By
Pete Fiutak
Fire over your questions to me at
pete@collegefootballnews.com. I might not be able to answer them
all, but I promise they're all read. Any e-mails sent to this
address may be published or edited unless requested otherwise.
(Please put ASK CFN in the subject line, and PLEASE keep the
questions short ... it makes my life easier.)
What team(s)
do you foresee being ranked in the preseason top ten that may
fall off the radar by middle of the season? ala 2007 Michigan.
What team are you looking at penciling in as a top five or ten
that makes you grimace when you think about it? – Mike T.
A: I just don’t quite believe Texas is going to be all that
great. The Longhorns will be in everyone’s top ten because
they’re the Longhorns, but there are too many question marks,
too much hope for unknown, slightly above average players to
come through, and unsettled openings at running back and
throughout the defense. Arizona State is also a hot team, but it
didn’t do much against the better teams and the O line that was
so bad last year has to replace some key starters.
Can we agree that today’s SEC boasts the greatest collection of college
coaching talent ever gathered in one conference? By far?
– Sean F.
A: Yup. I did some research on this a few months ago, and I couldn’t
find a group that comes close. Eight SEC coaches make more than $2
million a year and five, Phil Fulmer, Les Miles, Steve Spurrier, Urban
Meyer and Nick Saban, have won national titles. Throw Tommy Tuberville
and Mark Richt into the mix, and over half the coaches in the league
have been at a national championship level. Bobby Petrino is fantastic,
and will do wonders with Arkansas, Houston Nutt is a strong veteran, and
Sylvester Croom, Rich Brooks, and Bobby Johnson are proven.
Dennis Franchione had been considered a coaching superstar until he
hit the wall at Texas A&M. I still think he could be handed the keys to
a BCS program like Syracuse or Arizona, and if I were running the show
at a UNLV or a Marshall I’d crawl across the state to acquire his
services. The newsletter scandal hurt, but I’d be more than willing to
roll the dice on Fran. Any thoughts on where he lands next? – JRM
A: No one likes a retread who didn’t succeed. Some of the recent high
profile rehires after falls from grace, like Dick Tomey and San Jose
State, Frank Solich at Ohio and Ron Zook at Illinois, had some success
at the previous stop and left under somewhat controversial
circumstances. Solich was seen as unfairly kicked out of his Nebraska
gig, after taking the Huskers to a national title game, while Zook
wasn’t horrible at Florida. Franchione was great at TCU and decent at
Alabama, but he was sort of mopey at A&M and he did nothing to take the
program to the next level. It’s easy to forget now, but R.C. Slocum had
won a Big 12 title before Fran showed up. Eventually, like in a year or
two, Franchione could surface at a non-BCS school, but that’s starting
over and no older coach is hot on doing that.
I'm a diehard UNC football fan and my friends always joke with me
about how Butch Davis will go back to Miami in a couple years. It got me
thinking about if he were to have success, why would he leave Chapel
Hill? To me, Carolina has the foundation to become a perennially good
football program if it had a coach. It's located in good recruiting
territory, there's no other in-state powerhouse around (the closest
would be Tennessee/Georgia/VT), they've got good facilities, and they'd
surely have a great fanbase & a ton of support from the fans and the
athletic department if they started winning consistently. What other
programs do you think have the pieces in place to turn things around
with a good coach at the helm, and how long do you see Butch Davis at
UNC? - Matt, a Carolina fan at Ohio State
A: Ehhhhh, but it’s still North Carolina and the football program is
always going to be dwarfed by the basketball team. That’s never, ever
going to change, and you’re sort of wrong about the location. NC State,
Clemson, South Carolina, and various other ACC and SEC teams will always
battle the Tar Heels for talent. As far as another program that has
everything in place to turn things around, Illinois and South Florida
were always my calls before last year’s success. Going back to the
Franchione question, Texas A&M has the recruiting base, the fans, and
the facilities to be a superpower. That might be a place that goes
ballistic once the ball gets rolling.
I was just wondering, how much does a new coaching staff bring to a
program? Is it all about recruiting? Can a team really be “coached up”?
I’ve heard many announcers say this in referring to Mr. Weis Notre Dame
team then it collapsed. Texas A&M is looking at this scenario this year.
