OT: What are the 10 Worst College Football Coach Hiring Decisions of the 21st Century?
According Yahoo's Pat Forde's 100 minute Twitter session with 366 voters, the answers are:
10. Bill Callahan - Nebraska
9. Ron Turner - Florida International
8. Paul Pasqualoni - Connecticut
7. Greg Robinson - Syracuse
6. Mike Locksley - New Mexico
5. Ellis Johnson - Southern Mississippi
4. Derek Dooley - Tennessee
3. Lane Kiffin - USC
2. Steve Kragthorpe - Louisville
and finally...
1. Rich Rodriguez - Michigan
Entire article below. Your thoughts?
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--forde-yard-dash--judging-lane-kiffi…
October 1st, 2013 at 10:47 PM ^
He would definitely make the top 10 for worst contract extension of all time.
October 1st, 2013 at 9:35 PM ^
October 2nd, 2013 at 7:30 AM ^
File that one under the same category as "College Football, Minor Programs", subheading, "Michigan State University", keyword "Smith, John L."
October 2nd, 2013 at 1:24 PM ^
Smith seemed like a smart hire at the time, because he had a pretty good resume. He took Louisville to a couple of their conference titles before being hired by MSU, and when he coached Idaho before that, they had a bunch of IAA playoff appearances.
It's hard to understand how he became such a goofball, but there you are.
October 2nd, 2013 at 1:31 PM ^
Under Schnellenberger and really didn't start becoming regularly good at football till John L. got there. Then they went to even greater heights after he left. He was also along with Tiller the wave of guys brining the spread and 3-3-5 type defenses to the Big Ten. Maybe goofy worked at those other places.
October 1st, 2013 at 9:36 PM ^
Howard Schnellenberger at Oklahoma was quite the disaster.
October 1st, 2013 at 9:40 PM ^
GERG isn't number 1? Hm. Shocknig to me.
October 1st, 2013 at 9:44 PM ^
October 1st, 2013 at 9:51 PM ^
So Yahoo is the new Bleacher Report?
October 1st, 2013 at 9:54 PM ^
The decision to hire RR was a good one. He was a 20-year coach with the youth to stay at Michigan for 20 years, and one of the pioneers of the modern spread offense. Yes, obviously his teams were tire fires. No, obviously it didn't work out. That was due to a variety of reasons. But the decision itself was a good one.
Just a little wording thing that bugs me.
October 1st, 2013 at 9:55 PM ^
See, if the question is about worse hiring decision, then I don't think you can put RR on that list at all. The decision wasn't bad, the result was bad. RichRod was one of the hottest coaches in America when we hired him - just a year prior Alabama wanted to hire him OVER SABAN. He had had a ton of success at WVU and had beaten legitimate teams year after year.
Obvisously, it didn't work out, and you can argue that he wasn't a fit "for Michigan" as if our field isn't 100 yards long or something, but if we wouldn't have hired him, the next huge program looking for a coach would have.
Lane, OTOH, has been good exactly never. He was an assitant at USC and an OC for all of two years under one of the greatest HCs in the last decade and with NFL talent galore. No shit USC had a great offense. But he sucked in Oakland, did absolutely nothing of worth at Tennessee and then was given $4 million per year to coach USC. Unless the plan honestly was "ride this asshole out until the sanctions are over" I have to say the Lane Kiffin hire was worse.
October 1st, 2013 at 10:41 PM ^
God, you're such a RR apologist. Using facts and logic and the unyielding chronological order of time and all. Why can't you just admit that losing to Sparty made me feel bad at my job because my coworkers made fun of me and so that proves that RR was a terrible hire?
BOOM QED'D
October 2nd, 2013 at 9:25 AM ^
point of view.
[Edit: my sarcasm meter is out of whack. Dooh!]
October 2nd, 2013 at 1:12 AM ^
If Sailboat Bill had hired Miles or Schiano or English, RR would simply have gotten the job at some other bigtime program. His relationship with WVU's athletic director Ed Pastilong had gotten extremely toxic, and it was probably just a matter of time before he left Morgantown.
However, if I'm taking out RR from the list, I'd have to substitute RR's own hiring of Robinson as DC. He signed his own death warrant in Ann Arbor with that decision. Still inexplicable to me why a head coach helming the first losing season in 4 decades would hire a guy who had just taken Syracuse to its own worst stretch in its history, esp. since GERG had a major hand in the Orange defense. RR needed in the worst way to hire somebody who didn't have the stink of recent abject failure on him.
October 2nd, 2013 at 7:37 AM ^
forgot about that... The man was asleep at the wheel, it appeared.
October 2nd, 2013 at 4:00 PM ^
English is listed as a viable option. Think about that. The politics at Michigan are so fucked up that this was even considered.
October 1st, 2013 at 9:56 PM ^
October 1st, 2013 at 9:57 PM ^
Not a bad list but mine would have to be as follows:
1. Brady Hoke
2. Rich Rodriguez
3. Lloyd Carr
4. Gary Moeller
5. Bo Schembechler
6. Bump Elliot
7. Bennie Oosterbaan
8. Fritz Crisler
9. Harry Kipke
10. Fielding Yost
October 1st, 2013 at 10:04 PM ^
What's going on Ghost? Has life kicked you in the balls or something?
