Saulbadguy
06-28-2005, 11:24 AM
Lists to end the summer lull
Stewart Mandel, SI.com
Judging by the e-mails I've received in the past couple of weeks, it seems college football readers, like the sport itself, are in the midst of a summer lull. Not to be mean, but if you had read most of the questions I had to choose from you, too, would have been headed straight to the hammock for an afternoon siesta.
So to shake things up a bit, I'm resorting to the Internet's one no-fail gimmick (besides porn): lists. In particular, controversial lists of which the large majority of readers are almost sure to disagree with some or all of the choices and will therefore be motivated to type something in to that little Mailbag box.
The subject is today's college coaches -- the best, the worst, the most underrated and the most overrated. These men were judged almost exclusively on their performance over only the past few years (because that's how quickly job-security status can change these days) and not their career as a whole (sorry, JoePa and Bobby). And since a head coach is nothing if not for his assistants, the rankings are a de facto assessment of the entire staff and its ability to both recruit and get the most out of the talent it assembles. As a whole, I tend to give more credit to guys who get a lot out of a little, which is why Miami's Larry Coker, who has a staggering 44-6 record but was also handed one of the greatest collections of talent in history by predecessor Butch Davis, does not appear on the "10 Best" list while Boise State's Dan Hawkins, whose team would have a hard time staying within 20 of the 'Canes, does. So, without further adieu:
My top 10 coaches headed into the 2005 season:
1. Pete Carroll, USC: It's hard to argue with this one. In slightly more than four years, he's created the sport's reigning juggernaut, assembled a brilliant staff (which he's since had to replenish), cleaned up in recruiting and continually demonstrated his keen defensive mind with his game plans and in-game adjustments.
2. Bob Stoops, Oklahoma: He would have been No. 1 this time a year ago, but Carroll unseated him in somewhat embarrassing fashion. While Stoops' once impregnable rep has taken a hit with the past two years' late-season collapses, the fact is his teams have had five straight seasons of 11 wins or more and played for three national titles.
3. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa: No one's done a better job the past three years of turning dust into gold, producing three straight 10-win seasons and two shared Big Ten titles despite an overall talent level that pales in comparison to that of conference rivals Ohio State and Michigan.
4. Jim Tressel, Ohio State: While his overly conservative nature is tough for many to stomach (and in fact may have cost the Buckeyes a couple of games early last season when he stubbornly stuck with a horrendous rushing attack), he's already won one national title and has recruited the talent base necessary to win another.
5. Bobby Petrino, Louisville: I know, he's only been on the job for two years, but the guy is a certifiable guru. While John L. Smith got the Cardinals' ball rolling, Petrino has taken them to a whole other stratosphere with his unique offensive mind and ability to recruit BCS-caliber skill players.
6. Urban Meyer, Florida: While it remains to be seen how his system will fare at the major-conference level, there's no denying the rapid effect he had at both of his two previous stops, Bowling Green and Utah, and his new-age offensive approach has taken the sport by storm.
7. Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech: Beamer is another master of maximizing his resources, as demonstrated again with last season's ACC title in what really should have been a rebuilding year, and his ranking would be higher if not for a couple of disappointing showings in 2002 and '03.
8. Dan Hawkins, Boise State: What Hawkins is doing in the land of smurf turf is nothing short of remarkable. The Broncos have absolutely dominated the WAC the past three years, going 36-3 by constantly adjusting their approach to fit their various strengths each season.
9. Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee: Fulmer's staff has taken its share of criticism, but that's partially because it raised the bar so high in the '90s. The Vols have broken out of the brief rut they hit earlier this decade, winning the SEC East last year and nabbing the nation's top recruiting class.
10. Mack Brown, Texas: There will undoubtedly be many who say Brown should be nowhere near this list because he's yet to actually win any sort of championship, but there's no denying he's created an enviable program that's won 10 or more games each of the past four seasons.
Just missed: California's Jeff Tedford, Fresno State's Pat Hill, Michigan's Lloyd Carr (more on him in a bit), Georgia's Mark Richt and Auburn's Tommy Tuberville.
Read on for the five worst coaches ...
The five worst:
Note: To be fair, coaches who haven't yet completed three years at their school weren't included (except for one obvious exception).
1. Chan Gailey, Georgia Tech: What's the difference between failed NFL coach Carroll and failed NFL coach Gailey? An ability to command respect from his players. For three years, the Jackets have demonstrated a lack of discipline both on the field (where they continually lay eggs just before or after flashing potential brilliance) and off it (numerous academic and legal casualties).
