Was listening to ESPN radio early this morning and they had Cole Cubelic on as a guest to address why the SEC as a conference has been down lately (moreso than previous years with the exception of Bama).
He said that coaches in the SEC have more responsibilities than coaches in other conferences what with all of their speaking engagements and public engagements in addition to their coaching duties (including clinics and camps). He felt that a recent trend to hire coaches that lacked those extra experiences (Malzahn, Sumlin, and Freeze were mentioned as examples), contributed to the failure or drop off for programs that were traditionally powers in the conference.
These circumstances would apply to our coach, however, I believe he had the benefit of having coached beside his brother and having the benefit albeit indirectly of his brother's experience gladhanding boosters, fund raising, and making all of the appearances required of a bigtime college coach. You may disagree, but I think this may have been of benefit to our program. He may not have expected everything that was involved, but I'd venture to guess he had a good idea what he was getting himself into, and anyway...where were we going to find the seasoned veteran coach who would patiently do the building while representing the program in a manner in which we could all be proud?
He said that coaches in the SEC have more responsibilities than coaches in other conferences what with all of their speaking engagements and public engagements in addition to their coaching duties (including clinics and camps). He felt that a recent trend to hire coaches that lacked those extra experiences (Malzahn, Sumlin, and Freeze were mentioned as examples), contributed to the failure or drop off for programs that were traditionally powers in the conference.
These circumstances would apply to our coach, however, I believe he had the benefit of having coached beside his brother and having the benefit albeit indirectly of his brother's experience gladhanding boosters, fund raising, and making all of the appearances required of a bigtime college coach. You may disagree, but I think this may have been of benefit to our program. He may not have expected everything that was involved, but I'd venture to guess he had a good idea what he was getting himself into, and anyway...where were we going to find the seasoned veteran coach who would patiently do the building while representing the program in a manner in which we could all be proud?