moved on to Power 5 programs. But as a whole, the 2017 coaching cycle was wildly disappointing.
Consider that a reason why it’s unlikely the 2021 cycle will meet our high expectations. Those expectations are high because there were vacancies at 8 programs who played for a national title in the 21st century (Michael Vick-led Virginia Tech played for a natty on Jan. 4, 2000):
- Oklahoma
- LSU
- Notre Dame
- USC
- Oregon
- Florida
- Virginia Tech
- Miami (FL)
History tells us that between Cristobal, Napier, Brian Kelly, Brent Venables, Marcus Freeman, Dan Lanning, Brent Pry and Lincoln Riley, not everyone will be a home-run hire. Some will be whiffs, others will make solid contact and a few will knock it out of the park. Program prestige doesn’t guarantee success, and neither does a promising Year 1.
That 2017 cycle should forever serve as a cautionary tale. Even the obvious moves like Frost returning to his alma mater, as great of a story as it was, wasn’t necessarily destined for success. This sport doesn’t care who you are or what you’ve done. Anyone can be chewed up and spit out.
Sometimes all it takes is too much faith in a quarterback (Frost with Adrian Martinez) or too much faith in a coordinator (Mullen with Todd Grantham). Sometimes the rebuild is too much (Taggart at FSU) or the previous success was overvalued (Morris having 1 good year at SMU).
It’s much easier to talk ourselves into hires than not because we assume that everyone will learn from the mistakes of their predecessors. In reality, we never truly know how a hire will turn out. All we can do is look back. It’s not too early to look back on the 2017 cycle and come to a consensus conclusion.
It was one giant swing and a miss.
Pruitt may be the worst hire in UT history but it’s very close between he and D.Dooley. UT may or may not have the worst hire ever. That’s arguable for both Dooley and Pruitt but there probably isn’t that much competition for worst string of coaching hires ever. With kiffin, Dooley, Jones and Pruitt we have a hall of fame for terrible coaches position locked up. Kiffin was only a bad hire because there was no way that staff was going to stay at UT.
John L. Smith is saying, “Hold my beer!”
The post game interview from Smith after the beat down from Bama was classic. Smile, just smile. Deer in the headlights.
IMO JLS gets a pass. He wasn’t a hire but a seat warmer. The University HAD to fire BP in April after the full details of that situation came to light.
There was no real candidate available and if the Hogs hired someone it would not have been a top tier candidate. They asked JLS to lead the program until the end of the season because he was the one on the staff that had head coaching experience and was supposed to be a caretaker. There was still a lot of the talent from the previous, successful season on the roster with an experienced QB. The general consensus was JLS would keep the team going in the same general direction.
When the actual status of the lack of depth of talent (and nothing in the pipeline) came to light. JLS was in a no-win situation. He did at least lead the Hogs to at least one SEC win in that year. That was a bad season, but not as horrible as the disaster of the CM error.
The cratering of the Razorback program can be traced to the Bobby Petrino situation. Recruiting had gone in a bad direction the class right before the crash. There was very little depth on the roster in SEC quality offensive and defensive line talent. I almost believe that CBP *wanted* to get fired because he knew that he had built a house of cards that would finally expose him for the charlatan that he was.
Beliema was a band-aid. When he had Pittman on staff, at least the o-line recruiting was SEC level. Once Pittman left to Georgia, Coach Bert was exposed.
It took a decade, but I’m so thankful that the Hogs have Pittman now.
UF has a strong argument about worst string of coaching hires ever. Will Sunbelt Billy be crowned King Gator Clown IV? I think so.
As a Dawg fan I hope your right. Lol.
Me personally, I think Coach Napier will bring much needed stability to a program that got gutted last year.
Not even close like fuzzy explained above. But I understand your obsession being a Georgia Moron and all
Awww…. You guys loved MuLLLLLLLen….
2008!
Look at all the Georgia Morons bringing up Mullen and past coaches when our current coach is hauling in Florida talent galore.
More proof why you are obsessed Morons
Nope, but I understand your angst.
Muschamp should’ve gotten another year. I believed that then and still do. McElwain was a bust. Mullen won a lot, he just wasn’t there personally.
Napier, I’ll let you know in a few years.
Muschamp should not have ever been hired. He failed miserable at two(2) SEC schools: Florida & South Carolina. His “greatness” as the DC at Texas was masked by the elite athletes on those “D” units. It is easier to run a defense when you’re loaded with elite players. He was a miserable head coach, period.
What do you consider a string, because as bad as the hires may have been, they were no way worse than Ray Goff and Jim Donnan? By the way one of those that you call a “clown” is a Georgia alum and your current co-defensive coordinator.
Goofy Goff was in way over his head. He had no business being a head coach. Donnan wasn’t a disaster but he wasn’t very good. As far as Muschamp, he’s a very good DC and he played a big part in UGA winning the Natty last year. The UF fans are the ones that are always hating on him here and calling him a clown.Just going by what you guys call him.
