Most impressive? Shula
For the Bobby Knight story in today’s paper, I made up a list of the coaching leaders (in victories) for each major sport. In my mind, easily the most impressive is Don Shula.
A quick refresher. Knight can hit 900 Saturday in Stillwater, further distancing himself from Dean Smith’s 879. Knight could go all the way to 1,000. But Knight’s record will fall, too, and soon, so long as Mike Krzyzewski’s back holds out. Coach K is closing in on 800 and will catch Knight soon after Knight retires. Four years top.
Besides, college basketball coaches have a lot of victories that are pure exhibitions. Automatic victories. To a lesser extent, same with college football. Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden are tied with 373 wins. But over their phenomenal careers, they’ve had two solid allies: they get to make out much of their own schedules, and they have eternal job security. For much of their careers, Paterno and Bowden coached at schools that were independent, meaning not even a conference schedule they had to face. And they coached under no pressure, since it’s obvious neither will be relieved of their duties for mediocre performance.
That said, I don’t see anyone breaking Paterno’s or Bowden’s record for a very long time. Bob Stoops is 47 and has 96 wins. If Paterno and Bowden retire now, which they’re not going to, Stoops would have to win 10 games a year for 28 years, until he’s 75, to pass them. Not likely, but possible.
So the most impressive coaching records, by default, resort to the pros. NBA? No. Lenny Wilkens is the leader, but that’s still a horse race, because Don Nelson (or Larry Brown, when he comes back, which he will) will pass Wilkens, provided Wilkens doesn’t come back.
In truth, it comes down to this. Connie Mack or Don Shula? Both lead their sports by healthy margins. Mack is almost 1,000 wins ahead of John McGraw in baseball; Mack at 3,731, McGraw at 2,763. Tony LaRussa (2,375) or Bobby Cox (2,255) could pass McGraw. No way will they catch Mack, and no way anyone else does, either. But it’s a little bogus. Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics for 50 years, and he owned the team. He also was ineffective most of that time. In his last 16 years, Mack finished last in the American League 10 times. He won three pennants his last 36 years, with those glorious 1929-31 teams. He managed til he was 87. You own the team, you can do what you want.
No, clearly the greatest coaching achievement for a career belongs to Shula. Counting playoffs, 347 wins. He didn’t do it in the dusty days of leather helmets. He didn’t win those games coaching the single wing. He didn’t take teams to hamlets like Decatur and Portsmouth. Shula coached Johnny Unitas and Lenny Moore, but he also coached Dan Marino and Troy Vincent. He coached against Jimmy Brown, but he also coached against Brett Favre.
And Shula won 347 games. That’s 10 wins a year for 34 seasons. That’s 11 wins a year for more than 33 seasons. What coach can last 33, 34 years? In this day? With this kind of pressure? NFL coaches don’t get to make out their own schedules. NFL coaches toil in the most parity-driven sport ever devised. NFL coaches work for men with very little patience. Here’s a great stat: 436 men have been NFL head coaches; 55 have lasted at least 10 years but only 11 have lasted at least 20 years and only three have lasted at least 30 years. Two of those three founded their franchises — the Bears’ George Halas and the Packers’ Curly Lambeau. The other is Don Shula.
Shula has more than twice as many wins as the current active leader, Mike Holmgren, who has 170. Who has the best chance of catching Shula? No one, really, but I suppose we could say Tennessee’s Jeff Fisher, who has 120 wins. If Fisher can coach until he’s 72 and average 10 wins a year, he will pass the great Don Shula.
Oh, the young generation
I’m headed to Texas Stadium this Sunday for the Cowboy-Giant epic, and a couple of my favorite colleagues are going with me. Blake Jackson (Ebony) and Darnell Mayberry (RFD). I’ve really only got one thing against them. They were born like 15 minutes ago.
Sometimes I forget how young some of my cohorts are. Several of my fellow writers are in their 20s, which means they have absolutely no clue about Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, no clue how good Larry Bird actually was, no clue what a sport-changing moment was Dwight Clark’s catch against the Cowboys at Candlestick Park. They barely remember the lost World Series of 1994 or the Buffalo Bills’ dubious streak. To them, Michael Jordan, not Wilt Chamberlain, is the legendary figure of shadows who played so long ago.