The coaches all have NFL experience, so can the team be “coached up” to
have a run at the conference title? – Bobby
A: They usually bring more than they let on with the normal schlock they
spew. Every new coaching staff says the same thing about needing to get
everyone in better shape, needing to change the attitude, needing to
toughen up, and needing to be more disciplined. Like every old coaching
staff had a bunch of lard-butt hooligans who liked to watch Sex and the
City marathons and eat bon-bons. It all comes down to teaching and
preparation. If you have the assistants who can quickly adapt the style
they want to run with the personnel in place, then changing things
around isn’t all that hard. If you have a staff with a system, and wants
to make the wrong players and talents fit into that style (cough,
Michigan, cough), it can take a while. Weis had Brady Quinn, a great
receiving corps, and Darius Walker all at their peak, and succeeded by
bringing his style to a ready-made pro caliber group of skill players.
NFL experience can sometimes be a detriment to the overall cause when it
comes to college players. It can be frustrating because anyone used to
the NFL and the ability to have a million practices, meetings, and 100%
focus on football sometimes has a problem relating to the 20-year-old
cornerback with girlfriend issues and a C- in basket weaving.
Pete, which of the following former powerhouses will win a national
championship first: Florida State, Miami, Notre Dame, or Washington?
– Patrick A.
A: In football? If pressed, I’d have to say Notre Dame because of its
independent schedule. Take this year, for instance. Give me the
absolute, 100% guaranteed loss against San Diego State, Michigan, at
Michigan State, Purdue, Stanford, at North Carolina, at Washington and
Pitt. At Boston College will be rough, and then it’s Navy and Syracuse
before finishing up at USC. Don’t forget, if there wasn’t the Bush Push
in the miraculous finish in the 2005 loss to the Trojans, that Irish
team probably would’ve ended up playing Texas for the national title. It
might just take one really good year and a win over USC to get the Irish
into the title game.
Miami might be a close second just because the ACC doesn’t seem like
it’s going to be a killer any time soon and Randy Shannon has started to
build a fence around the “State of Miami.” Florida State is a mess and
might need a bigger overhaul than Seminole insiders might like to
believe once Jimbo Fisher takes over. Washington will never win another
national title in our lifetime.
What is a grayshirt in
college football? -
Gerald
A: It basically postpones a player’s career by keeping him from
enrolling in classes for a period of time, usually a year. The player
says he wants to be a part of the program and it’s understood that he
eventually will be on the team … maybe. If you hear that a guy is a
greyshirt, it basically means 1) he’s not that good and usually
expendable, 2) he needs time to work on his grades, or 3) the coaching
staff doesn’t have enough scholarships because they’re being used on
better players.
The one major problem for the teams is if the player is all of a sudden
a hot commodity. This almost never happens, but a grayshirt isn’t
necessarily committed and can go anywhere else if he ends up going the
JUCO route. If a player is really good, grades or not, he’s going to be
brought in and locked up and would never grayshirt. You’ll never, ever
see a four-star recruit getting a grayshirt.
you guys kinda took it easy on Wisconsin (in the preview), no? akron,
marshall, and cal poly san luis obispo in one season? add to that
minnesota, indiana and iowa... jeez. i might try to get a few
guys together at happy hour tonight and apply for the open slot on
9/20. it'll be like kansas of last year - we just won't know if they're
any good when their only loss is to ohio state. – TN
A: It’s really not as bad as you think, and it’s certainly not the
Kansas slate of last year. You’re right that Akron, Marshall, and
closing out with Cal Poly, is a joke, but it’s comparable to what most
BCS teams have, while there’s a sneaky-tough trip to Fresno State. Give
me the BCS team, other than UCLA going to BYU that has as tough a non-BCS
road trip as this one.
Considering that the Bulldog game is a possible loss, UW doesn’t have it
too easy during the first half of the season playing at Fresno State, at
Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, at Iowa (who has improved), Illinois,
and at Michigan State. Get through that unscathed and Wisconsin is off
to the BCS closing up at Indiana, Minnesota and Cal Poly.
If you haven't noticed, ESPN has some rankings and discussion on the
BCS at it's 10 year anniversary (signature moments, games, players,
etc). One feature is a post board regarding "the face of the program"
for each D-IA football school. Some are obvious (Penn State = Paterno),
some are mostly obvious (Florida State = Bowden over Sanders/Ward), and
others have great debate (Notre Dame, Michigan, LSU, etc). Some
nominees have been symbols of the school as opposed to coaches/players
(Georgia Tech = Ramblin Wreck, Ohio State = marching band script Ohio).
Since you (and Kirk Herbstreit) are the authority on college football, I
was wondering what your take on "the face of the program" would be for
each school. – Brian A.
