Random rants as I angrily stew after being stuck in a hotel room in snowy West Virginia for three days:
With UCLA firing Karl Dorrell on Monday, the number of African-American head coaches in Division I-A dropped to five. Out of 119. Let’s see if that number goes up after the athletic directors’ shopping season ends. Schools are hiring white coaches so fast you wonder if minorities are even getting a token phone call, let alone an interview.
Some schools are trying. Mike Singletary told Baylor no. Nebraska’s Tom Osborne was in regular contact with Buffalo’s Turner Gill before hiring Bo Pelini. Tyrone Nix, South Carolina’s highly rated defensive coordinator, pulled his name from consideration at Southern Mississippi, his alma mater.
But look around at the coaching openings and you don’t hear of many minority candidates. UCLA has already been told no by Boise State’s Chris Petersen and ex-California coach Steve Mariucci. Texas Tech’s Mike Leach’s name continues to be mentioned.
Former Colorado coach Rick Neuheisel — yes, that Rick Neuheisel — talked with Georgia Tech last week, as did Navy’s Paul Johnson. Georgia Southern’s Chris Hatcher and defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta are also being considered. Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz keeps getting mentioned for Michigan.
What do they all have in common? You guessed it. The only African-Americans known to be in any hunt are Grambling coach Rod Broadway at Duke and Michigan defensive coordinator Ron English for the Wolverines’ job. Mike Haywood, Notre Dame’s offensive coordinator, and Kevin Sumlin, Oklahoma’s co-offensive coordinator, are also being mentioned at Houston.
Two of the nation’s top assistants, Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong and Illinois offensive coordinator Mike Locksley, both African-American, have not been mentioned in any job searches. Strange? Not really. Look at our history.
Coaches conspiracy.
They call us sports writers “vultures” and “pond scum.” Well, at least the media’s Associated Press poll has some integrity. How much validity does the coaches’ poll have when coaches in national title contention blatantly force-feed their own teams to the top of the poll?
Bob Stoops, knowing his team needed major help to vault past Ohio State, Louisiana State, Virginia Tech and others, voted his Oklahoma Sooners No. 1. Only South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier, out of 60 voting coaches, agreed with him. It didn’t help. Oklahoma finished fourth.
Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer was the only coach who picked his Hokies as high as No. 2. Georgia coach Mark Richt placed his Bulldogs second, ahead of LSU, which just won the SEC title the previous day. Georgia didn’t make it to the championship game. Of course, Les Miles voted his Tigers No. 1.
None of this had any bearing on the championship game. The BCS got it right. The problem is this inane BCS system allows coaches to legally overrate their own teams to climb the poll. I can’t blame these guys. It’s their job to protect their teams. How about if next year coaches can’t vote for their own teams? One of these years it’s going to make a difference.
Losing has its rewards.
Is the Orange Bowl blind? How stupid does it think we are? Sure, we wear corncobs on our heads in public, but Kansas over Missouri? Based on Missouri’s performance against Oklahoma?
It’s not that Kansas was a better team than Missouri. I can’t help thinking the reason the Orange Bowl picked Kansas was that more Jayhawks fans could afford to visit Miami than Missourians who shelled out for San Antonio and the Big 12 title game. So Missouri, ranked No. 1 going into play Saturday, gets sent to the Cotton Bowl and a $3 million paycheck and Kansas gets $14 million to $17 million from the Orange Bowl.
High-five for Heisman.
New rule for the Heisman committee: Invite the top five candidates every year, not a random number. Hawaii’s Colt Brennan deserved to go last year and Oregon’s Dennis Dixon should be the fifth candidate this year. All he did was lift the Ducks to No. 2 in the country. When his knee buckled at Arizona, the team lost three in a row and went into a free fall. No player was more valuable.
