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Coaches on the supposed hot seat

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Hurricane warning is on
Coker can feel the heat with 1-2 start

823-coker18.JPG
[SIZE=-1]Larry Coker is stunned as his Hurricanes drop two of first three games. [/SIZE]
You don't want to be listening to sports talk radio in Coral Gables today if you're a University of Miami fan. A huge, dark cloud has fallen over that sun-drenched campus following Saturday's embarrassing 31-7 loss at Louisville and there will be a lot of angry voices on the air. UM's demanding fans, who are not used to 1-2 starts, were less than kind to nice guy Larry Coker as he walked off the field after that debacle.
Coker's team is 13-8 since opening the 2004 season with six straight wins. The Hurricanes are absent from The AP poll for the first time in 107 weeks, and are in deep trouble unless they turn things around in a hurry. It will not be easy, given Miami's average offensive linemen and running backs and the army of new assistant coaches Coker brought in during the offseason to put in a new offensive system that hasn't kicked in yet.
Knowing UM's demanding president, Donna Shalala, and the sometimes impatient AD Paul Dee, they probably are already putting together a short list of candidates in case this scenario plays out.
"Right now, we're not a very good football team," Coker said.
He needs to make sure the message reaches some of his arrogant players, who must have listened to TV analyst Lee Corso, who not only picked the 'Canes to win the game, but then said the Floridian players on the Louisville team were "Miami rejects."
The 'Canes attempted to show their machismo before the game by stomping on the Cardinal logo at midfield, taunting Louisville players and almost igniting a pregame brawl between the two teams.
Then, the game began.
Louisville, playing without star running back Michael Bush, who is out for the season with a broken leg, and playing most of the second half without quarterback Brian Brohm, who tore ligaments in the thumb on his throwing hand, still embarrassed Miami, averaging 7.9 yards per play.
And when it came to pregame boasts, Louisville backed up an earlier statement from linebacker Nate Harris, who said this Miami team paled in comparison with past squads.
"His quote was right," Miami quarterback Kyle Wright said. "You don't win games with swagger. It's nice to jump on their logo, but if you don't go out and take care of business, it's nothing but fake hype. And I'm tired of it."
Louisville is headed for the Top 10 and a possible BCS spot if the Cardinals beat West Virginia in a Nov. 2 showdown at Cardinal Stadium.
Miami looks like it has lost its way.
 
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Carr Defies His Critics As Michigan Makes Statement
College Football
By RUSSELL LEVINE
September 18, 2006

Lloyd Carr is what's known in Ann Arbor as a "Michigan Man"? a title that speaks to his having descended from the Bo Schembechler coaching tree. He has spent 26 years on the Michigan staff, the last 12 as head coach. Though he has taken the program to heights never achieved by the legendary "Bo," he has spent the last several seasons fending off calls for his dismissal, a chorus that grew to a crescendo after last season's 7?5 mark.
As the fire under his feet has grown warmer, Carr has grown more aloof. He treats halftime interviews and postgame press conferences as if they were a root canal. Some would say he coaches with a chip on his shoulder.
If that's the case, score one for the old school coach. Carr's team carried that collective chip with it into Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend on Saturday, and the result was a three-hour mugging of the Fighting Irish. By the time it was over, Michigan had reclaimed its position among the nation's elite teams, rising to sixth in the AP poll, Notre Dame's national championship aspirations were shelved, and a presumed Heisman run by Irish quarterback Brady Quinn was put in serious doubt.
But the take-away from this game wasn't about the fallout for Notre Dame, nor was it about Michigan's place in the 2006 national-title chase. It was simply a statement by a much-maligned coach that those who would write off the Wolverines as being too staid in their approach to modern football do so at their own risk.
The chief criticism of Carr in recent seasons has to do with his conservative approach. Four of Michigan's five defeats a year ago involved blown fourth-quarter leads, all characterized by a lack of a killer instinct on offense and a passive approach to defense. The Alamo Bowl loss to Nebraska was a fitting end to the season, as the Cornhuskers rallied from two scores down in the fourth quarter.
Carr, fiercely loyal to his fellow Michigan Men on the staff, nonetheless invited his two coordinators to seek other opportunities. Mike DeBord returned to the offensive coordinator post he held during the 1997 national championship season, while a dynamic young assistant, Ron English, was promoted to defensive coordinator.

