Forty names, games, teams and minutiae that make news in college football, where hiring and firing and signing championships of conferences and conferences try to coexist in the same week, which does not help Christmas shopping:
MORE DASH: Texas, Auburn Diverge | All Florida lost | Championship Week
FOURTH QUARTER: THE SEARCH FOR AUBURN IS ALREADY HILARIOUS
For the first 30 hours after Auburn fired Gus Malzahn (32), winner of two-thirds of his games and the only unnamed coach Nick Saban to capture the SEC West twice in the past decade, the athletic department has shown why he leads the nation in palace intrigue. (Make it a barn intrigue, being Auburn).
Athletic director Allen Greene (33) sent a letter to donors on Monday saying the search to replace Malzahn is underway. Lord only knows how many rear seat drivers Greene will have for this trip. This has always been Empowered Booster Central and it’s good to know that some things don’t change.
A comment heard several times from industry sources on Monday: “Many cooks in the kitchen.”
Another comment was heard: “People are divided into fields.”
What a surprise.
Auburn has hired an Atlanta-based search company, Parker Executive Search, and President Jay Gogue has formed a search committee. These developments indicate that it will not be a quick process. But 247 Sports reported that “Gogue is being urged to move quickly.”
One camp likes Freedom coach Hugh Freeze, and a source says Freeze could receive an interview this week. But another camp says Greene doesn’t want him because of NCAA problems on Freeze’s watch in Mississippi and that he won’t be a candidate.
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Another field likes the defensive coordinator Kevin Steele (34 years old). That gained quite a bit on Monday afternoon, and that would also be Auburn’s imaginable contract. Would a school pay more than $ 21 million to buy a coach just to hire their assistant? A guy who had a 9-36 record as head coach at Baylor, including a 1-31 conference record? A school could.
This is actually an old page from Auburn’s reproduction book. In the late 1990s, it was reported that the promoters expelled Terry Bowden in an attempt to get defensive coordinator Bill “Brother” Oliver to take the place. Oliver was the interim after Bowden resigned during the 1998 season, but only went 2-3 after taking over and the school hired Tommy Tuberville.
Tuberville had plans to hire Bobby Petrino as offensive coordinator in 2002, and after a strong season, Petrino got the job of head coach at Louisville. Once again, the boosters took shine to someone other than their current coach; power runner Bobby Lowder flew the school president and athletic director to Louisville to meet with Petrino behind Tuberville before the 03 Iron Bowl. When the plot was unveiled, Auburn went having to step back and hold Tubes.
At Steele, Auburn theoretically waited Ed Orgeron (35) a lightning strike twice. Orgeron got the job of head coach at LSU after the school fired Les Miles and gossiped against Jimbo Fisher, despite his suspicions after his failed coaching tenure in Mississippi. Orgeron, of course, ended up winning the 2019 national title in a history of redemption of the second law of all time.
There could be another attraction for Steele: it would come out cheap and there is no purchase to pay at another school. There was a lot of speculation about the Oregon coach Mario Cristobal (36), but its purchase stood at $ 8 million. And, bad luck, one problem with paying $ 21 million to get rid of a coach is that there may not be a cash reserve to buy the next type you want.
(Of course, Cristobal could have been playing in the marketplace to put urgency in talks about an extension in Oregon. The whole pandemic talk that slows college football spending? Yes, no.)
All this means: who knows? Auburn is a good job and can get a good coach, as he has done many times in the past. But that starts classically in Auburn, with everyone and no one at the helm. A source in the industry summed it up this way Monday night: “The search company doesn’t even know exactly where it is.”
STATUS OF THE WEEK
Wyoming (37) played six games this season. Wyoming threw 134 passes. Wyoming throws a touchdown pass.
The happy moment came in the first season, at 1:13 p.m. in the fourth quarter against Nevada. That’s when Levi Williams connected with Gunner Gentry for a 22-yard score in a game the Cowboys would lose in overtime, 37-34.
From that moment on, Wyoming threw 116 more passes without any of them finishing in a finish that reached the end zone. In 2021, when faults are transmitted they are omnipotent. Josh Allen does not enter through this door, Pokes fans.
COACH WHO WON HIS COMP E CAR THIS WEEK
Greg Schiano (38), Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights ’overtime win over Maryland on Saturday left Schiano ecstatically cutting wood in the playoff locker room, surrounded by celebrated players as Rutgers completed the best season of three wins in recent memory. Taking a tire fire, Schiano extinguished the flames and put out the stench, reviving the hope and struggle of his previous tenure at school. For the first time in a long time, the “R” on the helmet means Respectable.
COACH WHO SHOULD TAKE THE BUS TO WORK
Scott Frost (39), Nebraska. The anti-Schiano of The Big Ten is Frost, who in year three shows no signs of being the savior he was supposed to be. The Cornhuskers fell to 2-5 for being transported home by a Minnesota team that was missing 33 players, perhaps a new long time in a term that has really been a continuous walk in a ditch. Now Frost is between 11 and 20 years old and the program is worse than in 60 years.
POINT AFTER
The Dash kept it local last week, which meant a new local beer to try. When you are thirsty in Louisville, grab any of the creative selections from Monnik Beer Co. (40), Try an IPA rye Still Not Dead and thank The Dash later.
MORE DASH: Texas, Auburn Diverge | All Florida lost | Championship Week