2. Rich Brooks, Kentucky (the exception): The former Oregon/St. Louis Rams head man has been a disaster since day one, taking over a program that was finally starting to stick its head above water and running it straight into the ground (6-17) while failing to elicit any sense of excitement among potential recruits (mainly because they don't believe he'll be there much longer).
3. Gary Pinkel, Missouri: Rarely has a coach so thoroughly screwed up a star player's development as Pinkel did with QB Brad Smith last season, eliciting a deluge of public criticism including from Smith's father (who compared the coach's personality to a dill pickle). The one-time hot commodity needs to contend for the Big 12 North title this year or he'll be looking for a new job.
4. Bobby Wallace, Temple: While it's hard to pin too much blame on a guy who's stuck in a near-impossible situation, the fact remains he's gone 19-60 in seven seasons and shown few signs of any potential breakthrough around the corner.
5. Joe Paterno, Penn State: Ouch. It hurts to even write this. But if this were a blind evaluation where Paterno was known only as Coach A, and Coach A had gone 26-33 the past five seasons at a Big Ten school with the tradition and resources to compete for conference and national titles, there's not an informed observer out there who wouldn't conclude that Coach A is a bad coach.
As an added bonus, I give you my eight most underrated (Wyoming's Joe Glenn, Texas Tech's Mike Leach, Southern Miss' Jeff Bower, Baylor's Guy Morriss, Boston College's Tom O'Brien, UTEP's Mike Price, Toledo's Tom Amstutz and Michigan State's John L. Smith) and four most overrated (N.C. State's Chuck Amato, Virginia's Al Groh, Texas A&M's Dennis Franchione, Minnesota's Glen Mason).
Finally, a quick word on Carr, because I know you'll ask. I just don't think he fits on any of these lists. I don't think he's one of the 10 best. I certainly don't think he's one of the five worst. And I don't think he's necessarily overrated or underrated. On the positive side, he oversees one of the nation's most consistently successful programs for the past 10 years, and he's appeared in the past two Rose Bowls. On the negative side, he annually has, if you believe the recruiting rankings, as much talent on hand as any team in the country, yet hasn't contended for a national title since the one he won in '97 and, without fail, loses at least one early-season game he shouldn't. So, for the purposes of these rankings, he's somewhere in between.
Enough blabbering. Time to hear from you.
I still can't understand this Florida love-fest the media has been on this year. Urban Meyer's system looks impressive when it works at Utah and Bowling Green, but I don't see it doing all that well in the SEC. The athletes at LSU, Georgia and Tennessee are much better than those in the Mountain West. The typical response I hear is, "Well, Meyer will have better athletes, too," but his system is built to get more with less. It's not designed to take advantage of athletic ability (well, maybe at the quarterback position, but not as much elsewhere). I just don't see Florida winning 10 games, the SEC and playing in the Rose Bowl -- which has been predicted in more then one place -- this year. --Ryan Cardone, Tallahassee, Fla.
Although at no point in his lengthy tome (which was edited down) does Ryan actually ask a question, he hits on a topic very near and dear to me, as I recently spent a considerable amount of work on a story about Meyer's offense for our season preview. I can certainly understand the skepticism, particularly in the heart of FSU country, and I do think any Rose Bowl predictions are a bit premature. At both Bowling Green and Utah, it took a season for the players to fully grasp the system, and while I fully expect the Gators to be much improved this year, any sort of national title run would be more likely to come in 2006.
However, Ryan, you have a fundamental misunderstanding of Meyer's offense if you think it's "not designed to take advantage of athletic ability." That's exactly what it's intended to do, which is why you saw Utah's two best athletes last season (besides Alex Smith), receivers Steve Savoy and Paris Warren, being utilized all over the field as tailbacks and H-backs, running reverses and receiving the pitch on option plays. With the amount of speed and athleticism Florida has at receiver with Chad Jackson, Andre Caldwell and Dallas Baker, I'd expect you'll see Meyer do more of the same. Which brings us to the other fundamental goal of his offense: Creating mismatches, which it does by spreading the field, then sending players in motion, in hopes a slow linebacker will wind up having to pick up a nimble receiver, etc.
So if the Gators don't exactly march up and down the field like Utah last season, my guess is it won't be because of the system, but because of the players having had only one offseason to learn it.
