erald01

December 14th, 2013 at 9:44 PM ^

To think that any of B1G coaches are UT worthy its plain foolish, and to think Narduzzi or Dantonio are UT worthy is even more foolish..no one in big ten has proven they are elite coaches not Meyer not Dantonio and his boyfriend Narduzzi..both teams have played easy schedules in mediocre conference..at the end they played each other and the team that wanted the most won...it took Bret Bielema 3 rose bowls trips to be looked by Arkansa who is not close to what Texas is..Texas wants to win soon, they have been down since 2009 and their fans/boosters are getting impatient

Joined: 01/17/2013

MGoPoints: 3496

mgowill

December 15th, 2013 at 11:18 AM ^

Of all active FBS coaches, Urban Meyer has the highest win percentage (0.842) and the FBS coach closest to him is Bob Stoops (0.803).  Other highlights include 2 National Championships and a 7-1 bowl record.  If he isn't qualified to coach any school anywhere, then I'm not sure who other than Nick Saban (4 National Championships in the last 10 years) might be.  I don't like Urban Meyer for obvious reasons, but saying he isn't elite is just not true.

Joined: 08/31/2011

MGoPoints: 18545

Victor Valiant

December 15th, 2013 at 3:01 PM ^

Whoa! This hadn't occured to me, but what about Stoops to Texas. I wouldn't say he's on the hotseat, but when Oklahoma has struggled in the past I've occassionally heard and read grumblings about him being fired or resigning. Anyone think he has the cajones to jump to Texas? I'd have to think he'd be a great hire for them, having a recruitng network in the area, a proven record of success, and also brings the charm I would expect them to want to display to alums and donors. I also wouldn't consider him prohibitively old, 53 right now, for the job.

Joined: 11/23/2013

MGoPoints: 4491

Class of 1817

December 14th, 2013 at 10:26 PM ^

...by most of the comments here. Have we really been that traumatized by MSU that we can't stop talking about their coaches?

Texas isn't interested in any B1G coaches, save for possibly Urban, and he's not going anywhere.

Saban is obviously their first choice.

Malzahn is second.

Their third choice may as well be their seventh.

We can drop the whole Dantonio/Narduzzi thing. Either of those hires would be laughable in Texas.

Joined: 06/23/2011

MGoPoints: 4526

Cold War

December 16th, 2013 at 8:28 AM ^

The speculation about Dantonio is in the national media as well. Taking a look at Texas forums, there are a number of posters that have mentioned him and want him.

Also, I don't think there's anything wrong with hoping one of your rivals loses a coach, or being glad to see a great player of theirs graduate, etc. It is a relatively new reality, however, that we have to concern ourselves with Sparty's fortunes in these matters. Back in the day it didn't concern us as much because we would always be better, regardless.

Joined: 01/15/2012

MGoPoints: -3144

Tagg

December 15th, 2013 at 12:25 AM ^

I'm just not sure he is "Texas Ready" and by that I mean he has no head coaching experience and Texas is likely looking for someone in a head coaching position, likely in a BCS conference. 

Joined: 09/02/2008

MGoPoints: 897

goblue1213

December 14th, 2013 at 10:38 PM ^

Historically Texas is a step up. There is more talent in Texas than in the Midwest. Meyer would be able to get even more speed from that state. No school would out bid Texas. Meyer's track record seems to be taking a team that's close to greatness, and pushing it over the top. That was what happened when he took over at Florida. That team was pretty much assembled, he added a few pieces, and put it over the edge. Look at OSU. He came in after Tressel, and essentially maintained the level they had been at. In the end, it is all just guess work until the shoe actually drops.

Joined: 01/09/2011

MGoPoints: 649

Ty Butterfield

December 14th, 2013 at 11:13 PM ^

This will certainly be interesting. Texas fans seem to want Mack out, but...be careful what you wish for.

Joined: 09/07/2009

MGoPoints: -81685

AMazinBlue

December 15th, 2013 at 12:43 AM ^

strong chance Urbs goes to Austin.  I also thought Saban would go to the NFL to replace Shanahan, but all that seems to be dying out as Saban says he's staying and the Shanahan quiting/getting fired talk has died down.  I still think he's leaving for Houston, but don't as sure now.

