I'm not surprised. I think he would have taken the Florida job if not for a PAC team offering. Seems like it will make things interesting in southern Cal again. 8)
this is fun if for no other reason than Bill Plaschke got out in front of an issue again to act as the voice of Los Angeles and was totally wrong.
Yes, I thought we had him but lost out. However we got Dan Mullen who has done really well at Miss State. That is really well for what they have historically done. He was really good at his press conference today and I have high hopes for him.
Bill, I too think that is a good hire for Florida. Mullen knows the lay of the land and should have more talent than he had at MSU
So Mullen takes a **** program and turns it into a regular bowl team=Mullen is a great coach. Schiano takes the laughing stock of college football and turns them into a regular bowl team=Schiano has a lot left to prove... Hrmmm Whatever, at least now when I bitch about my football coach I can just use the same name.
Once again Corey, the level of competition that Rutgers played while Shiano was there in the Big East is a little different than Mullen has played in the SEC. Don't you think?
Perhaps so kp, but the level of football played in Mississippi high schools could probably beat the Rutgers teams before Schiano got there. It's not like he could pluck a few undiscovered gems out of his backyard. There aren't any Dak Prescotts in Jersey waiting to go to Rutgers...
Yeah but there are Minkah Fitzpatricks from Old Bridge NJ and Anthony Averetts from Woodbury NJ, and Trevon Diggs from Gaithersburg, MD (about an hour from NJ). Those 3 are starters for Alabama. Look I get it Shiano turned around a bad lower level team into a decent lower level team. Does that indicate success at an SEC team? I have the same questions for Herman, Sumlin, and hell Butch Jones. Some seem to make it (like Malzahn) but many more just fade back to asst coaching jobs somewhere.
My point was... None of those guys you named even knew Rutgers had a football team prior to Schiano. There are no guarantees with any new coach. I'm not endorsing the guy just saying you gotta give a little extra credit for winning at a football wasteland. MSU does not compare to Rutgers in that regard.
I just think it's hard to hire a coach like Saban, there are only a few coaches out there that qualify as slam dunks. Saban is one, Urban Meyer is another, certainly given his previous history at Stanford and SF, Harbaugh was one. I doubt if when Dabo was hired at Clemson anybody would have made the case that he's got a record that justified him getting a prime Power 5 job. He'd never even been a coordinator. Jimbo Fisher had no history that indicated he'd be a great HC, sure he was an excellent OCoord but how many of those guys have made the leap, some do and some don't. Sumlin was very successful at Houston, as was Art Briles, you could say well it wasn't at a big time school. True but where are you going to look? Alabama was set to hire Rich Rod back when he was at WVA, he'd been a successful Big East coach, but do you think maybe you dodged a bullet when that didn't work out. Brian Kelly was a hot coach at Cincy, he's just been average at ND. Tom Herman was last years Hot Coach, jury still out on him. I don't know if Schiano will be a guy who given resources and recruiting advantages that a place like Tenn offers would have turned out to be a good hire or not. But he did a good job at Rutgers. NJ does have some good HS talent that has traditionally left the state to go to Notre Dame, Penn State and other places, like Alabama as mentioned. The top talent has never stayed home.
I think coordinators at major programs is probably a good grooming spot for future HCs. Maybe that now includes Schiano since his stint as OSU. It seems like a lot of these guys seems to make their names on flashy qbs and high octane offenses that score a lot of points. Defense is an afterthought. Not a great formula for success in the SEC.
I would propose that most great coaches ( not all obviously) come from the offensive side of the Ball. Certainly Stoops and Saban were defensive guys coming up I'm sure there are others. But Meyer was an offensive guy, so was Harbaugh, Dabo was an offensive guy, Fisher was an offensive guy. But in today's world you are right the coaches that get the attention as up and comers are guys who not only win but have excellent offenses. Andy yes sometimes it's on the back of a large senior/5th year group or a great QB or something, that's why they have to move on from places that don't historically have great football. Matt Campbell just signed a new deal at Iowa State. I hope it works out for him, he had a good year this year but in the end after all the big wins he was 7-5 overall and 5-4 in the conference. Now maybe that's just the beginning for him, but it's still Iowa State and he's still going to have a hard time getting quality players year after year to have consistency. We'll see what his record is if he stays there for 5 more years or so, will this be one of the high points or will he turn them into Boise State or Kansas State?