Anyway, that point was hammered home the last time I went to Texas Stadium. Ebony came along, and when we got to the pressbox, we discovered they didn’t seat us together. He was at the far end of press row, I was down towards the middle. No big deal, I told him. We can communicate during the game via email. I know it’s not a hip as text-messaging, but hey, you’re dealing with a dinosaur here.
Anyway, early in the first quarter, I emailed Ebony and asked him who he was sitting beside. He said he didn’t know, just some guys cheering for the Cowboys. I thought, that’s unfortunate. Guy comes to Texas Stadium and has to sit next to some yahoos.
At the end of the first quarter, I wandered down press row to check him out. In the distance, I saw where Ebony was sitting. And who he was sitting next to.
He was sitting next to Calvin Hill.
Granger: From Bad to Worse
Here’s what you do when you screw up, whether it’s as a 4-year-old or on the job or playing defensive tackle for the Oklahoma Sooners. You mind your manners and go low-key. Pick up your toys, or get extra work completed and don’t complain, or work hard and stay out of trouble and be very humble.
DeMarcus Granger failed to last a week of getting back in the headlines. He failed to appear for an arraignment in a Tempe, Ariz., courtroom on his misdemeanor charge of shoplifting, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Granger, Tempe police said, stole a coat from a store in a mall during the Fiesta Bowl trip. Bob Stoops sent Granger home.
I don’t know what is the fine for shoplifting, but it can’t be much more than a plane ticket back to Arizona. Granger fouled up royally; he embarrassed himself and his team and his school, and if he was interested in taking responsibility, he should have found out how to get this over with immediately. Which obviously is pay the fine.
College athletes sometimes have a problem with responsibility. Most have been pampered since they were young teens and can have difficulty adjusting to real life. Kansas basketball player Brandon Rush failed to appear in traffic court a couple of months back, and KU coach Bill Self talked about how players have to accept responsibility for their actions.
I don’t know Granger’s financial situation. I don’t know if he can’t come up with the money to pay his fine. If not, then he’s in a bind. But it’s a bind he created.
Bob Stoops didn’t kick off Granger from the team. But now that he’s made headlines two weeks running, I wouldn’t blame Stoops if he said, good-bye.
Thoughts on the final AP poll
The final college football polls are out, and just sorting out the Big 12 is tough. I would always vote via conference finish, but that’s just me. I would rank the Big 12: OU, Mizzou, Kansas. I haven’t seen the individual coaches’ ballots yet, but Bob Stoops said he likely would rank it: Kansas, OU, Mizzou. The actual AP finish was: Mizzou, KU, OU.
So there’s no concrete way of deciding. How much do you factor in the bowls, where OU laid an egg against West Virginia, Kansas showed up very well against ACC champ Virginia and Missouri routed inferior Arkansas? How can you not consider the conference race?
Anyway, here is the final poll and my thoughts on each team’s position:
1. LSU: An obvious No. 1. The best record this side of Kansas, which is not a contender, plus both LSU losses came via triple overtime. The Bayou Bengals beat the Big Ten champ, the ACC champ and Tennessee, Florida and Auburn. LSU is a worthy champ.
2. Georgia: An overrated team. This is a season built upon two victories: Auburn in Athens, Ga., and Florida on a neutral field in Jacksonville. I don’t understand the fascination with Georgia.
3. USC: Clearly the best team out there to challenge LSU. The Trojans played a good schedule, losing only at Oregon — when the Ducks had their quarterback and were as good as anybody — and at home to Stanford in one of those unexplainable verdicts.
4. Missouri: An excellent team, but if there’s one thing that was proven in this wild college football season, it’s this. Oklahoma is better than Mizzou.
5. Ohio State: I don’t want to hammer the Buckeyes too badly, but if you’re serious about your poll, and you’re looking for ways to fit in some worthy teams high in the rankings, it’s clear that Ohio State should be dropped into the second five.
