Summer May Be Over but it's Still Hot Under Some Coach's Seats
When Glen Frey dropped that 80’s hit, he wasn’t talking about college football. But had he been, he wouldn’t have been referencing his beloved Michigan Wolverines and the job Brady Hoke is doing in his third season. Despite Big Blue’s, big scare against Akron in the “Big House”, the Wolverines are 3-0 including a victory over Notre Dame, so all is good in Ann Arbor at least for now. That of course is the nature of the beast when it comes to college pigskin. What have you done for me lately and in some instances, by how much did you do it? The same can’t be said for three big-time coaches, who entering week four, might be on the verge of must wins in 2013. The first has to be Texas coach Mack Brown. Now, in order for Brown to get to this point, things must be pretty bad down in the Longhorn state. Brown just might be the most liked man in college football! I mean this guy probably doesn’t have an enemy in the world besides opposing fan bases and if he were their coach, they’d love him like a father or uncle. But then again, everything is bigger in Texas they say and that means the losses are too! The Horns are off to a dreadful 1-2 start including a 34-23 defeat against Ole Miss at Darrell K. Royal Stadium, where the home team held a 23-14 lead before falling apart to the tune of 20 straight unanswered points from the visitors. This of course comes off the heels of a 21-40 drubbing at BYU the week before where the Longhorns were dominated from the opening kickoff. The last time Texas started the season 1-2 was 1998 in Brown’s first season. Reportedly a buddy told him back then; he would not find enough friends to even be pallbearers for him by going 1-2, so he would have to be cremated. Pretty good Texas humor, right? But the thing is…that’s the truth of the matter, especially now in Brown’s 15th season. Not to mention he’s coming off seasons of 9-4, 8-5 and 2010’s debacle of 5-7. Add in the fact that Brown is just 11-15 over his last three Big-12 seasons and now you understand what all the fuss is about in the land of barbeque, sweet tea and Texas toast. Speaking of toast, that’s exactly what Brown might be should he and his Horns lose to Kansas State, Saturday night in Austin. When you really think about it, the only reason Brown has lasted this long in that hot burnt orange polo shirt is because USC gave the ball to LenDale White instead of Reggie Bush back in 2006 while in need of two yards back at the Rose Bowl. Had the Trojans simply given the future Heisman Trophy winner the ball, no Vince Young drive, no Texas National Championship and no Mack Brown in 2013 at least not with Texas. That brings us to the man behind the infamous 2006 Rose Bowl call, current USC Head Coach Lane Kiffin. At the time he was Pete Carroll’s offensive coordinator, then seen as one of the bright up and coming minds of college football. Now, he’s seen as another of those coaches who make great coordinators and not so good head coaches. You have to think back and remember: Kiffin’s name was already in questionable standing at best after bad endings with the Oakland Raiders and his “by the cover of night” exit from the University of Tennessee after just one 7-6 season in 2009. His first season as the head man of Troy produced an 8-5 record but no one was complaining because of the Bush sanctions against USC, scholarship losses and bowl ineligibility. He improved Southern California to 10-2 the next season, including a 50-0 rout of rival UCLA at the Coliseum that year. But his problems started with last year’s pre-season #1 ranking which turned into a horrendous 7-6 finish, unranked including a devastating loss in the Sun Bowl to Georgia Tech. He didn’t do himself any favors with a sluggish win at Hawaii to open the season and then one of the worst conference losses in recent Trojans history, a 10-7 defeat to a terrible Washington State team at home, opening up Pac-12 play. Kiffin did bounce back in week three with a sound 35-7 victory as a 14 point favorite over visiting Boston College. It seems the “offensive guru” finally made some adjustments such as running the ball out of passing formations like the shotgun and throwing the ball out of double-tight end sets with play-action. These are all things the Trojans offense lacked in the Hawaii win and the Wazzu loss. Cody Kessler finally looked like a division one quarterback going 15 of 17 for 237 yards. The offense gained 521 total yards and finally figured a way to get Heisman Trophy hopeful Marqise Lee the ball. So for now the Kiffin gets a glass of ice water to cool him down. But that will change right back to straight Whiskey with no chaser should the Trojans struggle with unranked Utah State on Saturday at the Coliseum. This will be the stiffest test for the USC defense as the Aggies have scored 52 and 70 points in their last two wins over Air Force and Weber State. While Kiffin should be good for another week, things get dicey in the next three games against improved Arizona State and Arizona in conference play and then a trip to South Bend to face Notre Dame. Should USC drop all three of those contest, you can bet Kiffin will not make it to the Utah game at the Coliseum on October 26th. Athletic Director Pat Haden would simply have no choice but to find his own guy since taking over for Mike Garrett. Our third hot seat owner is guy many wouldn’t mind seeing get the axe, as Bo Pelini’s time in Lincoln has some of the Huskers faithful seeing red and not in a good way. As if it wasn’t bad enough Nebraska jumped out on UCLA on national television to a 21-3 lead, only to watch the Bruins cut the Huskers down with a machete, scoring the game’s final 38 in a 41-21 defeat in Lincoln. But this week an audio recording of a Pelini profanity laced rant about Big Red fans from two years ago was leaked to the public. However, Pelini received a bit of a reprieve today from Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman and Athletic Director Shawn Eichorst. The two released a statement today basically saying Former Athletic Director Tom Osborne, the Nebraska legend had already addressed the issue with Pelini a year ago and that the two had observed that Pelini’s demeanor has improved significantly since the time of the incident. So that backing will quite down the natives for now. What won’t is Pelini’s bowl record with the Huskers. Despite being 51-21 overall in five plus seasons now, he’s just 2-3 in bowl games including three straight losses. He has won four Big-12 divisional championships but also dropped three consecutive Big-12 Championship games. While Pelini appears to have the backing of his administration, his biggest break comes from this season’s schedule. Nebraska’s next four games are South Dakota State, Illinois, at Purdue and at Minnesota. The Huskers should win all four pushing Pelini and his crew to 6-1 before things heat up the rest of the way in conference play. While a loss in any of the next four games would prove devastating it will probably not proved to be fatal. A firing however could possibly follow at year’s end without a Big-12 overall Championship or at least a bowl victory. Bodes of confidence from the administration only get you so far these days in college football, especially at a place like Nebraska. You can bet the wealthy alumni and loyal fan base feel like Pelini is not one of them (he played at Ohio State) after the release of that audio tape and if you’re not one of them and you can’t win consistently in the big games then they’ll find someone that fits at least one of those categories since it’s the only game in town. The overall damage done to Pelini’s image in Lincoln will only be fully known by season’s end but until then he might want to try a shade of pink because red is simply too hot to wear right now.
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