College football used to be the one sport where coaches would stay at one place forever -- unless they wanted to try the NFL -- even if they had a few lulls during their tenures.
In today's what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world, only two coaches hold enough clout to keep their jobs until they're buried six-feet deep -- Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno. Every other coach in America is judged by his wins and losses, and for some of the more elitist fans bases (Miami fans), a coach is judged by national championships.
This year, there are three very obvious candidates for the unemployment line. One seems to choke every year, one can't recruit and one is just flat-out incompetent. Any way you slice it, these guys need to be removed for their programs to improve.
John L. Smith
His fate might have been sealed with the ridiculous collapse against Notre Dame two weekends ago, but it was pretty much assured with Saturday's three-point loss to Illinois. Smith's Michigan State teams have always been labeled with some heightened expectation every year, and each season they find a way to fall flat on their face.
"We're good enough to win every game, and we're good enough to lose every game," Smith said. "We have to be able to come out physically -- with great effort --mentally ... and we have to play with emotion. We just didn't play with emotion. We need to play with all three, and I hope our football team recognizes that."
Smith's statement seems to be the norm for coaches on the hot seat in college football. Blame losses on the players for not giving effort, or not executing well, but, wait, isn't it the job of the head coach to make sure that his team is prepared mentally, physically as well as emotionally? Smith seems to be confused as usual, and once again, he has his team in a midseason tailspin that will cost the Spartans a bowl game and Smith his job.
Larry Coker
Only in Hurricane country could you have a .800 winning percentage and be on the verge of being fired. Well, when a program's won five national championships in the last 23 years, mediocrity is not acceptable in any capacity. And this season, Coker has accelerated the slow slide toward the middle of the pack, which was highlighted by Saturday's 14-13 win against Houston. Yes, Houston, a team that hasn't mattered since 1990 when quarterback Andre Ware was winning the Heisman.
Coker wasn't a great coach when he took over at Miami after Butch Davis defected for the Cleveland Browns in 2001, but he was the beneficiary of Davis' great recruiting. Coker won most of his games with two Davis-era quarterbacks in Ken Dorsey and Brock Berlin. Dorsey was already an established star when he carried the Canes and Coker to the national championship game against Ohio State, and Berlin had transferred to Miami before Davis left, so Coker's first two field generals weren't of his choosing.
But Kyle Wright, the Canes starting quarterback for the last two seasons, was Coker's recruit, and he has been a tremendous failure. Even though Coker has a high winning percentage, his demise will come from his inability to recruit the talent needed to satisfy greedy Miami fans.
Jeff Bowden
Over the last few years it has become popular to take your frustrations about coaches to the Internet and start a site ordering the firing of a certain coach, with the most famous of the pages aptly named Fireronzook.com. Now this cyber-whining has expanded to assistant coaches. Some 2,400 disgruntled Florida State fans have signed a petition calling for the removal of offensive coordinator Jeff Bowden. The online protest begins with this statement to Seminole Nation:
"Dear alumni, students and fans of Florida State Football,
I would like to take the time to ask you to sign this petition to send to both Coach Bobby Bowden and Athletic Director Hart. This petition is in response to the inadequate coaching abilities at offense coordinator by one Jeff Bowden. As a fan I am tired of him bringing our program down. I am starting this petition to have him removed from the position. So once again to all the alumni, students and fans lets sign this petition and get FSU football back on top where it belongs."
Bowden has been dreadful for the last few seasons. His lackluster offense has been the main cause for the Seminoles' drop off the national radar. Under Jeff Bowden, Florida State has lost more games in the last five years (19) then it had over the decade prior. Even though Bobby Bowden should fire his son, it most likely won't happen.
Game of the Week
I'll address this up front. The reason the Florida-LSU is not this week's GOTW is because Florida has three huge games in the next three weeks, so in the interest of variety, the Gators will have to wait for this honor.
Staying in the SEC conference, the match-up of the week comes from the East Division. Georgia and Tennessee battle in the first of many key games in the best division in any conference in the nation.
The Bulldogs welcome back starting quarterback, senior Joe Tereshinski, who has been sidelined with a high ankle sprain. Tereshinski's return is a welcome sign for a Georgia offense that has struggled over the last two games.
