Michigan Monday: The Fall of the BIG Ten Coaches

If you think back a few years ago the top 3 Big Ten Schools had coaches that looked like would be around awhile.   Ohio State had the Senator Jim Tressel, Michigan had the young offensive genius Rich Rodriguez and Penn State had  legendary coach Joe Paterno with the most wins in college football. 

No offense to MSU, Wisconsin or newbie Nebraska, but the brand names of the Big Ten have been Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State.   These are the schools that draw the most interest on Saturday afternoon.   Then each coach started to crash one after the other.  I know Vegas takes bets on wild things sometimes but could you imagine the odds that all 3 programs would have fired each one of their coaches?  Not retired but fired.

The only man you could have even predicted who have been fired was Rich Rod would seemed to be a "fish out of water" as soon as he hit Ann Arbor.   There was also a good possibility that Joe Paterno would have retired, but many of us expected probably 10 more years of Tressel at Ohio State.   Then the crash:  2 coaches got fired for high profile cover ups and the other got fired for not being able to cover up it's awful defense. 

I don't want to compare crimes because they don't even compare to the tragedy at Penn State, but how in the world did this go so bad so fast?  The answer is winning.   Jim Tressel wrote books titled " The Winners Manual: For the Game of Life" and "Life Promises for Success: Promises from God on Achieving Your Best" then lied to the NCAA when his players broke NCAA eligibility rules.   Rich Rod got to Michigan and received more drama then a afternoon Soap Opera  (some his fault and some wasn't) practiced a few minutes too long, got Michigan put on NCAA probation, didn't play any defense and was fired after 3 years.  

Penn State is a completely different situation.   The statue of the former Penn State legendary football coach reads: EDUCATOR COACH HUMANITARIAN. Those words couldn't be farther from the truth right now.  Many called Joe the guy that built PSU and now he will be remembered as the guy that helped destroy it. 

What a waste on so many levels.  What con men they were, I almost feel like those coaches were the carnival workers that try to get your money in those carnival games "where everyone wins" and you spend $20 to win a $.30 stuffed animal.  They were not who we thought they were.   Two of the coaches were willing to cover up a pedophile's crimes and NCAA rules breakers to win games or to save the face of their program.  Two decisions that when you look back, make zero sense.  Which leads me to believe these are just two examples that we know about.   I would hate to see the closet of cover up Tressel and Paterno have locked away somewhere.   These are not great men on many levels.   

So now what?

Rich Rod has the band back together in Arizona and he should do just fine in a conference that doesn't believe in defense.  Jim Tressel has been exiled to University of Akron where he is the Vice President of Strategic Engagement which seems like a made up title to wait out his NCAA penalty and can get back coaching again.  Joe Paterno is now paying for his past sins with his maker.  How the mighty have fallen or has the carnival just moved towns?

These situations remind me of a line from a 1983 Tom Cruise football movie called "All The Right Moves".  It was about a high school football player that wasn't getting any college scholarships because his relationship with is high school football coach had gone south.    The line that sticks out to me was late in the movie when Tom Cruise role was walking away from his former high school football coach (played by Craig T. Nelson) :  "Coach You're not God, Nickerson. You're just a typing teacher."

Next time we want to put up a statue of a football coach, we should remember they are just a typing teacher in disguise.