Amusement of college football

By Fredie Carmichael / editor

December 18, 2007 10:39 am

— I usually don't write about sports or amusement park rides, but ironically I'm writing about both today -- the coaching carousel that is college football.
I've been following college football for a while and there has never been a crazier coaching carousel than this season, especially in the Deep South.
The University of Alabama got this all started when they fired former Crimson Tide quarterback and then head coach Mike Shula after he went 6-5 in 2006. The year before he led the Tide to a 10-2 season, a Cotton Bowl victory and a national top ten finish ... a few years out of NCAA probation.
Oh how quickly they forget, which is ironic for a Crimson Tide fan base that is quick to recall their storied past and championships to defend their once high place among college football's great programs.
Of course Bama made a famous hire by luring then-NFL head coach Nick Saban, who is probably more famous for leading SEC power LSU to a national championship than leading the Miami Dolphins football team. But we all remember Saban saying that he was not going to be the next coach at Alabama, and he was not interested, he was the Dolphins head coach.
Now there is Bobby Petrino, who is pulling his best Nick Saban impression by bolting from the NFL after just over half a season with the Atlanta Falcons for the SEC and the Arkansas Razorbacks football team.
Petrino is being blasted by the media, college football experts and, worse, his former franchise, the Falcons.
To me, these are the two biggest signs over the past few years that college athletics (mainly SEC football) has lost its virtue. This year is the 75th Anniversary of the SEC and the slogan is "Stories of Character."
Stories of Character? That's not the slogan I'd choose for any college football conference right now. Petrino and Saban are only part of the problem.
Houston Nutt left Arkansas after leading his home state Hogs to the Cotton Bowl and season ending victories over bowl bound Mississippi State and then No. 1 ranked LSU to coach Mississippi, an SEC West rival school that fired Ed Orgeron just weeks after the school gave a public approval and guarantee that Coach O would return next season. A blown 4th and 1 call and a few stolen pillows and clock radios later, Coach O (and 8) was out much like his Ole Miss predecessor, David Cutcliffe. Cutcliffe had five winning seasons in Oxford before going an apparent unacceptable 4-7 in 2004. Before that Cutcliffe directed Ole Miss to four bowl appearances in his first five seasons, and is the only head coach in school history to do so. Despite his 44-29 record, five straight winning seasons, and guiding the Rebs to their first 10-win season in more than 30 years, he was fired by Ole Miss after his sixth season. So that's the Soap Opera Houston Nutt steps into.
Now there is the University of Southern Mississippi. They appear to be doing an Ole Miss impression by forcing out a successful head coach. Jeff Bower was Black & Gold, USM football through and through. In fact only Joe Paterno, Bobby Bowden and Frank Beamer have had longer tenures with their schools. He was 119-82-1 in 17 years as the USM head football coach and he led the Golden Eagles to four conference championships and one division championship. He was a 3-time Conference USA Coach of the Year and was named the Conference USA Coach of the Decade (1990s). Under his direction, USM has put together a streak of fourteen straight winning seasons, one of the longest such streaks in college football. Ask any college football expert and they will tell you that what an underpaid and underappreciated Jeff Bower did at an often overlooked USM football program was nothing short of a miracle.
So what does USM do? They force him to resign in search of reaching the next level and finding a sexier offense. In step Larry Fedora ... Who? Well, only time will tell what kind of decision USM made. I'm getting dizzy from all the lying, spinning and twisting of the truth. I am getting nauseous from all the coaches changing colors, changing schools and preaching loyalty while their hands are on the money of another team, so I'm getting off the coaching carousel and settling down to try and soak up the college football bowl season.

Fredie Carmichael is editor of The Meridian Star. E-mail him at fcarmichael@themeridianstar.com.