A different sort of ranking criteria for SEC coaches

As pundits around the country wait for real news from college football to start unfolding, they fill their space with lists ranging from player rankings to best mascots. There is also the mandatory listing of best coaches. Becoming a great college football coach is very hard. In some places it is harder than others. The SEC is no different than other conferences in this regard. Do you really think you are on equal footing with Southern Cal sitting in Pullman, Washington as coach of the Cougars? Come on now, how many of you even knew the nickname for Washington State? Who knew that was even the school in Pullman?

Below you will find the SEC head coach rankings from a somewhat different perspective. We are taking a challenge/outcome approach to selecting the best coaches in the SEC. When you measure success this way it shuffles the deck a little. You see, things like conference titles, national championships and wins are not the only measures of success. It also matters on just how difficult it is to achieve success in a place. Sometimes schools have a better coach than they might think. From top to bottom here is our list.

1. Bobby Johnson, Vanderbilt-When the Commodores defeated Boston College in the Music

City Bowl it was their first bowl victory since the 1955 Gator Bowl. The last time they even played in a post-season game was 1982. It might have taken seven years to get 20 wins, but this is not Gainesville we are talking about.

2. Rich Brooks, Kentucky-Kentucky has won three bowl games in the same number of seasons. This has never happened in the history of Kentucky football. It is also the first time the Cats have won seven or more games in three straight seasons since a similar streak from 1949-51.

3. Dan Mullen, Mississippi State-He has not coached his first game in Starkville yet, but just the fact that Mullen has been able to generate increased ticket sales for the Bulldogs means he is delivering more value than some of the other new coaches at schools with more success traditionally.

4. Bobby Petrino, Arkansas-In all of his job hopping Petrino has shown one thing. He can deliver an offense. Last year started badly, but the season ending victory against LSU shows Petrino has the Hogs pointed in the right direction. They Razorbacks are going to be the surprise team in the SEC this year.

5. Nick Saban, Alabama-Saban came into a demoralized Alabama program and provided a spark of life that has been missing for almost a decade. The Tide’s talent level was pretty low his first season and he had them in every game. It was not that much better last year when they won the West, and came close to playing for a national title. Pretty good work.

6. Urban Meyer, Florida-He has two national titles under his belt so he can coach, but get real. He inherited a decent roster of talent and resides in a state with enough top level talent to stock an entire conference. He should win, and win big, at Florida. This is not Nashville we are talking about.

7. Houston Nutt, Ole Miss-Razorback fans can scream about him all they want, but Nutt consistently provided Pig fans with one of the best offenses in the conference. He is showing the same skill at Ole Miss, and is doing it through the air and ground now. He may not meet the high expectations this season, but that is what happens when you blow out last year’s media darling Texas Tech in your bowl game.

8. Gene Chizik, Auburn-The last few years on the recruiting trail were not kind to Auburn. Nick Saban has dominated the state, but Chizik and crew are working to reverse that trend. They have used high profile campaigns to accomplish their task, and violated a few NCAA rules in the process. Chizik’s most impressive accomplishment so far has been the top flight staff he assembled. They can coach football.

9. Mark Richt, Georgia-Knowshon Moreno. Mark Stafford. Great receivers. We like Richt, but the Bulldogs were less than advertised last year. With lower expectations this year Richt will have a chance to move up, but if they don’t look like they are making progress his seat could become hot.

10. Steve Spurrier, South Carolina-He won big at Florida. He should have. His “everyone go deep” offense has not worked as well at South Carolina for a simple reason. The Gamecocks are not as talented. During his time at SC he has not developed a consistent leader at quarterback and is just four games above .500. Not what the South Carolina faithful expected when making this hire.

11. Lane Kiffin, Tennessee-NCAA violations galore. Unable to get the QB of the future despite his reputation as an offensive genius. Staff members who like to run their mouths. We are not big fans of Al Davis, but when we consider the relationship between him and Kiffin, it may be that Davis was right.

12. Les Miles, LSU-We just don’t believe he is the guy. Losing to Alabama at home was bad enough, but the loss to Arkansas cemented his position at the bottom of our list. He is in one of the most talent rich states in the nation, but he does not seem to be coaching players “up.”

Gary Brown
gary@secmatchups.com

Tim Tebow is a great example, but….

How can you not like Tim Tebow? Even if your team has suffered a loss at his hands, here is a young man that spends his offseason going to foreign countries to provide physical and spiritual aide. Florida inmates have been inspired to better lives through his talks behind bars. He has been allowed by the NCAA to raise funds for charity, and all of this is before we get to his tremendous athletic ability. He is a walking, talking example of a real life hero. Someone you can tell your kids to look up to. Except maybe you ought to rethink that.

