[NU Sports] coaches leaving (fwd)

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

Good points, Mike, but I do believe the Big Ten is a
bit more stable than most other places.

Tressel keeps winning bowl games and beating that team
from up north, and if he gets another title in the
next couple years, he could be set in the Shoe for
life -- the only worry is those NCAA sanctions that
seem to be hovering around Columbus every now and
then.

Ferentz keeps turning down big paydays to stay at Iowa
and is a heck of a coach ... Carr's safe at Michigan a
little longer at least and JoePa seems re-energized at
PSU (succession at UM and PSU are in doubt though --
but that won't come up in '06).

The two interesting ones to watch for me are at Purdue
and Minny. Mason's hit the wall with the Gophers --
six or seven wins on a soft schedule, maybe a nice
upset every now and then (@ Michigan, @PSU, etc.), but
with no new stadium and small fan support, they're not
over that hump as a contender.

As for Purdue, Tiller's the un-Barnett. He took the
Boilers to Pasadena and then stayed longer than I ever
thought he would, passing up offers and no longer
really the buzz-word coach. He's done a nice job
reinventing Purdue, but they're in danger of
plateauing as well. Will the Boiler fans get restless
now that they've tasted success?

As for the rest of the league, Smith's probably on the
biggest hotseat and not just because MSU fans are
notoriously fickle ... the pattern of November
collapses is gonna put a lot of pressure on this year.

But the rest looks stable for awhile. Walker's not
going anywhere. IU and UI are in pretty good
rebuilding mode and Wisky has a hand-picked successor
with -- as Mike said -- Alvarez watching his back from
the AD chair.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!

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