Cook: SEC gets coaching makeover
The Southeastern Conference is going to have a new coaching look to it this fall. It’s not at the top, although Arkansas will look new with Bobby Petrino running the show and Ole Miss will be led by a new face in Oxford, but not a new one for the SEC, with Houston Nutt in charge.
But the real change is going to be in the coordinators – there are 11 new ones in the 24 offensive and defensive coordinator positions around the conference. That’s a 46-percent turnover in coordinators in one season. and that is about as big a turnover as ever seen. Only four schools have the same offensive and defensive coordinators as last season-Kentucky, Florida, Georgia and Vanderbilt.
In several places the head coach has already assured fans that it will be business as usual, and that’s probably going to be the case at a lot of stops. But it is not always going to be true.
Perhaps the biggest change will be at Arkansas where the pass-happy Petrino brothers are now calling the shots. Bobby’s brother Paul is the new offensive coordinator. Paul calls what Bobby likes and Bobby likes to put the football in the air often. It’s going to be a radical change for Razorbacks fans that have watched Nutt’s ground-oriented attack over the years. Of course when you have Darren McFadden, Peyton Hillis and Felix Jones at your disposal, any coach in his right mind would run a ground-oriented attack. That’s going to change. Oh, and for good measure, Petrino hired Willy Robinson to run the defense this year, which will also be a change, but how much is unknown at the moment.
randolphleader.com
5/14/08
