It's Different Now

While reviewing a fairly boring 2004 college football recap from Maxim's Jobu, we came across some interesting quotes.

Each one was mentioned about that season's championship coach---of course, glowing praise and calls towards a bright future.  A future still unmet.

These gave us a good laugh:

*"On which finger, exactly, does one wear a third national championship ring?"
—St. Petersburg Times in 1992, on Miami coach Dennis Erickson. He has yet to win a third national championship.

*There was only one Jack Nicklaus. There may just be one Bob Stoops.
—Omaha World-Herald, December 6, 2003. Later that day, Stoops was flattened by Kansas State 35–7.

*"His legacy is now secure alongside that of the legendary General Robert Neyland."
—The Tennessean, following Phil Fulmer's national championship in 1999.

*"[Jim] Tressel's already approaching icon status, meaning those top recruiting classes will be an annual fixture."
—Fox Sports, shortly after Ohio State's national championship in 2003.

Notice a pattern?  Obviously that was the author's point, to set up glowing praise after championships against those coaches' records since.  What we see is the college football media gushing over its favorite coaches, guys who interview well and look good on TV and play the game the media wants to play.

Looks like the college football media jumped the gun a bit on all these coaches.  Or in Erickson's case, he himself jumped the gun, as Miami went on to win titles through various coaches.  One day some of those guys will wake up and start looking towards more articulate, intelligent voices and borrowing from their expertise.  Voices like the one here at Resource, and also at HeismanPundit, among others.

Now, there are some good coaches out there worth taking the risk of backing: Pete Carroll, Bobby Petrino, Urban Meyer, Dan Hawkins, and a few others.  Start reading up on them and watching how their teams do what they do.  It's different, and better---but you'd never know if the lens through which you're looking is flawed and discolored.

Comments

[horn-tooter-pointer-outer]

Tooting your own horn at bit, eh? It seems like all that separates "intelligent" college football writers from dumb ones is who they have access to. Look at Bruce Feldman. He has great sources at Miami and SC, so those are the two primary teams he writes about. Most of the other stuff he writes about comes from people at SC or Miami that he writes as his own. Anything aside from that is pretty crappy, and Feldman knows that, so he doesn't even bother trying to give his own insight. I'm afraid even the great College Football Resource is limited to who it talks to in the business. It's only possible to pick up on so much by watching games on TV. Be sure to let us know when those media types start listening to the "intelligent" voices . . . intelligent being football people in the football business, not other "more intelligent" journalists.

[CFR]

I doubt that day may ever come for the CFB journalists to talk to and get anything of value out of football people in the football business.

The "great" Resource? Nice. One day, perhaps. We recognize there are bright football people out there, just not enough who do the writing and talking. We're at the bottom of the bell curve with that crowd, but we know it's there and have a few brilliant access points. Fortunate, in that.

I've found Bruce Feldman to be intelligent about more than USC and Miami. We certainly don't always agree with him, but compared to his peers he stands out.

Thank you for the input.

[Tim]

Why laugh at Philip Fulmer? Look at his record. Compare it to all active coaches. Compare it to all-time coaches. Open mouth, insert foot.