Actually, I’ve been stuck in magazine purgatory (CollegeFootballNews.com
Preview 2008 on newsstands in early July … plug, plug) and haven’t seen
the piece. We’re planning on doing our own stuff on the BCS when it’s
time later this season, but without looking at what ESPN has done, and
without ripping off the idea entirely, I’ll take your question and go a
different way. Who is each BCS team’s Mr. Football?
You can call it the face of the program or the signature player or
coach, but I’m going with the guy who best represents what the team is
all about. He can be a star, or a figurehead, or a legend, or all three.
A teacher once told me to go with your first answer, so for each team
listed, I’m going with the one guy who pops into my head first when I
think of a Mr. Football.
When the Mr. Football is a coach, I also add a player for all the BCS
teams and a few select non-BCSers.
Air Force – Fisher DeBerry. Player: Dee Dowis
Alabama – Bear Bryant. Player: John Hannah
Arizona – Tedy Bruschi
Arizona State – Jake Plummer
Arkansas – Frank Broyles. Player: Darren McFadden
Army – Glenn Davis and Doc Blanchard
Auburn – Bo Jackson
Baylor – Mike Singletary
Boise State – Ian Johnson
Boston College – Doug Flutie
BYU – LaVell Edwards Player: Jim McMahon
California – Joe Kapp
Cincinnati – Gino Guidugli
Clemson – Terry Kinard
Colorado – Bill McCartney Player: Darian Hagan
Colorado State – Sonny Lubick Player: Bradlee Van Pelt
Connecticut – Randy Edsall Player: Dan Orlovsky
Duke – Ben Bennett
East Carolina – Jeff Blake/David Garrard
Florida – Steve Spurrier (coach and player)
Florida State – Bobby Bowden Player: Charlie Ward
Fresno State – Jim Sweeney Player: David Carr
Georgia – Vince Dooley Player: Herschel Walker
Georgia Tech – Bobby Dodd Player: Joe Hamilton
Hawaii – June Jones Player: Colt Brennan
Houston – Bill Yeoman Player: Andre Ware
Illinois – Red Grange
Indiana – Anthony Thompson
Iowa – Haden Fry Player: Nile Kinnick
Iowa State – Seneca Wallace
Kansas – Mark Mangino Player: John Riggins
Kansas State – Bill Snyder Player: Michael Bishop
Kentucky – Bob Gain
Louisville – Brian Brohm
LSU – Billy Cannon
Marshall – Bob Pruett Player: Chad Pennington
Maryland
– Boomer
Esiason
Miami – Michael Irvin
Michigan – Bo Schembechler Player: Bennie Oosterbaan
Michigan State – Duffy Daugherty Player: Bubba Smith &
George Webster
Minnesota – Bernie Bierman Player: Paul Giel
Ole Miss – Archie Manning
Mississippi State – D.D. Lewis (but I’d really like the Mr.
Football to be a cowbell)
Missouri – Brad Smith
Navy – Roger Staubach
Nebraska – Tom Osborne Player: Johnny Rodgers
North Carolina – Charlie Justice
NC State – Phil Rivers
Northwestern – Pat Fitzgerald
Notre Dame – Knute Rockne Player: George Gipp
Ohio State – Woody Hayes Player: Archie Griffin (but I
really want to go with Chris Spielman)
Oklahoma – Bud Wilkinson Player: Billy Sims
Oklahoma State – Barry Sanders
Oregon – Norn Van Brocklin
Oregon State – Terry Baker
Penn State – Joe Paterno Player: Jack Ham
Pitt – Tony Dorsett
Purdue – Bob Greise
Rutgers – Paul Roberson
San Diego State – Marshall Faulk
South Carolina – George Rogers
USC – John McKay Player: Charles White (but it’s really
O.J.)
SMU – Doak Walker
Stanford – John Elway
Syracuse – Almost anyone wearing No. 44
TCU – Sammy Baugh
Tennessee – Peyton Manning
Texas – Darrell Royal Player: Earl Campbell
Texas A&M – John David Crow
Texas Tech – Mike Leach Player: Donny Anderson (it’s
going to be Graham Harrell after this year, but I’m going with Anderson,
a star halfback in the 1960s, because his nickname was the The Golden
Palomino.)
UCLA – Terry Donohue Player: Kenny Easley
Vanderbilt – Jay Cutler
Virginia – George Welsh Player: Jim Dombrowski
Virginia Tech – Frank Beamer Player: Michael Vick
Wake Forest – Jim Grobe Player: Steve Justice
Washington – Don James Player: Steve Emtman
Washington State – Mel Hein
West Virginia – Don Nehlan Player: Major Harris and/or
Pat White
Wisconsin – Barry Alvarez Player: Ron Dayne