English, in particular, promised to change things. Gone would be the bend-but-don't-break approach favored by his predecessor, Jim Herrmann. The more aggressive approach was evident in Michigan's season-opening wins over Vanderbilt and Central Michigan. English called for blitzes even on obvious passing downs, a strategy that had grown increasingly rare under Herrmann. Against Notre Dame, Michigan's talented front four routinely found their way into the Irish backfield, knocking Quinn off his game early. By the time Notre Dame had its initial first down, the score was 20?7 in the second quarter.
Quinn, who had carved up Penn State the previous week to boost his Heisman campaign, grew so confused from the battering and the twisting, stunting Michigan line that he began to feel a pass rush that wasn't always there.Many of his 24 incompletions were thrown nowhere near their intended targets despite ample time in the pocket.
Michigan's offensive approach was equally aggressive, although it didn't start out that way. After linebacker Prescott Burgess scored with an interception to give Michigan a 7?0 lead in the first minute, the Wolverines regained possession at midfield after forcing a three-and-out.To every Michigan fan's horror, the Wolverines ran offtackle twice then watched as quarterback Chad Henne forced a terrible pass that was intercepted and returned to the Michigan four-yard line, allowing Notre Dame to tie the score.
This was the same conservative approach that had contributed to six consecutive losing efforts in road-openers. But just as Michigan supporters were settling in for a long day, a light went off on the Michigan sideline. After an exchange of punts, Henne threw deep to a wide-open Mario Manningham for a 69-yard score on a first-down play, giving the Wolverines a lead they would never relinquish.
DeBoard kept attacking throughout the first half, and the result was two more long touchdown throws to Manningham, who looks to be the next great Michigan receiver, following the likes of Anthony Carter, Amani Toomer, David Terrell, and Braylon Edwards. With the lead at 34?14 at halftime, the second half became an exercise in grinding the clock on offense and pummeling Quinn on defense.
Any Michigan observer would have to be blind to miss the change in the Wolverines' approach. Recognizing the weakness in its opponent (the shaky Notre Dame secondary), Michigan attacked it over and over, consequences be damned. Still, the school's shellshocked fan base can be forgiven for hanging on to its fears. Fans posting to a popular message board in real-time throughout Saturday's game continued to express their doubts even as Michigan held on to its lead deep into the fourth quarter.The parallels between the 1997 team and this one are obvious.That Michigan squad was coming off four consecutive four-loss seasons and there were plenty of questions about Carr, then an unproven third-year coach. They weren't taken seriously until a late-season road rout of Penn State, perhaps the last Michigan big-game victory that was as complete as Saturday's. This year's squad has announced its intentions to compete for Big Ten and BCS titles by mid-September, but the Wolverines must prove they can handle success.
The first test comes Saturday, in Michigan's conference opener against Wisconsin. In 2003, the Wolverines crushed an overmatched Notre Dame by a 38?0 score, but their stay among the nation's elite lasted all of seven days. A ragged Michigan lost at Oregon in its next outing. The schedule is a bit gentler this time around, with three winnable games (vs.Wisconsin, at Minnesota, vs. Michigan State) before a road trip to Penn State.
For Carr, redemption will last only as long as he keeps winning. Another season-ending loss to Ohio State, which would drop Carr to 1?5 against Jim Tressel, would renew the calls for his head, no matter how unlikely his firing would be.
When Urban Meyer was on the market two off-seasons ago, many Michigan supporters lobbied for the school to sack Carr and pursue the dynamic, young coach who ultimately landed at Florida. What those fans fail to grasp is that Michigan will never hire a coach of Meyer's ilk as long as the living legend, Schembechler, continues to draw breath. Though officially retired, Bo's influence still runs deep in the Michigan athletic department, meaning the next coach of the Wolverines will always be somebody with ties to the program ? a "Michigan Man." A few more days like Saturday and it's an idea that the school's fan base may even come to embrace.



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ON THE HOT SEAT
Who?s more likely to get the ax:
Michigan State coach John L. Smith or Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione?

Yeah.


2a. Better jobs are waiting for you ...
Greg Schiano (who has Rutgers 4-0), Jim Grobe (Wake Forest, 4-0), Gary Patterson (TCU, 3-0), Steve Kragthorpe (Tulsa, 3-1), and Paul Johnson (Navy, 3-1).

2b. A nice, warm seat in Bristol next to Lou Holtz is waiting for you ...
Larry Coker (Miami, Fla., 1-2), John Bunting (North Carolina, 1-3), Chuck Amato (N.C. State, 2-2), and Walt Harris (Stanford, 0-4).
 
