Of SEC’s new coaches, Bulldogs’ hire most attractive
By Harry King
Wednesday, December 31, 2008 11:06 AM CST
LITTLE ROCK — Strictly from a perception standpoint, the cowbell ringers’ hire of a football coach was more impressive than that of two Southeastern Conference schools with better facilities, more money and a loftier national reputation.
Considering those disadvantages, who would have thought that Mississippi State would emerge from a coaching search looking wiser than Tennessee or Auburn.
Tennessee is barely a decade removed from a national championship; Auburn has one national championship and it’s 2004 team deserved a spot in the title game. The Volunteers routinely play in front of 100,000-plus; Auburn has had a couple of Heisman Trophy winners. Poor MSU has won 10 games once in the last 68 years, has a stadium about the size of War Memorial in Little Rock and charges its boosters $1 for a soft drink or water when they partake in the end zone facility.
MSU gets kudos for landing Dan Mullen, who called the plays for Florida this year, and who has been an assistant to Urban Meyer at Bowling Green, Utah and Gainesville.
Obviously, Mullen knows Meyer’s version of the spread inside-out and Meyer has confidence in Mullen or he would not have extended an invitation each time he moved up the career ladder.
At 36, Mullen will be one of the youngest head coaches at the major college level. Washington’s Steve Sarkisian is 34. Lane Kiffin at Tennessee and Pat Fitzgerald at Northwestern are both 33.
Naysayers will argue that MSU is taking a chance, hiring a man who has never been a head coach. True, but he is untarnished.
Tennessee went for Kiffin, who has good genes. His dad, Monte, has been one of the premier defensive coordinators in football for years, including 1977-79 with Lou Holtz at Arkansas, and is leaving Tampa Bay to help his son. His presence only guarantees that the Vols will be solid on defense. To succeed, Kiffin must recruit athletes comparable to those at Florida and Georgia.
Kiffin was successful at USC, moving from coaching tight ends to passing game coordinator to offensive coordinator in 2005. That year, USC was the first school to have a 3,000-yard passer, two 1,000-yard runners and a 1,000-yard receiver and he received the credit. Those individuals were Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, LenDale White and Dwayne Jarrett.
Kiffin’s name surfaced in the Arkansas search last year, although the interest may not have originated in Fayetteville. His only experience as head coach was a disastrous stay with the Oakland Raiders, but considering that he was working for Al Davis, the coach doesn’t own all the blame.
Auburn’s hire is even more mystifying — Gene Chizik was 5-19 at Iowa State and his stay in Ames ended with 10 straight losses. He might be a fine coach, but the Auburn that played in five January bowl games in eight years is supposed to be able to land somebody with more sizzle.
It is ironic that Chizik is all about defense, same as his predecessor, Tommy Tuberville, and that athletic director Jay Jacobs said Chizik … “demands a tough, physical style of football.” One of the criticism was that Tuberville’s offense was too old fashioned — don’t mention to those folks that Alabama employed a run-first attack during its 12-0 regular season.
The choice of Chizik raises questions about the length of the shadow cast by Nick Saban and-or the power of a big booster or two. Down the road, Chizik or Kiffin might be going great guns. At the moment, Mullen is more attractive.
Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau.
