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Report: Penn St Contacts Urban Meyer to Replace JoePa

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Deeper_Background, Oct 7, 2011.

  1. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    Are there any examples of a college coach doing a great job replacing a legend? Joe Hall at Kentucky? Even then, he hardly became a legend himself. I've always thought Solich got a really raw deal and was a fine coach, but he did get fired in six years so he's obviously not the answer.

    I suppose Michigan State fans would point to Tom Izzo for actually outshining Jud Heathcote, but I've never really considered Heathcote an all-time great. In addition, Izzo was the backbone of the Heathcote staff for a decade. In football, Bret Bielema and Kirk Ferentz seems well on his way to overshadowing or at least equaling Barry Alvarez's and Hayden Fry's legacies, but I have the same feelings about them as I do about Izzo. Alvarez had four 10-win seasons total; Fry just three.

    Nolan Richardson replaced Eddie Sutton pretty well, even if it didn't exactly end prettily. The ending had nothing to do with his replacing a legend. Maybe he's the example I stand on to prove it can be done. Or maybe the argument could be made that Sutton was easier to replace since he left to go to another school.
     
  2. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    Great question

    Dean Smith/Frank McGuire?
    Barry Switzer/Chuck Fairbanks?
    Jimmy Johnson/Howard Schnellenberger?
    John Robinson/John McKay?

    I might be stretching the definition of legend, but those are a few I came up with.
     
  3. micropolitan guy

    micropolitan guy Well-Known Member

    I think John Robinson did a pretty nice job at USC his first time around, replacing John McKay.

    Bob Devandy was pretty darn good at Nebraska and Osborn didn't exactly crap the bed.
     
  4. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Hiring Ron Zook to replace Steve Spurrier has to go down as one of the worst in recent memory.

    Are there enough criminals in the Northeast for Meyer to recruit? :D
     
  5. wicked

    wicked Well-Known Member

    All he has to do is walk into Philly. Or Camden. Or Newark.
     
  6. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    There are probably more Division I prospects in Duval County than there are in those three cities combined.
     
  7. dixiehack

    dixiehack Well-Known Member

    Going way, way back in time, Frank Thomas did fine at Alabama when Wallace Wade left.
     
  8. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    But who are you recruiting against in Philly? Rutgers? Pitt? Maryland?

    That's not exactly FSU, Miami and half of the SEC.
     
  9. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    When you consider the shithole the Iowa program was for the 20 years preceding Fry, his stint with the Hawkeyes was pretty astonishing. Wisconsin was also pretty bad for a couple of decades before Alvarez.
     
  10. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    True, but Florida would usually clean up in that area... They wouldn't get all of them, but they'd probably get the majority.

    If Meyer winds up at OSU or PSU, he'll recruit nationally.

    I think he'll wind up at OSU because OSU really has no choice other than to give him a Saban-like deal to get him.
     
  11. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I love the debate of what's tougher to do, build a program or maintain a program.

    Building is probably more work, but the expectations are much lower.
     
  12. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    My "titanic trinity" theory also applies at OSU, probably more, because OSU -- with the team on the field going to shit and continuing revelations about player-benefit violations continuing to dribble out week after week after week with no end really in sight, Gene Smith having to call almost weekly Baghdad Bob press conferences -- is going to be in a situation where they have to,

    a) blow out all vestiges of the previous program/staff -- everybody with any prior connections to the Tressel regime must go;

    b) hire a HUGE name with instant national credibility to get the program back on the map in a hurry.

    Meyer, Dungy or Cowher would be guys like that. Meyer has previous OSU connections, but from the Earle Bruce regime, not Tressel (Bruce of course had the good sense to never get CAUGHT cheating). Dungy would have Big Ten heritage from his Michigan roots, his Minnesota college career plus the added cachet of his "Christian" image which would help in image rehabilitation, while Cowher would bring a blood-and-guts on-field style which the Woody Hayes loyalists would love.

    Penn State is in a situation, when JoePa leaves, where they have to figure out how much continuity with the present program they want to have.

    When Fickell gets launched from OSU, they are gonna have to blow out all connections to the Tressel program like a turbo-powered enema.
     
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