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osugrad21;618175; said:
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2b. A nice, warm seat in Bristol next to Lou Holtz is waiting for you ...
Larry Coker (Miami, Fla., 1-2), John Bunting (North Carolina, 1-3), Chuck Amato (N.C. State, 2-2), and Walt Harris (Stanford, 0-4).
Click to expand...

God help us if they put Amato in a commentator position. He'd make Holtz and May sound like Cicero and Daniel Webster.
 
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Coker fizzling at Miami



GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Those weren't vultures circling the Orange Bowl, just three small planes carrying banners that urged the University of Miami to make a coaching change and ax Larry Coker. "UM players and fans deserve better," one said. "Fire Coker Now," said another. "Enough is enough," said the third. Coker could be gone as soon as the season ends, but at least the Hurricanes (2-2) won Saturday night, holding off upstart Houston, 14-13.
Still, this has hardly been a vintage year for traditional powers Miami, Florida State and Virginia Tech.
The Hokies (4-1, 2-1), who were the highest-ranked ACC team last week at No. 11, took an unexpected tumble Saturday when suddenly grown up Georgia Tech hammered them, 38-27, in Blacksburg.
"The way we're playing, we couldn't even beat a bad team," Hokies coach Frank Beamer said. "And Georgia Tech is a good team."
With a long memory.
Take All-American wide receiver Calvin Johnson, who lived through the Yellow Jackets' ugly 51-7 loss last year in Blacksburg. "That was humiliating," he said. "We got a chip on our shoulder this year. We want to go out and take care of business early."
The seemingly unstoppable Johnson, who constantly demands double coverage, helped Georgia Tech (4-1, 2-0) make a case for itself as the best team in the balanced ACC, catching six passes for 115 yards and scoring the first two times he touched the ball - once on a 3-yard lob fade and a second time on a 53-yard bolt to the end zone as the Jackets jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first 11 minutes.
Suddenly, the big game in the conference could occur Oct. 21 when Georgia Tech visits Clemson (4-1).
 
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Coaches feeling the heat
By Raymond A. Partsch III
[email protected]
(318) 487-6354

Do you smell that?
I'll give you a hint: It's not the aroma of a backyard barbecue, or that funky odor from your next-door neighbor who has yet to be introduced to the wonders of deodorant.
No, it's the smell of a few men already sizzling on the college football coaching hot seat.
When the season began, there were several coaches at major programs who were on the hot seat. Despite their past success, alumni, fans and media were placing pressure on these coaches to win and win now.Now that nearly half the season is in the books, three of these men have certainly doomed their current careers. Meanwhile Lloyd Carr (Michigan), Rich Brooks (Kentucky) and Phillip Fulmer (Tennessee) all have secured their futures on campus.
Leading the way of those soon to be receiving pink slips is Michigan State's John L. Smith, the man who climbed a mountain a few years ago and used the experience as a coaching tool.
Last season the Spartans stunned Notre Dame and looked poised for a Big Ten title. Then they stumbled and bumbled themselves out of a bowl game. This season, the Spartans were up by almost 20 points to Notre Dame and then choked so severely that I wondered if they had money riding on the game.
Then, Saturday they looked to rebound against lowly Illinois for their homecoming. They lost. Smith will have plenty of time for ascending mountains come December.
Miami's Larry Coker inherited a bevy of talent when he replaced Butch Davis as the Hurricanes' head coach. His 2001 team won the national championship and returned the following year. They would lose an overtime thriller to Ohio State.
Since then the 'Canes haven't sniffed a title and big part of that is Coker's lackluster recruiting. After getting embarrassed by LSU in last year's Peach Bowl, the head coach shook up his coaching staff in hopes of fixing his problems. It didn't work as Miami lost the season opener to Florida State for the second-straight year.
And last weekend, Miami defeated a Conference USA team (Houston) by one point. It is so bad for Coker in Miami that before Saturday's game, a alum paid for an airplane to fly a banner over the stadium asking for Coker to be fired.
What's next? Rotten produce chucked at him after a game?
In early 2003, Dennis Franchione snuck out of Alabama and took his dream job in College Station coaching the Texas A&M Aggies.
In his first three seasons, Franchione compiled a 16-18 record and an embarrassing loss to Tennessee in the Cotton Bowl two years ago. Grumbling began in the offseason and expectations were high for Fran and his boys.
The best way to quiet the critics is, of course, to rack up wins against bad schools. So the Aggies' non-conference schedule gave them a 4-0 record going into Saturday's Big 12 opener against Texas Tech. That cakewalk schedule included games against The Citadel, UL-Lafayette, Army and Louisiana Tech.
Against the Red Raiders, the Aggies blew a late lead and lost 31-27. Still ahead for the Aggies are games against Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and an upstart Missouri squad. Now, a six-win season and a bowl game would likely not save Fran's job.
And as a die-hard Alabama fan, I have to say I will not be shedding any tears.
 
