College football 2018 championship week thread

They'd have done it anyway. Totally corrupt, just like the whole sport.

 

They are making it quite obvious aren't they?

 

Bingo.
I was saying earlier that even if OU, OSU and Georgia all lose by 50 each, it wont put UCF in because WITH Milton, they might lose by 35. Without him, they might lose by 65.

 

Not only do I hope Virginia Tech makes a bowl I hope they take a bowl that UVA wanted so those choke artist Bitch quitters get Fucked by Tech twice in two weeks.

 

You’d really think the AAC is really really bad football compared to the mighty Big 10.

Got bad news for them: it isn’t.

 

Hancock has said repeatedly that injuries are only considered in cases of giving a team "the benefit of the doubt" - rather than by surmising the impact of an injury. So if a team's only loss is one where they were missing their big time player.

 

Malzahn was in the Auburn family, so to speak. He was the OC when they won the national title in 2010, only coached at Arkansas State for one year, then came right back to Auburn. Clark would presumably be a bit more of an outsider.

Malzahn had a really weird and meteoric rise to power, too. Within five years he went from being a high school coach in Arkansas to offensive coordinator of a national championship college team, and within seven he was a high-profile SEC head coach. Most of it came courtesy of an awesome recruiting class at his last high school job. They all signed with Arkansas (including QB Mitch Mustain, who later transferred to USC) and Malzahn rode their coattails to fame and fortune.
On a side note, Arkansas' quarterback controversy of that era under Houston Nutt -- Mustain, Casey Dick and Robert Johnson were in a three-way fight for the starting job -- had me waiting for a story where I could use the nastiest headline ever. Sadly, the day never came:
NUTT LEAVES MUSTAIN ON THE BENCH WHILE PLAYING WITH DICK

 

Have come down to Ohio State -14 vs. Northwestern.

The Wildcats are all of us in 7th grade. It’s 1 pm. Lunch is over. And ya gotta take a dump but you don’t want to do it in middle school.

You hold it through the last two classes. Then on the bus, through every goddamn bump. Every fucking red light. Every kid walking slow getting off the bus.

Then you have the 11 houses from the bus stop to walk past to get to your house. Each stride brings that unforgiving turd closer to permanently staining your tighty whiteys from Sears.

You reach for the key to get into the house. Maybe you make it. Maybe you don’t.

I like Ohio State as the turd that eventually explodes all over Northwestern as the Cats try to hold them off for three unforgiving hours.

 

I wish there was a love button.
You magnificent son of a bitch.

 

So if you make it to the bathroom but your sister is using it and "will be awhile" - is that OT or losing on a Hail Mary?

 

I'll tell you what I know, and what I believe to be true, and in general they are very close. I have a close friend, a guy I have tailgated with for fifteen years, who talks to Clark a lot. He's my best inside source, although I know a couple of other guys with inside connections within the athletic department who are not as close to Clark himself, and that's where most of this comes from.

Clark stayed because one, he had the luxury of being able to. When he was fired, he was paid his remaining two years in full, including all contract incentives. He had plenty of money in hand and was not under pressure to find an immediate job. Immediately after the shutdown, he spent a month or so finding places for all his players and coaches. The Free UAB movement blew up, and Birmingham got far more involved in UAB football than it ever had been. There was all sorts of hell raised within the university, in the media, and politically. Within a couple of months seven of the city's biggest civic and business leaders decided that Birmingham, in football crazy Alabama, deserved to have it's own college football team. The job that Clark had done in turning things around in one season with no recruiting time and the product that had been on the field helped a lot with that perception.Clark had them bowl eligible in year one, beating hated Southern Miss on the road in week 12 to do it - and then the program was shut down.

