NCAA: The Not-So-Hidden Game of Coaching Changes

One of the many ways in which the internet has changed the world: there are a lot more eyes on everything. Nothing is isolated. It's all super-accelerated, chopped up, and packaged for rapid digestion. Information goes into the whirling tumult of cyberspace and gets spun through the cycle of expanded public consciousness.

In college football and other sports, that means a lot more people watching these days, and the few hours per week the games are on aren't enough to keep them all happy. The upshot is that when the games aren't on, the unblinking eye turns to something else. There has to be more, and it has to come faster. Sometimes it's recruiting classes-high school prospects are tracked and filmed from the time they strap on a varsity helmet, and classes are ranked against each other, as if having the 'best' recruiting class ensures a national championship or even a bowl game. A lot of people study the Heisman Trophy race and track the most popular candidates week to week, trying to predict who will win. Sometimes the Heisman is pursued with so much fervor that it seems like having a player who wins the thing is a championship in and of itself.

Lately, another trend has emerged. A lot of fans and writers spend the time between games forecasting coaching changes, and like the pursuit of coveted recruits or coveted sculptures that sometimes seems like a game in and of itself.

The season began with the vultures circling around Notre Dame's Bob Davie, perceived as the coach on the hot seat thanks to the ceaseless demands of vocal Fighting Irish boosters and a nightmarish schedule. Davie seems to rallied a bit, leading the Irish to a 6-2 record that could be 8-0, a few memorable upsets and near-upsets, and a No. 12 ranking in the latest coaches' poll. Barring a collapse over a relatively easy hindquarter of the season, Davie should be safe for another year.

Not to worry, there are still plenty of schools out there where the coaches are shaky at best:

Just last week, Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer was being sized up as the new head coach at both Alabama and North Carolina. Alabama announced its intent to part ways with Mike DuBose at season's end, so the Crimson Tide will definitely need a new headman. But as of last Saturday North Carolina still had a head coach, and that coach (Carl Torbush) led the Tar Heels to an upset of Pittsburgh on the road.

Oh, yes, there's also the fact that Beamer is a Virginia Tech alum who is basically in his dream job. Football is popular right now in Blacksburg, expansion plans for Tech's stadium are moving along, and until Saturday's loss at Miami the Hokies had won 19 regular season games in a row and were headed for their second straight national championship game. And at North Carolina, anything done on grass is a poor second fiddle at best to what happens on the hallowed hardwood of Dean's Dome. At Alabama, being in the running for two straight national championship games might be enough to keep the boosters from burning you in effigy for a few seasons, but those games are expected to turn into titles.

Elsewhere, published print and internet reports had Oregon State head coach Dennis Erickson all but signed on the dotted line to succeed Paul Hackett at Southern California. The problem? Hackett is still around in Los Angeles, even though the wheels have come off the Trojans' chariot after a fast start and his dismissal is a when-rather-than-if situation.

Erickson flatly and angrily quashed the rumors. Beamer mused that the reports of his interest in UNC and / or Alabama could have been the product of a hidden agenda. After all, if a coach may be ready to bolt from a school, it could torpedo that school's chances with potential recruits. With the way the NCAA penalizes transfers, players don't want to sign a letter of intent if they aren't reasonably sure who they're going to be playing for in a season or two.

Clemson's Tommy Bowden is rumored to be a candidate at Alabama. Former Auburn head coach Terry Bowden, Tommy's brother, was widely rumored to be a candidate for the still-occupied position at North Carolina, until he temporarily quieted the rumors last week by professing satisfaction with his current role as a television analyst. Miami's Butch Davis is thought to be eyeing a return to the pros, even though his Hurricanes are nearing the zenith of a remarkable resurgence and are still alive for an Orange Bowl berth. Texas Christian's Dennis Franchione is looking to move on to brighter lights and bigger stadiums--if you believe the never-quiet internet rumor mill, that is.

It's all enough to make you wish for the good old days when it was all about the games, only the games. There as a time, believe it or not, when Heisman Trophy candidates had to read who won in the newspaper the next day. There was a time when the coaching carousel didn't spin nearly as fast and there weren't nearly as many riders, because there wasn't nearly as much scrutiny or pressure.

But at the same time, more eyes and more fans make it more fun. You can wish there was a way to keep the keep the wild rumors and the ulterior motives out of the picture, but we just can't have it both ways.

Weekly Notes: Last week I made the mistake of not waiting for the BCS. Like most, I thought that Miami, having beaten Florida State earlier in the season, would have only to prevail over Virginia Tech to jump into prime position for the Orange Bowl. When the BCS was released, I was just as surprised as most to find the 'Canes behind both Florida State and Nebraska. Aside from the fact that it undermined a lot of a perfectly good story, the shabby treatment of the Hurricanes underscores the fact that even though it ran smoothly for its first two seasons the BCS is still a badly flawed system…it was bad enough when ESPN linked father Bobby Bowden with son Tommy, the rival head coaches in Saturday's Florida State-Clemson game, for a headset conversation moments before kickoff. But it reached the depths of howling embarrassment when Ann Bowden (Bobby's wife and Tommy's mother) joined the conversation from her seat. To make matters worse, if that was even possible, cameras kept cutting to Ann during the game. Stop, please stop… if it matters to you, the Heisman Trophy race is now between three quarterbacks, Oklahoma's Josh Heupel, Florida State's Chris Weinke, and Purdue's Drew Brees, in that order. Michael Vick through no fault of his own, was ineffective in his final opportunity to impress voters, and the dark horse candidacy of LaDanian Tomlinson is over after Texas Christian's loss to San Jose State Saturday night. The only non-quarterback with a shot at an appearance at the DAC might well be Northwestern RB Damien Anderson, hot off a 268-yard game against Michigan, but he's a longshot at best. But on the bright side, that 54-51 Wildcat victory was enough for Northwestern to get my Team of the Week nod for the second time in a month.