Updated throughout the day with quick takes from staff.
It took chutzpah for Lane Kiffin to ditch Knoxville after just 14
months and a half-dozen-or-so secondary violations, but Coach
Derp has nothing on a couple of recent NFL refugees who took one
look at their new surroundings and darted right back to the NFL Fortress
of Solitude.
Improbable departure the first:
George Edwards' tenure as the Florida Gators defensive coordinator sure didn't last long.
Less than a month after joining Urban Meyer's staff, Edwards left one of the nation's top college programs on Thursday to become the Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator and be reunited with newly hired head coach Chan Gailey.
Improbable departure the second:
Ron Turner wasn't out of the NFL for long.
Four weeks after becoming the offensive coordinator at Stanford, Turner is back in the league, accepting a job on the Colts' staff. It is believed Turner will become the wide receivers coach, but the team had yet to make an announcement.
Way to reach for the creative ledes, guys.
Anyway, it's possible that the spurned schools got off easy here: these guys ditched Gainesville and Palo Alto for Indianapolis and Buffalo. Also, Turner went from offensive coordinator to wide receivers coach. They could be in the first stages of syphilitic dementia. (Kidding! Don't send lawyers. Just take penicillin. Or don't, because I didn't mention it at all.)
If I was a guy who wrote single-sentence paragraphs and had a Very Serious Photo I'd probably go on about the decline of society here but... actually, isn't this kind of a societal decline? Surely these guys did not take jobs intending to leave almost before a two-week notice could even be provided. And yet, there they go.
It probably comes down to money-even Florida's unlikely to shell out what an NFL team will for a coordinator and Stanford is not exactly paying top dollar-just like everything does, but in my day people waited around for 14 long months before leaving their university in a lurch with nothing to do but riot festively and draw penises on rocks (not that you have to be told, but that is as NSFW as a cave painting gets).
Kids these days have no respect, I tell you. No respect at all.
This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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Kind of funny I suppose. But really, what does it all mean?
Nothing much. I’ve often wondered what’s with all the consternation in regard
to coaches switching jobs. It happens, and sometimes it happens swiftly and all
it has to do with is opportunity, cash and whatever reasons the person
switching may have.
It happens in regular jobs too. One summer in college, I
left a U-Haul after two weeks for a dollar more an hour and weekends off for a
local car dealership in a garage assistant position. It happens and there’s no
reason why anyone should care.
Ask yourself this simple question, would you rather have a
coach who stays with your program or team but really wants to be elsewhere but
feels that the contract should be honored? Or would you rather have someone who
truly wants to be with your team?
Being a coach seems tough. The money’s good but expectations
and temperaments ebb wildly and when one’s profile gets large enough it seems
as though anything can happen to them, hero, or pariah, burned in effigy and ran
out of town. It’s no surprise that under these kinds of conditions Coaches
often seem out for theirs. They should.
Here in Albuquerque, things should be great, with the Lobos
8th in college basketball and 6-0 against top 25 opponents but no,
the leading topic every morning on sports radio is worry about Steve Alford
leaving. He has it good here, I would think, because of a great fan base, a
wonderful city and good money for the area. But if he has a better opportunity
for himself and his family, that’s good for him. And no one should begrudge him
going after that opportunity. It’s annoying that in light of an amazing season
that the future of the coach is stopping some from enjoying it. And they have
no one to blame but themselves.
The bottom line is that I cannot see how anyone who muses on
and on about “weasel” coaches can be considered as anything other than jealous.
This line of thinking is simply over-emotional. Or, maybe they have nothing
better to do.
by vetes on Mar 2, 2010 10:28 AM EST reply actions
"but Coach Derp has nothing on a couple of recent NFL refugees who took one look at their new surroundings and darted right back to the NFL Fortress of Solitude…"
Your kidding, right? There is a reason a head coach abandoning his ship in the middle of recruiting season makes headlines and these assistant coaches stories didn’t. The ramifications of a head coaches departure, from recruiting, to his assistants and staff, are all way bigger. Has Kiffin’s brother-in-law, a former assistant coach at UT, even found a job yet or is he still pan-handling in Knoxville?
by cnapse on Mar 3, 2010 8:12 PM EST reply actions
One-Upping Lane Kiffin?
It would take an off the charts score on the Douche-O-Meter to do that.
by markmaymustdie on Mar 4, 2010 8:30 PM EST reply actions
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