OT Charlie Strong to USF Confirmed

Stanford is a no pressure job. Fans and alumni don't even show up when they are winning conference titles, so you have a lot of space to work with. Programs like Michigan and our peers do not have anything like the culture at Stanford. And that's ignoring that JH is one of the best coaches in the game, like top 5 at all levels. 

RichRod was and is a good coach. He is wildly innovative and has done things at WVU and Arizona that other coaches have not been able to at those progams. He has flaws: a lack of interest in phases other than offense, a lack of interest in the politics of big time football, and an odd sense of complacency in a system that is nowhere near as novel in 2016 as it was in 2006. But he's not a mediocre coach and his overall results reflect this. Arizona fans who want to fire him after one bad year are delusional about the prospects of their program. 

I think they said "IDFWU"

I'll play devils advocate. Did he really fail miserably?

He failed with the Raiders at 5-15. But the NFL is a different game in terms of personnel, we all know the latter Al Davis years were a disaster across various coaches and he didn't even get halfway through his his second season before he's out. See also Nick Saban, Steve Spurrier, Lou Holtz, Bobby Petrino, Chip Kelly, Dennis Erickson etc. 

At Tennessee he inherits a 5-7 team and goes 7-6 and then jets after one season for USC. I don't see how you can call this a failure on the field. It certainly looks bad from a career perspective to be jumping jobs after a year. But realistically,  how much you can blame him? USC is on another level from TN and he is a CA guy. There, he does 28-15 and gets canned. He didn't win big, but he was also averaging like 8-4ish at a school that was on probation winning at a 65% clip. Compare that with Charlie Strong who had losing records all 3 seasons, going 16-21 or winning 43% of his games at Texas. But immediately gets another job based on his success at Louisville and his lack of the baggage that comes with Kiffin.

There are a few things you can conlude based on Tennessee/USC:

1)He's an epic douchebag on a personal level and that wears thin quickly. He'll have to prove he's matured. I doubt he has but whatever.

2)His record in college isn't nearly as bad as people sometimes think. He had a winning record all 4+ seasons. His W-L is better than tons of guys who have gotten second chances. He hasn't, probably because of #1. 

3)His job history is almost as big of a problem as his personality. He can't get a big job until he proves himself somewhere else first. He won't get a smaller job because he's perceived to be a job hopper who will jump at the first chance he gets. Catch 22.

I mean, I'd have serious reservations about hiring him but the guy's resume is better than that of some people who are going to get 2nd or 3rd tier jobs. 

Some jokes never get old. Unfortunately, that's not one of them.

(Sorry--spent the evening decorating the Christmas tree, which meant trying to mediate all sorts of fights between my kids and finally sending them to bed early. Now I am taking out my frustrations on anonymous MGoBlog posters. Merry Christmas to each and every one!)