The Tarheels

Trestman got fired with Chuck. Galbrieth went to the NFL. Cannales went to the NFL. Chow of course to USC, Herring got a big raise to go to Arkansas.... DeMarest made a 'lateral move to be with his daughter. Mazzone went to the SEC to be OC. ....So like Thigpen that had to be an upgrade huh. . These are just some off the top of my head..... but step 2 in this whole process is when the new guys are hired... it will be spun that they will be the greatest thing in the world and you would have rather had them anyway......i'll be waiting. I've lived it. Glad its you now.

 

that is an upgrade to each coach. it's all on the HC anyway to make sure the right guy is doing the right things, that's where Davis is better than Amato historically.

 

So he has that going for him, which is nice.

 

hopefully.

 

It's amusing to see how State fans try every comparison they can think of between Amato and Davis. "Both guys wear pants? They're the fucking same, OMG!!!"

 

Not me. Nopesiree........

 

Yea Both guys wear pants...both guys recruit only the stars, both guys come in with ranked teams and get their ass beat by their rivals and NOW both guys can't keep a coaching staff intact. Although I don't know if Chuck is the documented liar that Butch is, that's one way they are different I guess...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_woEHL3xqbg

 

With signing day just behind us, the focus in college football has been on talent. Some of my recent columns have focused on the talent levels around the ACC generally and at North Carolina specifically. It’s an important part of the winning equation, but another equally huge piece is coaching. When it comes time to kick it off next fall, commentators and analysts will again focus on the Southeastern Conference, and the major foundation for that focus will be on the coaches in the SEC.

Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Les Miles, and Steve Spurrier have all won national championships. Tennessee just fired a coach, Phil Fulmer, who brought a national title to Knoxville. No other conference can boast as many holders of a crystal football, not even close. Sure, the Pac-10 has some talent, and a national championship coach in Pete Carroll, the Big Ten has Jim Tressel, and the Big 12 has Bob Stoops and Mack Brown. When it comes to national championship caliber coaches in the ACC, Bobby Bowden, in his sunset years as a head coach, stands alone as an ACC coach with a championship ring. If you were to make an unbiased assessment of the quality of coaching in the BCS conferences, the ACC would only clearly beat out the Big East, and perhaps challenge the Big Ten.

The ACC has had difficulty attracting championship caliber coaches. The recent hires of Dabo Swinney at Clemson and Frank Spaziani at Boston College are all too typical of ACC hires. The circumstances may have been different, but the results were similar – both teams looked internally rather than initiating a nationwide search that focused on coaches who had “been there, done that.” They may turn out to be excellent hires, but neither had major college head coaching experience at the time of their hires, aside from Swinney’s “interim” label.

Last year’s hire of Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech was forward thinking and imaginative. Johnson may not prove to be national championship caliber, and he came as the result of a search motivated by the desire to break through seasons of winning, but mediocre football. That experiment is still in its early stages, but so far Tech fans are excited and enthusiastic about the 2008 season and the prospects for the future. Duke made an excellent hire of an experienced head coach in David Cutcliffe last year, fairly atypical for the ACC.

In the class that preceded Johnson and Cutcliffe, North Carolina State hired a proven Division 1A head coach in Tom O’Brien, and North Carolina did the same with Butch Davis. With O’Brien moving from Boston College to NC State, however, that resulted in the net gain of only one experienced and successful head coach to the ACC.

One could make the argument that the parity that was reflected in the ACC in 2008 is mirrored by the parity in coaching. Of all the league’s coaches, only Bobby Bowden has a career coaching winning percentage above 70% as a Division 1A head coach. Five other league coaches (“Tom O’Brien, Paul Johnson, Ralph Friedgen, Butch Davis, and Frank Beamer) all have winning percentages at the Division 1A level between 59% and 66%. For those who are curious, Butch Davis is currently third in winning percentage among the league’s coaches, behind Bowden and Beamer. Granted, there are differences in the coaching positions where they obtained those winning percentages, but the parity in winning percentages among the league’s coaches is interesting.
The 2009 season will begin with several ACC head coaches floating to the top of the “hot seat” lists that will surface in the coming months. Randy Shannon, Ralph Friedgen, and Al Groh are all potential candidates for those lists. Coming NCAA sanctions may invalidate the results of the 2007 season, removing seven wins from Bobby Bowden’s all-time win total, essentially ending the all-time win race between Bowden and Joe Paterno. Both Friedgen and Bowden have replacements “in waiting” in James Franklin at Maryland and Jimbo Fisher at Florida State, neither of whom have Division 1A head-coaching track records.

The best guess is that the ACC programs most likely to make a change after the 2009 season will be Miami and Virginia. Clearly speculation, both coaches could be in place in 2010 and beyond, but both coaches have something to prove in 2009 and a uphill climb to prove them. If that happens, what direction will those teams take?

Looming over both head coaches and every other “hotseat” coach is the availability of experienced, successful, and currently unemployed former head coaches like Tommy Tuberville, who has ties to Miami, and Phil Fulmer, who wants to get back into coaching – soon – and who is younger and certainly more accomplished than Al Groh was when he was hired at Virginia. I have no idea if there is any interest on either side, or even curiosity at this point, but those coaches are out there.

It’s one of the storylines that will be fascinating to follow next year. It cannot be denied that the quality of football within a conference is often a function of the quality of head coaching within it. If the ACC wants to upgrade its image in football, refurbishing facilities is nice, but putting quality coaches in them is even better.

 

Too long to read. What, if anything, did it say?

 

ACC is still average, especially it's coaches.