College Football and Mack Brown: How Many Could Survive a Texas-esque Collapse?
From 2001 through 2009, the Texas Longhorns were one of the charmed teams in sports. Over that span, the worst record put up by the Longhorns was 10-3 (in 2003, 2006, and 2007). There was the 2005 BCS title, and 2009's near miss.
Any coach would envy a 101-16 record over a nine year span.
So what went wrong in 2010?
Texas went from a national powerhouse and perennial BCS title contender to a Big 12 also ran seemingly overnight.
Texas was so bad in 2010, they lost to the likes of UCLA, Iowa State, Baylor, and Kansas State—not exactly the list of programs found on most "Giant Killers" lists.
Even with this abysmal showing in 2010, Longhorns head coach Mack Brown remains supremely entrenched and secure in his position at Texas.
And why not?
While there certainly are a number of coaches in the FBS who could absorb a collapse like Brown's and survive, here's a list of the most prominent.
Mack Brown—Texas
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Even including 2010, Mack Brown has won 106 of his last 129 games. He's 133-34 overall at Texas with a 82-21 Big 12 mark.
That type of success will buy quite a heap of job security.
Surprisingly, though, Texas has only two Big 12 championships to its credit over Brown's tenure.
Oklahoma has seven.
While Brown may be loved enough in Austin for fans, alumni, boosters and the UT athletic administration to overlook 2010, another season or two of lackluster performances may lead to talk of retirement.
And sooner or later, Texas needs to start winning conference titles—without which there is little hope of BCS titles.
Brian Kelly—Notre Dame
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Coach Kelly may not be the most likely candidate for "Teflon Coach," but when you combine Kelly's winning pedigree with Notre Dame's desire for lasting successful leadership, it's highly unlikely Kelly will be going anywhere soon.
Kelly began his coaching career in 1987 when hired as an assistant at Grand Valley State under Tom Beck. Coach Beck left GVSU for Notre Dame to become the offensive coordinator before heading to Illinois. Kelly succeeded Beck as head coach, and over the next 13 years, amassed 118 wins with only 35 losses and two ties.
After winning back-to-back Division II NCAA National Championships at GVSU in 2002 and 2003, Kelly's success was too much for Division I teams to ignore. Kelly left Grand Valley State for Central Michigan and turned a team that had won just 17 games in five years into MAC champions by his third season. CMU is also where Brian Kelly suffered his only losing season in 20 years of coaching—his first season as Chippewas' coach in 2004.
As we all know, Kelly's ability to win football games caught the attention of Cincinnati. In his three years at Cincy, BK won no fewer than 10 games a season, and led the Bearcats to two consecutive BCS bowls as reward for his pair of Big East titles, beating West Virginia and Pitt along the way (something Cincy had never done in conference play).
Was it really any shock that Notre Dame came calling? Was it really any shock that Kelly took the job, which he had always called his “dream job?”
While 8-5 probably wasn't what the Irish faithful were hoping for, the Leprechaun lovers of the world need to keep in mind a few facts.
First, Kelly's 8-5 record is Notre Dame's best since 2006.
Second, the past few coaches at Notre Dame started out on fire, only to nose dive after a year or two. Fast starts, at least in South Bend, are very overrated.
And while losses to the likes of Navy and Tulsa don't impress pollsters, wins over Boston College Purdue, Utah, USC, and Miami (FL) show that Kelly has the foundations of a quality team.
If all of that wasn't enough, Brian Kelly is a recruiting machine. In fact, there's only one recruiter I've ever seen at any level that recruits better than Brian Kelly—so Kelly went ahead and hired him to be Notre Dame's recruiting coordinator.
Under Kelly's leadership, Notre Dame will be winning games by the truckload much sooner than with any other available coach.
Chris Petersen—Boise State
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Petersen is probably the single most indispensable coach in college football today.
All he has done is win 61 out of 66 games he's coached at Boise.
He's also won at least a share of four conference titles in his five seasons.
Peterson's won two BCS bowls (against Oklahoma and TCU, no less), both wins capping perfect seasons.
His worst season at Boise State was 10-3. And he still has yet to lose a conference game at home.
Peterson has placed Boise, Idaho on the college football map.