I don’t think he was a very good head coach, but he’s one heck of a defensive coach and a good guy. He’s definitely no clown.
Just know when you say things like “King Gator Clown IV” you are calling him a clown. I’m not on here that much anymore, but I’ve never heard a Gator fan IRL call him a clown.
I think that the bama coaching hires between Stallings and Saban might eclipse the Florida streak. And I’m sure my bama friends would agree. It can happen to any school.
Dennis Franchione MAY have been a decent hire. But once the NCAA penalties came down, and he snuck off, Bama was pretty much stuck with whoever would take the job. I really don’t blame Shula, he was just totally unready for the job, but took it and the lumps that came with it.
Cornbread’s time in Knoxville can be compared to Muschamp’s time at Florida & at South Carolina. Both of them tried to micro-manage every aspect of the football program and both failed miserably as head coaches. It is refreshing that Cornbread was fired with-cause, avoiding paying him one dime. Muschamp pocketed strong buyouts from both Florida & South Carolina($12,5 million from the Cocks). Concerning Lane Kiffin @ Tennessee…I actually believe he would have been successful there, but that Sou. Remember that the Vols were one blocked FG away from beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa in Lane’s one season at Tennessee. The Sou-Cal job was home for him & he took it.
but that Sou.=my oops.
I’m grateful that Kiffin moved on from UT. That guy can ruin your Saturday afternoon.
How could you forget about the verbal offer to Greg Schiano and the massive blowback causing a turnabout to the Pruitt hire? It’s hilarious looking back at Mark Nagi’s SDS article titled, “What if Tennessee had hired Greg Schiano? A whimsical look at a disaster avoided”
The whole Schiano fiasco was an ad hominem argument from the start. The Penn state virtue signaling was an excuse.
The bottom line is no one liked him. When the layers of the onion are peeled back, you will see that no other power 5 was trying to hire the guy. He didn’t have the best reputation. Even a year after the UT mess OSU passed on him.
Schiano would have had Pruitts record without the 18 level 1 infractions.
The point being that disaster was not avoided. Pruitt was as bad as any coach that could have been hired that cycle.
I don’t think Dooley had much of a chance from the start considering the circumstances under which he was hired. He was UT’s equivalent of Mike Shula. I don’t have any ill will toward Kiffin either. Who wouldn’t take an offer from USC? But Jones and Pruitt put UT even further behind the 8 ball than was necessary.
It was very poor timing to be bad/mediocre during these last 15 years when the game has changed so much (especially in the last two with NIL). I hope UT can, but I’m not sure UT will ever get back to the elite level of Bama and UGa.
Pruitt was worse than Dooley. Both were bad coaches but Pruitt was a cheater and a scumbag. Dooley was not.
There can be discussions, debates and “yeah buts”. Nothing can dispute the fact that Morris is BY FAR the worst in SEC history, maybe D1 history. Seems undisputable with this list. But, still Morris is a multi millionaire. What a profession.
The only positive about Morris is at least he didn’t put the program on probation and leave it in total shambles. Arkansas was able to turn things around in two years. Many other programs are still reeling from bad hires years ago. Recovery isn’t automatic. Sam more than makes up for Morris.
That positive was his recruiting classes. Many of those kids are still with the program and some are starters. KJ, Pool, Catalon, Stromberg, Limmer, just to name a few. The 2019 class was one of the better classes in hog history.
nice take…and maybe the only positive spin, commentary i’ve ever seen from someone concerning morris’ time at ark. from a afar, the worst sec hire is not actually a coach, but an AD. jeff long.
ark certainly had some nice success under petrino under that 1-2 yr run….but the more we learn about long and what an actual pos he is…he’s #1. i’ll admit that my take possesses a layer of bias though
My idea of a buyout amount for any head football coach in any conference is & has been for many years now “One Years Salary”. But it’s quite obvious that no Athletic Director has read my posts. As the saying goes “It’s easy to spend someone else’s money”.
Except your “idea” isn’t how it works, that’s not how any of this works.
Of all the schools hiring, I really thought that Texas A&M, Florida, Nebraska, and UCLA made the best hires they could. All the rest seemed iffy. I don’t think much has changed other than Cristobal and Smith look better than I thought they would.
Maybe the last name being Smith was so simple and short and might be what people are missing these days! LOL
Mullen disliked recruiting, the life blood of college football. And he is very arrogant. I thought it was a great hire, boy was I wrong.
Me too. I thought when they hired Mullen that the dawgs run was about to be over before it had barely got started. And that ego. Glad he thought he was above having to work at recruiting.
They were blinded by his success with Prescott at qb.
Mullen seemed to buy into all the press clippings declaring him a QB whisperer and play calling genius.
