Coaching Carousel: Fedora, Sumlin, Tressel  More

Call your shot srr…who does A&M hire?

The KrispyKreme doughboy?

Fulmer must have burned through his savings if he wants the KU job. And KU would be foolish to do it.
 
Byrne might be interviewing people but I have little confidence that he’ll actually be much involved in the ultimate hiring decision.

Their are so many guys over there who have the I am In Charge Here!" attitude that I am begining to wonder just who they will finally sign up.

I suppose Sumlin is still the leader in the clubhouse, although someone still is promoting the rumor that the Aggies are making a run at a couple of WOW candidates that would blow everybody’s door off.

Yeah, right.

I sincerely hope that $bill really is interviewing candidates. I would have thought that ATM would have assigned someone else to hire the football coach by now.

I saw an Aggie thread in which they seriously debated the idea of getting Mike Tomlin.

Fulmer must have burned through his savings if he wants the KU job. And KU would be foolish to do it.

Scip: He wanted the job two years ago. I think he is just desperate to get back into coaching, but wants to still make it a BCS job.

You’re right, It probably would be a disaster, but it sure as hell would be fun to watch.

I particlarly like the Jon Gruden, Bill Cowher, Chris Petersen wish-list trifecta over there.

I would not be surprised at all if ATM hired Fulmer. He is everything $bill looks for in a coach. SEC ties—check.
MNC—check
recruiting ability (He signed Peyton Manning)—check
Old, errr i mean wise—check.
Available CHEAP - check

Football Rumor Mill lists Darrell Wyatt as a possible USM head coaching candidate.

Is Phat Phillip desperate, though?

I wouldn’t be surprised if they offer DeRuyter… because no one else will take it.

Jeff Fisher would be a great Aggie head coach — He hated Vince Young, Aggies hate Vince Young ergo Jeff Fisher should be the next head coach in aggieland.

Add Pete Carroll to the list of people atm is interested in and half of texags think they “could” get if they wanted to.

The Ags hiring Fulmer surges to the lead in my list of most hilarious possible outcomes. Although I guess landing Mike Tomlin would qualify in its own way.

I don’t think all that much of Sumlin just based on this graphic from the start of the Tulsa game last week:

Houston 11-0 (8-0 in conference)
Tulsa 8-3 (7-0 in conference)

If mighty Tulsa, owners of a smooth 1-3 OOC record, can go undefeated in your conference until the final week, you don’t have much of a conference. With that said, if the Ags really were hot and heavy after Sumlin and cooled based on ONE GAME, that says quite a bit about the rigor of their hiring methodology.

And not to contradict as esteemed a source as srr50, but the way I heard it Fedora actually likened the A&M coaching position to “a Rim Job”.

Scipio Tex said:
December 6th, 2011 at 3:03 pm
I saw an Aggie thread in which they seriously debated the idea of getting Mike Tomlin.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

What’s Jackie Sherrill doing ?

In Tulsa’s defense, their 3 losses before Houston were OU, Okie St. and Boise, all in September. Probably the toughest non-con out there. And Houston beat them in Tulsa as badly as any of those 3 teams did.

I’ll stop defending Houston now because they still are ~20-25 ranked team at best.

I think and hope we hire Fedora. Sumlin strikes me as someone who is very focused on offense but not on defense. Sherman and Fran were that way, so I’d like to see a change in direction. I’d be fine with rolling the dice on Kirby Smart despite not having head coaching experience. Maybe you get a Bob Stoops; maybe you get a Ron Zook.

I also don’t understand the notion on here that A&M is not a good job. It has to be considered a top 15 or 20 job, and is probably the best position open right now.

Saying that all, or even many, Aggies think we can hire Carroll or Tomlin is a bit disingenuous. There may be a random idiot or two on some message boards, but I think the overwhelming majority do not think this way. In any event, the biggest group of such idiots has got to be the Billy Liucci-led group who is now convinced that Chris Peterson is interested. Shakes head

I have seen credible rumors that Dan Mullen, Kyle Wittingham, and Dabo Swinney have been in contact with A&M. I suspect that at least Wittingham and Swinney are simply trying to coax a raise out of their current universities.

When Fulmer was coach at Tennessee he would host his weekly radio show live from a restaurant called the “Texas Roadhouse.”

Just thought that was funny.

A reasonable question for an Ag candidate to ask is, “Who will I be working for? Who will be running the AD?”

If the answer is “Loftin”, “The BoR”, or “Don’t worry about that”, he should flee.

Also some twittering about Dabo Swinney and Troy Calhoun for the Aggies. Who’s in charge there?
Gene Stallings? McKinney family? Bowtie? $ bill ? Rick Perry? Clayton Williams ? Lyle Lovett?

I still say Charlie Strong is the best choice for A&M. I mean he hits every check mark from what I am seeing:

1. Successful ead coaching experience
2. SEC experience
3. Kick ass recruiter
4. Defensive coach

So I hope they don’t hire him.

Nobis- Tulsa’s 3 OOC losses were to OU w a healthy Ryan Broyles, OSU and @ Boise State, they are a solid program. Not sticking up for Sumlin as I think Briles deserves much of the UH credit, but the uninformed shot at TU was in fact uninformed .

Aggies consider this: RC

Message boards are full of goofy people. There are people on KU Sports saying that because Boise State is moving to the Big East, Petersen is on the table for KU. The reasoning is because Petersen won’t want to deal with all that jet lag.

Texas A&M should hire RC Slocum. I’ve heard good things about him.

JXR - I didn’t see your suggestion. Brilliant.

I saw an Aggie thread in which they seriously debated the idea of getting Mike Tomlin.

I don’t know why they’d settle for anything less than Belichick.

Anyone know who Byrne is interviewing to be his own replacement?

