Just a quick PS re coaching conundrum

A couple of weeks ago I was writing about Notre Dame's quest for a new football coach. There was much pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth on Irish fans' boards, but aside from those sites, I think the concensus was generally that Notre Dame hired a better than good coach, and that the process was carried out in an orderly way, and that the school was not embarassed by events.

Subsequent events have made ND look even better. Urban Meyer's Greta Garbo impersonation down in Talahassee made everybody involved look foolish, and while Meyer and the U of Fl admin have tried to pour oil on the water down there, things remain unresolved. Strangely, Meyer's "I'm gone, I'm back" two step doesn't appear to have cost the school significantly in the recruiting area. Also, assistant coaches and coordinators with successful programs are usually ready to acccept promotions to positions of greater responsibility at other schools, but Urban has kind of a no-name staff and we haven't heard of a lot of poaching efforts directed their way. Still the situation remains unsettled, and coaches, players, fans and sports writers will be keeping a nervous eye on Urban Meyer in the next year.

Mike Leach being fired at Texas Tech was the next goofy story, The coach told a player who showed up for practice in a baseball cap and shades and claimed to be recovering from a concussion to get off the practice field and spend the practice time in the equipment shed. Apparently the player was a long time annoyance to the coach, performing indifferently and behaving too casually to suit the coach who likes to see a lot of intensity and desire in his players. Unfortunately for the coach, the players dad is a commentator for ESPN. Also unfortunately for the coach, the school admin felt he had secured a better contract last year than they were able or wanted to pay. By firing the coach a week before their bowl game they probably hoped to save the $800,000 bonus they were due to pay him on January 1st. Something tells me Leach's attorney will get a lot bigger settlement than that before this is over. Oh, by the way, for Friday Night Lights fans Mike Leach was the dark haired fellow who ran into Coach Taylor at a gas station and told the coach to keep swinging his sword and that the recent adversity might turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. Also for those who care, Coach Leach's players were achieving graduation at the highest rate of any state school in the country.

The third story getting a lot of attention is Pete Carroll's leaving USC. A very successful coach who ran a pretty thuggish program and turned a blind eye on agents and boosters throwing a lot of cash at his playwers (and probably other violations, eg academics), the coach is hitting the trail before the NCAA announces findings in its investigations at USC. Equally amusing is the fact that the school was turned down by the first four candidates it approached to replace Coach Carroll, and finally gave job to a twenty-something coach with a very bad record on as well as off the field. They apparently expected this non-entity to assemle a star studded cast of assistants who would maintain the school's high standards, um I mean for wins vs losses. So far he has enlisted one respected assistant, who also happened to be his dad.

Two other fairly big-tine coaches come to mind who were terminated in the last month, one for choking a player, another for making allegedly racist comments to black players.

All in all, looking back now ND seems to have handled the transition pretty well.