I feel that in the SEC a guy like Mullen.... with the several years of HC SEC experience he has... comes with a lot less downside risk than a Chip Kelly or a Scott Frost who have never competed in the SEC week in and week out. Sure Kelly is a splashy hire... and probably will light it up for UCLA. But there's a chance his approach could come up short in the SEC and I wonder about his long term commitment also. We need to see what Frost can do with the big boys every week. Actually I would have preferred Frost over Kelly just because I think he may be on to something. But Mullen has all that experience and he is only 45... and no reason to believe a long term commitment to coaching at UF won't be there.
I would agree that Mullen was a good choice for the Gators. One thing that surprised me was that apparently the Gators facilities have lagged behind their SEC competition and McElwain complaining about it was irritating to the the powers that be in Florida. I would have thought the Gators would have amongst the best facilities in not only the SEC but the nation.
The SEC ******** cup is just spilling over the sides. What about the mighty East is so god damned tough? You yourself downplayed the quality of the SEC as a whole when you were campaigning to get rid of Jimmy Mac.... now it's some sort of gauntlet. I say this with all due respect to the posters here on this board, this is just a realistic view of the SEC East. Georgia-Is Georgia, and always should have been better than they are. They may finally have their guy. Florida-Living off of the Spurrier-Myer mojo, in reality they are nowhere near as good as the teams those 2 coaches fielded. Vanderbilt-Is Dandy Vandy finally catching the conference or is the conference sinking to their level? This is a real lynch pin question, so choose wisely. Tennessee-Terrible and self-imploding program with no real direction. Missouri-Winners of the SEC East twice in a row, before Florida's 2 year run, which was seen as proof of how weak the SEC East really is. Funny how this team was written off after losses to Indiana and such only to 'come back' and become bowl eligible once they got into SEC play. Kentucky-See Vanderbilt South Carolina-Always getting poll love, and also always getting their ass kicked in big games...especially by Clemson. Now let's look at the west... There's Alabama. Then there's LSU and Auburn, both of which have had great teams but the in between on their sandwich has been pure turd burger. Miss State: The NCAA was never far from Camp Bulldog and it's amazing they didn't get caught up in the backwash of the Ole Miss scandal. Now their coach is gone, things will probably settle back down and they'll become another .500 team that somehow is ranked in the top 25 each year. But remember, just about the only thing that could be proven in the "Scam Newton" year for Auburn was that his daddy was approached by boosters from MSU. They just didn't land the deal, so allegedly no infraction took place. Ole Miss-If you ain't cheatin, you ain't tryin. Still, outside of SEC competition, they don't seem to be doing that well. Arkansas-Slip sliding away into oblivion. That's not to say the whole conference sucks. But there's more hype than quality and that's saying something given the amount of quality that Alabama produces.
That's understated.... even our most recent SEC East titles were mostly for show.... sorta like the ones won by Missouri. But still..... add those two titles to the cabinet full of SEC East and SEC champion titles to go along with three NCs all in the past 26 years and UF's resume is pretty good and hence is why it's still a premier job in college football.
Speaking of the Meyer years.... "The anticipated became official Tuesday, when Mullen announced that two of his longtime assistants at Mississippi State — who also were on the same Urban Meyer staff with Mullen at UF — have joined his staff. Billy Gonzales and John Hevesy were hired and went right to work Tuesday, hitting the recruiting trail to meet with prospects. At Mississippi State, Gonzales and Hevesy were co-offensive coordinators. Gonzales coached the wide receivers and was the passing game coordinator, while Hevesy was the offensive line coach and running game coordinator"
Corey, but Mullen had to play an SEC West schedule and Miss St is/was ranked in the top 25. Terry, yes we dodged a bullet when we didn't get Rodriguez. I was not a fan of that hire.