GP1

Attached is his career record. All the guy does is win in a brutally difficult conference. He probably isn't a great coach under my standards, but he is one Hell of a good coach.

I think Brown is a good example of a good coach,the head guy at UT doesn't have to be 'great' whatever that is, who can attract consistently good physical talent because he is at UT. He can get really good players for key positions almost every year. Even in the Big 12 teams like UT and Oklahoma can win most games because of better physical talent. There will be a couple of games when the other team matches you physically. Whats the difference in those games? Coaching? Breaks? etc. How can you tell? How has Boise State managed to knock off some of the big boys over the past few years. They appear not to have as much physical talent at every position as some of the teams they have beaten. If coaches don't prepare their teams and/or adjust to what they have their teams lose. UT does make good coaches great. This season is the exception and not the rule. There have been very, very, very few great college football coaches. Paterno is the last living "great" football coach. He wins at PSU. He made the PSU football program and to some extent the university what it is today. He has changed with time and continues to field consistent winners. The other night, Lou Holtz said something funny, "Penn State is 15 minutes from Harrisburg by telephone." Paterno got good players to go to PSU and then he won. Recruiting to PSU can't be easy. Bear Bryant was a great college football coach. Won and changed an entire conference by allowing USC, with Sam Cunningham, to come to Alabama and kick the crap out of his team. The SEC is a great conference today because of that game. The south is a better place because of what Bear Bryant did. The culture of college athletics does not allow for someone to stay at a school long enough to be looked at as great. Most coaches are opportunists as they jump from school to school, cashing in along the way. Brian Kelly is a good example of this type of coach. Time is going to catch up with Kelly at ND in the next 3 years when he is unable to get that program to where the alumni think it should be. He'll be just another good coach who went to ND over the past 15 years and got fired because time has passed that program by. Paterno and Bryant had down seasons and bad losses. I wonder how many idiotic fans were saying things like, "The Bear has lost this team and should be fired." What they were able to do is stay at their school long enough to get things turned around after what was considered a bad season. If guys like Mack Brown and Urban Meyer stick around their schools and turn them around, they should be looked at as great. Congratulations to Coach Paterno for his 400th win. Most head coaches never coach 400 games let alone have 400 wins. If Paterno retires after this season, a real American treasure will be lost.

Unless the coach is making absolutely horrible decisions, the players are to blame. If I was Brown at Texas, I would treat this off season like a new coach does. Fiind out who wants to be there. Open up every position for competition. That team is asleep and they need to be awakened. The talent is there, just not the performance. A program like Texas needs this every once in a while. They play in an extremely difficult conference and sometimes some humiliation can go a long way to regenerate a team. Getting back to the Zips. This off season has to have every position opened up for competition.

That is correct. You don't have to be great. You can be good (there is a difference between good and great), recruit great players and create the illusion of greatness. Once the great players go away, you go back to just being good. Jim Grobe is a good coach fielding absolutely horrible talent. He is 2-7 right now. The talent is the difference.

When Kelly gets a QB like Dan L and Pike at ND, he will win 8-9 games. The secret to coaching is catching lightning in a bottle then moving up the pay scale. Kelly will do that at ND for a couple of years and then fall back down to 6-7 wins a get fired like all the rest. He can then retire on a giant buy out. Good players made Brian Kelly and all other coaches. Remember two years ago everyone talked about Jim Grobe being the best coach in America? This season, his Wake team is sitting at two wins against the mighty Blue Hose of Presby and Duke. Hear anyone saying he is the best coach in America? He was a great coach when he had the Seahawks Aaron Curry, the Lions Alphonso Smith, the Panthers Kenny Moore and Riley "Rhymes with Winner" Skinner all on the same team. Those guys leave and he is back to the guy who coached at OU. How many people know Jim Grobe has a sub .500 caree record as a head coach? EDIT: Jim Grobe has a career 94-90-1 record. I misread something on the internet. Sorry for the mistake. There are few great coaches. Kelly and Grobe are not great, but they are great when they are like all coaches who get surrounded by great players. Take away the great players and they are no longer great. Go figure. Anyhow, back to the Zips...... I'm going to go work out.

Please tell me this didn't actually happen....

I don't think we could be less competitive, but we could be as competitive....God help us if we are. In order to be less, we would have to lose to two I-AA teams, lose by 40+ and lose the wagon wheel again. Can things get worse?.......Of course they can. Will they?.......Wait and see. Both intellectually and emotionally, I still find it hard to believe we won't win a game this season. We have two games we should win and every MAC game is a chance for a win. I think the Zips can win two by the end of the year. Winning two would be a great step forward in our building process.

If the ACC decided to expand, Temple would be a logical choice. The BE should tell Nova to take the deal or leave it. Where else are they going to go?

What a great spoof!!!!!