There has been a lot of talk that Mike Shula is never going to be successful as the head coach at Alabama. I believe with time he can get the program back to where it was in the 1970s and early '90s. Do you think Shula can (or will) be a good coach for the Tide, and could you see Alabama in the race for a national championship during his tenure, even if it happens 3-6 years down the road? --C. Dodson, Charlotte, N.C.
As I've said before, and I'll say again, Alabama may never return to what it was under Bear Bryant or Gene Stallings, and that's because you and I both know the school will never give Shula or anyone else six years to get it there. It's too early to properly judge him, though I have my doubts about the baby-faced coach (if you're ever at a sports bar that's showing a Crimson Tide game with the sound muted, and Shula is doing his customary post-halftime sideline interview with his hands buried in the pockets of his Alabama parka, I swear it takes at least 30 seconds for it to register that he's actually the head coach and not some visiting former player).
His first year (4-9) was basically a wash because he didn't get the job until May after the Mike Price firing. And while last year's 6-6 campaign wasn't necessarily impressive on paper, it is when you consider that the program was still under scholarship limitations from the Albert Means sanctions and that the Tide lost their starting quarterback (Brodie Croyle), tailback (Ray Hudson) and fullback (Tim Castille) during the course of the season. I think we'll be better able to assess Shula's potential after this season, in which 'Bama should have a dominant defense, an improved offense and a favorable schedule.
It's no Texas vs. Ohio State, but I have heard zilch about Arkansas vs. USC. With the questions surrounding USC this offseason, Arkansas' penchant for upsets (see Texas 2003) and new defensive coordinator Reggie Herring (from last year's top-ranked N.C. State D), I think this can be a stunner upset in the Trojans' second game of the season. Do you think the Hogs have a shot? --David Westy, Atlanta
It'd be one thing if the Trojans were coming to Fayetteville or Little Rock. But you're suggesting the Razorbacks, coming off a 5-6 season and playing with a brand-new quarterback, will go into the L.A. Coliseum and knock off the defending national champs? That wouldn't be any old stunner, that would be a Lindsay-Lohan-turns-Mormon-, Jessica-Simpson-joins-Mensa-level shocker. That said, I do expect Arkansas, which had to replace nearly its entire starting lineup last year, will be much improved this season and will quickly return to respectability -- after that game.
If you were forced to take a Division I-A coaching job and make a program respectable, which one of the following would you pick: Baylor, Duke, Indiana, Rutgers or Vanderbilt? Conversely, which "power" would you not want to coach from the following list for fear you might screw it up: Miami, Michigan, Oklahoma or USC? --Rick, Howell, Mich.
I see you've gone ahead and thrown in the towel on Temple. What if that were my dream job? Of the choices you've picked, Rutgers is out because I couldn't stomach living in Jersey, Baylor is out because I don't want to have to rebuild by playing Oklahoma and Texas every year, Duke and Vanderbilt are out because of the daunting academic restrictions, so, by process of elimination, I guess that leaves Indiana, which isn't so bad. On the plus side, there is at least some history of success in Bloomington (the glorious Anthony Thompson/Vaughn Dunbar era), and it's one of the prettiest campuses I've ever stepped foot on. Competing in the Big Ten would be no small chore, but then again, eight different teams have claimed its conference title over the past 11 years, so clearly it's not impossible.
As for the other list, though my stock answer would be "I have supreme confidence in my coaching abilities and feel I could meet any challenge regardless of the school," the real answer is Miami. It's the one school where the fans have legitimate reason to expect every coach to win a national title because, with the exception of Davis, who had to deal with probation, every one of them since 1983 -- Howard Schenellenberger, Jimmy Johnson, Dennis Erickson and Larry Coker -- has done just that (and Davis certainly planted the seeds for Coker's). You could win 11 games every year there, but if you don't at some point hoist that crystal trophy, you'd be branded a failure. That's a tough act to follow.
Finally, though I've enjoyed playing the 11th-year senior game, I think it's time to wrap it up and move along to a new gimmick (suggestions are welcome). Here's a final sampling of reader nominees:
Classic Division: Wisconsin QB Brooks Bollinger, Purdue WR Vinny Sutherland, Florida kicker Jeff Chandler, Alabama RB Major Ogilvie, Florida State QB/FB Dan Kendra, Auburn QB Daniel Cobb.
Current Division: Purdue RB Jerod Void, Colorado QB Joel Klatt, Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn (who, somehow, is only a junior), and Virginia QB Wali Lundy.