“I saw an Aggie thread in which they seriously debated the idea of getting Mike Tomlin.”

The ags should just pay Omar Epps $3M a year to play the role of Mike Tomlin. They’d have the same chance of winning in the SEC and would satisfy their delusion quota. Or they could save the $3M and just put a cardboard cutout of Mike Tomlin on the sidelines.

The Ags need to hire someone who they can fire cheaply in a year or two when they bottom out in SEC land.

BOJ, I never put that together. Good call.

Taylor, the answer is: Rick Perry.

" Who’s in charge there? Gene Stallings? McKinney family? Bowtie? $ bill ? Rick Perry? Clayton Williams ? Lyle Lovett?"

Come on man…everyone knows it’s Robert Earl Keen, Jr.

“The Ags need to hire someone who they can fire cheaply in a year or two when they bottom out in SEC land.”

that’s actually a brilliant point, so it won’t happen.

I think A&M is absolutely a Top 20-25 job. A lot of Longhorn fans tend to underrate it.
 
I do think some candidates may have some pause because it’s not clear who is running the show over there at the moment. A lot of dissension between A&M’s athletic department, administration, BOR, boosters.
 
They really got their people riled up with the Longhorn Network and SEC stuff, but riding the whirlwind isn’t much of a plan when the wind dies down and you’re 1,000 feet over the ground.

Personally I’d like us to take a good look at Strong, rumor is he’s interested but Louisville is apparently refusing to let him interview. That’s got to help their relationship along, not that the A&M athletic department is looking much more together right now.

I think Sumlin is still the most likely candidate but there’s also buzz that Fedora is getting a second interview. There seem to be a lot of Fedora supporters, a lot of folks that have never watched UH play but saw them thoroughly outcoached last weekend suddenly jumped on the Fedora bandwagon. If UNC announces him tonight that’s obviously out the window, there’s also stories coming out that Illinois is hiring Sumlin. Should make for an interesting few days either way.

Scip:

Disagree somewhat on the A$M gig - the perception of no clarity in the AD/Board/Big Cigar Alums control hierarchy and, more importantly, the really weird “culture” (odd quasi-military/redneck/unfavorable to minorities) they have cultivated and revere.

Everyone else IS an “outsider” to A$M…so how do they expect to hire and most importantly retain, top-level talent from the mainstream. They are the “lunatic fringe” of college athletics.
To most objective observers, this is a self-evident truth.

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/aggies/2011/12/sumlin-still-appears-to-be-aggies-primary-target/

Brent Z, SA Express News A&M beat writer, posted the above late Tuesday eve. Note he reports Sumlin was being considered even before Sherman was fired.

cfb coaching jobs better than aTm:

USC
UCLA
Oregon
Texas
OU
Nebraska
Wisconsin
OhioSt
Michigan
Penn St
Notre Dame
FSU
Miami
FL
UGA
Tenn
Bama
LSU

Potentially equal or better:

Washington
Cal
Utah
BYU
ASU
AZ
VTech
UNC
Auburn

Some of that is based on quality of life (Cal, Wash, etc.), easier to win conference/get to major bowls/avoid hot seat, ease of recruiting, winning tradition.

So I’d say aTm is a Top 30 job, should be a Top 20 but is such a longstanding underperformer.

Scipio,

I would agree that A&M is a top 20-25 job, if it weren’t for the manner in which they have ‘fired’ their last three coaches, and the other issues you addressed. I don’t know who is running the show in College Station, and I don’t think that anyone there does, either.

I do know that people should be treated with decency, and Mike Sherman was not. For that reason alone, I cannot imagine anyone leaving a successful position to risk the same treatment at A&M.

A&M is a top 20 gig if you plan to retire in 4 years and don’t mind being maligned online prior to an unceremonious dismissal.

Is it a carousel or a nice relaxing boat ride?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMFNQDtGin8&feature=related

Wiz - A&M is a top 10 gig if you plan to retire in 4 years and don’t have any issues with a fanbase that is, shall we say, somewhat confused about their sexual orientation.

And, for what it’s worth, I think Tressel to the aggies is just the best hire possible.

Wizard of Os said:
December 6th, 2011 at 6:53 pm
A&M is a top 20 gig if you plan to retire in 4 years and don’t mind being maligned online prior to an unceremonious dismissal.

Exactly what Wizard said.

As others have suggested: A&M is definitely a top 10-20 job with a very important condition: That there is clarity around who precisely is in charge. And not just, like, right now, but for the near AND long-term future.

Problem for the Ags; When has that ever been the case? Because it sure as shit isn’t right now. And as far as I can tell, hasn’t been since the last couple of years of the RC era.

Agreed, LIC. It aint that hard. One NC and one Big Ten Title. I also think Strong would be an interesting candidate. I’m a little surprised Fedora didn’t get the job. It appears that the Ags are going to hire Sumlin. What a disaster! It’s even been reported that RC reached out to Tuberville to gauge his interest.

Wisc, UCLA and certainlyt that commuter school Miami are not better jobs than A&M. Auburn and Washington might be, but Arizona, ASU, Cal, and BYU certainly are not.

CrazyJoe, are you trying to tell us the inmates are running the asylum?

I don’t buy A&M being a Top 15 (or so) program. Sherman was the 28th highest paid head coach, which sounds about right to me.

A&M’s impending move to the SEC is an interesting factor for potential new hires. The job will pay more, thanks to the SEC salary arms race, but the move creates a more difficult route to a BCS game, much less the NC game, and the SEC’s “creative” recruiting practices make success in College Station a real challenge. Not sure if I was an up-and-coming coach that I’d want to roll the dice on that combination. A large state school in the ACC or PAC-12 seems a much easier row to hoe, AND almost certainly carries a better quality of life factor.

