Goooo Utes!

[Charley]

Utah vs Tex A&M tonight.

If the Utes don't win, maybe al Qaeda will.

:verymad Franchione you bastard :verymad

[Figrin D'an]

14-0 lead for Utah early in the second quarter.

With as sucktacular as A&M's defense is, I'm thinking you'll probably get your wish.

[CMJ]

You know Charley - coaches leave programs all the time. I fully expect Coach Dickey to leave fairly soon(after 3 conference titles, surely a "bigger" program will snatch him up in another year or two). It's a fact of college sports period. Coaches stay a few years and leave. When one stays any length of time, he's almost a saint.

[Charley]

Originally posted by CMJ
You know Charley - coaches leave programs all the time. I fully expect Coach Dickey to leave fairly soon(after 3 conference titles, surely a "bigger" program will snatch him up in another year or two). It's a fact of college sports period. Coaches stay a few years and leave. When one stays any length of time, he's almost a saint.

Stop trying to bring rationality into college football. You're either with me or against me! :shootin

(Hint: Its probably a lot to do with the series of spurrious lies fed to both Bama players AND fans. He left a lot of boys to wither on the vine, and if he ever gets a winning season at College Station, he'll do it to the Aggies as well. He wants nothing more than to helm the 'Horns, and he doesn't care who he decieves to do it.)

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by CMJ
You know Charley - coaches leave programs all the time. I fully expect Coach Dickey to leave fairly soon(after 3 conference titles, surely a "bigger" program will snatch him up in another year or two). It's a fact of college sports period. Coaches stay a few years and leave. When one stays any length of time, he's almost a saint.



Maybe so. But this isn't really a case of leaving a smaller program for a bigger one. He got a chance to run one of the most storied programs in college football, stayed for all of two seasons, then made what was essentially a 'sideways' move in the coaching ranks. Even if A&M was one of the jobs he always wanted, it was shocking that he'd give up a job like Alabama to get it. Were I a 'Bama fan, I'd be upset too.

[CMJ]

Coaches make lateral moves all the time too. You have an Ole Miss coach moving to Auburn; Washington State to Alabama; Stanford to Notre Dame; etc...

These are all "big time" programs where someone left for another "big time" school. I have zero sympathy for any BCS school that loses a coach. We deal with it all the time in Mid-Major land.

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by CMJ
Coaches make lateral moves all the time too. You have an Ole Miss coach moving to Auburn; Washington State to Alabama; Stanford to Notre Dame; etc...


Ole Miss to Auburn is a lateral move. Washington State to Alabama and Stanford to Notre Dame aren't. Those are steps up.

It's the circumstances under which Franchione made the move that is so enfuriating to many Alabama faithful. Making a lateral move within Division 1 isn't uncommon, like you said. There aren't too many, however, who take over a historically elite program with the promise to rebuild and restore it, then decide to ditch it having barely gotten any of his own recruiting classes onto the field for a program in equally dire condition without any major incentive (other than his desire to coach one of the major programs in Texas). If A&M had offered Fran a significantly greater salary than Alabama was giving him, or if Fran had a several seasons of success at Alabama before deciding to move on, it would be different. But really, he barely had begun to clean up the 'Bama program when he bolted. For any program, at any level, that would be a source of frustration for alumni and the fanbase.

[CMJ]

If you're saying only because a school has more tradition then it's not a lateral move, then Ole Miss to Auburn isn't either.

Any one of the BCS conference schools is a lateral move. Theoretically they all have equal chance to win the National title. Mid-Majors do not. Is it harder to build a program at say a Wake Forest? You bet....

Let's not forget that Florida State was nothing before Bowden was there. Miami was off the map 25 years ago. These programs were built from the ground up, and now they're arguably 2 of the 10 most prestigious in America.

My point in all of this is a Vanderbilt may be a less prestigious job than a Texas, but they have an equal chance. If Vandy suddenly went 11-0 they'd play for the National Championship. They'd turn into one of the dominant programs in America. A North Texas would barely crack to top 10 - and when we did we'd be called frauds. Our coach would leave and we'd fall back into the abyss.

That's why any job in BCS land is a lateral move.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well Notre Dame isn't much of a step up anymore :p They don't have the program they had years ago, in part because they are so rigid in only taking kids who make a certain GPA.