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Drama is everywhere these days. It's overwhelmed politics. And now it has overwhelmed college football. The Tennessee coaching search is going as poorly as a search could possibly go.
Yesterday reports were that Jeff Brohm had agreed to leave Purdue for Tennessee after a year at Purdue in which he has gotten the Boilermakers to a bowl game. These were later shot down as incorrect. Another report had Brohm tentatively accepting the offer but that the offer was turned down by Tennessee's Chancellor. In the end, Brohm was out recruiting, not interviewing with the Vols and will not be Tennessee's next head coach.
Tracking Tennessee’s pursuit of Jeff Brohm - Rocky Top Talk
Lots of conflicting reports.
Students at the Tennessee basketball game last night apparently chanted "Fire Currie".
"Fire Currie" chant breaks out at the second media timeout.
— Mike Wilson (@ByMikeWilson) November 30, 2017
PA turns up the music at Thompson-Boling Arena to try and drown it out.
Another report said that people would be lining up to cancel their first football season tickets tomorrow morning if North Carolina State head coach Dave Doeren were the coach hired.
Multiple people have tweeted me that they’re lining up on campus in the morning to cancel their season tickets if #Vols hire Dave Doeren.
— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) November 30, 2017
This is going well, you guys.
One might wonder what's going to happen with Tennessee. Is there coach that will make them happy? Perhaps Lane Kiffin? I don't think so.
— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) November 30, 2017
And I don’t even know what to say about this...
Soooo...I can confirm reports of a Lane Kiffin head coach, Tee Martin as OC, Kevin Steele as DC package deal was turned down.
— Donté Stallworth (@DonteStallworth) November 30, 2017
What a shit show. And we’re gonna hire who? We may as well hire Kim Jong-un for real.
Heavy drama has begun at Florida State as questions continue about whether Jimbo Fisher will be heading to Texas A&M. Fisher so far has refused to answer the questions and the fans are getting restless.
Note this bit from the article at Tomahawk Nation:
This is not an official announcement by any means, but I do think it is noteworthy. The few sources who yesterday thought Jimbo Fisher could still potentially come back now don’t believe that he can or will. Additionally, they do not believe a search will be too drawn out. The top names I am hearing remain Willie Taggart and Justin Fuente.
Some recruits are claiming they have not heard from FSU coaches in weeks, which could be an indication that a new coaching staff of assistants is coming, or that Fisher and his staff are checked out. Fit the facts to your preferred narrative.
VIDEO: A Florida State fan gets kicked out of Jimbo Fisher’s radio call-in show after asking “where is the loyalty?” amid Texas A&M rumors. #Noles #Gigem pic.twitter.com/yYgfD7QWGY
— Safid Deen (@Safid_Deen) November 30, 2017
The Seminoles lost two top recruits yesterday - Houston Griffith, Israel Mukuamu decommit from FSU and things are likely to spiral on from this. [By the time I got up this morning the ‘Noles had lost another recruit, center Verdis Brown.]
Nebraska has seen its share of football program drama over the years.
There was of course the Bo Pelini audiotape in which Pelini cursed at Nebraska football fans for leaving the 2011 Ohio State game early. And another audiotape in which Pelini called his athletic director Shawn Eichorst very naughty names after being fired.
When Shawn Eichorst hired Mike Riley everyone wondered who he was, then most slowly convinced themselves (and others) that everything would be fine. There was drama on the field in a Hail Mary win against Northwestern and then a loss against BYU in the same end zone and in the same manner. There was even drama when Bob Diaco skipped the opening game post press conference this year and Nebraska's media acted as if he might have committed a felony.
There was the firing of Eichorst earlier this season, after which the program spiraled into the ground with fans praying and pleading for Mike Riley’s firing as the season progressed. Then finally Mike Riley was fired although that ended without a lot of drama when Riley answered questions at his own press conference after being terminated.
There is a massive amount of smoke all pointing to Scott Frost coming back to Nebraska as the next head coach. There are reports of other schools, such as Florida State, not bothering to contact Frost’s representatives because this is (allegedly) a done deal. There is a quietness about our coaching search in which it is pretty clear (although not entirely!) that we’re waiting for our next coach to finish playing this season before moving forward with a hire. Then there are rumors, rumors, and more rumors about potential press conference times, assistant coaches looking for houses (which make no sense - is cable really that difficult to get installed by the time the family would move?).
