Alabama, Miami Jobs No Longer Vacant

Two quality hires, if you ask me.

• West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez to Alabama OOPS!  See update below.
  
• Miami defensive coordinator Randy Shannon hired as head coach 

The Bear may still be dead, but Alabama fans may finally have someone to rally around with superb credentials who likely won't jump ship (ahem, Franchione) or have an all-time bender in the Panhandle (ahem, Price).

 

Rodriguez is in that Price mold which strikes me as a good thing.  He's innovative and tough and demands discipline of his players and exudes tremendous confidence on the sidelines.

His hire is also a good thing for the SEC as it continues to move away from its stone age football past thanks to the return of Steve Spurrier to go along with Urban Meyer at Florida and now Rodriguez at Alabama.

As for Shannon, he's been a superb defensive coordinator who has put together some of the fiercest defenses for years on end.  It's not the splashiest hire around, but he's been an elite coordinator and that bodes well for his success as the head man.  Plus, it'll make the Black Coaches Association a little happier this holiday season.  His hire is good for college football and hopefully he'll emerge as one of the nation's finest head men around.

*** 
UPDATE: Um, oops.  Yeah Coach Rodriguez is staying at West Virginia.  Stupid newspapers didn't get it right.  I'm sticking to the message boards next time.

/Snark. 

Oh, and Heisman Pundit disagree with my take on Randy Shannon.  What an awesome afternoon, where's my bottle of Maker's?  Grr...

I just think that when your program has its worst season in 30 years, you don't fix it by hiring as your new head coach one of the coaches responsible for that season. Especially when he's never been a head coach before.

Comments

[Dawgy]

The stone age football past has been pretty successful for the SEC because it has a winning record against every other major conference except the Big 10 (86-91). BTW, through 2005 the SEC has a (62-39) record against the pac 10 and, we all know what happened in 2006. Maybe the pac(1)0 should move toward the stone age?

Urban Meyer? It's undisputable by anyone who knows anything about college football that Florida won this year with Defense. Urban Meyer's offense for the last (2) years averaged less points than Ron Zook's last (2) years at Florida.

Why don't you quit making your little off-handed cuts about the SEC and do some damn homework? Ofcourse, if you can't back up what you wish were true with facts maybe you should just shutup.

It's really getting old reading your same old repetitive bullshit. Write a little blog and insert something negative about the SEC. My how jealousy corrupts one's thoughts.

BTW, didn't notice that you had a comeback for my response to you ranking Cal (3) spots above Tenn. Maybe you should just let that one lay?

Grow-up sonny.

[Ltrain]

Dawgy's eyes are pried open Clockwork Orange style, while he's forced to stare at the incessant SEC bashing. This is a post about hiring, not about SEC vs. other conference dominance. I'm an SEC guy, and I think you're missing the point: Yes, Florida won with defense, but Meyer was -hired- on his reputation for offensive innovation [side note:despite the arbitrarily chosen "scoring" stat., look at overall total offense SEC stats this year and Meyer's offense didn't fail as much as you'd like to believe...the problems are in the red-zone, but that's a different topic], as was Spurrier, Mumme, Richt, and now Rodriquez (list not exhaustive). Look: the SEC has not been a conference historically given to bringing in offensively innovative coaches, and in fact has been largely critical of the moves when they were made (that Duke coach Spurrier is in over his head; that Utah guy will never succeed in this conference). It is a fact, not an insult, and you are correct: the SEC as a whole has still succeeded with historically conservative minded coaches. This isn't that big of deal. There is a difference between the offense Richt runs (this year's struggles notwithstanding) and the offense Vince Dooley ran, yet both have had success. If CFR wants to call the Dooley, et. al. style "stone age" I take it as a compliment, because the cavemen were some bada$$ mfers.

[Dawgy]

Ltrain, don't believe you are a "SEC Guy". That aside, the SEC has always been known for defense. I think this is why everyone perceives the offenses to be primative and conservative. However, the SEC offenses do not struggle outside the conference. You can take a look at bowl game history and, look at the SEC vs pac 10 this year. While Auburn, LSU, and Tenn. didn't score big on SEC teams they put up pretty good numbers against the pac 10.

You can call it arbitrary stats if you want but, at least I try to back up my statements and not just throw in the little unsupported cuts. The stats that I cited are not arbitrary, they're a fact. SEC vs. pac10, offensive geniuses vs. defensive league, record (65-40).

I didn't say that Meyer's offense failed. What I'm saying is that he won because of defense. I think that SEC coaches especially the successful ones learn quick what it takes to win in this league. Offenses in the SEC are what they are because of the defense played in this league. Defense is really the main key for any championship team. Defense is what Notre Dame needed this year. Name me a championship team, College, Pro, any, that has won a championship without a great defense. If you look long and hard you might find one or two but, I doubt it.


BTW, you made my original point while the post was about hiring coaches or whatever the post subject is, there always has to be that dig against the SEC. If CFR wants any credibility, he's going to have to be more credible and less of a homer. If he's a pac 10 homer and, this is a pac 10 blog then fine, it is what it is.

[Ltrain]

No reason to argue "fandom" implications, and I'm not sure that we even ultimately disagree... I completely agree with you in regard to your defense argument, which was made much more clearly in your second post. The "total scoring stat" does partially back up your argument, it is not arbitrary in that regard, but in that there are also other stats that people look at in regard evaluating the success of an offense. That is neither here nor there. Assuming you are a Ga Dawg, the transition from Dooley to Richt via Goff and Donnan was not an abrupt shift from an offensive standpoint, philosophically, because it happenned over time, but there is a clear difference between Richt and Dooley. (vs. the relative nondifference b/t the Bama offense this year and the Arkansas offense this year vs. the offenses in the past). Other SEC schools made relatively abrupt changes in that regard, and were widely criticized throughout the conference for it, and I mainly refer to Spurrier's original hiring at Florida (following the relative conservative offenses run by Lynn Amadee and Galen Hall...Emmitt Smith jumped pro early because of the offensive change) and Meyer's subsequent hiring ("That Utah gimmick will never work in the SEC"). Why was it such a big deal for Auburn to bring in Borges to run the "Gulf Coast Offense"? I agree that the strong conference defense stifles offenses, but you have to admit that hiring offensively innovative head coaches in the SEC is not the historic norm, but is becoming more common these days, which if not artfully presented by CFR was likely the point he was trying to make.

[Quaker]

Looks like Richie shot Bama down.

[CFR]

Dawgy,

It's Friday, you should be more cheerful than this.

Pac-10 homers don't cheerlead quality SEC hires, think about that for a moment or two.