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http://weisnd.blogspot.com/2008/07/most-overrated-coaches-in-america.html Yesterday's discussion of the best coaches in the game got me thinking a little bit about a different topic of discussion when it comes to college football. This topic is a little more enjoyable for me because it's a subject that the mainstream media hates to talk about. There is nothing more uncomfortable for mainstream media types than to go on the record and call out a coach for not getting it done. And yet as a college football fan, there is nothing more frustrating than hearing the media gush over coaches who fans know is not all they are cracked up to be. Guys like Chris Fowler (who I like by the way) absolutely love to pooh pooh the fans whenever fans start getting upset about the performance of their coach. You'll start hearing stuff like "nothing is ever good enough for (insert team here) fans" and "loyalty is a long lost art among college football fans" and "fans will jump all over you at the first sign of trouble." As a college football fan, I usually find those statements insulting (especially when they are directed at the fans of my team) because we know as well as anyone if our coach is getting the job done. In the spirit of open discussion, let's tear down some barriers and throw out a list of college football's most overrated coaches. 1) Mack Brown - The reason I wanted to start with Mack Brown is because he's the perfect example of a coach who has an absolute pristine reputation with the mainstream media but probably faces a lot more grumbling at home in Austin with his own fans. Let me start by saying that I don't think Mack Brown is a bad coach, and it would be silly for me to say that he hasn't been successful at Texas. The guy has put together a 103-25 record in 10 years in Texas and has averaged over 10 wins per season. He got the job done with the national title in 2005, and has never won fewer than 9 games at Texas. He's also 7-3 in bowl games, and 19-11 overall in rivalry games against Oklahoma, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech. When you consider that he took over a Texas program that was in the doldrums when he got there, he has delivered big time results at Texas. By all accounts, he is very popular in Austin and pretty much has a lifetime contract at Texas. So why am I putting him on this list again?? Because it's Texas!! You're talking about a university that is king in one of the three richest states for high school football talent in the country. Texas high school football is probably the most intense high school football in the country, and just about every one of those kids dreams of putting on those burnt orange colors and playing in Austin. Yea, A&M and Oklahoma and maybe some schools like ND, LSU, and Arkansas might get down there and pluck away a few blue chippers, but the vast majority of the top talent in the state wants to go to Texas. In other words, the head coach at Texas has his pick of the litter. There's no other situation like it in the country. The Florida schools are all cannibalizing each other for players in Florida, and the same applies in California to some degree. There's fans of all different teams throughout those states. In Texas, it's Longhorn football, and Mack Brown barely has to step out of his backyard to put together a top 5 recruiting class. In the Big 12, Texas is always going to have the best access to talent in the conference. I'm not saying that it's easy to win 10 games a year at any school, including Texas, but isn't it safe to say that there are a lot of quality coaches who could do what Mack Brown has done?? Mack Brown has been a success at Texas, but let's not go overboard here. The guy has won 1 Big 12 championship in 10 years. ONE. Read that again. What "legendary" coach has only won one conference title in a ten year span?? Stoops has won five Big 12 titles in the same time frame. Mack Brown deserves better than the "Mr. February" label that he sometimes gets tagged with, but you have to admit that he hasn't produced a lot of powerhouses with the talent at his disposal. Mack has his national title, but let's not kid ourselves. We all watched Texas that year. They won a national title for one reason and one reason only. VINCE YOUNG. I've never seen a player carry a team more than Vince Young did that year. He turned Texas from a program that always came up small in the big moments into one that found ways to get it done. Other than the Vince Young era, Mack Brown has been "Mr. Holiday Bowl." There's nothing wrong with that, but if you compare Mack Brown's achievements to his national reputation, there's a noticeable gap there. There are probably many Texas fans who insist that Mack Brown is the best thing ever to happen to Texas football, but I would bet there is a vocal minority who think he probably could be doing more with the resources available at Texas. WeisNotreDame.com 7/19/08