Look at what he did with Chris Relf and Nick Fitzgerald.
Yeah, but Connor, nothing was funnier than writers at this site and FU ‘turds everywhere who spent so much time and wasted breath trying to convince everyone that Sideshow Dan the Clown was a better coach than Kirby.
That he was a better gameday coach AND developer of talent than Kirby, neither of which was or would be true.
Y’all’s paper thin arguments trying to prop up Cousin Eddie were hilarious and constantly and easily refuted, but dang it, y’all just couldn’t quit Dan MuLLLLen, well, until you could. The y’all here and Floriduh fans everywhere turned on him fast than a rattlesnake.
Must be some kind of lesson there, but I’ll leave it to y’all former Sideshow Dan lovers to figure out.
GO DAWGS!!!
Only thing paper thin
Is your opinion chump… you act like an obsessed stalker as you just can’t stop worrying about Florida . To be honest it seems you have a man crush on Mullen as all you can ever do is keep going back to him.. Mullen is no longer at uf so why do you obsess so much over him ?
At the end of the day more is greater than less as uf still has more nattys than back door u.. so now it’s time to go crawl back under your bridge troll ! 2062 will be here before you know it for that next natty on the 41 year plan
Gatorfan8115, that’s what happens when all you’ve got is emotion masquerading for intellect. Good thing Mullen wasn’t POTUS….Corch would hold him responsible for the War of 1812!
Haha good one docgator!
This chump
Irvin has one serious man crush on Mullen
Obsessed stalker and Mullen man crush. Your typical Georgia Moron in display. Well put
LOL. Hey, y’all remember when NoCajones completely disappeared from this site on the last weekend in October 2021 and didn’t return until after the SEC Title Game, and then told everyone how Georgia would get “destroyed” by Michigan and then how we would get “destroyed” by Bama. And then he disappeared again after 10-Jan-22 for awhile?
Welcome back, NoCajones. How was your spring and early summer?
As the famous SNL line says, Corch you ignorant troll. Your memory fails you and you resort to making up sheet. Why are you all over Florida recruiting articles babbling about Mullen. Moron
He’s right. You bail every year. Trolling is tough when you’re a loser.
Agree that Corch is a loser but you need to learn the definition of trolling dummy
Paper. Thin.
Y’all all, dumb ‘turds and sports writers alike, ignored Sideshow Dan the Clown’s record vs. the SEC and against the top-25 while in Starkville. If he truly “did more with less” as y’all claimed for four years, then why was his record in games that mattered at Mississippi State so far below .500 as to be completely underwater?
Y’all never could answer that.
Y’all also ignored all the 3-stars that Kirby turned into 1st round draft picks and how he even took a 2-star RB and turned him into an all-SEC LB who now starts for the NY Giants, not to mention Kirby’s ownage of MuLLLLen on the field, which negates the idea that Cousin Eddie is a better gameday coach.
Paper thin is being generous. How about: Straight up lies, instead?
in his defense, mullen was a central point of this article….and there was a lot of talk about him being supreme to smart. is he crowing? sure, but his comments are relative to the article…and the fact that mullen was heralded as a homerun hire was in fact a bad take
I’d still opine that as far as the X’s and O’s go, Mullen had an edge over Kirby. But. Mullen had a couple of fatal personality (character) flaws that sunk him, while Kirby Smart clearly has more character assets than liabilities, if any. He needed a high-profile program like Georgia to bring them all out, whereas Dan had his character exposed at Florida. Still, he was a better hire at the time than the alternatives: A windbag and a Flash-In-the-Pan. Being one of those “former Sideshow Dan lovers” you referenced, I didn’t see it myself until halfway through 2020. Turd? I think not. Fooled? Yup.
Dan Mullen viewed himself as a Prima Donna offensive genius and the world’s greatest OC. His quirky/strange personality did not fair well when sitting in the living room of recruits so he took the easy way out, which was not recruiting very much. His best coaching days happened in Starkville, Mississippi.
No, it’s not turd, it’s ‘turd, as in Gaturd. :-)
Oh. So “FU turds” actually means “Gaturd”? As in, having a round mouth but not from eating square meals? And here I was thinking that condition was only associated with UCLA or USC. You know this from personal experience, presumably, so I’ll default to you on this one.
Taggert was FSU’s worst hire. At least dumb Dan won a few games.
True. Morris and Taggert prove that worse is a deep hole.
Can we just forget about the past and move on? Lol…Morris, some people mentioning John L Smith in the comments.
And Bama falls apart when Saban retires, just like after Bear Bryant history repeats
Unfortunately.