Fedora to A&M is what I’m hearing. The articles announcing Fedora to UNC have been pulled from the North Carolina’s newspaper’s website. Seems to make sense. Good coach who can recruit.

ESPN reporting Fedora will accept UNC job

I wonder if any of the candidates are concerned that the former head coach signed an extension that had been prepared by the School and then the President let it sit on his desk without signing it and is now saying they aren’t going to pay it because it wasn’t executed. Of course the Coach says they owe it to him and there’ll certainly be some wrangling over it. Before any attorneys on here get started, I don’t care about the legalities one way or the other. It just seems at a minimum it’s an act of bad faith and I’d think twice before I’d go to work for people like that.

Each of the A+M stakeholders will appoint their own coach - keeps everyone happy.

Sumlin won’t last two years in the SEC. Also, didn’t ASU offer him that job?

A&M would rank behind these:

Florida, FSU, Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, LSU, tOSU, Michigan, ND, USC, Texas, OU.

And in the mix with these jobs:

PSU, Tenn, Clemson, Wisconsin…

Top 15 is probably right although when you start peeling the layers back it can be considered a 20-30 job based on conditions of stadium, in house fighting at all levels and lack of winning history.

If they let a local boy like Fedora go for anyone who has not proven it before they are dumb dumb.At least with Fedora they get someone who considers that a dream job and has street cred with kids/coaches. The more this looks like a big mistake in firing Sherman but Sherman is too classy for that athletic department.

aTm was a top 20 or so job, prior to the move to the SEC.

It’s now a top 20 salary job, but if you have any professional pride or ambition whatsoever, it would be hard to name 20 worse jobs in America right now.

I think Hawaii might be a more competitive school than the Aggies of 2012-20??, based on SEC, chain of command, etc. ad nauseum. Whatever natural advantages aTm had? They’ve pissed away.

i like how you dumb f*cks like to cherry pick the bottom of the barrel coaching threads off opposing message boards, yet ignore the 95% threads about the actual coaching targets. Have you looked at your own message boards lately? i mean, some people were predicting 10 wins for Texas…..

Jake, I agree on the ‘bad faith’. I cannot imagine a tier 1 university in that position. It would be much better for Loftin to have kept his mouth shut and the university pay the man his money. Loftin really does appear to be an unsuitable representative.

Unfortunately for A&M, I believe they are in a vicious cycle. They are dependent on big donors to pay the bills, and as long as they are, those donors will continue meddle whenever they choose. What can the AD do if they can’t afford to offend them?

hotdam, you can go ahead and say ‘fuck’ here, son, that asterisk ain’t keeping you out of hell. and some ags were predicting a national championship, but we beat them on their own field and got their coach fired. love your righteous anger, though, it’s really cute.

Look, fellas! We have another aggie. Welcome, hotdam. How are you feeling since 27-25? Doing ok? Is the coaching search keeping your spirits up? We hope so. Well, keep on, keeping on. B.I.G. 12…B.I.G. 12…B.I.G. 12…B.I.G. 12

Colby, he’s already in hell. They all are.

Fulmer to KU in same conference as Mack? Wow! That will be like parallel universes colliding!

…but EnglishAg and Colorado Ag are boss demons, cool guys that have been issued pitchforks.

I wonder if any of the candidates are concerned that the former head coach signed an extension that had been prepared by the School and then the President let it sit on his desk without signing it and is now saying they aren’t going to pay it because it wasn’t executed.

Lawyers are capable of arguing that the sky is green if it suits them, but it’s hard for me to see how the contract isn’t enforceable. Sherman said he didn’t ask for it; it was given to him. He signed it. Somebody from A&M must have offered it.

A signed contract is only a formality. If aggro tendered it (offer) and Sherm signed it (acceptance) its a contract, whether goofyass signed it or not.

but it’s hard for me to see how the contract isn’t enforceable

Ask Mike Leach. He has a contract that Tech refused to honor, and when he started the legal prooess, Tech argued “sovereign immunity” and got a “Duhhh. yup, yup…uhhhh state…. uhhh sovereign… yup.” from the first level of judiciary. The case is at the state supremes level right now. If the state can sign a contract and then refuse to honor its terms by claiming sovereignty, then no contract the state signs is worth the paper it’s printed on.

agy are just as sovereign as Tech. Duhhh, yup, yup.

Different angle. Leach and Tech weren’t arguing over whether there was a contract. The dispute was over Tech’s ability to terminate.

Sovereign immunity can be waived by conduct. A state can’t violate the law that the people have to follow — in this case, basic contract law — and then (successfully) claim immunity.

According to my limited Google skills, the Supremes asked for briefs on the merits from Leach and Tech about three months ago. They haven’t decided whether to take the case.

Again guys, try to forget the legal stuff for a minute. It’s a very stupid thing to do when you know you’re probably going to be out foraging for another coach soon. Stupid first to give it to him before he’d (apparently) earned it, and then stupid to not sign it after you’d done so. There’s legally stupid and practically stupid. This certainly fits the latter whether it fits the former or not.

Oh, and to your point Tex, my Second Ex-Spouse lobbied with a law firm (Bickerstaff, Heath & Smiley) that won a huge case against the Texas Legislature about 10 years ago despite sovereign immunity when they shit all over a contractor who’d geared up to the tune of several million bucks for vehicle inspection stations under the terms of a contract that the Lege unilaterally cancelled without cause and with impunity in a public hearing. My Ex wisely left to ply her trade at another Firm as a result, but the verdict and payoff provided her a nice bonus just before she left.

In short, sovereign immunity isn’t bulletproof when you completely shit on someone and damage them without cause. Voters don’t like to see honest citizens get outright screwed. Also, invoking it against a class of folks (say football coaches) that you will be dealing with again immediately ain’t terribly smart even if you have it. That’s why buy out clauses are honored, typically with some degree of compromise on both sides.

