In baseball, when a manager takes over his third, fourth, fifth team in his career, he’s inevitably referred to as a “good baseball man.” Often, regardless of his record at his previous stops.
College football 2012 has a similar feel. There are former Irish head coaches Bob Davie and Charlie Weis taking over at New Mexico and Kansas, respectively. Rich Rodriguez puts Ann Arbor in his rearview mirror in assuming leadership of Arizona, and banished Texas Tech head man Mike Leach takes over at Washington State.
Heck, even former Auburn coach Terry Bowden, run out of a town on a rail for certain off-field indiscretions, is back in a head coaching role, this time at Akron (“Cradle of Second Chances”?).
Not to mention former Michigan State Coach John L. “Slap Happy” Smith, who has benefitted from Bobby Petrino’s ill-fated tenure and taken over the reins at Arkansas.
It’s a rather strange phenomenon. Colleges taking a chance coaches with less-than overwhelmingly positive records will do better than elevating a coordinator, or hiring a successful coach from a less prominent school.
One Irish opponent, Pittsburgh, went strictly with results. It hired the “mad genius” behind Wisconsin’s offensive juggernaut – Paul Chryst, who in turn brought numerous fellow UW assistants with him. Watch out for the Panthers in the years to come.
