In the world of NCAA football coaches, most put money and greener pastures over loyalty and building a tradition. In recent years we have seen Urban Meyer leave both Bowling Green and Utah, Mark Dantonio leave Cincinnati, John L. Smith leave Louisville, Walt Harris leave Pittsburgh, and Les Miles leave Oklahoma State, just to mention a few. Rather than building up and finishing what they started, each left for a bigger spotlight and a much bigger paycheck. With top coaching salaries approaching two and even three million dollars per year, can you blame them? Well, yes, you most definitely can.
For example, in the case of John L. Smith leaving Louisville for Michigan State, we have a coach leaving a university committed to building up a winning football program for one who is clearly a basketball school. Smith is now gone from the Michigan State program. Same goes for Walt Harris, who left a Pittsburgh program on the rise for a Stanford team that he was just fired from this week.
So, it was with great excitement that I have witnessed three coaches staying at the helm to keep developing their programs as national contenders year in and year out. First off was Wake Forest's Jim Grobe, who has a relatively young team coming back in the weak ACC next season, followed by Rutgers' Greg Schiano, who is staying in the Garden State to build a consistent winner. At Wake Forest, their 11 wins are tops in the history of Demon Deacon football, and Rutgers is going to back-to-back bowl games for the first time in that school's 139 years of football. These decisions come after Louisville's Bobby Petrino decided to stick around with the Cardinals, who are headed to a BCS appearance. Rutgers and Louisville are both undergoing massive stadium expansions, and all three schools have a direct pipeline to local prep talent. Kudos to these three for staying put; let us hope that Rich Rodriguez is still at West Virginia come next week.
On an unrelated note, Ohio State sophomore linebacker James Laurinaitis won the Bronko Nagurski Award last night, given annually to the nation's best collegiate defender. He is the first sophomore ever to pick up the trophy, and he will be back with the Buckeyes for at least one more season. The kid is quite the player; no doubt Florida will be accounting for Mr. Laurinaitis most every snap.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Another good example of a coach sticking around to develop their team is Ralph Friedgen of Maryland. He's stuck around there for at least ten years and built a pretty viable program there.
Agreed. I didn't say anything about Ralph simply because I haven't heard his name tossed around as a candidate this year, but there certainly have been greener pastures for him in the past.
Post a Comment