Mr2Bits
Gator Fan
Any topic seems to be fair game in the offseason, so why not the college coaches' hot seat list for 2010?
Based in part on how their respective teams fared in 2009, as well as basing my opinion in part on the list compiled by the website http://www.coacheshotseat.com, I've come up with my own Fickle Four for the 2010 season and I'll tell you why.
At the head of my list of the Fickle Four is none other than........
(1) <strong>RON ZOOK, Illinois.</strong> Based on the fact that he's had back-to-back mediocre seasons, failed to coach the Illini to bowl-eligibility the past couple of years, struggled at the beginning of his tenure up in Champaign-Urbana and failed to learn from the mistakes he made at Florida that ultimately cost him his job with the Gators puts him atop my 2010 list. Why he wasn't let go after last season, I'll never figure out. <img src="http://blogs.suburbanchicagonews.com/bauman/Zook.jpg" alt="Zook" />
To be successful at the college level, a head coach needs to be multi-dimensional. I like to illustrate this point using an equilateral triangle with each of the three sides labeled Recruiting, Talent Development and Gameday Strategy. Each side must be equal in length and meet at the ends of each side for the formula to work. Coaches like Urban Meyer, Bobby Stoops, Mack Brown, Jim Tressel and Nick Saban have "it"; the Zooker doesn't.
Let's face it, the Zooker isn't cut out to be head coaching material for a BCS-level Division 1 school. Even during his days as a defensive assistant at Florida during the Spurrier era, he was demoted for not meeting expectations and the lackluster productivity of his charges. He cannot develop the talent he brings into his programs, nor can he effectively serve as a gameday strategist based on his poor problem-solving, decision-making and clock management skills. The fact that he fared poorly in the 2009 recruiting wars should be a portent of things to come. As things have turned out, Florida fans who tried to give the Illini faithful a heads-up about Zook were right all along - and judging by the fact that there are websites such as<em> "Fire Ron Zook - Illinois Edition"</em>, <em>"GiveZookTheHook.com", </em>and a Fire Ron Zook Facebook page currently up and running in cyberspace tells me that some of them are already calling for Zook's head. If the Illini fail to make it to a bowl following the upcoming season, it would be foolish on the Illinois AD's part to keep the Zooker around.
Rounding out the rest of my Fickle Four are the following:
(2) <strong>Dan Hawkins, Colorado.</strong> Apparently success at Boise State didn't translate to the same thing in a BCS automatic-qualifier conference like the Big 12 for Hawkins.The last time the Buffs had any inkling of success, it was from the years that Kordell "Slash" Stewart was part of this team. One would have thought that Hawkins, having come from Boise State, would have jumpstarted this team but they haven't come through and, like Baylor, bring up the bottom of the Big 12.
(3) <strong>Rich Rodriguez, Michigan.</strong> Already under heat for allegations of breaking the rules regarding length of player practice times, RichRod is heading into a make-or-break year. Don't you dare mention his name amongst the West Virginia faithful, unless you're a glutton for punishment. So what if they beat Notre Dame - they haven't been able to beat archrival Ohio State or get into the post-season in the first two years since he arrived, and that's unacceptable to the denizens of the Big House in Ann Arbor.
(4) <strong>Dennis Erickson, Arizona State</strong>. One would think that his coming from a head-coaching job in the NFL would translate to success at the college level, but unfortunately he's fallen into the same trap of mediocrity that Al Groh and Chan Gailey have (Gailey has since returned to the NFL as head coach of the Buffalo Bills) as coaches who've done the exact same thing. He won in his first year in Tempe but has been sub-par ever since. Sun Devil fans won't stand for very much more of that.
Anyway, that's my list....yeah, hindsight is 20-20, and I shouldn't have given Charlie Weis a pass last year. He lost his job at Notre Dame, but in my honest opinion they made the right hire in Brian Kelly as his replacement. Weis headed back to the NFL as an OC with Kansas City, and likely he's found his niche. I correctly picked Steve Kragthorpe to be let go at Louisville last year, but let's see how 2010 pans out.