Once he realized that there was a very good chance that UAB football would rise from the dead, Clark did what he could to help, but the vast majority of the heavy lifting came from what UA Chancellor Robert Witt called disparagingly "the Vocal Few". They did the marching, lobbying the lege, writing factual answers to the Al.com comments section, fundraising, and general refused to allow the story to die. By the time the current AD was hired six months later, $22m had been raised and President Watts relented and allowed the program to be restarted - although he also put a hard cap on UAB's funding, essentially saying that if the UAB fans wanted football, they'd have to raise the money themselves. Clark was involved at a number of levels during this phase, as a leader and the face of the program as well as being kept inside the circle and included in most of what was planned.

Clark was very much involved in the design of the new $4om football building, to include offices, state of the art weight room, video, nutrition, training and physical therapy facilities, and two practice fields, one covered with open sides, not quite an IPF. It was his baby and it was built to his specifications. Lots of nice touches, like the video system covering the IPF and outdoor fields. The coaches can get edited video a couple of hours after the practice is over. Although it came later, the same is true of the new stadium - Clark was very involved in that design as well, lots of internet connectivity and video screens and other modern amenities for the crowd. Groundbreaking on the stadium in December, should be open for 2021.

All of which boils down to a couple of things - Clark sees UAB as having tremendous potential that had been unrealized/smothered in its crib. He really wants to stay here at least until he gets to play in the new stadium and to continue to build the program. He has an eye on the UCF or Boise St. mid-major power model. Upgraded facilities helped recruiting tremendously, and that's lifes blood for a team.

At least two SEC schools contacted him/his agent after last season. I think one was a HC nibble, the other was a DC job. He's not going to take a job other than as head coach. He's 90% only going to go to a school in the southeast. He's not going to take a P5 bottom feeder job just for the paycheck. He needs to see a viable possibility of making a championship run given time to build or he won't take the job. Both his father and his wife's are getting elderly and he likes being close to them. Factor in a brand new grandson as well.

Auburn is absolutely a job that I could see him taking. Auburn the way things are now? I dunno. They've had problems with boosters screwing around with the program for years, and now that's happening again, and I strongly suspect that he's gotten a real bellyful of the Board of Trustees/Big Boosters screwing with his program. I couldn't say one way or the other what he'd do if he was offered. There are a lot of the dumbass UA/AU fans who crack on "UA's B team" still, yadda yadda. Personally, I think things are going to be tough down there until Saban hangs 'em up. Probably smarter not to go... but that's easy for me to say. It's many, many moneys, you know? Huge facilities and resources, high level recruits.

What I hear is that he's comfortable staying and building for a few years, growing his resume' and waiting for the right job opening to come along. I'n not naive enough to think he won't leave, although I think that there is a legit chance that he may stay awhile if things go right. He'd *like* to build things to the point that the program moves up to the AAC in the next round of realignment before he goes. Nice house in town, another on the lake. His son plays special teams at UAB. He's got a new grandson. He's happy here. The fans adore him.

We need to raise the money to make him the highest paid coach in the conference. I know a raise is coming but have no feel for how that negotiation is going.


I hear that there are factions on the UA BoT that are not happy about a successful UAB football program. Same old thing. That's a wild card... only after #TheReturn could UAB fans donate directly to the football program. The guys with the big money in the restart formed the UAB Football Foundation, who has made much of the money happen. I've heard rumors that the BoT is trying to mess with the Foundation. If the BoT screws with Clark seriously again he might leave. UAB President Watts and AD Mark Ingram are not entirely supportive, whether pressured by the board or acting on their own interests. That could really be a problem. I know it sounds paranoid, but I've seen it for years and don't rule out a damn thing.

Anyhow... Auburn? Possible, but I don't think that he'll get an offer. I know that there are AU fans who like the idea, but I don't think he's big enough a name, done enough, for them to hire him now. I think he's fully capable of the coaching and recruiting part of doing the job. I don't know about the backroom politics and powermonger dealings part of the job.

Sorry for the wall of text. Pushed the button.

 

What exactly is the profile of someone who would take the job? Any agent worth even a small fraction of his cut would have to tell a client to stay the hell away. Apparently the AD is out of the loop. Didn't take the authorities long to freeze the African American AD out.