6. West Virginia: Vastly underrated. Still. Lose two games, both without your quarterback? The Mountaineers belong at No. 3.
7. Kansas: KU played a two-game schedule, both on neutral fields, and went 1-1. There’s something to be said for that.
8. Oklahoma: The pollsters made OU pay for its listless performance in the Fiesta Bowl. Which is justifiable. But the Big 12 title — in a year in which four Big 12 teams made the top 10 — shouldn’t be forgotten.
9. Virginia Tech: OK, explain to me why everyone still is thrilled withi V-Tech. Hasn’t done a darned thing all year except split with Boston College.
10. Texas & Boston College: Somebody’s got to be No. 10.
Put it all together, and here’s how I would rank them:
1. LSU
2. USC
3. West Virginia
4. Georgia
5. Oklahoma
6. Missouri
7. Kansas
8. Ohio State
9. Tennessee (did far more than Virginia Tech)
10. Virginia Tech
Picking a Big Bowl winner
The people picking LSU to beat Ohio State because of the Big Ten’s supposed inferiority have it all wrong. Overall, the SEC is better than the Big Ten, no doubt about it, but that matters little in one-game matchups. See Michigan-Florida.
Ohio State ran into a buzzsaw last season against the Gators, but the old line about the Big Ten’s lack of speed is nonsense. They don’t put slow players in the NFL, at least nowhere this side of the offensive line, and the pros are full of Buckeyes.
Ohio State can run. Now, whether it can run the ball, I don’t know. Or pass it. LSU is danged good. The Tigers have played a vastly superior schedule to Ohio State, and you’ve got the Superdome factor, and you’ve got the Buckeyes’ mental problem with the Big Bowl breakdown of a year ago.
So LSU is the proper pick. But no one gave the Buckeyes a chance against Miami five years ago, and Ohio State pulled that upset, and this LSU team is nowhere close to those Hurricanes. I’ll say LSU, but it won’t be easy.
Introspection from Stoops
Sorry for the day off from blogging, but I traveled all day yesterday and didn’t get online until today. After I joined in on the Bob Stoops teleconference.
And Stoops again admitted that he would take a look at all aspects of the Sooners’ bowl operation. Including this: the possibility that OU isn’t emphasizing enough the importance of winning.
Stoops puts a premium on championships. He takes more pride in them than any coach I’ve ever been around. With good reason. The Big 12 title is hard to win. You’ve got a deeper team pool than in the old days of the Big Eight, plus the title-game kicker. So he should be proud.
But Stoops today admitted that maybe that same sense of urgency hasn’t carried over to the bowls. “Probably fair to say,” Stoops said this morning. “Maybe we haven’t done as great job at getting the message across. It isn’t just about winning championships, it’s about winning the bowl game.”
Stoops isn’t the only coach, or player or fan or writer or anyone else, who for some reason lessens the import of bowl games. I think bowls are terribly important. Like I’ve been saying for a month, bowls are great because they are showdown games. Remember the buildup to the Oklahoma-Alabama games? USC-Texas? Next year’s USC-Ohio State slugfest? The bowls give us a dozen of those kinds of matchups every year. Oklahoma hadn’t played West Virginia in 25 years; this Mountaineer team would have been undefeated if quarterback Pat White hadn’t been knocked out of two games. How could you possibly not be fired up about that?
Losing to West Virginia is not the end of the world. Not a sign that Stoops should blow up the building. But it is a sign that some self-inspection is necessary.
Thoughts from Arizona
Here are some general thoughts from Day 8 in the desert:
1. I still like Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl tonight. But if the Sooners lose, they have no one to blame but themselves. It’s one thing to lose three defensive starters for a bowl, but when only one is out with injury, that’s not bad luck. That’s bad preparation.
A reader emailed Monday morning, an OU fan from Utah, who said he never had seen a team with so much focus. I told him settle down; you never now how much focus a team has. Five minutes later, I got the call that DeMarcus Granger had been sent home for shoplifting. I would say the Sooners have shown a LACK of focus.
