[NU Sports] Coaching Merry-go-round

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

Mike Shula surprises me a bit - I know it's Bama and
SEC, but they seemed to be willing to give him at
least a little more time to clean up the Franchione
mess. Auburn, Arkansas and LSU gotta be happy though.

Amato had lost favor this year and I guess the ACC
schools feel that now's as good of a time as any to
get a new coach with FSU and Miami in down cycles and
the title open to anyone (Wake?!?!?). Having a big
name sign down the road at UNC couldn't have helped
either.

As for Koetter, I was actually surprised he lasted the
season -- it was a race here in Phoenix to see if he'd
get fired before Dennis Green or vice versa. The whole
QB mess at the start of the year and another maddening
year of disappointing finishes after strong starts did
him in -- think of ASU as the MSU of the west and
you'll understand why.

Of the three jobs, I'd think ASU would be the most
enticing. Alabama has too much pressure to win NOW, NC
State is still a second-class football school, but ASU
-- like Coach Stoops is finding at U of A -- is a
sleeping giant. You have a growing and rapidly
improving pool of in-state talent, you're close enough
to Southern California to recruit well there and you
have a great campus/stadium/weather package that's a
good sell to most high school kids. Plus the Pac 10's
prestige is growing and if you can just get ONE win in
the state of California (Koetter never seemed to be
able to), that'd be nice too.

But I guess it all continues what SI dubbed "what Gary
Barnett hath wrought" in that schools see places like
Rutgers, Wake Forest and Arkansas this year and wonder
why they're not winning NOW.

As for the Big Ten, I think we'll continue to see
stability rule for awhile once the MSU job (another
sleeping giant if they can get past their Go Blue
inferiority complex) is settled. Tressel's the king of
Ohio until he decides to step down or gets caught by
the NCAA. JoePa and Carr may retire soon in Ann Arbor
and State College ... or they may each coach 20 more
years. It's up to them. Hoeppner's earned more time at
IU, Zook's recruiting probably will buy him a few more
years at U of I (now if he can only learn to coach).
Tiller's window to exit West Lafayette for greener
pastures has passed and Wisky and NU are happy with
their first-year wunderkinds. 

The only warm seats may be on the western edge of the
league, where Phoenix (not Nashville!) may not be
enough for Gopher fans (though Mason probably gets
until the new stadium opens) and Iowa fans seem to be
growing impatient with Vanilla Kirk. But neither of
those look too hot for now.

Be interesting to see if Barnett's name surfaces for
any of the open jobs.:)

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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


 
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