The Mailbag goes weekly starting next week, so start dreaming up those questions.
Stewart Mandel, SI.com
Judging by the e-mails I've received in the past couple of weeks, it seems college football readers, like the sport itself, are in the midst of a summer lull. Not to be mean, but if you had read most of the questions I had to choose from you, too, would have been headed straight to the hammock for an afternoon siesta.
So to shake things up a bit, I'm resorting to the Internet's one no-fail gimmick (besides porn): lists. In particular, controversial lists of which the large majority of readers are almost sure to disagree with some or all of the choices and will therefore be motivated to type something in to that little Mailbag box.
The subject is today's college coaches -- the best, the worst, the most underrated and the most overrated. These men were judged almost exclusively on their performance over only the past few years (because that's how quickly job-security status can change these days) and not their career as a whole (sorry, JoePa and Bobby). And since a head coach is nothing if not for his assistants, the rankings are a de facto assessment of the entire staff and its ability to both recruit and get the most out of the talent it assembles. As a whole, I tend to give more credit to guys who get a lot out of a little, which is why Miami's Larry Coker, who has a staggering 44-6 record but was also handed one of the greatest collections of talent in history by predecessor Butch Davis, does not appear on the "10 Best" list while Boise State's Dan Hawkins, whose team would have a hard time staying within 20 of the 'Canes, does. So, without further adieu:
My top 10 coaches headed into the 2005 season:
1. Pete Carroll, USC: It's hard to argue with this one. In slightly more than four years, he's created the sport's reigning juggernaut, assembled a brilliant staff (which he's since had to replenish), cleaned up in recruiting and continually demonstrated his keen defensive mind with his game plans and in-game adjustments.
2. Bob Stoops, Oklahoma: He would have been No. 1 this time a year ago, but Carroll unseated him in somewhat embarrassing fashion. While Stoops' once impregnable rep has taken a hit with the past two years' late-season collapses, the fact is his teams have had five straight seasons of 11 wins or more and played for three national titles.
3. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa: No one's done a better job the past three years of turning dust into gold, producing three straight 10-win seasons and two shared Big Ten titles despite an overall talent level that pales in comparison to that of conference rivals Ohio State and Michigan.
4. Jim Tressel, Ohio State: While his overly conservative nature is tough for many to stomach (and in fact may have cost the Buckeyes a couple of games early last season when he stubbornly stuck with a horrendous rushing attack), he's already won one national title and has recruited the talent base necessary to win another.
5. Bobby Petrino, Louisville: I know, he's only been on the job for two years, but the guy is a certifiable guru. While John L. Smith got the Cardinals' ball rolling, Petrino has taken them to a whole other stratosphere with his unique offensive mind and ability to recruit BCS-caliber skill players.
6. Urban Meyer, Florida: While it remains to be seen how his system will fare at the major-conference level, there's no denying the rapid effect he had at both of his two previous stops, Bowling Green and Utah, and his new-age offensive approach has taken the sport by storm.
7. Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech: Beamer is another master of maximizing his resources, as demonstrated again with last season's ACC title in what really should have been a rebuilding year, and his ranking would be higher if not for a couple of disappointing showings in 2002 and '03.
8. Dan Hawkins, Boise State: What Hawkins is doing in the land of smurf turf is nothing short of remarkable. The Broncos have absolutely dominated the WAC the past three years, going 36-3 by constantly adjusting their approach to fit their various strengths each season.
9. Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee: Fulmer's staff has taken its share of criticism, but that's partially because it raised the bar so high in the '90s. The Vols have broken out of the brief rut they hit earlier this decade, winning the SEC East last year and nabbing the nation's top recruiting class.
10. Mack Brown, Texas: There will undoubtedly be many who say Brown should be nowhere near this list because he's yet to actually win any sort of championship, but there's no denying he's created an enviable program that's won 10 or more games each of the past four seasons.
Just missed: California's Jeff Tedford, Fresno State's Pat Hill, Michigan's Lloyd Carr (more on him in a bit), Georgia's Mark Richt and Auburn's Tommy Tuberville.
Read on for the five worst coaches ...
The five worst:
Note: To be fair, coaches who haven't yet completed three years at their school weren't included (except for one obvious exception).
1. Chan Gailey, Georgia Tech: What's the difference between failed NFL coach Carroll and failed NFL coach Gailey? An ability to command respect from his players. For three years, the Jackets have demonstrated a lack of discipline both on the field (where they continually lay eggs just before or after flashing potential brilliance) and off it (numerous academic and legal casualties).