First of all, is Fedora a great coaching name or what, I’d hire him just for that except I’d want him to be called "Larry the Fedora "instead of just Larry Fedora. Plus I have a feeling he might be Harry Anderson pulling a long con (he played Harry the Hat on Cheers). He’ll make Aggie demolish their own stadium and then disappear with the money to build the new one.

Second, Aggie does know that Keenum has used up his twelve years of eligibility already and won’t be coming with Sumlin, right?

Third, my guess is that Loftin will call $Bill Byrner to tell him he is fired while he’s on his way into an interview with their favorite coaching candidate. He’ll then continue into the interview and tell the candidate it’s a great place to coach anyway and he and the new AD will surely be able to run things their own way.

Reality setting in on TexAgs:

They are Fing it up again arent they?

nicaraguag
posted 10:36p, 12/06/11

Man, It’s pretty clear now. This has all been a charade. Bill Byrne and the small circle of idiots making this decision with him are gonna sentence us to four more years of crap football…. Then, he’ll just retire without accountability. I don’t know if I can take it anymore….

Earlier today, they were convinced they were getting Mark Richt.

Hey hotdam:

 How’s Eternal Scoreboard 27-25 workin’ for ya these days?

Speaking about dumb fucks…what a load of stinking shit you quasi-military homos pulled this year with $Bill, Bowtie and the “classy” manner in which you assholes fired Shermalounger in Matt Davis’ driveway. Yeah, “classy” outfit there in Collieville.

You’re the $EC’s bastard stepchild now. Aggy is as aggy does…hehehe.

Twitter is “blowing up” with Malzahn to KU rumors. Typical KU, just trying to make it easy to poke fun at our coaches/coach’s wife.

Talked to my aggy buddy today, he’s pissed, said the president should suffer the same fate as Sherman. Fire him over his wifes favorite radio station.

Malzahn’s wife would say worse things to the players than Mangino. Are they planning a reality show?

Reality setting in on TexAgs:

They are Fing it up again arent they?

Poor decisions are the norm at TAMU. True Aggies know and embrace this fact.

Ban him!

A good question to ask considering where aTm coaching job ranks is could they hire away Gary Pinkel?

@Tower, I got banned on Texags under my Aggie Turd Cutter handle suggesting Mike Stoops was the right man for the job.

Gary Pinkel is a great hire for someone - not for the Ags though. His staff has been together for years and (subject to MIzzou’s currenty uncertainties) are onto a good thing up there. Coming in and winning early isn’t his thing. The person who gets hired will have done that somewhere putting up big scores in the process - so that an influential donor gets excited and funds his (and his staff’s) hiring. The numbers don’t add up otherwise.

The Mark Richt thing was interesting, but I doubt Georgia will fire him after going 10-3 and the Ags can’t afford to buy out his contract. If he does get fired, it will be after the bowl game - A+M will already have a coach. Internet ‘fact’ says that he is into the last 2 years of his current contract at Georgia and is unlikely to get renewed.

Firing Sherm and Byrne will show themselves to be mistakes. Byrne’s programme is solid (other than football - that he has little control over). Sherm’s offense put up a lot of points, his recruiting was on the up and the Sherman plan for facilities looked amazing. Firing him means that we probably can’t afford the Sherman facilities, offense will likely be a downgrade, recruiting will be uncertain… and a collection of solid defense coaches will go elsewhere.

I bet DeRuyter wishes he took that HC job last year.

I want A&M to hire Buddy Ryan. That would be so awesome. Or Lou Holtz. Just some even older white guy.

Or Ditka. That would be even cooler.

In all seriousness, I think Sumlin is a brave hire and might actually be a good one. It just seems way too courageous for TAMU.

If Richt is in the last two years of his contract, then he is available. Are the Ags insisting the new guy retains some of the current staff? That could be a deal breaker for a lot of candidates.

And the SEC will also prove to be a fatal mistake. At some point, the regents have to find other toys to play with and let the athletic people do their jobs. I’m sure Bowtie would like the strings pulled from his shoulders as well.

Keith Marshall just committed to Georgia. Richt isn’t getting fired.

agricultural is POTENTIALLY a top thirty job for a head coach. They have the fanbase, even if most of them are into speaking in tongues and squeezing their package in public. They POTENTIALLY have the big money donors, but those donors are smart to hold on to their money until the athletic department (re: the football program) gets straightened out. I don’t see that happening anytime soon with bow tie in charge. Yeah, I know Byrne is still the AD, but he has the shelf life of milk over in collie station. agricultural IS moving to the ultimate power conference, but unless something changes, they’re gonna be everybody’s favorite bitch over there for at least a decade or so. Facilities? Well…that erector set stadium over there is big, but it’s badly run down and looks like it was designed by a committee…of hair dressers. The agricultural school needs to pump big bucks into spiffing it up to SEC/major college standards. Where’s that money coming from? The biggest drawback to them getting a quality coach? agricultural is surrounded by good to great programs that drain off most of the talent around them. Who are they gonna out-recruit? UT? OU? Okie Lite? LSU? even Baylor? I’m not sure even Mack could sell agricultural to recruits. This is football 101, but no matter who the head coach is, or what conference they’re playing in, if agricultural can’t bring in better players, and more of them, they’re not gonna be competitive. Not next year. Not ten years down the road.

Coach Royal said it best about potential…it means you ain’t done it yet.

Talked to my aggy buddy today, he’s pissed, said the president should suffer the same fate as Sherman. Fire him over his wifes favorite radio station.

NPR?

I’d actually pay money to hear Terry Gross announce this on “Fresh Air.”