Joined: 10/12/2008

MGoPoints: 7197

Sione's Flow

December 15th, 2013 at 12:58 AM ^

I've seen all of the "experts" predicting who is most likely to wind up as the coach at Texas, but I honestly think Texas is going after Saban.  Regardless of his extension, I think they'll pony up the money to get him to Austin.  If that happens, I expect the National Guard will have to be called in to quell the rioting in Tuscaloosa.

Joined: 06/05/2011

MGoPoints: 5193

BlowGoo

December 15th, 2013 at 10:49 AM ^

At the risk of throwing a lit match in your room of knee deep kerosene, it would hypothetically reunite him with Gerg. And if they were successful, look out! And if they were to be SECcessful, hell.. ... you ever get an eyelash stuck under your eyelid that you can't get out, and that constantly irritates your eye because it scratched the cornea a bit? Well, imagine an eyelash the size of a Buick wrapped in barbed wire and coated in sulphuric acid. I reckon it would feel like that. Would make for interesting drama though. More to the point, it would have been fascnating to see what Rod would have done if he had a firm "hands-off" policy imposed on him against a hand picked DC. The Texas AD, hypothetically speaking, would have more than enough clout to impose such a restriction on Rod and still be an attractive landing spot for him.

Joined: 10/16/2011

MGoPoints: 7078

Don

December 15th, 2013 at 11:08 AM ^

If all this Texas stuff had been happening at the end of 2007, I think UT would have gone after RR in a big way, since at that time he was one of the hottest young coaches in the country. His folksy, unpretentious and corny personality would have been a better fit for a southern school than for an upper-midwestern conservative stick-up-the-ass fan base such as Michigan's that liked the fact that Lloyd Carr read Kipling by the fire.

As it is now, I don't think RR has had enough success at AZ to make him attractive to UT.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 148557

Reader71

December 15th, 2013 at 3:10 PM ^

Yeah, I'd be shocked if Texas gave him a serious look, but I would be curious about what he could do. Before he got here, we all believed that he was a great coach that would really take off at a bigger program with more resources. He failed here, but there were difficult handicaps he couldn't overcome. I wonder what UT would be like. They all hate Mack Brown, so there should be at least a period of unanimous support. And yeah, I think his attitude fits a lot better down south. Just curious is all, I don't think it'll happen.

Joined: 08/30/2009

MGoPoints: 22968

Blarvey

December 15th, 2013 at 9:36 AM ^

I don't know about the whole situation in Texas but I think this just illustrates the difference between D1 football now and 30 or 40 years ago.

Bo's teams struggled in the early 80s. Bear Bryant was 8th and 7th in the SEC in 1969 and 1970. Even Woody had dud seasons. I can't think of 1 D1 coach that had 20 straight 9 or 10+ win seasons

Guys like Beamer, Dantonio, and Fitzgerald seem to be getting a shot to build something without threatening jobs every time a team takes a step back from the lofty expectations those coaches helped to make realistic. For the biggest teams in cfb, it seems very different whether it is the AD or the coach looking elsewhere.

I understand the game is different now and with high salaries come high expectations. That said, mean reversion is bound to happen and for a guy that coached a team to 2nd in the conference and shown yoy improvement for the last 4 years to basically be forced out seems like a product of the new era.

Joined: 11/21/2011

MGoPoints: 3473

BlowGoo

December 15th, 2013 at 11:11 AM ^

I agree with this. I find it making it VERY difficult for me to predict who is going where, which teams will likely be successful, and which coaches deserve to be let go for exactly these reasons. When Boise State can regularly enter the NC debate, then conventional powerhouses mean less and less. The talent is spread out, and being a big fish in a little pond becomes arguably more attractive than being a mediocre fish in a big pond. The exceptions, though, are maddening: primarily SEC (especially Bama obviously) based. I think that suggests either (1) systematic cheating or relaxed standards of such a degree as to absurdly disrupt competitive balance; and/or (2) success of a conference as a whole has become a necessary prerequisite for success of any individual team. Even Urban Meyer, with his impressive win streak, finds himself on the outside looking in as a result of this. His record in the SEC means even after a late loss, he's still on the list. Maybe not number two, but close enough for a possible invite to a playoff. In the B1G... maybe, maybe not. Texas is like us in that regard. Maybe worse. Big XII I think has less cache than B1G (though with Longhorn Network, Texas has the ability to self-aggrandize more than the Big XII alone... But this only gets you so far - like ND, which got the invite to the NC, but clearly lacked the TALENT and hence recruiting prowess that a competitive division provides). I do not foresee significant improvement with whomever Texas chooses (with satanic exception) for those reasons. Mack Brown is Texas' Llloyd Carr. I think they'll have similar drama with his stepping down. The introduction of the expanded playoffs might change ALL of this, but I'll believe it when I see it. I still think that NOW, unlike the past, the strength of the conference is of comparable importance to the strength of any individual program in terms of recruitment. The strong get stronger. In that regard, we should b quicker to raise pitchforks against Delaney than either Brandon or Hoke. And we should be pulling for big B1G success in the bowls.

