RIP Gerry Faust

And the O'Leary pick then led to an uncomfortable hiring of Tyrone Willingham.

 

Well, it eventually was supposed to be Mike Leach instead of Greg Schiano, but an AD keping his superiors in the dark and a dysfunctional administration led to the firing of the AD and Fulmer elevated to the position, with Pruitt being Fulmer's pick.

God, what a horrible episode to relive.

 

WaPo gift link

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Extremely well written story. Thanks for sharing.

 

It was. I have a couple of bones I could pick, but overall it's dead on.

I wish I wasn't living in it.

 

Faust might not have won all the games everybody wanted, but he was the human being everybody should want coaching their team.

[insert name] won all the games everybody wanted, but was not the human being everybody should want coaching their team.

 

I can only imagine what a mess the coaching carousel is going to be this year with teams pissed they didn't make the playoffs, coaches looking more at NIL funding than the "prestige" of a program. It really is brutal for a coach to make a move to a new program, knowing by making the move the current roster of the new team can all leave and he has no guarantees players from his old team will come with him. I also have to think being one of those "player personnel" people programs are hiring to target transfers might be one of the most important jobs a coach has to fill.

 

The player personnel guy and the strength coach are the unsung but incredibly important positions in today's CFB. They may not be as important as the OC and DC, but if you have bad ones the coordinators will be hamstrung.

 

When the 12-team expansion was announced, I assumed record numbers of executions. Now with perpetual eligibility, unlimited quitting encouraged, record totals of teams still in contention for meaningful postseason play at the end of November and institutional payments to players becoming mandatory on July 1, 2025, I'm starting to think we won't see a rash of firings every year. I could be wrong.

 

And Curt Cignetti wearing a giant placard that says “Open for Business”

(Which makes me wonder: Would he automatically be the greatest coach in IU history even if he was only there one season and won12 games? Only at Indiana could this be possible.)

 

Cam Ward is no worse than 1A with Pat Sullivan in the Auburn quarterback pantheon, so I don’t see why not. Do we really value Bill Mallory more for grinding out a couple of Peach Bowl bids back when that was a consolation prize?