Just when you thought it was over... - 1/17/10

First of all, happy new year!

Now, let's talk ball.

When Brian Kelly took the head coaching job at Notre Dame, abandoning his Cincinnati Bearcats in the midst of their Sugar Bowl preparation (They should really either move the national signing date back or mandate a longer dead recruiting period to prevent coaches from jumping ship during the bowl season like this.), we all thought that was the last big move on this year's college football coaching carousel.

Then the wheels came off the bus.

Mark Mangino gets bought out at Kansas. Mike Leach gets canned at Texas Tech. Jim Leavitt finds himself unemployed after being let go by South Florida. Mangino and Leach were the winningest coaches in school history. Leavitt was the only coach South Florida EVER had.

Urban Meyer resigns, comes back, and takes a leave of absence. Pete Carroll, amid the oncoming NCAA investigation, leaves USC and takes his "California Cool" to the Seattle Seahawks. Lane Kiffin, after one mediocre (7-6) year at Tennessee, packs up and takes over for his former boss at USC.

And don't even get me started on the whole Bobby Bowden fiasco at Florida State!

I'm sure by now you've read all the commentary on these departures. So I'm going to look at it from the other side rather than bore you with more analysis, except for some shots on Lane Kiffin, who I still don't like. Let's take a look at the coaches that will be stepping into all these jobs.

I will start with an individual who is slightly detached from all this nonsense: Charlie Strong. Louisville hired one of the most respected defensive minds in the game, in the process making Strong just the fifth African-American head coach at a BCS school. Randy Shannon (Miami), Joker Phillips (Kentucky), Turner Gill (Kansas), and Mike London (Virginia) are the others. Gill and London were just hired this off-season. Strong had been the defensive coordinator at Florida since 2003 with stops at Notre Dame and South Carolina (among others) before that. The 49-year-old Strong is a great hire for Louisville who I believe will clean up the mess left behind by the failed Steve Kragthorpe regime. The Cardinals certainly have the players and the facilities to compete in the Big East and they aren't too far removed from a Big East title and an Orange Bowl appearance in 2007. Strong is also helping his cause by hiring good coaches Mike Sanford (formerly the head coach at UNLV) and Vance Bedford (a Florida colleague) as his coordinators. Strong also took several other Florida assistants with him, taking some of the continuity out Gainesville in the wake of Meyer's leave of absence.

Then there's Kansas, where Turner Gill will step in for Mangino. Gill has spent the last four seasons as the head coach at Buffalo. There, he turned a perennial MAC doormat into a league champion and brought the school its first-ever bowl appearance. While Gill's 20-30 career record is not all that impressive, his work in turning Buffalo into a respectable program is incredible. In the seven seasons before he arrived, the Bulls had won more than two games in a season just once. Gill's second year on the job brought them a share of the MAC Eastern Division title followed the next year by the outright MAC title and a bowl game. Gill brings considerable knowledge of the Big XII to the job, having spent four years as a player at Nebraska and another twelve in Lincoln as an assistant coach. I get the feeling that with some better players in place, Gill can only continue to climb up the ladder. And a little tidbit, Gill is the first African-American coach in Big XII history.

Texas Tech decided to go the established route, hiring former Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville as the 14th coach in program history. If you remember, I wrote a column last year defending Tuberville and severely chastising Auburn for dismissing him (Check out that column for more details on Tuberville's resume.). I think this is a dynamite hire for Tech; although, I still believe Tuberville will have a difficult time leaping Texas, Oklahoma, and, perhaps, Oklahoma State. Plus, I think Tuberville would've had more success in South Florida.

Then, there's Skip Holtz at South Florida. Holtz becomes just the second head coach in USF history. Holtz comes in fresh off his second consecutive Conference USA championship at East Carolina. He restored some mid-major luster to an East Carolina program that was 3-22 in its last 25 games before his arrival. It was this stint that has solidified his credibility independent of that of his father Lou. Skip worked under his father at both Notre Dame and South Carolina. I believe Holtz is charismatic enough to take advantage of the vast Florida recruiting pool and with the turmoil at Cincinnati, he easily has a chance to take over the Big East. His biggest challenge will be getting the Bulls to play a full season of ball. This is a team that is notorious for hot starts and meteoric rises in the polls before fizzling out and playing in a second-tier bowl game. I'm not sure if Holtz is the right guy to pull this team out of the doldrums. He has shown great poise at the mid-major level (Remember that UConn was still playing 1-AA ball when he was in charge in Storrs.) but there has been a fair share of bigger jobs his name was in consideration for but never called upon. We shall see how this one develops.