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osugrad21;618175; said:
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ON THE HOT SEAT
Who?s more likely to get the ax:
Michigan State coach John L. Smith or Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione?
Click to expand...

I think if MSU doesn't make a game of it in Ann Arbor this weekend, John L. will be gone mid-season just like Bobby Williams in '02.
 
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we'll be able to tell, between coker and smith, whose seat is hotter come saturday. if there are no "fire john l. smith" planes above the stadium, we'll know that coker's seat is hotter. then again, the alumni have to feel a lot better about coker after that statement he made against houston.
 
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MGB;623850; said:
I think if MSU doesn't make a game of it in Ann Arbor this weekend, John L. will be gone mid-season just like Bobby Williams in '02.
Click to expand...

A friend of mine told me that he was interviewed this morning on Detroit radio.When asked if he knew how to turn the season around, he said, "I have no idea." Not a verbatim quote--just a summation.


If that's the case, I'm very surprised he wasn't fired this morning.


:gobucks3: :osu2: :gobucks4:
 
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http://cmsimg.lansingstatejournal.c...Category=GW01&ArtNo=610030325&Ref=AR&MaxW=300
Spartans rally 'round their coach

MSU notes: Stanton, Ryan take the stand to defend embattled John L.

By Joe Rexrode
Lansing State Journal
Two days after a disastrous loss and postgame comments some believe will haunt him, Michigan State coach John L. Smith appeared unaffected.
Moments after MSU's 23-20 homecoming loss to Illinois on Saturday, Smith said: "I don't have the answers. We can't get them to go hard in practice." Some likened those comments to the "I don't know" former coach Bobby Williams uttered when asked if he had lost his team in 2002 - after a 49-3 loss to Michigan and two days before he was fired.
Asked to revisit the comments at his Monday news conference, Smith cried: "We have the answers!"

Asked if he had discussed the comments or their ramifications with his superiors, Smith chuckled and said: "I haven't heard anything about it."
MSU (3-2 overall, 0-1 Big Ten) plays at rival Michigan (5-0, 2-0) on Saturday, but much of Monday's talk revolved around the heat Smith is taking from fans and media.
He said "no" when asked if the U-M game will dictate the direction of his program and gave a lengthy pause when asked to address disappointed fans.
"I really don't have anything to say. ... You can spin it any way you want," he said.
Two of Smith's senior captains, quarterback Drew Stanton and defensive tackle Cliff Ryan, spent portions of their time at the podium defending Smith.
"I know you guys think he's lost us and stuff, but we're down for Coach Smith," Ryan said. "He's my guy; he's my main man."
Said Stanton: "We've got coach Smith's back. He's our leader. And that's about as much as you want to say about it."
SHOOTING BACK: Ryan took his comments further when asked about the media's treatment of Smith.
"He expects it from you guys, I expect it from you guys," he said. "You guys really don't give us any credit. You guys want us to fail."
Asked if he really believed that, Ryan said: "Sometimes I feel that way. It gives you something to write about, something to talk about. You love to bring up the negativity. ... But you don't have to keep throwing it in our face."
MORE INJURIES: The big news from the training room was the fact that Stanton should play with bruised ribs, and that running back Javon Ringer is out for the year with an injured right knee.
There's more. Left guard Daniel Zynn also is out for the year with a broken fibula. MSU will move Kyle Cook from center to left guard and start Cook's backup, John Masters, at center.
Left guard Kenny Shane (back) may be available to play though, which would allow Cook to play center. Guard Peter Clifford (knee) played Saturday when Zynn went down and will be available, but he is still hurting.
HANDS ON: Smith was asked if he'll get more involved in the offensive and defensive play-calling from now on, and he said: "Maybe in prep."
GAME TIME SET: MSU's Oct. 14 home game against No. 1 Ohio State will kick off at 3:30 p.m. and be televised by ABC (Ch. 7, 12, 41, 53).
QUOTABLE: Stanton, asked about past comments indicating he "hates" Michigan:
"More times than not, you don't have a dislike for the people that actually went to Michigan. It's the thousands and thousands of bandwagon people that jump on there, that went all over, went to community college and all of the sudden they're Michigan fans because Michigan's No. 1 in the nation."
 
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