2. Rich Brooks, Kentucky (the exception): The former Oregon/St. Louis Rams head man has been a disaster since day one, taking over a program that was finally starting to stick its head above water and running it straight into the ground (6-17) while failing to elicit any sense of excitement among potential recruits (mainly because they don't believe he'll be there much longer).
3. Gary Pinkel, Missouri: Rarely has a coach so thoroughly screwed up a star player's development as Pinkel did with QB Brad Smith last season, eliciting a deluge of public criticism including from Smith's father (who compared the coach's personality to a dill pickle). The one-time hot commodity needs to contend for the Big 12 North title this year or he'll be looking for a new job.
4. Bobby Wallace, Temple: While it's hard to pin too much blame on a guy who's stuck in a near-impossible situation, the fact remains he's gone 19-60 in seven seasons and shown few signs of any potential breakthrough around the corner.
5. Joe Paterno, Penn State: Ouch. It hurts to even write this. But if this were a blind evaluation where Paterno was known only as Coach A, and Coach A had gone 26-33 the past five seasons at a Big Ten school with the tradition and resources to compete for conference and national titles, there's not an informed observer out there who wouldn't conclude that Coach A is a bad coach.
As an added bonus, I give you my eight most underrated (Wyoming's Joe Glenn, Texas Tech's Mike Leach, Southern Miss' Jeff Bower, Baylor's Guy Morriss, Boston College's Tom O'Brien, UTEP's Mike Price, Toledo's Tom Amstutz and Michigan State's John L. Smith) and four most overrated (N.C. State's Chuck Amato, Virginia's Al Groh, Texas A&M's Dennis Franchione, Minnesota's Glen Mason).
Finally, a quick word on Carr, because I know you'll ask. I just don't think he fits on any of these lists. I don't think he's one of the 10 best. I certainly don't think he's one of the five worst. And I don't think he's necessarily overrated or underrated. On the positive side, he oversees one of the nation's most consistently successful programs for the past 10 years, and he's appeared in the past two Rose Bowls. On the negative side, he annually has, if you believe the recruiting rankings, as much talent on hand as any team in the country, yet hasn't contended for a national title since the one he won in '97 and, without fail, loses at least one early-season game he shouldn't. So, for the purposes of these rankings, he's somewhere in between.
Enough blabbering. Time to hear from you.
I still can't understand this Florida love-fest the media has been on this year. Urban Meyer's system looks impressive when it works at Utah and Bowling Green, but I don't see it doing all that well in the SEC. The athletes at LSU, Georgia and Tennessee are much better than those in the Mountain West. The typical response I hear is, "Well, Meyer will have better athletes, too," but his system is built to get more with less. It's not designed to take advantage of athletic ability (well, maybe at the quarterback position, but not as much elsewhere). I just don't see Florida winning 10 games, the SEC and playing in the Rose Bowl -- which has been predicted in more then one place -- this year. --Ryan Cardone, Tallahassee, Fla.
Although at no point in his lengthy tome (which was edited down) does Ryan actually ask a question, he hits on a topic very near and dear to me, as I recently spent a considerable amount of work on a story about Meyer's offense for our season preview. I can certainly understand the skepticism, particularly in the heart of FSU country, and I do think any Rose Bowl predictions are a bit premature. At both Bowling Green and Utah, it took a season for the players to fully grasp the system, and while I fully expect the Gators to be much improved this year, any sort of national title run would be more likely to come in 2006.
However, Ryan, you have a fundamental misunderstanding of Meyer's offense if you think it's "not designed to take advantage of athletic ability." That's exactly what it's intended to do, which is why you saw Utah's two best athletes last season (besides Alex Smith), receivers Steve Savoy and Paris Warren, being utilized all over the field as tailbacks and H-backs, running reverses and receiving the pitch on option plays. With the amount of speed and athleticism Florida has at receiver with Chad Jackson, Andre Caldwell and Dallas Baker, I'd expect you'll see Meyer do more of the same. Which brings us to the other fundamental goal of his offense: Creating mismatches, which it does by spreading the field, then sending players in motion, in hopes a slow linebacker will wind up having to pick up a nimble receiver, etc.
So if the Gators don't exactly march up and down the field like Utah last season, my guess is it won't be because of the system, but because of the players having had only one offseason to learn it.