After the 2007 Fiesta Bowl win, Petersen was rewarded with a pay increase to a “whopping” $850,000 per year—a salary dwarfed by his contemporaries at “major” programs. The real kicker came in early 2010 after Petersen's second undefeated season at Boise State. BSU granted him a salary more in line with coaches of his caliber: $1.6 million (still small by comparison with outlandish SEC and, Big 12, and Big Ten salaries). They also threw in a five-year extension and included an automatic one-year extension for each season BSU wins eight or more regular season games (so 2010 gave him his first of what is sure to be many extensions).
Clearly Boise State wants to keep Petersen. Petersen appears to have no desire to leave Boise. And his contract is structured in such a way to keep him there as long as he wants to be there and keeps winning.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Gary Patterson—Texas Christian
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Gary Patterson is TCU football.
The head coach of the Horned Frogs since the 2000 season (although he only coached the bowl game in 2000, replacing Dennis Franchione), Patterson will reach his 100th career win at TCU in 2011 (assuming the Frogs can win two games, which is a pretty safe bet).
In his 10 full seasons guiding the Frogs, Patterson is 98-27, with nine bowl game appearances and a 6-3 record. This record includes two BCS bowls (1-1), four conference championships (3 MWC, 1 C-USA) and a perfect 2010 campaign capped with a Rose Bowl championship.
Patterson now leads TCU into their fourth conference affiliation since he took over in 2000. TCU is stepping up to play with the big boys, and will be moving to the Big East in time for the 2012 season.
The change could cause some growing pains for TCU, but Patterson is sufficiently loved and entrenched in Fort Worth to weather almost any brief storm the Frogs may encounter during their move.
Jim Tressel—Ohio State
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Like Brian Kelly, Jim Tressel made a name for himself by winning at a lower football division before winning in the FBS.
The longtime Youngstown State coach amassed 135 wins over 15 seasons in Youngstown. That includes four Division I-AA NCAA National Championships, and a 4-1 record in the championship game. He also led the Penguins to six-straight NCAA playoff appearances, and four consecutive championship game appearances.
The four championships is even more impressive considering the playoff system the non-FBS divisions use (Playoffs? What a crazy idea!).
After the forgetable John Cooper (who?) years at Ohio State, the Buckeyes needed a coach that could win—and more importantly beat Michigan.
Ohio State fans are remarkably single-minded in their hatred for the University of Michigan.
Perhaps it comes from the lack of anything else to do in Columbus. Or maybe it's more deeply psychological (Michigan is, after all, one of the highest rated public universities in the nation, ranking No. 4 on US News and World Report's list, with Ohio State at No. 18 behind three other public Big Ten schools).
Whatever the reason, Sir Sweatervest gave Ohio State fans exactly what they craved: wins over Michigan, winning his first meeting with the Maize and Blue in 2001, and repeating the feat in 2002.
In fact, 2003 is his only blemish against Michigan. Beyond that, he's 106-22 at OSU, with at least a share of seven Big Ten titles.
Perhaps Mr. Transistions Lenses' only soft spot at Ohio State is his recent inability to win the “big games,” namely those against USC and pretty much the whole SEC.
However, two consecutive BCS bowl wins (including the all-important Rose Bowl) has done much to quell the (very few) Tressel critics among the Buckeye faithful.
Mark Richt—Georgia
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Coach Richt has to be included on this list because, well, he is currently absorbing a pretty bad stretch at Georgia.
After Georgia opened 2010 with a 1-4 record, there were more than a few grumblings about Richt among Bulldogs fans.
But if you look at his record at Georgia, an objective individual found those people complaining about Richt pretty silly.
Since becoming head coach in 2001, Richt is 96-34 overall and 53-27 in perhaps the toughest conference in the FBS.
He's also never failed to take Georgia bowling, and is 7-3 in bowl games, including 2-1 in BCS bowls.
In his ten seasons, he's had seven 10-plus win seasons, again in the SEC, where almost every game is an epic struggle.
Of particular note during the Richt “crisis” in 2010 was the fact that most Georgia insiders, and in fact Georgia itself, dismissed any notion that Richt's job was at any time or in any way in jeopardy.
While 6-7 seasons won't cut it at Georgia forever, anyone who knows Mark Richt knows that 6-7 won't be the norm, either.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
