Tubby Smith was a college basketball coach I grew up watching. Smith won a national title in his first year at Kentucky. While he did so with a roster full of Rick Pitino’s recruits, it was still an accomplishment.
Smith was never acknowledged for prolonged success in Lexington because he was unable to get them the ultimate prize following that first year. But, in an even odder twist, Smith’s name came up in the news again last spring when he was relieved of his duties following six quality seasons up north, the last one culminating in a trip to the second round of the NCAA tournament while at Minnesota.
The thought of Smith re-registered in my brain recently while watching a Texas Tech hoops game. Funny enough, a man in Smith’s new state could be well on his way out of town despite a national title ring and fifteen years commitment to reinvigorating one of the nation’s legendary collegiate football programs.
Mack Brown has been front and center on ESPN’s bottom line in recent days. Personally, I could care less as to his actual fate. Brown was blessed with opportunities and he most certainly made the most of them. To coach the University of Texas is a stressful pursuit, and Brown did the best he could.
Brown won the national championship in 2005 and was also the coach of the year. His Longhorns upended a USC Trojans team coached by Pete Carroll and effectively ended what would have been a dynasty run for the ages. He also returned to the title game in 2009, this time to fall to what would be the start of yet another collegiate dynasty of sorts in Alabama.
Brown won a Big-12 conference record 21 straight games from 2004-2006 and has recorded 20 consecutive winning seasons in Austin. Under his tenure, only five players have left his program for the NFL with any eligibility remaining. He holds a 10-4 bowl record and has proven an admiral philanthropist and community member off the field.
In recent years, Brown has looked a bit puzzled and lost. He had a brutal year in 2010 and endured rough starts in each of the last three. 8-4 simply won’t get it done in Austin, and so it makes some sense that Longhorn brass is in the process of potentially going another route with regard to who leads their prestigious football club.
But it is difficult to really comprehend as to what Texas has in mind. Nick Saban is not leaving Tuscaloosa any time soon. Kevin Sumlin is an incredibly unproven commodity whose only major conference success has come thanks to his coaching a team which has Johnny “Football” Manziel on the roster. Guz Malzahn might be the best looking candidate on paper, but the pressures of this job will be much more massive than what he encountered this season after Auburn’s three win campaign during 2012.
Jimbo Fischer, James Franklin, Kirby Smart and David Shaw all present intriguing options for Texas in addition to the men listed above. It’s difficult to project how a coach will fare when stepping into a new situation, but every school needs to be weary when it attempts to make a change like this. The ideal candidate might be sitting there just waiting for the call. Texas could possibly take off once again and play for national championships year in and year out once more.
But, historically speaking, that is an unlikely scenario. In the world of college sports, every school feels entitled to something…even Minnesota basketball. Texas football is obviously different, and you don’t have to look far to understand what this sport means to those living in that state. But, in order to win with your hire, you have to think long and hard about the situation.
Not too long ago, Will Muschamp was labeled as the coach in waiting behind Brown. Texas felt like this was a safe designation which allowed them to pay Muschamp more and also entice him to stay with the program in lieu of other opportunities.
Clearly, those in the athletic department who administered that distinction lacked an understanding as to how long Brown would stick around for. Muschamp is now at Florida and, after a very successful year in 2012, could be again looking for work. Muschamp would have likely upheld the defensive standards seemingly lost following his departure, but it’s also safe to say he lacks quite a bit in the offensive arena given Florida’s issues.
If Texas was relatively clueless in regards to how they wanted to handle a transition which never actually took place, who is to say they will be able to have success within this venture? Every conference has 10-12 teams and only one or two of those groups can win big and get to a premier bowl game each year. Speaking in percentages, the idea of being able to hire a man to come in and follow a legend with any real level of success is beyond unlikely.
The premier organizations in the NFL rarely make coaching changes. Pittsburgh is the best example, and if I could wager on it, I’d expect the Steelers to stand pat with “Iron” Mike Tomlin despite a myriad of media requests to have him removed this year.
Some coaches simply fall into a situation and parlay that into a dream job, mainly because a school is dumb enough to hire them. Kentucky basketball searched high and low and went through numerous failures prior to luring John Calipari to Lexington. While the last three seasons at Texas haven’t been ideal for their followers, they represent positive outcomes that will not be guaranteed should they fall into a decade of turbulence following Brown’s departure.
I’m not sitting here and saying that Texas should not make a move. If they feel it necessary, they should act accordingly. But they better have the right guy lined up. We in society downplay the importance of human capital to a moronic extent. That applies to the business world, teaching, school administration, etc.
A good leader is more difficult to come by than one may think. Just because other schools have gone through brutal transition periods under mediocre coaches while trying to find the ideal fit doesn’t mean every school must do it.
It’s quite possible that a few of the men mentioned earlier in this search may prove to be formidable coaches who could have great success at Texas. But gaging the likelihood of that is difficult and should come with a heavy dose of pause for those in Austin. It will be interesting to see how this turns out, but I hope they get it right.
