Glen Mason is job hunting...again

At the same time Bowden has spent considerable time and energy the past two seasons preparing for an opportunity, visiting several schools to study what they're doing and watching tons of film. If he were hired today he already has a staff of coaches committed to joining him.
Dick Vermeil also spent a lot of time away from coaching, and while Bowden is no Vermeil, it's safe to say Vermeil overcame his "rust."

 

Back in October Terry Bowden told an SMU person I know quite well that he wanted that job if it came open. Of course that was before all the Fran stuff broke so he might be singing a different tune now. SMU can do better than him though.

 

I don't know, Mason coach KU from 1988-1996 and Minnesota from 1997-2006. He doesn't strike me as someone who loves to hop from one job to another each and every season. There are far more well-traveled coaches out there.

 

In large part, that's what got him whacked at Minnesota (besides not winning very much).

Mason did everything but wear see-thru panties in public to get the Ohio State job; that didn't particularly piss people off in Minnesota that much, because nobody even remotely sane would argue that OSU isn't a massive upgrade over Minnesota.

But he also trolled after the Illinois and Michigan State jobs, and that did piss off the Gopher fan base, since neither of those jobs are dramatically superior to Minnesota (they may be in given seasons, but not bottom-line).

Mason's name also came up quite regularly in connection with some other jobs -- I think Pittsburgh and Stanford at each end of the Wlat Harris extravaganza -- and the general feeling in Minnesota was that Mason and/or his agent were just continually floating these rumors to terrify the Gophers into sweetening his deal. He had a 10-3 season a few years ago, but since then has been going 7-5 and 6-6, spectacularly unimpressive since his schedules always include four games against poodle grooming academies.

Well, there was also the jump to Georgia and then back to Kansas. Mason may not actually want to change jobs very often, but he sure threatens to do it a lot.

 

No denying that. His one-week flirtation with Georgia -- before the Aloha Bowl, before Kansas completed a 10-2 season to finish eighth in the AP Top 25 -- essentially made him a lame-duck coach. He quit after going 4-7 the next season.

It took some time for the Jayhawks to recover from that, too.

 

If SMU hired Bowden, that would be like another death penalty. That guy was horrific and tried to coast on the vapor trail of one perfect season with Pat Dye's players. He had no clue of how to recruit (look at how talent-barren Auburn's teams of the early Tuberville era were) and his knowledge of X's and O's isn't as great as his father. Dumb move if they do it.

 

If I recall correctly, Mason backed out on the Georgia job because his wife threatened to divorce him and take his kids away if he left Kansas. He ended up getting divorced anyway ...

 

Thank you.

 

Warn the secretaries.