I just think that this "dance" is overstated. If you want to coach at a major college football program, you're going to deal with a bunch of BS. That's just the way it is. Every big school has BMDs, regents, and crazy fans. The only distinguishing feature is the LHN. Frankly, I don't know how big of a distraction it is, but I do know that it provides the university with $15mm/year and pretty much assures that the head football coach at Texas will be one of the 5 highest paid college football coaches in America. I disagree completely on UT chasing out Missouri and Colorado. Colorado had always had a hard-on for the PAC and jumped when they got the chance. Missouri always had a hard-on for the B1G, and wanted to jump when they thought they had the chance. They didn't. Why SEC? I don't know, but I'm guessing conference stability played a big role. A&M and Nebraska, I'll entertain but, even then, there is certainly blame to be shared. Nebraska had acted like crybabies since the outset of the Big 12 (huge loss of power that was honestly inevitable as media $ became more important). They butted heads with Texas and the rest of the conference on just about everything (Partial qualifiers, location of conference headquarters, having a conference championship game etc...). They chose to direct most of the anger at Texas, but it's not like Texas acted alone in making these decisions. With A&M, the gripe I hear from fans is always the @#$^$@# LHN. How it was an unfair advantage and all. First off, you silly bastards turned down the opportunity to be involved. Second, would anyone argue that the LHN is an unfair advantage now? A&M saw an opportunity to act in their self-interest, and they did. So far, it's worked out, and that's a good thing for fans of football in the state of Texas like myself. But it's silly to keep claiming that we ran everyone off.
Widely accepted, but let's consider the source. Mack Brown was friends with these guys and still is. It may have started out as a booster-coach relationship, but I don't think that's what it is now. Anyway, I don't think that these extracurricular requirements (if they are in fact that substantial) are what is keeping Texas from hiring their guy. If we have in fact gone after Saban, Briles, etc... (I only believe Saban as of now) and been turned down, it's because they are happy at their current jobs, and have no reason to come to Texas. Has nothing to do with the LHN or Red McCombs. Do you honestly believe that if those guys were unemployed and wanted to get back into coaching college football, they would not be interested in Texas because of the LHN?
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23UCLA&src=hash">#UCLA</a> coach Jim Mora withdrew from considerations for <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Texas&src=hash">#Texas</a> vacancy. Was never offered the job, per source. Mora's family loves LA set-up</p>— Bruce Feldman (@BFeldmanCBS) <a href="https://twitter.com/BFeldmanCBS/statuses/419157546306240512">January 3, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>No <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23SOURCES&src=hash">#SOURCES</a> (just <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23sauces&src=hash">#sauces</a>) but I think Texas might be close to a hire. Multiple “not interested” reports usually lead to news</p>— Chip Patterson (@Chip_Patterson) <a href="https://twitter.com/Chip_Patterson/statuses/419159826464538625">January 3, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
This does make sense - better to say you're not interested than a school to say they aren't interested in you. Unfortunately, the only coach we really know they interviewed is Charlie Strong. Unless there's someone effectively hiding under the radar, that seems like the most likely pick now.
If you're going to fault the players for how they responded to news reports all week about Sumlin going to A&M, you should also not give them a pass for not realizing that coaches say stuff like Briles said all the time before they leave. Plus, you don't know what Sumlin told the players internally. Sure, they could've fought through the distractions, but it probably would've been nice not to have them in the first place. I can't imagine going into arguably one of the biggest games in the program's history and the news being dominated about how your coach is most likely leaving. There should be a hiring freeze until after the bowl games are over, IMO.
Of course not - but we're not trying to get an unemployed coach. If we're aiming to get some of the best coaches in the nation, then the comparison is to the situation they already have - not to mythically being unemployed. The situation those guys already have is being paid a good amount and not having to deal with crazy boosters. If you want to convince them to come to Texas, the plusses have to outweigh the negatives. And dealing with the politics of it all at Texas is part of the negatives. When other schools are hiring coaches, you rarely hear about their boosters and regents and what they are doing and FOIA requests over secret meetings with a coach's agent, etc. It's just not the same at Texas as other places.
Exactly right - the perception that the Texas head coaching job NECESSARILY entails the baby-kissing of Mayor Mack is a perception that he created, in order to justify his own position and disparage & discourage potential replacements. At the end of the day if you win nobody really cares.
We'll have to agree to disagree. Every big football school has rich, crazy alumni, so, to me, the point is neutral. If there were enough other pluses, I'm sure Saban would have been willing to trade in his band of Bama crazies for a band of Texas crazies. There were even rumors that Saban's agent said he had a "special pressure" at Alabama. I don't think it is fair to bring up this isolated incident of reaching out to Saban's agent. That was spearheaded by the rogue Wallace Hall, a self-hating Longorn who is currently catching heat for many other doings that have nothing to do with football.
Mack is the example of one extreme. But when Mackovic was fired, it was widely understood that part of the reason was that he wasn't a "Texas guy" - aka, his style didn't fit with the Texas boosters. They were wanting to fire him for a few years - even when he was winning - and did so at the first opportunity. Compare that to Mack, who they desperately didn't want to fire until the fan base essentially revolted. Part of that is his history, of course, but part of it is the politics of it all. The perception that it's necessary, whether accurate or not, still exists - and is going to be considered by other coaches when evaluating the job.
The reports of the lower tier coaches withdrawing from consideration bode well for a big name hire IMO. I'm thinking Saban, Harbaugh, or Fisher(him being a longer shot given the time frame of this probably going down soon)
Briles and Mora pulling out to save face with their own program since they know UT is going in a different direction. It's the only move they had.
I still don't think it's Saban, but it is a bit of a coincedence that other coaches are pulling out the day after Alabama's last game of the season. Again, I don't think Saban is coming but it is interesting.
It seems that you are unwilling to accept that Fisher would just tell UT no. We either get him or we don't get him because we weren't interested. This goes back to my (and others') belief that Fisher has a good situation at Florida St which is a great program and would not leave to come to UT.
It's UT! Jesus himself would leave the right hand of the father if UT was interested. If Jesus isn't leading the Longhorns onto the field next year it just goes to show you that UT wasn't willing to give him the job.
Harbaugh (Jim) and Fisher shouldn't even be talking about the UT job right now - they have better things to be doing. If they are chasing other jobs while preparing for the national title game / playoffs, then their priorities are all messed up - the whole point of coaching is to get to this position. John Harbaugh, on the other hand, is certainly sitting around and available to talk to.
Yeah I was referring to john, and I think fisher Is out because of the timeframe of this likely going down soon
Seriously I think Mark Dantoni is a dark horse here. I know he signed an extension but so did Briles, Fisher, Strong and Saban. Take the #1 D and a play caller who doesnt shy away from smash mouth football when it's cruising.