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/39077-four-college-football-conferences-id-like-to-see Part of being an amateur sports blogger means I am free to write about whatever I want. As you might have guessed, I get bored a lot. So what's a sports geek to do on a Friday night? Write about college football and some new radical changes I would make if I were the merciless God of the College Football Universe! 4. The SEC sans Vandy. What to do? Who replaces them? We can trade them to the ACC for either Clemson or Georgia Tech. We can trade them to the Big East for Louisville. Maybe even swap them to the Sun Belt conference in exchange for Troy. 3. Notre Dame, Army, and Navy all move to the Big East. Kick the competition up a notch. Have two geographical divisions: The Big East East and the Big East West. It's time Notre Dame learned they're not so special and should play a conference schedule like everyone else. They can still have some decent non-conference games, and since they play Navy every year anyway, it's not really that much different. 2. The BOMC: Battle of the Mascots Conference On one side, we have the more vigorous names. They can be teams named after incredibly vicious animals like the Michigan Wolverines or Wisconsin Badgers. They can be teams named after natural disasters like the Iowa State Cyclones and the Miami Hurricanes. I think it'd be good to have teams named after angry ethnicities such as Notre Dame or the UL-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns. I'd also like Duke Blue Devils and the Arizona State Sun Devils, as I have this thing for semi-blasphemous team names. On the other side are teams whose mascots couldn't punch their way out of paper bags. Teams named after inanimate objects like Ohio State, or Stanford and their illustrious Tree, which is certain to cause arborphobic teams to quake with terror. Also included are some of the wimpier bird names like the Temple Owls (this is football, not the Secret of NIMH), Oregon Ducks, and the Louisville Cardinals. I'd also like to add the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Even with "Demon" added to the name, you can't help but think of some guy in a suit on his way to church. A stipulation in this conference is that any win may be contested by the losing team and it immediately goes into a literal sudden-death overtime. During this portion of the game, gladiatorial combat ensues between mascots. We know what Hurricanes do to tree, but have you ever stopped to think about what a snarling, hissing badger would do to a duck? bleacherreport 7/18/08

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_college/2008/07/new-rule-change.html SEC associate commissioner Charles Bloom said Friday that the conference will implement three new rules to its football games in 2008. Bloom, speaking on behalf of the conference at the Florida Sports Writers Association media days in Tampa, said the primary changes include: The clock entering a 40-second count after the referee calls a dead ball; penalties assessed for grabbing the horse collar of a player (unless a quarterback or a runner is in the tackle box) and field goals will be reviewable. "The rules will provide expediency to the game and get it done quicker," Bloom said. "It's a way to manage the game in a certain time frame. Most people look at 3 hours, 15 minute or 3 1/2 hours for a game." Bloom said TV stations have expressed interest in expediting college games that tend to sludge along. Speaking of TV, Bloom said the SEC Network -- a conference-owned station dedicated strictly to SEC sports -- is still a possibility. orlandosentinel 7/18/08

http://blog.nola.com/lsusports/2008/07/lsu_football_adjusts_roster_sc.html BATON ROUGE - Kickoff for LSU football is more than a month away but things began shaking out in the program Thursday with the announcement offensive lineman Jarvis Jones had been tossed off the team. The decision by head coach Les Miles essentially came out of nowhere as Jones had not been involved in any embarrassing off-field incidents that might have made his future as a Tiger shaky. But after playing in seven games last year as a true freshman, Jones appeared to have lost a battle this spring with classmate Joseph Barksdale for a starting job at tackle. With most of that unit returning, the tackle position opposite junior Ciron Black was the only starting opening on the line in 2008. A Texas native, Jones had already returned home Thursday, LSU officials said, and the school will forfeit his scholarship. Several people associated with the football program said they had no clue what lay behind Jones' dismissal, and Miles did not elaborate in a statement issued by LSU. "The issues we had with Jarvis were internal and ones that we dealt with within the framework of our team," he was quoted as saying. "However, we just felt like it was time to go in a different direction. We wish him well in any of his future endeavors." The future endeavors of the team, meanwhile, also got shuffled a bit this week. The 2010 game against Louisiana-Lafayette was moved to 2009, leaving one opening on next year's schedule and two in 2010. times-picayune 7/18/08