Still, I think they win. West Virginia is talented, and I love this interim coach, Bill Stewart, but the Big East is inferior to the other leagues, and the sooner we all admit it, the better.
2. Big 12 football is looking good in the bowls. With five bowls left, here are the standings among conferences:
SEC: 6-2
Big 12: 4-2
Pac-10: 4-2
Big Ten: 3-4
ACC: 2-4
Big East: 1-2
A few thoughts.
* The Big East has not fared well. Its lone victory (Cincinnati’s) came against Southern Mississippi. South Florida got rolled by Oregon. UConn lost to Wake Forest. College football would have been best served if West Virginia, not Boston College, had joined the ACC, and the Big East had lost its automatic BCS berth.
* Michigan saved the Big Ten. Ohio State could, too, against LSU. But if the Wolverines hadn’t beaten Florida, the Big Ten today would be 2-5, with victories over Central Michigan and Texas A&M.
* The Big 12 has gotten about all the mileage it can get out of schedule so far. All victories except Colorado and A&M, two teams that just weren’t very good. Both put up a good fight, I suppose, but expecting victories from those two teams was a testament to hope.
* The Pac-10 had an easy bowl schedule. Two games against mid-majors (Air Force, BYU). An Oregon State matchup against a so-so Maryland. USC drew Illinois, a team that really was not Rose Bowl worthy.
* The ACC stinks and will do so until Florida State and Miami get their acts together. Virginia Tech can’t keep holding up its end of the freight. Here’s what the ACC is. Think Big 12 if OU and Texas start going 7-5, 5-7, 6-6.
* If LSU beats Ohio State, the SEC clearly has the evidence to back up its superiority complex. If Ohio State can win, the SEC looks no better in post-season than the Big 12. No better in regular season, either.
3. All I can say about Big 12 quarterbacking in 2008 is, wow. Zac Robinson looked fantastic in the Insight Bowl. Chase Daniel is a Heisman finalist. Colt McCoy was superb against Arizona State. Graham Harrell didn’t play great for Texas Tech against Virginia, but he’s got most of that offense back. Todd Reesing and Sam Bradford haven’t played their bowls yet, but both can play. K-State’s Josh Freeman looked great against OSU back in October, Cody Hawkins was just a freshman at Colorado and maybe an NFL coach (Mike Sherman) can rescue the career of Texas A&M’s Stephen McGee, who has one season left.
A guy you can cheer for
Bill Stewart’s college football head-coaching career almost surely will last one game, the Fiesta Bowl tomorrow night against Oklahoma. But Stewart is having a good time with his moment in the sun as West Virginia’s interim coach.
Stewart must have said thank you 25 times during his press conference Tuesday. He talks about all his good friends on the OU staff, and you actually believe him. Just a charming, down-home man who is proud of his state and his team.
Here’s a little piece from Stewart’s press conference: “I have enjoyed very much working in this role, but what coach wouldn’t embellish that opportunity?” Yes, he said embellish but meant “relish.”
Here’s more: “I’m just one of the gang. We’ve all taken on a role that we’re preparing our football team for a very formidable opponent … I have had a few more speaking engagements. I’ve gotten to meet a lot of nice people. I am the same guy that will ride in taxicabs. I don’t need a limo; I am not going to change one bit. I am just a ball coach out here with a group of ball coaches with a tremendous football team…
“That’s as honest as I can be. That’s Cub and Boy Scout honor…”
Stewart called Bob Stoops “Bobby” and Sam Bradford “Sammy” and talked of hugging Kevin Sumlin over the news that Sumlin was the new coach at Houston and visiting Norman a couple of years ago for a clinic and working out with Brent Venables and told the story how Stewart’s 13-year-old son and old friend Kevin Wilson exchanged smacktalk text messages after the Fiesta matchup. Wilson was a graduate assistant coach for Stewart at North Carolina more than 20 years ago.
It was fun listening to a guy who is enjoying himself. Fun to see someone get to step into the spotlight after a long time in the shadows. Bill Stewart is handling himself very well.