That Michael Jordan really sucked. I think your love of James has made you insane. I guess the biggest difference between Jordan and James is as follows. Jordan is admired by almost all basketball fans for his accomplishments....it takes more than one hand to wear his championship rings. Jordan produced heroic efforts in the championship series more than once on his way to his championships. Jordan was the team leader. He is still loved by fans today...note that he can still sell shoes after all these years. Contrast that with LBJ who has won nothing and revealed himself as a choke artist in the playoffs thus far is not impressive. James is not a leader and is looking to win a ring on Wade's back. James is a great player, but not a champion. Many think this will be the year he gets his ring.....I think there is a guy in Los Angeles who will have something to say about that. The Nike silhouette of Jordan flying through the air is know throughout the world even today. I wonder what the LBJ silhouette would be....have at it LBJ haters.

Voters aren't that smart either. I think the heat is melting some brains in SC. Sounds like an easy way to get reelected, make sure you run against a homeless guy who can hardly speak. You like watching train wrecks GP1, hopefully this guy agrees to some debates. I had the chance to vote for Senate in SC and voted for Green. I knew he wasn't going to win and as long as I had a vote to waste, why not. My thinking was since I believe Washington is full of retards, I my as well vote for a real one. Made sense at the time and the logic still holds.

Now that's a darn good fan board post.

With the exception of soccer, we would get demolished in the BE.

Nice touch....of course the guy is the Messiah, he's from Ohio. That's all it takes to be a good coach (two of our three D-1A coaches were from Ohio).

I have a funny feeling about the Zips too.....sort of how I feel right before I throw-up. Seriously, it's the MAC. We can win this game.

Terminating a coach after one season is a pretty drastic step to take. I don't want to turn UofA into the Cleveland Browns. One more year if he only wins one won't make the program any worse than it is right now.

Give the man some more time. "Time" meaning till the end of the season to see if we win a game or not.

Good post. A lot of how good of a coach you are depends on the players on your team. Better players = good coach. Poor players = bad coach. If players didn't matter, people wouldn't care about recruiting. Vince Lombardi won 75% of his games in Green Bay and only 58% of his games in Washington. Same guy, worse records. Good coach or bad coach? Maybe it was the players. I've said before, my objection to Coach I is philosophical. I don't believe his style of play is conducive to winning in college football in 2010. I'm sure the guy knows a heck of a lot about football and probably more than 99% of the posters on this board. The Zips didn't need a guy to come in an go on a five year "building process". We've had enough of that. We needed and still need a guy to win asap. If the Zips don't get things turned around quickly, that stadium sitting on Brown Street is going to be as empty as a Sunday evening church service on Super Bowl Sunday. If they go 0-12, I think they should fire him not because he doesn't know anything about football, but because a guy who goes 0-12 can never get the program turned around because he will be crippled by the 0-12 record. Fans will walk away. Recruits who want to come to an 0-12 program will be slim....good players want to play at winning programs. As bad as the MAC is, I still hold out hope that we can win at least ONE game. It really isn't unreasonable in the MAC.

Pretty flawed argument, GP1, when you consider who the Zips hired as their last three coaches. Faust was retirement age and had already been at ND. Owens...well, whoever thought it was a good idea to hire a HS coach got what they deserved. Brookhart?....good heavens, his credentials were about as poor as Ianello's. And Ianello?....no one will come headhunting for him either. That speaks more to the flawed UA selection process. The right man could come in to this market and awaken a sleeping giant. You really think RI is that man? Fickell would've connected with people from Day 1. Do I think RI is the man? Hell no! IF this team goes 0-12, he should be fired, along with the AD who hired him, at the end of the year. Other than being from Ohio (I'm not sure why that matters), what would make him a great coach? He was a defensive coach at UofA during the Owens years....Remember how the defenses played during those years? Did anyone ever think we get the quality of coaches we get because it is all we can get? Why is UofA an attractive position? Why would a guy like LF come to UofA?

This is as close as I could get to an article stating LF had any real interest in the job at UofA. It only says he was a candidate. This could mean anything. The interesting thing is it is in an article about tOSU coaches getting raises. Was he interested in UofA, or was he interested in getting a pay increase? $100K difference between assistant coach at tOSU and head coach at UofA. What would you do? UofA has yet to produce a coach that goes up the ladder after UofA, earning it the Great GP1 name of "The Graveyard of Coaches". I would have done exactly what he did.

Good post. This is the best part. ND just isn't bad, they are terrible and void of any talent. Navy has better talent....NAVY. I watched Wake almost beat Navy this season and Wake is terrible. Getting back to a question I asked earlier. What evidence is there that LF is even interested in the program beyond the fact that he has a connection to UofA through his professional career? I'm sure he would like to see the Zips do well because he coached at UofA, but is there any REAL evidence he showed a level of interest beyond just a passing glance? Someone please provide that evidence.

I agree it is a disgrace and embarrassment. I demand an explanation.... What evidence is there that this guy wanted the job?

There is no great anything on this team. However, there is a lot of "good enough"....good enough not to go winless.

We have basically the same level of talent that won three games last year. They shouldn't go winless.

This rumor is false.