All in all, and especially relative to other schools, the current coaching search has seemed to be the most boring but important act that Nebraska has carried out in some time. Maybe that’s how it’s going to be moving forward. Perhaps under the leadership of new Athletic Director Bill Moos we will see a lot less drama in the football program over the next few years.
Question is - drama is like a drug, is it not? So many are addicted to social media and the drama it brings it seems. Can this lack of drama in Nebraska survive? Can Husker fans, who have become accustomed to it, survive if the Moos era continues with this at its core? Can Nebraska’s media live without it?
Can Sunday ever get here?
NEWS
This has disaster written all over it.
SOURCE: Arizona State wants OC Billy Napier to stay with Herm Edwards as HC. Napier will run the offense and will have substantial input in the operation from top to bottom. Keeping him was a priority for ASU after the work he did this year.
— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) November 30, 2017
Arizona State paying a winning coach $12 million to go away so it hire a guy who hasn't coached at any level in a decade (and who ONCE EMPLOYED THE A.D. AS HIS AGENT) might be the weirdest coaching move I can recall.
— Matt Hinton (@MattRHinton) November 30, 2017
“If it’s Scott, they need to give him six or seven years,” says Dale Smidt, who spent 32 years coaching Wood River boys’ basketball. “What he has done is amazing, but that doesn’t mean you are the next Knute Rockne right out of the chute. Remember Osborne? Great guy, his first 10 years they tried to run him out of Lincoln. Devaney had two 6-win seasons. Two!
Emphasis mine, obviously, but we need to remember this.
Michigan loses another quarterback: Who will be starting for Ohio State, Michigan in The Game next year? | cleveland.com
Ohio State needed two quarterbacks to beat Michigan. Michigan has lost two quarterbacks since losing to Ohio State.
Willie Taggart: Oregon coach offered raise as Jimbo Fisher, FSU spar | SI.com
Oregon has offered coach WIllie Taggart a new contract with the hope that he’ll stay in Eugene even if a coveted job in his home state opens this weekend, SI.com has learned. If Taggart accepts, the new deal would pay a little more than $20 million over five years. But Taggart has reason to wait. If Jimbo Fisher leaves Florida State for Texas A&M, Taggart could be a candidate for the Seminoles’ job.
How Scott Frost evolved Chip Kelly's offense at Central Florida
Within two years, Scott Frost took a UCF football program from winless to undefeated, thanks in large part to an offense he learned from new UCLA coach Chip Kelly.
Canzano: Oregon State goes romantic, hands the keys to Jonathan Smith | OregonLive.com
Oregon State has made Jonathan Smith the Beavers' next head football coach. The walk-on is now in charge.
Big Ten coach breaks down 2017 Big Ten Championship Game « Big Ten Network
With Wisconsin set to take on Ohio State in the Big Ten title game on Saturday in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, what better person to talk to about the matchup than a Big Ten coach who played both teams? No one. So, BTN.com senior writer Tom
Michigan loses another quarterback: Who will be starting for Ohio State, Michigan in The Game next year? | cleveland.com
Ohio State needed two quarterbacks to beat Michigan. Michigan has lost two quarterbacks since losing to Ohio State.
Willie Taggart: Oregon coach offered raise as Jimbo Fisher, FSU spar | SI.com
Oregon has offered coach WIllie Taggart a new contract with the hope that he’ll stay in Eugene even if a coveted job in his home state opens this weekend, SI.com has learned. If Taggart accepts, the new deal would pay a little more than $20 million over five years. But Taggart has reason to wait. If Jimbo Fisher leaves Florida State for Texas A&M, Taggart could be a candidate for the Seminoles’ job.
Who controls a college football program? It depends on the day, really - SBNation.com
Some in the media claim Schiano was railroaded by an internet mob bent on using disinformation to scuttle an instantly despised coaching hire. That explanation feels marginally true, but maximally false, particularly when “social media outrage” can be given as a causal reason for anything.
I get that Tennessee may have been unhappy with a Greg Schiano hire... but now that their social media is on fire, and their fans appear to be in charge, what will make them happy? What will make them stop?
Missouri lost a huge amount of enrollment because of what occurred on their campus and has yet to recover. Campus administrators have a fear of becoming the “next Mizzou”. It appears that Tennessee has done this at least with regards to their football program/athletics.
That’s not Schiano’s fault. And as much as Tennessee apologists want to explain that the fans there are not delusional, they’ve still done massive damage to their program.
“Social media outrage” is the spark that lit the tinder. Would this stuff have happened without it? Possible, but way less probable. It’s not maximally false.