FWST: Musical coaches is just plain silly

NT80 · December 1, 2006

Posted on Thu, Nov. 30, 2006

COLLEGE FOOTBALL INSIDER

Musical coaches is just plain silly

By Wendell Barnhouse

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Golf has its "silly season." The Skins Game, the Father-Son Challenge, the 3-Tour Challenge, etcetera, etcetera, blah, blah, blah.

At least that involves the human drama of athletic competition, contrived or not.

College football has its own silly season, and it's currently in full swing (pardon the golf analogy/pun) as schools dismiss coaches or coaches resign under the threat of dismissal.

The silly season events include Track The Private Jet, Speculate On The Successor, Guess The Candidates and Second-Guess The Hire.

Praise or denounce Al Gore, but if not for his Internet invention, none of this would be possible.

In the space of a few days, Miami (Larry Coker, gone), Arizona State (Dirk Koetter, see ya) and Alabama (Mike Shula, outta here) all posted "head football coach wanted" signs.

And while those jobs became available, Iowa State (Gene Chizik, welcome) and Michigan State (Mark Dantonio, how ya doin'?) were hired.

Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard kept Chizik's hiring a secret until the private plane carrying the coach and his family landed in Corn Country on Monday.

Not that Cyclones fans and members of the media didn't try to crack the code.

There's a Web site called FlightAware that allows anyone to track flights, providing you have the aircraft's registration numbers.

A private jet owned by Iowa State flew from Ames to Dallas on Saturday. And Chizik arrived in Ames on a Raytheon Hawker 800 twin-jet owned by Troy Aikman. (Inside info doesn't get any better than that.)

No doubt every Alabama fan with a computer and high-speed modem has added FlightAware to their favorites. The Crimson Tide needs to hire its fifth coach of the New Millennium. This is serious stuff.

That is, if you can keep from chuckling.

Since Friday, when the Miami job came open, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier has one victory over Clemson and two news releases. He has had to issue "not interested" statements regarding Miami and Alabama.

Denying interest, though, doesn't stop the rumor mill. An Alabama school jet supposedly was in Clemson for Saturday's South Carolina game. And Spurrier's wife has been spotted in Tuscaloosa (house hunting, of course).

Shula's resignation was a Sunday Night Surprise. 'Bama fans went to bed assuming that Don's son was safe for another year. They awoke Monday morning to "Shula Fired" headlines.

Moments after it became news, the fake news took over. Speculation on Shula's successor ranged from Spurrier to Miami Dolphins coach Nick Saban to Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer to West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez to Louisville's Bobby Petrino.

About the only coaches not on the guess list are Dennis Franchione and Mike Price.

At least Michigan State can look forward to a new day with a new coach who has yet to fritter away second-half leads to Notre Dame or step on any political land mines.

Michigan State's search appeared to be focused on Central Michigan coach Brian Kelly (who also appeared to be Iowa State's top target). MSU President Lou Anna Simon was a Kelly girl until the board of trustees settled on Dantonio. The divisiveness could have cost Michigan State the chance to hire either one.

At Monday's news conference, Michigan State's pooh-bahs explained how they had reached a mutual happy place. After about 30 minutes, somebody remembered to introduce the new football coach.

How silly was that?