your first mistake is taking numbers from an individual year. Rivalries are not based one years tv ratings. there are a lot more than that.
This is a fact. A decade ago USC looked like the best college program in the Nation with no end in sight. SEC has a lot of really good schools with historically good football programs but there is an ebb and flow to football programs.
As someone said, playing the likes of Alabama, LSU, and Florida is more appealing than playing OU. I think you are right about the defense angle but that hasn't stopped other really good defensive recruits from going to A&M and I'm sure that is part of Sumlins pitch. I think you have a trend of overblowing UTs advantages over other programs. Almost everyone agreed that Fisher would never leave FSU to come to Texas except for you and if UT had thought he would have then he would be the coach. It might take a year for Strong to prove that he can actually make good defenses and prove that he can make teams better before the recruits come knocking. Plus, he came to Texas really late in the game. Now he has a whole year to recruit.
I'm not knocking A&M, I'm just knocking you for acting like there are no reasons anyone would choose UT over A&M. That was a ridiculous quote and you know it. Maybe Alaka picks UT and maybe he doesn't but no worries because you are right about one thing, Strong started out behind the 8 ball in the recruiting process. As for Jimbo Fisher, there is absolutely no doubt that I was right about that. UT absolutely has enough money to outbid FSU for Jimbo if they had wanted to but UT never even looked towards Jimbo. It's quite possible that one of the boosters may have made inquiries about Jimbo but I think we all know at this point that Steve Patterson took the guy he wanted and selected that guy his way with zero input from the boosters. Jimbo was never on Patterson's radar.
I just saw that it was being reported by both AggieYell and Orangebloods. That would be a huge loss for A&M and a huge steal for UT.
I'm going to need some help from the peanut gallery to determine the proper order here in the Axis Of Uselessness: 1. The few hundred different Mel Kiper-ish NFL draft rankings 2. He's a 3 star, NO! he's a 4 star, HS player rankings 3. The few hundred different "TOP WHATEVER" minor league baseball rankings
Oh come on - please stop with this nonsense. You don't think UT had any interest in a guy who took a team to a national title in 4 years? This is just ridiculous - you need to accept that money doesn't rule the world, and that UT can't just buy whatever coach they want. Fisher has a great situation at FSU, with a very real chance to win a second consecutive national title at a great school in a powerful state. UT wasn't ever going to pay an outrageous amount of money outside of the reasonable scope of the football coaches market, regardless of how much they have - it's just not how things work.
The SEC should be re-named to alabama conference since only Bama and Auburn have won the conference and title the last few years. The SEC is a top heavy conference with tons of bottom feeders. It's the best conference ATM but that will change in a few years if there is another realignment.
Why are UT fans so completely convinced that money is 100% the only factor coaches ever consider? Jimbo never would have came to Texas. He had a national championship, a heisman winner returning, PLENTY of money from FSU to begin with, and PLENTY of recruiting dominance in a talent-rich state of Florida.
Bama will not share the wealth. Must have moarrrrrr. With that said, as long as coach Saban is still coaching, the SEC will be relevant. Deal with it. (Not directed towards you but some other people in this thread) This is the best thread. A&M vs Texas rivalry has caught a little fire and SEC vs Big 12. Where are the Big 10 fans to brag about their conference?!
Good grief dude even you argued that there was no way UT would have ever offered Jimbo 10 million a year because he wasn't proven enough. YOU didn't want Jimbo yourself because YOU compared him to Gene Chizik and now your changing your tune and trying to argue Patterson offered Jimbo this giant contract with out anyone in the media finding out about it? My claim is simple, if UT had offered Jimbo 10 million a year he would have seriously considered UT and no, I don't think FSU would have matched that. But guess what, that's just my opinion and it will not change on that. If you think an extra 5+ million a year isn't enough make a person consider changing jobs then I think you are delusional. And as I said earlier, I would not be shocked if jimbo's people were contacted by one of the boosters. But what I think is indisputable fact is that 1. UT was never going to back the money truck up to Fisher's house and force him into a financial decision. 2. Patterson never made a play at Gene Chizik.... I mean Jimbo Fisher. If you think he did then show me one shred of evidence. By the way, I'm just curious, are you all of a sudden claiming Jimbo is now something other than Gene Chizik and would have made a good coach for UT? That is certainly a 180 from what you were claiming during the coaching search. Your stance was always that you would have been disappointed with Jimbo because he was just like Chizick.
Who said money was the only factor. Offer enough of it and it does become the biggest factor. Look at the pro sports free agents that leave good teams and go to a worse situation almost every year because of more money. Show me a situation where a substantial amount of money was not a factor.
I don't recall anyone saying anyone would be pumped to play at either of those places. Meanwhile, the assertion that the possibility of playing at Ole Miss would be exciting for recruits was definitely made.
There's a gigantic, ocean-sized difference between considering Jimbo Fisher and wanting him for 10MM. And I think you're simply wrong. UT would never in a million years have offered $10MM to Jimbo Fisher or any other coach. That's absolutely true - UT was never going to pay that kind of money. I have no idea who they contacted directly or behind the scenes with their agents. You're the one that made the absurd claim that there was "absolutely no doubt" that you're right despite the all the evidence that, in reality, UT picked a coach and gave him a mild range in line with reasonable coaching salaries. You're the one that needs to show evidence that UT would offer $10MM to anyone. I never said Jimbo Fisher is Gene Chizik - if you believe that, you have significant reading comprehension issues. I said, like Chizik, Fisher is not proven over time - and he's not. He could fall apart after losing Jameis Winston as Chizik did without Cam Newton. But nor is Charlie Strong or David Shaw or Art Briles most of the other coaches they were looking at or I was interested in. "Not proven" doesn't mean "not interested". My point in that statement was that UT wasn't going to wreck the coaching salaries scale for a guy like that. Nick Saban is the only possible coach worth $7MM+ (maybe some NFL coaches too), and that's the very upper limit. No one was EVER going to get $10MM from UT under any circumstances. I think a lot of coaches were on UT's radar - and I think Patterson would be an idiot if he didn't at least inquire about them. None of us have any idea how far he got with any of them. The only things we know for certain are that UT interviewed Franklin and Strong, and Patterson had some kind of short phone conversation with Jon Gruden. Beyond that, we know nothing. We can be 99.9% certain that he didn't talk directly to Fisher because the guy was prepping for a national title game when Strong was hired, but whether he talked to his agent or not, we have no idea.
As far as I'm concerned the argument was never about what UT WOULD do only about what they COULD do. And IN MY OPINION there is zero doubt that UT could have backed the Brinks Truck (a figure of speech) into Jimbo's yard and caused him to make a financial decision. THAT is what the NO DOUBT comment was about. And now you agree with me. :roll eyes: As I said, there may have been some interest within UT but show me just one shred of proof that Patterson made even the most remote play for Jimbo. I don't doubt that someone associated with the college may have contacted Jimbo's people to gage his interest and I'm sure that info would have gotten back to Patterson but Patterson for whatever reason never made a play at Jimbo. And the thing that has been proven (see Red McCombs) is that Patterson made the coaching hire decision without booster input. Patterson had a method he followed and it led him to Charlie Strong. My singular issue is with those posters that claim UT money would have no effect on Jimbo Fisher. I think that's absurd. And not just UT money but any Notre Dame money or Alabama money or OU money. I think if any of those teams wanted Fisher bad enough to offer the guy an absurd amount of money FSU would be in serious trouble trying to keep him. Having said that is not to imply any of those schools would offer Jimbo 10 million a year. Don't get confused with COULD and WOULD. SHEESH.
