I was going to start this Monday post with a small rant that Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Northwestern need to reconsider how they play football. Each program is stuck in the 1970's and struggling to get out of it. Then Wisconsin did something I wasn't expecting until the end of the season, they fired their head coach.
One of Harbaugh's best traits is to be flexible with his style and his talent to win football games. Jimmy and Paul Chryst are friends and have similar football sensibilities. One guy is flexible and #4 in the country the other is at home counting his $16M buyout. Sure $16M to not do a job sounds great to all of us, but not to guys like Paul Chryst.
Fun Fact: Saw this on twitter: Wisconsin has not fired a football or men's basketball head coach since 1995. That coach? Stan Van Gundy.
Out of that list of 4 teams I mentioned above, 2 now have job openings. Wisconsin is giving Jim Leonhard a 7-game interview before other teams "come a callin". That leaves Iowa and Northwestern with decisions to make. Kirk Frentz is so powerful at Iowa, that he put together a committee on the state of his program. That committee came back and said that Kirk's program is racist and they need to move on from the head coach. Kirk fired the committee. Pat Fitzgerald was once considered a top coach in college football and a name that would come up every time Michigan had an opening. He is a former Northwestern star, now turned head coach. Nebraska was in the exact same position and did the right thing. Will Northwestern? Probably not. If you force 5 turnovers against PSU and that doesn't lead to any points, there is a problem.
While teams like Illinois and Maryland seem to be building something, the 4 teams above seem to be heading in the wrong direction. Golden Gophers, I haven't forgotten about you. You are the Superstars of September every year. As soon as the calendar changes, so does your record. Minnesota reminds me a lot of the Detroit Lions, if you have all your starters, you're not a bad team. If you have injuries, you're in trouble.
Speaking of trouble, I would like to take a moment to congratulate the MSU Spartans who are leading the MAC right now with a 2-0 record. In the PAC 12, they are 0-1, and in the Big Ten they're 0-2 with games against: Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois in succession.
A too early look at Indiana:
Record: 3-2
Best Win: Illinois
Last Week: Lost to Nebraska 35-21
Pass: 278 per (33rd in the country)
Run 105 per (115th)
Score: 27 per (146th)
Give up: 30 per (99th)
IU struggled against WKU and has a two-loss streak going with losses against Cincinnati and Nebraska. That win for Nebraska was the 1st Power 5 win in a year. Michigan does have a bit of motivation this week as the last time they played in Bloomington, they left with a loss. I expect the Michigan coaches to talk about that about 100 times this week. Michigan is over a 3 TD favorite at -21.5. After Michigan, IU has: Maryland, Rutgers, PSU, OSU, MSU and Purdue.
- Gary's hit on former MSU QB, now New England QB Brian Hoyer knocked him out of the game on Sunday.
- I left an obvious Jeers out of Sunday's post: DJ's dropped pick 6
- I hope we hear an injury report on Roman Wilson today during Jimmy Press Conference. I won't hold my breath. Update: Jim Harbaugh - on Roman Wilson- I’m not here to talk about everybody’s injury status
- Other NCAA News: ESPN Gameday is going to Kansas for the 1st time, Kansas coach Lance Leipold will be the hottest name for all these openings, Colorado fired their coach as well. The surprise of Saturday to me was GT upsetting Pitt after GT fired its head coach last week.
We are entering Week 6 of the season and these are the programs with job openings:
Arizona State
Colorado
Georgia Tech
Nebraska
UAB
Wisconsin
4 comments:
Gary looks like he dropped some lbs...yeah? He was a beast last night.
Fitzgerald isn't going anywhere. He's an alum and the fanbase doesn't care to win that much. They're happy with every 3-5 years they are near the top of the standings of the B1G west. NW is a fanbase with realistic expectations. Unlike Nebraska. Nebraska's biggest mistake was coming to the B1G. Lost their rivalry games and that cost them their recruiting grounds. Nebraska's not going to recruit well in California or the SE. It will take a JoPa type scandal for Kirk Ferentz get the boot. He's an icon, and even the accusations of racism went nowhere.
Should be another coach on that list, Lane Kiffin. If you didn't see it, he shoved a player on the sidelines. There was a day when coaches could get away with that, Bo certainly grabbed a few players. But now? Here's to the hypocrisy of college football; if Lane weren't winning...he'd be gone. Ole Miss would talk about how they must hold the team, especially coaches, to a higher standard and blah blah blah. But winning fixes everything. It's the great blinder to all-things behavior ridden. If Lane weren't 5-0, the school would can him. If Lane does that on national TV, imagine the stuff he's doing when the cameras aren't on him....or should we say, same ol Lane behaviors.
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