I will sum up the next few moves before moving on to Tennessee. Urban Meyer is a great case study for the dangers that come with this profession. There was a great column in Sports Illustrated about this last week. Brian Kelly has won everywhere he has been but the deck is stacked against him at Notre Dame. They don't have one defensive player who did not look overmatched against bigger foes and their two best offensive players have vanished courtesy of the NFL. The Irish played their softest schedule in years and still couldn't muster a better than .500 finish. Throw in the usually stringent academic requirements along with the lost luster of the ND mystique and Kelly has his work cut out for him. Pete Carroll is an ultra-competitive guy and I have always felt that it was only a matter of time before he went back to the NFL to wash out the sour taste of his previous NFL head-coaching stints in New York and New England.

Then there's Lane Kiffin. I don't know what Kiffin has done to deserve the USC job but he's got it and the fat contract and publicity that go along with it. The Trojan players seem happy for reasons that can't really be denied. Kiffin is a Carroll disciple so there will be a measure of continuity in both the on-field schemes and off-field demeanor. Kiffin is also regarded as an excellent recruiter so bringing in top-flight talent shouldn't be a problem. But this is a guy who won only five games in a season and a half with the Oakland Raiders and then went 7-6 in his one season in Knoxville. His signature "wins" were close losses to Alabama and Florida. Sure, he blew out Georgia and South Carolina but UGA was very down this year and Spurrier's troops in Columbia have never been more than average during his tenure. His top assistants (Ed Orgeron and father Monte) have far more impressive resumes.

The Volunteers will certainly be better off in the long run without Kiffin; however, in the short term, this is a devastating loss. The recruiting period goes live again on Sunday and it's possible the Vols may have lost several of their top commits by then. Jon Gruden preferred to stay with ESPN. Will Muschamp decided he would rather stay at Texas and wait for Mack Brown (who just got a fat new contract) to retire. David Cutcliffe took himself out of the running, saying he would rather finish what he started at Duke. Cutcliffe has done a great job in Durham (and did a good job while at Ole Miss before that and as the offensive coordinator at Tennessee before that). The Blue Devils are 9-15 in his two seasons after winning just 10 games in the previous eight seasons before his hiring. His words may be hollow and well-timed in light of Kiffin's departure but knowing Cutcliffe, I believe these words to be sincere:

"You follow your heart in big decisions. I have a lot of ties and a lot of people that I'm very close to, and a lot of respect for the University of Tennessee, but my heart is here. We've worked very hard these two years to change the culture, to change the team physically. You feel like the job's not done, and in this era, it bothers me, what we do as coaches, moving here and there. This is mid-January. Nothing about that felt right to me as a person."

Former Louisiana Tech head coach Derek Dooley (son of legendary Georgia head coach Vince Dooley) was hired to fill the void in Knoxville. While this may be a good hire and Dooley may be a good football coach, I still find it hard to believe that this is the man Tennessee wanted to fill its head coaching job, a coach who had a sub-.500 record in the WAC. Then again, they rushed into Kiffin last year after a disgraceful dismissal of Phillip Fulmer and then spent the last 14 months defending his absolute idiocy. Only time will tell just how far back the Vols, who have been borderline irrelevant the last few years anyway, have been set back in the ultra-competitive SEC. I don't think it's much of a stretch at this point to say that even the Kentucky Wildcats have leaped over the Vols in the SEC Eastern Division.

See what I mean, just when you thought the coaching carousel was going to be a smooth ride, everything goes topsy-turvy on you.