There has been a lot of talk that Mike Shula is never going to be successful as the head coach at Alabama. I believe with time he can get the program back to where it was in the 1970s and early '90s. Do you think Shula can (or will) be a good coach for the Tide, and could you see Alabama in the race for a national championship during his tenure, even if it happens 3-6 years down the road? --C. Dodson, Charlotte, N.C.
As I've said before, and I'll say again, Alabama may never return to what it was under Bear Bryant or Gene Stallings, and that's because you and I both know the school will never give Shula or anyone else six years to get it there. It's too early to properly judge him, though I have my doubts about the baby-faced coach (if you're ever at a sports bar that's showing a Crimson Tide game with the sound muted, and Shula is doing his customary post-halftime sideline interview with his hands buried in the pockets of his Alabama parka, I swear it takes at least 30 seconds for it to register that he's actually the head coach and not some visiting former player).
His first year (4-9) was basically a wash because he didn't get the job until May after the Mike Price firing. And while last year's 6-6 campaign wasn't necessarily impressive on paper, it is when you consider that the program was still under scholarship limitations from the Albert Means sanctions and that the Tide lost their starting quarterback (Brodie Croyle), tailback (Ray Hudson) and fullback (Tim Castille) during the course of the season. I think we'll be better able to assess Shula's potential after this season, in which 'Bama should have a dominant defense, an improved offense and a favorable schedule.
It's no Texas vs. Ohio State, but I have heard zilch about Arkansas vs. USC. With the questions surrounding USC this offseason, Arkansas' penchant for upsets (see Texas 2003) and new defensive coordinator Reggie Herring (from last year's top-ranked N.C. State D), I think this can be a stunner upset in the Trojans' second game of the season. Do you think the Hogs have a shot? --David Westy, Atlanta
It'd be one thing if the Trojans were coming to Fayetteville or Little Rock. But you're suggesting the Razorbacks, coming off a 5-6 season and playing with a brand-new quarterback, will go into the L.A. Coliseum and knock off the defending national champs? That wouldn't be any old stunner, that would be a Lindsay-Lohan-turns-Mormon-, Jessica-Simpson-joins-Mensa-level shocker. That said, I do expect Arkansas, which had to replace nearly its entire starting lineup last year, will be much improved this season and will quickly return to respectability -- after that game.
If you were forced to take a Division I-A coaching job and make a program respectable, which one of the following would you pick: Baylor, Duke, Indiana, Rutgers or Vanderbilt? Conversely, which "power" would you not want to coach from the following list for fear you might screw it up: Miami, Michigan, Oklahoma or USC? --Rick, Howell, Mich.
I see you've gone ahead and thrown in the towel on Temple. What if that were my dream job? Of the choices you've picked, Rutgers is out because I couldn't stomach living in Jersey, Baylor is out because I don't want to have to rebuild by playing Oklahoma and Texas every year, Duke and Vanderbilt are out because of the daunting academic restrictions, so, by process of elimination, I guess that leaves Indiana, which isn't so bad. On the plus side, there is at least some history of success in Bloomington (the glorious Anthony Thompson/Vaughn Dunbar era), and it's one of the prettiest campuses I've ever stepped foot on. Competing in the Big Ten would be no small chore, but then again, eight different teams have claimed its conference title over the past 11 years, so clearly it's not impossible.
As for the other list, though my stock answer would be "I have supreme confidence in my coaching abilities and feel I could meet any challenge regardless of the school," the real answer is Miami. It's the one school where the fans have legitimate reason to expect every coach to win a national title because, with the exception of Davis, who had to deal with probation, every one of them since 1983 -- Howard Schenellenberger, Jimmy Johnson, Dennis Erickson and Larry Coker -- has done just that (and Davis certainly planted the seeds for Coker's). You could win 11 games every year there, but if you don't at some point hoist that crystal trophy, you'd be branded a failure. That's a tough act to follow.
Finally, though I've enjoyed playing the 11th-year senior game, I think it's time to wrap it up and move along to a new gimmick (suggestions are welcome). Here's a final sampling of reader nominees:
Classic Division: Wisconsin QB Brooks Bollinger, Purdue WR Vinny Sutherland, Florida kicker Jeff Chandler, Alabama RB Major Ogilvie, Florida State QB/FB Dan Kendra, Auburn QB Daniel Cobb.
Current Division: Purdue RB Jerod Void, Colorado QB Joel Klatt, Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn (who, somehow, is only a junior), and Virginia QB Wali Lundy.
The Mailbag goes weekly starting next week, so start dreaming up those questions.