College football musings

11/26/2007

Coaching searches are underway at several schools already, including in my home state, Nebraska. One of the candidates expected to be interviewed is Buffalo s Turner Gill.

There s also an athletic director position open, which is what I thought of when I read some of the comments from Buffalo AD Warde Manuel.

From the Lincoln Journal-Star:

Reached by phone Sunday afternoon, Manuel told the Journal Star: I think it s tremendous. Turner is absolutely ready to coach at Nebraska. He s done a great job, an awesome turnaround. Although I would hate to lose him, he would be a great coach there.

I ve never heard an athletic director speak so candidly, so were I the reporter in this story I would be giddy. However, I think he sounds a little too happy that Gill is getting an interview. Maybe he wants Turner to take him with him!

There are some other great quotes in this article.

Told of the flight to Baton Rouge [by interim AD Tom Osborne to meet with Bo Pelini], LSU athletic director Skip Bertman said, Are you kidding me?

Bertman said nobody from Nebraska contacted him regarding Pelini, but added, It's probably not absolutely, positively mandatory for an assistant. I don t suppose he felt he had to contact me, I guess.

So if Les Miles goes to Michigan as many suspect, perhaps Pelini won t be a candidate for the head job at his current school.

Also:

You might have seen Lou Holtz s diss of Toledo on Thanksgiving night during his pep talk. It came out of nowhere. I thought back to 2 years ago when Lou came to Toledo for a speaking engagement that he probably didn t do for free. We got to meet with him beforehand for a soundbite and this is what he offered up:

(From a May 10, 2005 story in The Blade)

As a backup linebacker for Kent State in the late 1950s, Lou Holtz had several recollections of the Toledo Rockets, and none too formidable.

Facing the Rockets in Holtz's first bowl game as a head coach is another story.

Holtz, then the coach at William & Mary, saw a 7-6 halftime score in the 1970 Tangerine Bowl turn into a 40-12 pounding of his Indians by the Rockets.

"Well, that wasn't the Toledo I played against," Holtz said he thought during the game. "We made great preparation ... [but] they just pounded us in the second half."

Maybe this is the way Lou gets out the aggression to deal with that loss. By picking on poor, defenseless Toledo.