Different angle. Leach and Tech weren’t arguing over whether there was a contract. The dispute was over Tech’s ability to terminate.

Sovereign immunity can be waived by conduct. A state can’t violate the law that the people have to follow — in this case, basic contract law — and then (successfully) claim immunity.

According to my limited Google skills, the Supremes asked for briefs on the merits from Leach and Tech about three months ago. They haven’t decided whether to take the case.

The point is not in the angle, it’s in the wiggle. The (f)act of tendering the contract generally means there IS a contract (according to some of the legal-minded). agy claiming there’s not is simply the first round of attempting to wiggle out of it. If and when this bit of wiggle is unsiccessful, look for things to follow the Leach path.

Tech vs Leach has reached the state supremes, who are now looking desperately for a way for themselves to wiggle out. You want to sue the King because the King harmed you? Wellllll, let’s just ask the King’s Chief Lawyers if you can or not… paraphrasing A.N. “Mack” Brown: “Is that fair? Is that fair?”

TTR - the D staff may be an issue - I can’t imagine they want to get rid of DeRuyter and Dat Nguyen. Most of the recruiters are on that side of the ball too.

Perhaps that is part of the reason for the Calhoun rumours.

Of course, it might just be an armed services thing.

“I do think some candidates may have some pause because it’s not clear who is running the show over there at the moment. A lot of dissension between A&M’s athletic department, administration, BOR, boosters.”

This. NEVER, never, take a job without stability above. A&M may be a top institution overall and athletically, but the administration, based on MESSAGE BOARD conduct alone is a fiasco. Firing Sherman the way they did reinforces the image of craziness.

They should offer Bob Stoops. Based on OU message boards, apparently he’s on thin ice in Norman.

If the Ags were smart they would hire Briles. Too bad they dont like him. How stupid are they? Our best coach went to OU. Schools hire their rival coaches all the time. The successful schools look past petty BS and bring in someone who can win regardless of where they coached before. Ags are just not there yet and perhaps never will be.

How funny would it be if aggie really did insist on the new coach keeping the defensive staff. Maybe they could hire a second defensive staff just for the second half of games. What they really need to insist on is keeping Von Miller on the team.

If I’m a young up and coming assistant coach and ATM offers me a pay bump from say 250K to 3 million I’m taking that job as fast as I fucking can, stability be damned.

If I’m Mark Richt, or some other head coach at an established program I would probably pass.

The question is what about Sumlin or Fedora types at non-BCS schools. They certainly appear to have other options this year,but in my opinion, Aggie is the second best open job out there to UCLA. While Aggie would certainly have more support (also pressure) to win at football, it would be hard to beat UCLA given the weather, the recruiting, the coeds etc.

I bet you’d have to make a million more per year in LA to equal out the cost of living between the two though.

tex, I understand, that’s part of the “sky is green” strategy. And contracts can be interpreted by courts in seemingly odd ways.

That said, if your boss offers you a new contract, you’d have to be told that he couldn’t offer it in order for you not to rely on it. Still, it also matters how you’ve been dealt with previously — the wiggle, as you say. If his previous contract was contingent on the president’s signature, or if other contracts he knew about (say, assistants) were treated that way, and he knew that, then that is wiggle room. Nobody but people at A&M know the answers to those questions.

Briles would be a very good Aggie hire, and since RGIII is gone after this year it may be time for him to jump ship. My only questions about him are

1.) He’s in line for a really good gig given what he’s done at Houston and Baylor so I’m not sure he would want Aggie.

2.) Would Baylor ever let Briles interview with Aggie? My guess is they would do everything possible to prevent that from happening.

I caught all kinds of hell last week for mentioning Briles for a head coaching job, now he’s a hot coaching prospect. Funny how things change after he puts another whupass on us. I think the guy can coach, and would hate to see him go to the ags.

IMHO, A&M is not a top 50 job for a football coach. The campus culture will turn off many top recruits. The administration is less than top drawer, and delusional alums apparently have significant influence. The facilities are less than top 50. And the wife is likely to break down and cry at the thought of living in BCS.

I think we’ve all really glossed over the great opportunity to speculate about what interviewing with Bill Byrne would be like.

BB: Coach, being the big man at A&M requires thinking creatively to solve problems. How would you say you handle problems that require critical thinking? For example, say that your stadium is infested with bats. How would you get them to leave?

Coach: Well…

BB: Forget it. It’s an impossible problem to solve. Tricky Bill! Used to be my nickname, before $Bill, you know. Tricky Bill. Also, one time, there was poop on our bus.

IMHO, A&M is not a top 50 job for a football coach. The campus culture will turn off many top recruits. The administration is less than top drawer, and delusional alums apparently have significant influence. The facilities are less than top 50. And the wife is likely to break down and cry at the thought of living in BCS.

Sorry, your bias is showing.

I don’t see that the recruiting is hurting too badly this year (with the caveat that the class stays together after the new hire). Facilities are certainly better than top 50 (with more upgrades planned) and while BCS isn’t for everyone it’s a great place to raise a family.

I agree the stability of the AD could be a big negative right now, don’t know how that will resolve itself yet.

saying A&M is not a top 50 job is downright silly. the cupboard is not bare, they have a solid recruiting class coming in if it sticks together, and all of these coaches have big enough egos that they likely believe they can recruit the hell out of Texas if given the chance.

agree with whoever said that the instability, lame-duck AD situation might scare off coaches who are in relatively stable situations, but will likely not scare off anyone who would be seeing a huge jump in program stature and salary.

if i were A&M, i would be concerned that while wasting time trying to hit a home run with some big money candidate that is unlikely to ever accept, some of the lower hanging fruit (fedora, sumlin, calhoun, etc.) jump at other offers from UCLA, Illinois, ASU, etc.