Some news and notes:

-The New York Mets continue to embarrass themselves as it turns out they had no clue about Carlos Beltran's knee surgery. The back-and-forth between the Mets and Beltran (mostly through agent Scott Boras) is ridiculous. The Mets should just blow up the entire infrastructure of the organization and start over again. We all know manager Jerry Manuel is on borrowed time and general manager Omar Minaya should be too. I don't care how great of a guy he is or how talented of a scout he was. This is still the same guy who traded Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips, and Cliff Lee away for Bartolo Colon. Somebody get Bobby Valentine on the phone!

- No comment on the Gilbert Arenas situation.

- Big shoutout to the #5 Syracuse men's basketball team! The Orange moved to 17-1 this weekend with a big win over #9 West Virginia down in Morgantown. Jimmy B's got to be pretty fired up about this squad led by Iowa State transfer and All-America candidate Wes Johnson.

- How loud is the Louisiana Superdome going to be next week??? The New Orleans Saints dispatched the Arizona Cardinals, 45-14, in their NFC Divisional Playoff matchup. Drew Brees and company shook off the rust after Tim Hightower's 70-yard TD run on the first play of the game for Arizona to run roughshod over the Cardinals' defense. And how about Reggie Bush's impressive showing from the 46-yard TD run to the 82-yard punt return TD. He was running with a sense of purpose that I haven't seen since his Heisman Trophy campaign at USC. Bottom line, I don't think there is any city that needs and identifies with its professional sports team more than New Orleans, especially after the Katrina disaster. This will be the Saints' second appearance in the NFC Championship Game in the last four years (and in franchise history). Plus, it will be the first time ever that the Saints have hosted the NFC Title Game. Open up those umbrellas and start dancing, New Orleans, as Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings make their way into town next week.

- And how about Rex Ryan and the New York Jets. The Jets were the only road team to win on Divisional Playoff weekend, sending Norv Turner and the San Diego Chargers home, 17-14. The Jets picked off Philip Rivers twice and scored all their points in the second half. Rookie QB Mark Sanchez minimized his mistakes again and threw a key TD pass to TE Dustin Keller in the fourth quarter to seal the deal. The Jets, with the #1 rushing offense and the #1 overall defense in the league, will be going to Indianapolis to take on the Colts in the AFC Championship Game. Everyone thought Ryan was crazy when he declared the Jets the odds-on favorite and now they are just one win away from the Super Bowl.

- Is anybody besides me really enjoying these "Too Light/Too Heavy" Bud Light commercials?

- Lots of attention has been given to the Chicago Blackhawks as they and their dynamic young core currently sport the NHL's best record. The San Jose Sharks are playing their usually-dominant regular season hockey. But don't overlook the Buffalo Sabres. The Sabres lead the Northeast Division and trail the Washington Capitals by just two points for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. Goaltender Ryan Miller (the goaltending hope for the Americans in the upcoming Olympics) has been playing lights out with 26 wins (2nd in the league), 2.01 goals against average (2nd), and a .936 save percentage (1st). Keep an eye on this club as the season charges out of the oncoming Olympic break.

- Some big credit to the Florida Marlins for actually spending some money to keep ace Josh Johnson. The 26-year-old right-hander was given a 4-year, $39 million deal. The 6'7" righty went 15-5 with a 3.23 ERA while anchoring the Florida staff last year. Despite the lowest payroll in the league, the Marlins won 87 games and finished just seven games back of the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East and five games out of the wild card. Naturally, the contract doesn't have a no-trade clause but you still have to be impressed with Florida spending some money to keep its young core intact for once rather than trading them all away.

- We all know that Kurt Warner is contemplating retirement but how about the news that Ed Reed is doing the same. The 31-year-old Baltimore Ravens safety went through an injury-plagued 2009 and that, coupled with a disappointing 20-3 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Divisional Playoffs, has him wondering what's next. Reed has been battling a damaged nerve in his neck among other maladies and says he will seriously re-evalute things in the coming days. Reed possesses the Baltimore franchise record for career interceptions with 46. He is a six-time Pro Bowler and a former NFL Defensive Player of the Year. Reed is also the only player in NFL history to score a TD by blocking a punt, returning a punt, returning an interception, and returning a fumble.

Until next time.

-Meech