Coaches involved in all levels of athletics are subject to high criticism and quick judgment. Make a bad call, lose a game or say the wrong thing to the media and people will hate you. Win a game, a championship, turn a program around or be a positive public figure and people will offer their first born child to you. The difference between being loved and loathed as a coach can often rest on the result of your season.
Go 9-1 and everyone is a fan and you are the best thing to happen to this school since its inception. Hey, everyone loves a winner. Go 5-5 and you might as well move out of town because you have become the outcast.
Meanwhile, coaches have to deal with a plethora of internal problems. Every team must endure injuries, but not every team is prepared to lose starters. There are team problems, coach problems, lack of funding for the program and the pressure put on the program by the school and community to win. Nobody outside of the team sees the hard work that results in a victory, but by the same token, no one sees the internal struggles that result in defeat.
In high school, maybe this year's senior class just isn't as gifted as the rest of the league. In college, maybe the coach is building a program and is starting from the ground up with youngsters. In the pros, maybe it is a new system that the coach is implementing or maybe the money isn't there to bring in the star athlete. No matter the cause, when you lose, people just look at the final score.
It's easy to judge, I just wish we would give these guys a little more of a chance. I'm not different, I judge just like everyone else. I'm not a big Charlie Weis fan for a lot of reasons that have nothing to do with his record. But look at his situation. When he was with the New England Patriots and they were winning Super Bowls, he was literally a god amongst men. He took the job at Notre Dame and the Irish fans we're in a frenzy because Charlie Weis was going to restore the glory. After a tough 5 year tenure at ND, I have yet to find the fan that still loves Charlie Weis. They dislike him because of his win-loss record. These people do not know Weis for anything more than his record. I understand that his job was to win and he didn't and maybe he isn't the coach we all thought he was, but I fully believe that a person should be judged on much more than his/her win percentage.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Business and Coaching
It's funny, every time a good coach gets fired in the NFL, the team and the media remind us that the NFL is a business. Often, it is a business that is run only by wins and losses. Rarely, do owners look at the bigger picture, coaches are judged on a performance based rubric only. However, when a player holds out for a bigger contract we are quick to judge them. We feel that the athletes are being paid so much money that they should have no say. I'm not here defending the amount of money athletes receive because in all honesty, it is too much. But, why is it a business atmosphere for only the coaches? Why not for the players too??
This leads me to my main focus- college coaching and business. College coaches are typically given a little more leeway to turn a program around (read: Charlie Weis). They are judged by wins and losses but on a lesser scale, at first anyways. College football differs from the NFL because the players have chosen that school and they wear their school colors with pride. In the NFL, it is all about their contracts and who is willing to offer them more money. That's what makes college football great- how real it is. However, at the end of the day for the coaches it is still a business and can be, at times, cutthroat. That's what makes what happened at Tennessee recently so hard to swallow. Now if you want to read about coaches bailing on their program for the greener pastures of a different university, check out Chris Gray's blog. I'm talking about what happened before Lane Kiffin ever stepped foot on the Tennessee campus.
17 years, 152–52 career record and 15 bowl games including the school's first national championship. That's what Phillip Fulmer did at Tennessee for the 17 years prior to Lane Kiffin's 14 month stint with the Vols. He was fired because of a 5-8 season where they missed a bowl game for only the second time in 17 years. The Vols were 10-4 the year before that, won the Outback Bowl and finished 12th in the nation. This man loves Tennessee so much that when Kiffin bolted on them, he offered to help find the next head coach! Few people have the ability to swallow their pride like that for the betterment of something that no longer involves them. It is a shame to see a university turn their back on a man who bled orange for them for the glitz and glamor of the young NFL coach Lane Kiffin. Hopefully, not only Tennessee, but the other universities realize what a mistake it is to get rid of a guy who would sell his soul for the university for someone who just wants to use it as a stepping stone to their dream job.
This leads me to my main focus- college coaching and business. College coaches are typically given a little more leeway to turn a program around (read: Charlie Weis). They are judged by wins and losses but on a lesser scale, at first anyways. College football differs from the NFL because the players have chosen that school and they wear their school colors with pride. In the NFL, it is all about their contracts and who is willing to offer them more money. That's what makes college football great- how real it is. However, at the end of the day for the coaches it is still a business and can be, at times, cutthroat. That's what makes what happened at Tennessee recently so hard to swallow. Now if you want to read about coaches bailing on their program for the greener pastures of a different university, check out Chris Gray's blog. I'm talking about what happened before Lane Kiffin ever stepped foot on the Tennessee campus.