Fulmer at KU would be priceless. This needs to happen.

And ESPN is reporting that Fedora to UNC is done according to sources.

A&M is definitely a top 20 gig. Convincing a good coach to jump on that rickety wagon heading East right now is another matter entirely…

I quickly scanned the list of BCS schools and my opinion was that 28 were better jobs than A&M and another 16 were pretty much equal. I did not include how much the university would be willing to pay a coach in my quick scan. A&M’s willingness to pay would elevate them into the top 20.

I lived in College Station several years and have always pulled for A&M except against Texas, so I am not trying to bash the Aggies. College Station is a great town to raise a family, but there is very little to do there that is not tied to the university.

I bet the aggie farm that there are ags commiting suicide over on Texags right now since Fedora is off the board and he is the only coach out there considering A&M a dream job.

I hear they are going to interview Tom Landry today at the chicken.

Wait what …….

Well cross him off then.

Lombardi too? Ugh.

Seems to me that best coaching jobs should essentially only look at a few factors:

1) salary
2) recruiting potential
3) conference affiliation
4) program prestige
5) salary

Tough in my mind to say that A&M is not easily a top 20 job especially if they are able and willing to throw serious cash at whomever they want. A&M could be a top job in all of those categories, with the only debatable point being program prestige.

The weird cult stuff that we mock would not matter in the least to me if I was a coach and they were offering me $4 million or more a year. Location is not that big of a deal, only a few top programs are blessed with being located in great cities. Most college towns are shit-holes for everyone but 18 to 21 year olds.

i was just over on texags snooping around, and there is a lot of disagreement, of course, over what their direction should be. one thing that is not debated is the wisdom of the sherrill hire. i have a couple of questions regarding the sherrill hire.

first, let me remind that we take into account transcendent players when we access a coach’s record. many wish to discount some of greg davis’ winning records due to the presence of two transcendent quarterbacks, back to back.

as i’ve asked here somewhere once before, had sherrill gone from pitt to the sec directly, where he had a 75-75-2 record at miss st, following his three very strong seasons at pitt which featured a young qb named dan marino, would the ags have been hot to hire him?

secondly, if sherrill had it all to do over again, would he take the a&m job? had he stuck at pitt for a few more seasons, hopefully showing that the success with marino in tow was not a mirage, might he have landed somewhere really big time where he might not have felt the need to supercharge his recruiting efforts to the point that it got him and his school in trouble? might he be one of the deans of the game today had he gone a different direction?

guess i asked more than two questions, after all. sue me.

If this is a top 20 job, then why did the only coach out there calling it his ‘dream job’ supposedly, just take another job? Proof is in the pudding sometimes.
You don’t hire a guy like Mike Sherman if you are a top 20 job. Sorry, but that’s just the way it is.
Throw enough cash out there and they will get a Sumlin or somebody else, but that doesn’t make it a top job. If Sumlin decides to field a defense then he might do all right and I bet the farm he jumps ship for either a real top 20 job or the NFL.

As for BCS being a good place to raise a family I would say absolutely not. Not unless you don’t mind your kids being brain washed from day 1.

Maybe the Ags will hire Mike Sherman back. It would save them a lot of money, and everyone seems to love him all of a sudden.

sidd, i’m not sure they can afford his buy out.

nobody, if i were an ag i would shoot myself, but before i did that i would wonder several things about fedora taking the unc job.

1- did he actually prefer a&m but wasn’t willing to forego the unc job in the hope that the ag job came through?

2- did he prefer the a&m job but his concern about a power struggle there push him away?

3- did he prefer the a&m job, not realizing someone like unc might want him?

4- was the talk about his hankering to carry a maroon whistle a load of hooey?

no way to get answers, but right now before i could squeeze off a round, i would wonder if the aggie brain trust hadn’t dug us into one hell of a hole.

A&M is definitely one of the top jobs in college football. Do not kid yourself. They are playing in the SEC, sit right in the middle of Texas and will pay top 15-20 salary. That being said, I would give serious pause right now give then very public civil war they have going on between the athletic department and university officials.

I mean, if you were hired you would to constantly wonder what faction is actually supporting you. Before A&M hires a coach they should probably wither get rid of Loftin or clean house in the AD’s office and show to potential candidates they are at least of one mind.

Don’t you want to know what the criteria for success is before you take a job. Hard to see Sherman so treated like a bum for recruiting well and developing every aspect of the game. What player mistake can you coach or scheme out. Was Sherman guilty for not calling full back dives for the entire second half of football games? I understand wins and losses but how much of this season was really Mike Sherman’s fault. Ergo - how do you look at that job and tell yourself … " I can be successful here"

 
Wisc, UCLA and certainlyt that commuter school Miami are not better jobs than A&M. Auburn and Washington might be, but Arizona, ASU, Cal, and BYU certainly are not.

How many nat’l titles has Miami won in the past 50 years, how many has aTm won? What exactly does aTm have to offer star recruits over the cache, bling, beaches, and bodies of LA and Miami? Excellent recruiting grounds? Well so are CA and FL.

Larry the Fedora Guy apparently thinks otherwise.

June Jones to ASU is reportedly done.

June Jones to ASU is reportedly done.

Well, there’s the QB problem solved: GG stays! And his shoulder is all good, too

So my buddy tells me ESPN TV is reporting A&M and Sumlin are finalizing a deal. Anyone see this?

see that several places, old.

my thinking? the ags waited until fedora was off the board before firming this. keep ags quieter that way. i think this was in stone the whole way.

now, did fedora get that message and opt for a second choice? dunno. what i do know is that sumlin is walking into a hornet’s nest. almost impossible to do well his first year, and ags all over will be pelting him and the program with eggs. kevin is a good coach and deserves a better shake.