October 1st, 2013 at 10:37 PM ^
October 2nd, 2013 at 7:38 AM ^
good work!
October 1st, 2013 at 10:00 PM ^
October 1st, 2013 at 10:03 PM ^
Oops. Alright here we go:
1. Brady Hoke
2. Greg Mattison
3. Al Borges
4. Rich Rodriguez
5. Greg Robinson
6. Calvin Mcgee
7. Tony Gibson
8. Darrell Funk
9. Roy Manning
10. Jeff Hecklinski
October 1st, 2013 at 10:05 PM ^
you missed the part about 21st century.
Did you also miss "worst"?
October 2nd, 2013 at 12:02 PM ^
are the worst and second-worst hirings in the 21st century.
Well OK then. Just don't forget to take your meds.
October 1st, 2013 at 10:08 PM ^
October 1st, 2013 at 10:11 PM ^
October 1st, 2013 at 10:52 PM ^
October 2nd, 2013 at 12:12 PM ^
Worse for who? lol Isn't Charlie still cashing Notre Dame checks?
October 1st, 2013 at 10:25 PM ^
October 1st, 2013 at 10:31 PM ^
October 1st, 2013 at 10:42 PM ^
October 1st, 2013 at 11:47 PM ^
Seeing him working for CBS covering a Raider game...
Wait, the shit tsunami otherwise known as the Oakland Coliseum will swallow him whole.
October 1st, 2013 at 10:38 PM ^
As an Assistant at his alma mater, Lane will get a chance to pay his dues,. He can reflect on his days as a "wunderkind", support and eventually succeed Tim DeRuyter.
October 1st, 2013 at 10:54 PM ^
I have three guesses, each more likely than the next:
October 2nd, 2013 at 5:48 AM ^
October 1st, 2013 at 10:40 PM ^
October 1st, 2013 at 10:44 PM ^
I think it's a bigger problem when the guy doesn't even coach a single game.
October 2nd, 2013 at 7:40 AM ^
he famously lied on? What a tool.
October 1st, 2013 at 10:51 PM ^
This might be a candidate for "Dumbest Post of 2013."
October 1st, 2013 at 10:56 PM ^
Richrod was looked at as a brilliant hire at the time, a genius on offense who would revitalize Michigan's stagnation. He was a proven coach at multiple levels. Hindsight doesn't count here, the decision was great, the execution was poor
Terrible decisions would be things like
- Lane Kiffin - not proven at any level
- Gerry Faust - high school to ND. Who thought that was a good idea
October 1st, 2013 at 11:34 PM ^
Specifically, the hiring decisions of defensive coordinators under RR were problematic.
But now that he has his defensive coordinator, his opponents' scoring numbers are not at all what they were at Michigan.
I actually hope that he goes somewhere at Arizona. I think the conditions of his hire there were just much better than the conditions of his hire here. I always root for Arizona when they play now....
October 1st, 2013 at 11:56 PM ^
So just to be clear, you root for a guy who set the Michigan football program back at least six years and caused multiple national embarassments for the program?
October 2nd, 2013 at 12:18 AM ^
Just to be clear, Rich Rodriguez (and for that matter, everyone who has coached at Michigan) has done more to try to make Michigan great than anyone on this board has ever dreamed of doing. I just don't see where the hatred comes from.
October 2nd, 2013 at 1:21 AM ^
October 2nd, 2013 at 1:47 AM ^
Point is, the guy worked his ass off for 3 years for Michigan. It didn't work out. Ultimately that's his responsibility, fine. But a) considering our record in 2005 and 2007, it's pretty absurd to say he "set us back a least 6 years" and b) I see no reason to wish ill on the guy. He's gone now.
Anyway, I hope he does well at Arizona - a successful RR team is really fun to watch, and plus we get to see AZ beat on USC.
October 2nd, 2013 at 2:07 AM ^
The guy got fired when the players he brought in were freshmen and sophomores (and they made up the bulk of the contributors on what was a decimated roster).
If Coach Hoke were to finish this year at 7-5 and get fired after the season (neither of which is going to happen because of the existence on the roster of guys like Gardner, Lewan, Gallon, Fitz, Washington, Ryan, Countess, etc.) , at the same point in his tenure, imagine what an asshole you would sound like if you said "it didn't work out" and acted like he'd had more than enough time to build whatever he was going to build here.
October 2nd, 2013 at 7:51 AM ^
Even if Hoke were to finish 7-5 this season, it wouldn't matter because the fanbase would fall back on the "Brady Hoke is still trying to climb out of the crater that Rich Rod left behind" rationalization. He'd get the pass that nobody was willing to give Rodriguez because the large majority of the Michigan fanbase will judge a guy solely on wins and losses without even considering mitigating circumstances.
There are those who can look at the past decade of Michigan football objectively, with the benefit of hindsight, and see how many people shoulder the blame for it's struggles, and then there are those who will latch onto the easy target and just make Rich Rodriguez the villain for everything.
This argument has been had dozens of times the past 3 years and we never get anywhere with it. We should just drop it.