Is this the golden age of SEC football coaches?
Once upon a time, before the Bowl Championship Series, college football entertained the idea that dozens of prominent teams could create a super conference.
Grant Teaff, Baylor’s coach then and now executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, argued that a super conference would never happen because not everybody could win.
“Well, that’s what you’ve got in the Southeastern Conference now,” Teaff said, laughing.
The SEC may be enjoying its golden age of football coaches. Never before has the 76-year-old conference had five coaches roaming the sidelines who have won a national championship, as the SEC has this season. And it’s not just quality at the top.
The depth among the 12 current coaches rivals the early 1960s, which is considered the Holy Grail-era of SEC football. It may be premature to put Meyer, Miles, Saban, Spurrier and Fulmer on the same level as Bryant, Jordan, Vaught, Dodd and Dooley.
But at this moment, coaching in the SEC “is kind of like being a president,” said Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, who has a perfect season yet is barely on the outside of the SEC’s current Mount Rushmore of national title coaches. “You age pretty quick in this league because you have no holidays.”
al.com
7/23/08
Magnolia Tribune