Hearing that now ESPN is backing away from the Sumlin to A&M story… per Joe Shad’s twitter account.

as i’ve asked here somewhere once before, had sherrill gone from pitt to the sec directly, where he had a 75-75-2 record at miss st, following his three very strong seasons at pitt which featured a young qb named dan marino, would the ags have been hot to hire him?

Maybe. 1) Sherrill coached there longer than anyone in history. 2) The last coach to leave MSU with a .500 or better record was a fellow named Royal.

As to regretting the move, no way… Jackie went for the money.

Close to pooping on yourself,

Don’t kid yourself. A&M is close to one of the most fertile recruiting grounds in the country, have historically done well in east Texas and west Louisiana, have a rabid fan base, a great game day experience, large endowment, good school, and is updating football facilities. Just because the bozos in B/CS can’t hire a coach or fired one too soon doesn’t mean it’s not a top 15 job. It’s a sleeping giant and has been for a long time.

Miami captured a period in time when they were an independent, Florida football was just exploding, the SEC was not the behemoth it is today, Texas colleges were cheating, and most of the powers were in the midwest. Miami is a private school, with little to no fan support that plays in front of half empty stadiums off campus in a bad league, that has to constantly battle the SEC and Florida Statef or recruits, and whose facilities can’t match those of other powers in the arms race.

UCLA is a sleeping giant, but doesn’t much care for football and needs to upgrade its facilities. Wisconsin was a door mat before Barry Alvarez (former Neb player and Holtz staff member) showed up. It will be interesting to see what happens when he steps aside as AD.

Don’t think it’s ready to be announced but I think you’ll see Sumlin to A&M official tomorrow or Friday at the latest.

And June Jones apparently not final at ASU, some weird last minute dealings there apparently.

Degree of difficulty will matter to some coaches, especially those looking for a stepping stone. Others will take the biggest paycheck available for their nest egg and risk the damage to their reputation when they get the axe.

Sumlin is an interesting hire. Guess Petersen and Tomlin were taking too much time mulling the offer.

Going with Sumlin means there is no problem keeping the ag D coaches.

Sumlin is also totally up to speed for recruiting Houston, the most fertile recruiting ground for the ags.

They should have never fired Sherman if they were going to hire sumlin.

The ags are stupid, impetuous, chaotic, undisciplined, and not honorable. It just wasn’t a good fit culturally for Sherman.

Don’t kid yourself. A&M is close to one of the most fertile recruiting grounds in the country, have historically done well in east Texas and west Louisiana, have a rabid fan base, a great game day experience, large endowment, good school, and is updating football facilities. Just because the bozos in B/CS can’t hire a coach or fired one too soon doesn’t mean it’s not a top 15 job. It’s a sleeping giant and has been for a long time.

The recruiting ground is fertile but they aren’t close to being the top choice of the recruits in the area. And what’s going to change that? Maybe Texas lets Mack Brown pull a Bobby Bowden and coach for life, and suddenly maroon becomes the hot color fifteen years from now when our program is languishing in the dumps. Until then top 15 and “sleeping giant” are pretty big stretches. 20-ish, in a peer group with the U-dubs and Clempsons of the world is more like it.

Prediction:

Before the ink is dry on Sumlin’s contract with the aggies, the aggie collective mind will fall in line and we’ll get to start hearing why he was the best candidate in the country…by far. They’ll congratulate themselves on their “progressive” hire and we’ll start hearing how he is going to out recruit Mack since aggies are in the SEC and Sumlin is black. It’s all over except kissing of the crystal football

 Old Army is rolling over in it’s grave.

An Ag friend of mine tells me they’re taking Sumlin to keep DeRuyter and his staff and because they can low-ball him on money, given that they’re so strapped for cash. What a way to enter the SEC!

While I’ll agree that A&M should be a top 20 job, the reality is that they are so full of douche in their administration and AD that it just isn’t. The proof is that Fedora, a native of College Station who wanted to come home, ends up taking the head job at a basketball school embroiled in a scandal and NCAA investigation, the punishment for which still isn’t known. I guess he’d rather deal with that than work for a bunch of fuckheads trying to screw Sherman out of money they promised him. Go figure.

TDL: The idea that the Ags will come to love Sumlin (until he gives them a reason not to, like losing a game) is almost inevitable. It is true for every school, not just A&M. There’s really no choice.

If a Texas fan didn’t like the choice of Mack Brown and turned his back on the program, he still has his back turned. Everyone else has moved on.

Blueshorn: So true. I guess the difference between UNC and A&M is that UNC eventually will clean up its mess. The Aggies have been messed up one way or another since Bear Bryant coached there.

The recruiting ground is fertile but they aren’t close to being the top choice of the recruits in the area. And what’s going to change that?

You might take a closer look at where the top Houston area recruits are committed. Ags are doing pretty well.

Being a UH alum I really feel for coach Sumlin. Anything outside of a Urban Meyer, Mack Brown, Nick Saban type of hire will be crucified after about 4 years of absolute mediocrity. Save those aggie pesos coach Sumlin, because it is going to be tough sledding trying to find a job 4 years from now.

You might take a closer look at where the top Houston area recruits are committed. Ags are doing pretty well.

Texas never pursued any of those guys, so it doesn’t hurt my position that the Ags are generally the second choice for East Texas recruits. And you’re not taking Louisiana recruits that LSU wants. Ultimately you can get some great players, but I doubt whether you can win a BCS or even an SEC West title solely with the Houston kids Texas doesn’t offer no matter how good your coaching is. It’s not that fertile a recruiting ground.