What, with all of the good he is doing? Even with all the good he does. Why? Steve McNair. Kobe Bryant. Roger Clemens. LeBron James. Matt Jones. Mark McGwire. How many reasons do you want? While there is no reason to believe Tim Tebow will meet similar disgraces that these athletes have, it is important that we don’t rush to name someone a hero until enough time has passed for their life body of work to be deep enough to be considered.

Who then can qualify as a hero for our children to look to and admire? How about John Wooden, who has proven the genuine goodness of his character for decades now. Dale Murphy, the former Braves slugger who always stayed true to his values. There is an even more important list of people we should identify as great role models. The teacher who has been in the classroom of the child and the child’s parents. The firefighter who runs into a burning building with concern only for the people who don’t want to be inside. The soldier on foreign soil who defends our freedom daily. Coaches, who earn little money, work long hours, don’t win state championships every year, but instill proper values in their players that shape lives forever. These are the people who we should hold up to our children as the people they want to emulate. One last group that needs to be the real heroes to kids? Mom and dad. Parents, we should all work diligently to be the people our children think of first when they are deciding who they want to be.

Time Tebow will probably be a person we can add to the list of heroes thirty or forty years from now. Until then we need to keep in mind that the greatest people in the world probably die with no one ever hearing of them.

Gary Brown
gary@secmatchups.com

Some college football records are more interesting

Exploring college football’s record book is an eye opening experience. In many ways the history of the game unfolds right in front of you. Reviewing passing records reveals the transition from three yards and a cloud of dust to the spread offenses that dominate offensive stats today. Individual performances jump off the pages, like the incredible year Barry Sanders of Oklahoma State had in 1988 where his season was not defined by 200 yard games, but the four he had over 300.

A figure that is really kind of staggering, even when considering the high powered offenses of today, is the single game passing record held by David Klinger of Houston. In a 62-45 win over Arizona State he threw the ball around all day, and when the air was cleared had passed for 716 yards.

There are other records we don’t think about very often that are interesting because when we see them, we just scratch our heads and ponder the reality of them. When you recall the 1916 game between Cumberland and Georgia Tech it is difficult to figure how there is even enough time for one team to score 222 points. The reason may be an offense for Cumberland that was just as inept as their defense, since they were shut out in the game.

But we don’t recall some moments because they did not happen in an era when replay is found for every game played from pee-wee to the NFL. Records are broken at all levels as well, and sometimes it is hard to find the superlatives that occur in the levels below the Bowl Championship Division of the NCAA, you know, Division I. Beyond being broke at lower levels, it is special teams that cause the curious to stop and ponder just what the day was like for the record holder.

For example, in 1976 Ove Johansson sent a field goal 69 yards off a 2-inch tee against East Texas State. It was an NAIA game, but hey, 69 yards is 69 yards in high school, college or the NFL. How do you even begin to line that one up and decide how much to get under it? What was the wind like? When the ball came off Johansson’s foot you have to wonder at what point he knew it was good. It would be hard to imagine he kicked it and instantly raised his arms making the call; after all, the ball would have taken almost as long to reach the uprights as it does to fly from Atlanta to Miami. While we would like for a kick of this distance to have some magnitude as every player and fan held their breath to see if the short par three drive would be good or not, this is not the case. The final score of the game was 17-0.

What is a busy day for your team’s punter? Do you even know his name? If you saw him ten times a game you would probably want the offensive coordinator fired. It was 1939 and Texas Tech played Centenary during a downpour in Shreveport. The game was an event that would cause current Tech coach, Mike Leach, to have a stroke. On that day the Red Raiders Charlie Calhoun punted the ball thirty-six times. THIRTY-SIX! He was credited with 1318 kicking yards that day. Twenty of his attempts were returned, eight went out of bounds while six were downed. For the day the number one was only used twice to describe Calhoun’s efforts. He had one roll into the end zone for a touchback and one blocked. Of his punts that day the most eye opening number is thirty-three. That is how many times he punted the ball on first down. Guess the coaches felt field position was important that day. The outcome? A scoreless tie.

Kicking the ball is easy compared to setting a record the way T.J. Mayer did in a 2003 game when Waldorf played SMSU. Mayer had the privilege of returning thirteen kickoffs before the final gun sounded. How does one guy get into a position to return that many kickoffs in four quarters of football? You lose the game by a score of 84-7. Obviously on a team outmanned in every way, Mayer had to walk the field over and over that day, and run headfirst into a swarm of SMSU players. His blocking could not have been any better than the teams other skill players had that day. And he had a head full of steam every time. Beyond this particular game Mayer was given plenty of other return opportunities that season. Waldorf went 0-11 and gave up seventy or more points in three other games.

This year keep an eye on the record book, and the next time you hear someone asking a superstar how they feel about having their longstanding record broken think of poor A.J. His record might never be broken, and more important there is probably not a player out there that wants his title.

Gary Brown
gary@secmatchups.com