Sarkisian and Shaw have removed themselves from the hunt list. They have better jobs at Washington and Stanford...
Stanford and Washington are great jobs, both teams have some proud history for sure. But if you are talking about ability to get the top players on the West Coast and compete nationally as well, then it's hard to beat USC. This is where coaching matters though, USC was in the doldrums before Pete arrived and took the talent available and made the team great. Stanford was in the doldrums before Harbaugh took the talent that Stanford gets and made it tough, Shaw has continued that, Washington has struggled for years, been up and down, really down with Willingham, sort of up with Skippy Neweasel, but not the dominant program they had under Don James. But if coaching is all equal, then USC due to it's location smack dab in the middle of a ton of talent that is predisposed to go to USC, is the better job. Shaw faces more hurdles to get players into Stanford, so far so good. Sark has had to roll a ball uphill with the mess that Willingham left and this year it seems to be coming together for him. But he has to come to So. Cal and recruit against USC if he wants to have UW a consistent top 10 program. Not enough talent in the Pacific Northwest to fuel that, never has been, they always have to come to So.Cal. When USC is down that helps, USC has a great coach who can recruit, makes life harder for everybody on the West Coast.
Terry, your comments triggered my memory, so I looked up the last 30 years. From about 1983 through 2001, with a few exceptions, the USC program was down. Those were the years of Tollner, Larry Smith, a second stint for J. Robinson, Paul Hackett, and Carroll's first year. Except for 1990 or 91, when Washington under Don James was very strong and co-won (with Michigan) the NC, I don't think any Pac12 team surged to the top of the heap. It would seem that USC was still getting great recruits. They just weren't being coached well. I bring this up because it seems to support your premise, i.e., regardless of the state of the program, HS athletes want to play there.
Article Sympathetic to Lane Kiffen Had to reach for my hanky after reading it. At least they shot old yeller to put him out of his misery at the end.
I know a few good ole boys in Grundy Co Tennessee that would be glad to put Lame Kitten out of his misery! 8) Remember the dancing laser dot on Steve Spurrier during one of the Gators' visits to the friendly confines of Neyland stadium? :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
I don't view Kiffin's firing as a plus for the Irish.. Orgeron wasted no time making his mark. At least with Kiffin we awere assured that we were winning the coaching battle.
George, history proves that your concern is well founded. I thoroughly enjoyed the years when we dominated them. Every coach they hired following the McKay-Robinson era was a bust. Even when they chose Carroll, it was a controversial hire. Who knew that he was going to be the super coach to return them to their former elite status? As we at ND know so painfully well, hiring a college coach - with very few exceptions - is a roll of the dice. All we can hope for is that Haden will make the same hiring mistakes ND made during the post-Holtz era. I have my fingers crossed.
If you guys REALLY want to dominate the future series... Texas State has a coach who will surely take the USC job!