17 years, 152–52 career record and 15 bowl games including the school's first national championship. That's what Phillip Fulmer did at Tennessee for the 17 years prior to Lane Kiffin's 14 month stint with the Vols. He was fired because of a 5-8 season where they missed a bowl game for only the second time in 17 years. The Vols were 10-4 the year before that, won the Outback Bowl and finished 12th in the nation. This man loves Tennessee so much that when Kiffin bolted on them, he offered to help find the next head coach! Few people have the ability to swallow their pride like that for the betterment of something that no longer involves them. It is a shame to see a university turn their back on a man who bled orange for them for the glitz and glamor of the young NFL coach Lane Kiffin. Hopefully, not only Tennessee, but the other universities realize what a mistake it is to get rid of a guy who would sell his soul for the university for someone who just wants to use it as a stepping stone to their dream job.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Why Something Is Up In SoCal
Imagine a situation in which you worked at a place that was seen as untouchable, you were regarded as a hero locally and you were very, very well paid for what you did. This is what Pete Carroll's life was like as the head football coach at The University of Southern California. When Carroll was hired 9 years ago, the skeptics were not hard to find. Carroll was a man that had just finished an atrocious NFL career that was anything but successful. He turned the USC program around and the Trojans became perennial contenders for the national championship. Every year, USC is near the top and Pete Carroll's name has become synonymous with winning. So, why is Pete Carroll leaving the Trojans to be the next head coach of the Seattle Seahawks?
There are many seemingly logical reasons: Carroll wants another shot to prove that he can cut it in the NFL, Carroll's star running back Joe McKnight just declared himself eligible for the NFL draft, and of course the Seattle job is going to pay him a few million more per year. Those all seem like good reasons to make a move. Not to mention, Carroll has been courted by many NFL teams over the past few years. He has always turned these offers down and said that if the right opportunity came along he would consider a move back to the NFL. I don't believe that this is that opportunity. Carroll jumped ship in less than 24 hours. The previous Seahawks coach could not believe that he was being fired. Jim Mora was under the impression he was going to a meeting to talk about their open General Manager position and he was blindsided by a firing. Carroll was reported to have taken the job within 24 hours of Mora's firing, and within another day he had agreed to the contract in principle. The only delay was that the Seahawks had to fulfill their "Rooney Rule" obligation, but that's another blog for another time. I don't think that Pete Carroll was just waiting for the Seattle job to open up. I don't believe that that is his dream job. Something is up in SoCal.
Pete Carroll is leaving because the house of cards that he has built over the past 9 seasons is about to come crumbling down and he doesn't want to be at the bottom of the wreck when it does. Whether it be recruiting infractions, NCAA infractions such as players receiving money, something to do with Carroll's personal life, a dispute between Carroll and the Athletic Director or something else that I can't think of. . . something is up. It is hard to believe that Carroll would leave the bright lights of LA for a foggy dystopia in Seattle. Pete Carroll is running from something. Something so bad that it would drag his name through the dirt to the point where these kinds of NFL jobs would no longer be available to him.
Some people are saying that he is seeking a new challenge. Hey Pete, you want a challenge? Your USC team just went 9-4 overall and 5-4 in the conference. You lost to Washington, Oregon, Stanford and Arizona and just lost the conference title for only the second time in 9 years. You played Boston College in the Emerald Bowl, a game that you should have won by 30, but you won by 11. A game that is so overlooked, it is played in a baseball stadium and both teams have to stand on the same sideline. You want a challenge? Stay where you are and return the glory to USC...again.
There are many seemingly logical reasons: Carroll wants another shot to prove that he can cut it in the NFL, Carroll's star running back Joe McKnight just declared himself eligible for the NFL draft, and of course the Seattle job is going to pay him a few million more per year. Those all seem like good reasons to make a move. Not to mention, Carroll has been courted by many NFL teams over the past few years. He has always turned these offers down and said that if the right opportunity came along he would consider a move back to the NFL. I don't believe that this is that opportunity. Carroll jumped ship in less than 24 hours. The previous Seahawks coach could not believe that he was being fired. Jim Mora was under the impression he was going to a meeting to talk about their open General Manager position and he was blindsided by a firing. Carroll was reported to have taken the job within 24 hours of Mora's firing, and within another day he had agreed to the contract in principle. The only delay was that the Seahawks had to fulfill their "Rooney Rule" obligation, but that's another blog for another time. I don't think that Pete Carroll was just waiting for the Seattle job to open up. I don't believe that that is his dream job. Something is up in SoCal.
Pete Carroll is leaving because the house of cards that he has built over the past 9 seasons is about to come crumbling down and he doesn't want to be at the bottom of the wreck when it does. Whether it be recruiting infractions, NCAA infractions such as players receiving money, something to do with Carroll's personal life, a dispute between Carroll and the Athletic Director or something else that I can't think of. . . something is up. It is hard to believe that Carroll would leave the bright lights of LA for a foggy dystopia in Seattle. Pete Carroll is running from something. Something so bad that it would drag his name through the dirt to the point where these kinds of NFL jobs would no longer be available to him.
Some people are saying that he is seeking a new challenge. Hey Pete, you want a challenge? Your USC team just went 9-4 overall and 5-4 in the conference. You lost to Washington, Oregon, Stanford and Arizona and just lost the conference title for only the second time in 9 years. You played Boston College in the Emerald Bowl, a game that you should have won by 30, but you won by 11. A game that is so overlooked, it is played in a baseball stadium and both teams have to stand on the same sideline. You want a challenge? Stay where you are and return the glory to USC...again.
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