On the Richt to aTm Rumors

The Ole Miss Coaching Search

After reading Blutarsky's outstanding headline regarding the Ole Miss search, I did a little early morning reading about candidates for the job.

It's not that Ole Miss has never made a good hire. It's just they can't get out of their own way.

David Cutcliffe was a well tenured offensive coordinator for Tennessee going into the National Title game in 1998 with ties to the Manning family. It was a logical hire that worked until Cutcliffe's recruiting fell apart. Tommy Tuberville was a tenured Defensive Coordinator for Miami with 3 national title rings, and he was a DC at Texas A&M when they went 10-0-1 in 1994. The hire worked for them until a better offer came along.

Ed Orgeron had a national title ring, but he had never even been a coordinator...and he had a checkered past. Houston Nutt was being run out of his last job on a rail. And the other 5 coaches following Vaught's retirement were just bad.

Who will they hire? Athlon has a very comprehensive list which includes everyone except Terry Bowden (Pictured above). My only issue with the Athlon list is that it lists Mike Leech as a riskier hire than coaches at Southern Miss and Florida International.

If I were running their search, my top 3 candidates would be Leach, Malzahn and Rodriguez. Malzahn's resume is closest to their prior successes...a proven coordinator with a national title. Rodriguez was a horrific fit at Michigan, but winning at West Virginia without an in state recruiting base is a major accomplishment. Leach put forth a consistent winner despite major recruiting, facility and logistical drawbacks.

Would Leach help Ole Miss pass Bama and LSU in the West? No. But there's no coach in America who could do that and not leave them for a bigger job. Leach could build a program that would consistently beat MSU, Texas A&M, the non-conference tomato cans OM schedules, Vandy, Kentucky and Missouri. He could also put them on equal footing with South Carolina and Arkansas. That's enough to build a consistent 8 win program which Ole Miss hasn't been since desegregation.

Having said all of that...my real hope is they hire Terry Bowden. The comedic potential is better.

PWD

Georgia and Mississippi - Two Approaches

Dead Career Walking

Imagine for a minute you have a coach that has been the most successful coach since the national championship years at your program.  Imagine your AD fired that coach after his first losing season, just one year after a 10 win season. A 10 win season in which the second best QB in school history, as well as three other standouts that were key contributors at their positions, left.  Oh yeah, imagine part of that firing was due to the coach's refusal to make staff changes mandated by the AD.

Then imagine your school hired Houston Nutt, who was run out of his last job for...you guessed it, not necessarily managing the coach's role within the athletic department's hierarchy.  I'd love to throw some Springdale jokes in here, but let's be honest:  If Gus Malzahn stayed in Arkansas, he'd be the head coach and Nutt would be the coach at Auburn.  Funny how those things turn out.

So, are you happy we have an AD who taken a very measured approach or one that sees a number of losses and says make my changes or else?

Apparently there are Ole Miss alumni tired of the AD and President's management of the the football program.  If you want a strong current example of a fan base really up in arms, that is as far as you have to look.

I don't know if Coach Richt will survive this season.  If the team plays and improves like it has the past two weeks, I think he does and does so on the strength of a strong season.  If it plays like it did against Boise, well let's just say Nutt won't the the only coach facing that particular opposing team for the last time.  I do know absent a Lazarus style get up and walk out of the burial clothes miracle, Nutt is done, possibly by October 2nd.

TD

Quarter Season Review

Ok, not so much a review of the team as a review of...what?  How we feel as a fan base?  How I feel as a fan? 

First, group hug.  No seriously.  All those that want Richt fired and preferably last January and those that are ok with him staying arguably want the same thing: a successful program.  The problem lies in the definition of that. Now, I am not smart enough to try to suss out the definitions and the motivations for that.  I am smart enough not to say it should be one or the other. 

All that is to say that Mark Richt will be our coach at least until the end of the season.  Those that want him gone will only find satisfaction in us winning the rest of the games with no turnovers, no errant passes, no stupid penalties, no ill timed draw plays, no blown coverages, no missed field goals, and preferably 45+ point shutouts.  Those that want him to stay forever will find reasons to keep him, regardless of how ill prepared and under coached the team looks.  Now, Greg McGarity views success for the football program the same way Potter Stewart viewed pornography: He knows it when he sees it.  A lot of him 'seeing' that comes from what the money people tell him and President Adams.

As long as McGarity is the AD and there are no serious issues with a team revolt, Richt will coach the team until the Georgia Tech game.  My personal feeling is that he'll be here longer than that, but honestly, I can see the team reverting to last year's barrel of fail and him being gone.  The next few weeks will be far more important than the last three were, in that regard.

Hopefully, Georgia wins this week, which I think we will.  If not, Nutt will become the second coach in two seasons to get one of his few wins in his firing season against Georgia.  That guy is as fired as Damon Evans on July 1, 2010.