Based in part on how their respective teams fared in 2009, as well as basing my opinion in part on the list compiled by the website http://www.coacheshotseat.com, I've come up with my own Fickle Four for the 2010 season and I'll tell you why.
At the head of my list of the Fickle Four is none other than........
(1) <strong>RON ZOOK, Illinois.</strong> Based on the fact that he's had back-to-back mediocre seasons, failed to coach the Illini to bowl-eligibility the past couple of years, struggled at the beginning of his tenure up in Champaign-Urbana and failed to learn from the mistakes he made at Florida that ultimately cost him his job with the Gators puts him atop my 2010 list. Why he wasn't let go after last season, I'll never figure out. <img src="http://blogs.suburbanchicagonews.com/bauman/Zook.jpg" alt="Zook" />
To be successful at the college level, a head coach needs to be multi-dimensional. I like to illustrate this point using an equilateral triangle with each of the three sides labeled Recruiting, Talent Development and Gameday Strategy. Each side must be equal in length and meet at the ends of each side for the formula to work. Coaches like Urban Meyer, Bobby Stoops, Mack Brown, Jim Tressel and Nick Saban have "it"; the Zooker doesn't.
Let's face it, the Zooker isn't cut out to be head coaching material for a BCS-level Division 1 school. Even during his days as a defensive assistant at Florida during the Spurrier era, he was demoted for not meeting expectations and the lackluster productivity of his charges. He cannot develop the talent he brings into his programs, nor can he effectively serve as a gameday strategist based on his poor problem-solving, decision-making and clock management skills. The fact that he fared poorly in the 2009 recruiting wars should be a portent of things to come. As things have turned out, Florida fans who tried to give the Illini faithful a heads-up about Zook were right all along - and judging by the fact that there are websites such as<em> "Fire Ron Zook - Illinois Edition"</em>, <em>"GiveZookTheHook.com", </em>and a Fire Ron Zook Facebook page currently up and running in cyberspace tells me that some of them are already calling for Zook's head. If the Illini fail to make it to a bowl following the upcoming season, it would be foolish on the Illinois AD's part to keep the Zooker around.
Rounding out the rest of my Fickle Four are the following:
(2) <strong>Dan Hawkins, Colorado.</strong> Apparently success at Boise State didn't translate to the same thing in a BCS automatic-qualifier conference like the Big 12 for Hawkins.The last time the Buffs had any inkling of success, it was from the years that Kordell "Slash" Stewart was part of this team. One would have thought that Hawkins, having come from Boise State, would have jumpstarted this team but they haven't come through and, like Baylor, bring up the bottom of the Big 12.
(3) <strong>Rich Rodriguez, Michigan.</strong> Already under heat for allegations of breaking the rules regarding length of player practice times, RichRod is heading into a make-or-break year. Don't you dare mention his name amongst the West Virginia faithful, unless you're a glutton for punishment. So what if they beat Notre Dame - they haven't been able to beat archrival Ohio State or get into the post-season in the first two years since he arrived, and that's unacceptable to the denizens of the Big House in Ann Arbor.
(4) <strong>Dennis Erickson, Arizona State</strong>. One would think that his coming from a head-coaching job in the NFL would translate to success at the college level, but unfortunately he's fallen into the same trap of mediocrity that Al Groh and Chan Gailey have (Gailey has since returned to the NFL as head coach of the Buffalo Bills) as coaches who've done the exact same thing. He won in his first year in Tempe but has been sub-par ever since. Sun Devil fans won't stand for very much more of that.
Anyway, that's my list....yeah, hindsight is 20-20, and I shouldn't have given Charlie Weis a pass last year. He lost his job at Notre Dame, but in my honest opinion they made the right hire in Brian Kelly as his replacement. Weis headed back to the NFL as an OC with Kansas City, and likely he's found his niche. I correctly picked Steve Kragthorpe to be let go at Louisville last year, but let's see how 2010 pans out.
