The madness of King Dave? (updated)
The news yesterday that UH is seriously considering Jack Pardee (think ancient!) as head coach and David Klingler (of no college coaching experience) as offensive coordinator officially marked the descent of the UH coaching search into Silly Land.
Strangely (or perhaps not so strangely), the move seems popular on CoogFans. Here is a sentence actually seen on that fine forum (and the poster was not joking):
I have no problem with Pardee because he is a proven winner, and with his age he will relate to most of our fanbase.
Here's the email I sent to a few friends about the comment:
Bring back a corpse who's been out of coaching years because most of our fanbase need wheelchairs, walkers, and oxygen to make it to games?
There's something for the marketing dept to work with. Hell, maybe we can swing a marketing deal with Viagra!
But Callie beat me with her response:
So, if Pardee goes 0-11 for the season, that'll be fine because he can talk
with the "fanbase" about what he uses for his achy joints?I think a coach who can relate to x's and o's is more desirable than a coach who knows the ins and outs of the Medicare system. They're not mutually exclusive, by any means. But I've never really cared if I have anything in common with a coach. Why does that even matter?
No wonder I haven't seen Maggard at any of the basketball games lately. I bet he's sick to death of this type of advice.
For a while, there was talk that proven head coaches like Jeff Bower and Chan Gailey might be interested in the job. I hear that former Iowa State head man Dan McCarney would be interested. Any of those three guys would be credible hires, if Maggard decides he wants a former head coach with a record of winning.
Likewise, the offensive coordinators whose names have popped up (Haywood at Notre Dame, Malzahn at Tulsa, Fedora at Oklahoma State) would be credible hires with strengths (Haywood has ties to Houston, Malzahn knows the conference and runs a high-octane offense, Fedora has ties to Texas and runs a high-octane offense at a BCS program that is clearly second in its own state to a storied program).
But a fossil who's been out of coaching for a decade who promises to bring in as offensive coordinator a guy who hasn't coached?
While we're living in Silly Land, why not also ring up The Bootlegger's Boy for the head job, and that Bed and Breakfast guy who ran the Raiders offense last year for OC?
One has to hope the new UH chancellor/president, who has been around a real football program that's on the rise, will veto this latest proposal from Silly Land, and King Dave will get on about the business of replacing Art Briles.
UPDATE: One of UH's conference rivals is interviewing a guy (Larry Fedora) with Texas ties and an innovative offense -- a guy who isn't on Medicare. UH should be after this guy -- and he should prefer UH, because UH has more potential.
UPDATE 2: To be fair, here's a thread on CoogFans that speculates on the coaching staff Pardee might be putting together. They are some guys with experience, and probably won't treat the job as a stepping stone. There is something to be said for both, although this route isn't my preference.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/05/07 11:32 AM | Technorati | Comments (3)
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