Roll Tide War Eagle Go Dawgs
Hotty toddy Geaux Tigers
Gig em Aggies Go Hogs ring the cowbells Rocky Top Go gators
Go Cats go gamecocks
Anchor down go Mizzou
Hiring a coach is no different that rolling the dice. A coach with an exceptional record and reputation can fail utterly when they take another job. Who knows why? A coach that was thought to be a middle hire, or a first time coach can be a homerun. Fit is important, meshing with the area, the players, and the expectations and support of the administration, can be as important as their ability to coach. They will have people doing the coaching. Also, if they have a couple of years of success, can they replace coaches that are going to naturally get jobs elsewhere. Hiring a new coach? Roll the dice.
It’s nothing like rolling the dice. That’s pure chance. If you pull a name out of a hat to hire a coach, then that’s like rolling the dice. Otherwise, with background info and history, along with an interview, you’re way different than chance. If you miss, that’s on you.
yeah, it’s nothing like rolling the dice. maybe the fact that so little actual time and research has been expensed by so many ADs/schools and the result has been a large # of horrific bad hires leads you to this conclusion, but having an opportunity to meet a person for an interview and have full access to check on references/backgrounds of those interviewed is nothing like ‘rolling the dice’
Joe Moorhead had a 10 win season in the bag if he had just stolen Mullen’s playbook. That defense was stellar, and Mullen’s offense, with the same players, put up the best time of possession in the league the year prior.
“Some will be whiffs, others will make solid contact and a few will knock it out of the park.”
On the subject of baseball, LSU welcomes transfer Paul Skenes from Air Force, an All-American utility player. Skenes joins recent transfer 3B Tommy White and returning CF Dylan Crews to give LSU’s 2023 team three 2022 All-Americans. (Just because SDS didn’t report it.)
Wow! Do you want a cookie? LOL
Now that you mention it, yes, I do want a cookie. But I need to go buy some.
Mullen gave us two good years, then seemed to mentally check out. When a coach publicly declares, “It doesn’t matter if we lose” it’s time to show him the door. Instead our AD gave him an extension.
You should be happy about that because I doubt Florida would have hired Napier!
Mrtruth – CDM lost interest, pure and simple. Then, he lost the locker room and stayed loyal to Grantham stubbornly until his hand was forced. He brought it all on himself, but had he stayed, as TrueLefty says, (a) we never would have gotten Napier and, (b) he would have imploded anyway within 2 years due to lackluster recruiting. Karma? Beats me, I just want the Gators back on track.
Conversely, 2016 was a veddy, veddy good year!
The bestest!
So.. , is a home run a good thing or not?
Well, if you’re playing baseball or on a date….. yeah!
Nobody could’ve predicted the monster that Saban created at Bama when they hired him. At Mich St., LSU & the Dolphins he was never thought of as “The Goat”. Hiring a coach is like the NFL draft, you may check all the boxes but you never know what’s actually inside until you open it up.
The Bama-Saban merger was the perfect storm of a determined coach applying a lifetime of learning in a super-rich environment. I think his rough stint in the NFL kept complacency from ever setting it. Doubt we’ll see the like again.
but it shouldn’t be like the nfl draft. there’s so much more actual data available to forecast how a coach will fare than a player…especially a player trying to make the leap from college to the nfl — or — a player trying to make the leap from hs to college.
we, as fans and society have essentially accepted that it’s either luck or happenstance if a coach pans out or not…which is sad. maybe some GMs or ADs have gotten lucky, but a lot of them are simply outstanding at their job in a profession where so many are horrifically bad.
maybe moore got lucky in his persistent pursuit of saban…but the man hit the ‘grand slam’ of grand slam hires. many ridiculed him at the time for overpaying…while the last 15 yrs have clearly shown that his initial investment in saban was the best money spent this millennium….save maybe what kraft initially spent on bellichik.
A home run on a date, don’t let that candidate get away then !
Three true outcomes: Home Run, Hot Seat, or Pay the Buyout.
You may call it debatable O’Gara, but the vast, huge, overwhelming majority of Aggies today “speak positively” about the Jimbo hire.
It’s so funny hearing the media tell A&M fans what A&M fans think, ain’t it?
Jimbo needs to shut his mouth some but good lord, compared to “deer in the headlights” Sumlin? He might as well be the second coming of Coach Slocum.
Kevin Sumlin’s genuinely atrocious performance at Arizona is exactly the reason we Aggies are willing to be very, very patient with Coach Fisher.
All I’d like this year is:
9-3
Bowl Win
Beating the tar out of LSU.
That’s enough for me to call it a great season.
I think you’ll be happy. It’s the early games that have me slightly hesitant. If we roll into Tuscaloosa undefeated, it could be an epic season.
Don’t sleep on scUM.
Pruitt had more violations than wins…’nough said.
Nearly 5 years later…
I didn’t need 5 minutes to know that our coaching cycle was a train wreck.
Hiring Herm Edwards by his former agent has set ASU back years. Granted, we are no powerhouse but a decent team for the PAC. I know I’m biased, but I think this was the worst hire.