Now that TCU is in the Big 12, I am interested in how that effects the metroplex recruiting for both us and the Aggies.

bob in h, sure, sherrill was tickled with the money back then, but i wonder if he thinks today that it was the right move for him. even regarding money, had he stayed in coaching all these years, and, especially, if he had moved to a prime job, say a florida or usc, there’s no way that he came out ahead of where he would have been, buckwise, and he might have been a good enough coach to pull that off. stoops has managed to do that until recently, and i think sherrill was a better coach at the same age.

i also submit that i doubt the ag fans would have been too keen with his coming off a 75-75-2 record at m-state as opposed to the three 9-1’s he had just posted at pitt.

Tomlin wanted to bring Dick LeBeau with him, but the Aggies insisted he keep DeRuyter so it didn’t work out.

ASU dumped June Jones at the altar.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7327205/arizona-state-sun-devils-pull-coaching-offer-smu-mustangs-june-jones-sources-say

Bob in Houston, you are right that it’s human nature to behave that way, but you know and I know the Aggies have a special penchant toward delusions of grandeur.

Might be interesting seeing Briles come to Texas.

Bet he could go asshole to asshole with Stoops. Beat him this year.

I’m not sure how to account for all 3 fingers, but I’d definitely say that ASU gave Coach Jones a shocker today.

Criminey, talk about who’s running the taco stand. Those people make aggie look like a well-oiled machine.

The shocker, the Spocker, or the Betty Crocker?

Something about that ASU/June Jones story doesn’t pass the smell test. ASU offered him the job, he accepted, they were hammering out the contract details, and then ASU retracted because it tooks Jones’ reps too long to return a phone call? That is just bizarre.

Can’t be good for the Ponies, knowing the coach was all packed up.

TexAgs thinks they are getting Petersen. I doubt that myself.

I understand part of the June Jone/ASU problem was that Jones and his agent were not entirely truthful about his buyout from SMU and members of the ASU board balked at paying it.

oh, good lord, srr. never try to slick a slick.

i see that, toadvine. some plaintive wailing if anyone is into that.

Yeah, that explains it some.

Rumors have Larry Fedora (awesome name) heading to North Carolina. He’s from College Station, played in Texas, and is a young guy — I am assuming he was not offered the TAMU job if he ends up at UNC, with all of its outstanding problems. There is no way he was offered and turned it down, as hilarious as that would be.

And by rumors, I meant ESPN.com (lost the link) — strange turn of events to me.

There is no way he was offered and turned it down, as hilarious as that would be.

I’m not going to say he was offered it, but I am told that he was “unimpressed” at the interview with the Ags. Which sounds about right if Byrne was involved.

It is possible that they didn’t want to actually pay him.

TDL -

My UrbanDictionary-FU is somewhat limited, but in this case I’d say that SMU is the one giving the Betty Crocker.

I think bringing in Sumlin with Brian Stewart as DC would be a great hire for the Aggies. Sumlin gives off that cool black guy Tomlin vibe that would sell well on the recruiting trail. Stewart has made that Houston defense about a thousand better than they were when he arrived and wouldn’t be outclassed in the SEC between the headsets. The real key for them in the long term is landing the DL to compete in the SEC. Sumlin might just be black and cool enough to keep the Michael Brockers at home.

The Ags would be downgrading the Houston staff by forcing Sumlin to keep DeRuyter in lieu of Brian Fucking Stewart. Who do you think is going to sell better in a living room of the guys you need to land to compete in the SEC? That sounds for Aggy-like decision making.

ded,

are you not aware of DeRuyter’s ability to coach ’em up? it is legendary.

Toadvine said: December 8th, 2011 at 6:24 am
“TexAgs thinks they are getting Petersen. I doubt that myself.”

“Think” implies a brain is present. “Texags” does not.

imo, Petersen, who just turned down $4million by UCLA, is looking for more than money. It will require fit, and a place he feels comfortable for himself and his family to live. I doubt a&m offers any of this. If it is indeed true that he is, and knows he is number 1 on Texas’ list then he stays put to consider that opening when it comes up.

It’s interesting to see the number of Aggies on Texags repeatedly saying they want a “defensive” minded coach who doesn’t have a “gimmick” or “pass happy” offense. In short, they want to do their Aggie thing and immediately conform to those around them.

I think they should be open minded about having an alternative offense in the SEC. It may be their best chance to succeed early on.

They need to try something different than what they’ve been doing. Sumlin and Stewart are beating out SEC programs for DL recruits at the University of Fucking Houston right now. The decision makers there are even bigger idiots than I thought, if they don’t make this combo hire.

tx2step said:
TDL -

My UrbanDictionary-FU is somewhat limited, but in this case I’d say that SMU is the one giving the Betty Crocker.

The next image in logical progression.

Hint: All fudge baby!

Agreed try a different approach offer another style of play to southern recruits. Sumlin with his staff is a good hire. Whats not to like?

I would be curious if they brought Kliff Kingsbury as part of the package. I think Stewart would be the obvious choice for Houston as the HC, if he would take it over the A&M DC job. I like the twist Kliff has put on Leach’s offense and I think that might work in the SEC with the badass OL A&M has. His running backs averaged 250 total yards per game. Hence, his leading receiver, Patrick Edwards, average 19 yards per catch on 79 catches. Had Leach ever committed to this philosophy, his leading receiver might have averaged more than 10 yards per catch. Hell, Kliff’s slot receiver averaged 14 yards per catch. I think the couple of years he spent with the Patriots served him well with regards to figuring out how to punish a team with the Air Raid for playing 20 yards off the ball in Cover 2. Houston runs out of TE formations and 3-point stances way more often than Leach ever considered.

Here’s the most accurate look at the coaching search that I’ve found:

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/Lj1wPEmHgu0PE6lO

Sumlin with his staff is a good hire. Whats not to like?