Joined: 10/16/2011

MGoPoints: 7078

HarBooYa

December 15th, 2013 at 10:10 AM ^

Just to correct a misconception that has been repeated several times in this thread, there is nothing inherent in a contract "extension" that would prohibit a coach who got such an extension from coaching at UT.  Without anything else in it, it usually just makes the move much more expensive and reputionally more difficult for that particular coach and the hiring school. 

Now if the extended contract had a non-compete clause in it, that is a different story.  I heard (unsubstantiated) that Sumlin's contract may have such a provision.  That would make it difficult for him, but even then it not impossible (recall Rich Rod's breach of his contract).  I am not sure the others folks mentioned have a similar prohibition (Saban, Art B, etc.).  

Going to be interesting.  Great town, great school, big money, big perks, huge recruiting base.  Not many better jobs than this one in college football.  

-m

Joined: 06/22/2011

MGoPoints: 3165

TexGoBlue

December 15th, 2013 at 10:50 AM ^

This is my first post but I am a long time reader of the blog. I live in Austin now and, without giving the person away, I work with one of the former top officials of UT. This is not as cushy of a job as everyone makes it out to be. Forgive the long post but I think some of you might find this interesting.

Recruiting - lots of talent nearby since Austin is right in the middle of the state's population. However, the Texas cache isn't what it used to be. Baylor, A&M and to a lessor extent Tech and TCU are competitive now. Also, one has to constantly "recruit" the high school coaches here more than anywhere else in the country. People still take that old fashioned, good ole boy network stuff seriously down here and everyone is gunning for TX recruits, including the SEC more than ever. It is tough for an outsider to come in and put a fence around the state for the best players like Tressel did in Ohio. Art Briles is so successful because he was a well regarded high school coach here.

Politics - the coach is the figure head for the school and the aforementioned good ole boy mentality requires a lot of time spent kissing babies, making speeches, attending university events and generally kissing up to the boosters. Also, Rick Perry is using his position as Governor to undermine the school and the coach will have to deal with this. The person I work with left because of this. Rick Perry is trying to get his people on elected to the Texas board of regents to undermine the school and make A&M the academic and football power in the state (for brevity's sake, he is a die hard A&M guy). Bill Powers, the president, narrowly survived the first attempted coup Thursday. The coach will have to deal with this background infighting.

History- the belief is Texas is an unstoppable football power which the right guy at the helm. A look back at the history books suggests otherwise. Mack brown is the second best coach they have ever had and he won 1(!) national title and 2(!) conference titles in 16 years. Yet, the expectations are UT should be in the national title picture every year. The narrative isn't supported by reality. Unrelated but speaking of which...

ESPN (unrelated to coaching search but interesting) - the person I work with was intimately involved in negotiating of the Longhorn Network and the school's admission to the PAC 16. Yes PAC 16. Interestingly, Texas was committed to joining a new "PAC 16" with several other Big 12 Schools. There was an agreement in principle to deal with revenue from LHN and a press conference scheduled to announce. ESPN didn't want this because Fox has PAC 12 rights. On the eve of the press conference ESPN showed up with buckets of cash through increased take home on LHN and back door "donations" from Disney, it's corporate parent, to the school to keep the Big 12 together. The rest is history. However, my colleague tells me they made sure to draft all Big 12 agreements with an escape hatch for Texas (low buyouts, etc.).

Joined: 10/18/2013

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