Beech Tree News Network

The Monday after the NFL's final regular season weekend is called Black Monday. This is because that's the day annually that numerous head coaches get fired. This year it was no less black than usual, with six coaches getting the axe.

As if that isn't enough to keep football coaches in the news there have also been a rash of college hirings and firings going on. All together it's been enough to get me pondering the state of big time head football coaches and coaching.

The first thing that jumps out at me is there doesn't seem to be as many quality, top level football coaches as there used to be. In the 80's and 90's there were coaching superstars all over the football landscape. In the NFL names like Ditka, Parcels, Landry, Gibbs, and Walsh were already legendary when coaches like Mike Shanahan and Bill Belachic were just getting started. College sidelines had the old guard of Joe Paterno, Bobby Bowden, and Eddie Robinson, and plenty of hungry coaches like Jimmie Johnson, Lou Holtz, and Steve Spurrier trying to make their names.

Now it's just not like that. The college sidelines have a small handful of dominant coaches like Urban Meyer and Nick Saban. Jimbo Fisher and a couple of others are close to the top and climbing and climbing the ladder, but beyond that pickings are slim. It could be worse in the NFL. Things are so bad there that teams constantly recycle coaches who have been fired by other teams.

Back to the short pickings for college head coaches, and the plight of Louisville and Texas football.

Charlie Strong jumped ship from the Cardinals last week to Chase the big money and status that comes with being the head coach at the University of Texas. Texas has their new coach, Strong finally has a big time job, and I think they both made terrible mistakes.

Strong was a hero at U of L, and would have stayed in good standings as long as the nine and ten win seasons kept happening. His recruiting base was set, and with a move coming to the ACC the Cards seemed poised to make a real run at a BCS title.

Now he's moved to a program that's struggling, and is under tremendous pressure to return to the ranks of annual title contenders. Adding to that pressure is the fact that Texas has its own sports network in conjunction with ESPN. While the network bills itself as being about all UT sports, it's really the Longhorn football network. In short, bad Texas Football makes for a struggling new network.

Not everyone in Texas is pleased about Strong's hiring. Strong is a coach with a defensive background, and his final Louisville team was arguably the most boring one-loss football team in history. Many influential boosters and trustees at Texas wanted a high-octane, wide open offensive-minded coach to replace old school Mack Brown. So Strong starts well behind the 8-ball in Texas.

Still things in Austin might look better than things in Louisville. U of L decided to recycle former head coach Bobby Petrino to fill their coaching vacancy. Petrino put Louisville football on the map in the 2000s before bolting to coach the NFL Atlanta Falcons. Petrino famously quit the Falcons 12 games into his first season, then took over at the University of Arkansas. He was then fired from Arkansas for lying about his mistress's involvement in a motorcycle crash.

Now Petrino leaves WKU after barely a full season as coach, and is tasked with taking the Cards into a new conference, and has to replace arguably the best player in Louisville football history with the departure of quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.

I think everyone involved in this little coaching triangle are going to lose. Texas didn't get the coach the fans wanted, and Strong will struggle to match his recruiting successes of the past. Strong moves to a pressure cooker job, and will have practically no honeymoon with the Texas fans. Louisville gets a warmed over coach who really wasn't great after he left The Cards, and hasn't shown hec an recruit in recent years. Petrino moves back under the microscope, and has to find a way to recapture the magic he had in his first stint as Louisville's coach.

There still seems to be some winners coming out of all this, and the coaching shortage in general.

Al Golden and the University of Miami seem set to get a boost because Strong left Louisville. Strong has recruited Miami high school players better than any other coach in recent years. With his pipeline to Louisville broken it stands to reason that Golden will begin to keep more top talent at home to play for the 'Canes.

Western Kentucky University also comes out of this on the upswing. Because of a smart contract with Perrino WKU will actually make several hundred thousand dollars profit for hiring him for a year. The Toppers also get a pair of games with Louisville, one of which will be played in Bowling Green, and will likely be televised nationally. Jeff Brohm also becomes WKU's new head coach. Brohm is considered a top upcoming coach, and most folks thought his first head coaching job would be at a bigger program than WKU.

if your favorite team has a decent head coach, be thankful. The cupboards are nearly bare of head coaches, and recent news proves folks are starting to get desperate when it comes to filling coaching jobs. But take heart, if your coach is really bad there's a good chance he will get fired. Then you can sit back and watch as your team rolls the dice on an unknown, or reaches into the recycling bin to pull out someone else's leftovers.

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I don't have to worry about being hired as a head coach, or as an NFL handicapper. My pitiful attempt at picking the entire NFL season is thankfully over. My final record was 172-83-1, for a percentage of around .670. I'll tell you what I learned about the NFL in my next ARMCHAIR ALLSTAR.

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