Report: Penn St Contacts Urban Meyer to Replace JoePa

If he takes over PSU, he could take a map of the United States and draw a straight line from Erie, PA to Pittsburgh and over to Baltimore, making sure to grab DC, color in everything to the right and above those lines and call it theirs.

At Ohio State, he would be flanked on all sides in recruiting battles.

At PSU he has to fight off Tech from the south (and Blacksburg is a world away from DC) and Ohio State from the west. If he kicks Ohio State's ass in Pennsylvania, which I don't think has happened in at least a decade, then PSU will be a freaking monster.

 

The only problem with OSU is that they'll need to replace the AD (and possibly the president) before they can hire a coach.

Also, neither Dungy or Cowher will take that job.

 

I've always thought the four best jobs in college football were USC, Florida, Texas & Ohio State because:

1. Resources. They can provide state-of-the-art anything for their programs.

2. Tradition/History. They have as much or more of this than anybody in their regions.

3. Location. They're smack dab in the middle of the most fertile recruiting territories in the country. It's a much easier sell to in-state and in-region kids and the scholarship costs are less for the program's budget if most of your kids are in-state.

Penn State should be on this list but, as you've said, they're getting their ass kicked in their own back yard and it's tough to gauge the strength & financial commitment of the program because Paterno's been there so long.

 

That's a pretty good list of four... Hard to argue any of them.

All four are in recruiting hotbeds and schools with a ton of money. Florida has less tradition than the other three, but has still been a powerhouse for the last 20 years.

 

Alabama has to be on that list. If you think "Oh, Alabama can't be good for recruiting," go check out Rivals and tell me whether Ohio or Alabama has more top recruits.

 

The problem with Alabama is the pressure to win. If you're winning regularly, yeah you absolutely can argue that it's the best job in the country. If you go 9-3 a couple years in a row, you're going to be in trouble. Granted, the same thing happened to Solich at Nebraska and Cooper at Ohio State...

You could argue that that's the case at any major program, but I don't think it's quite as extreme at some of the other places...

Alabama has no trouble recruiting.

 

True, but Alabama has to share that pool with Auburn. Ohio State owns the state of Ohio and, has been pointed out, a good deal of Western Pa.

 

Let's not forget that Pitt manages to pick off some low-hanging fruit around its home area, too.

 

Of your examples, Dean Smith is the one I'd think would be closest to actually proving the point. He set about doing his thing and in doing so, he cast his own enormous shadow.

 

Right, except that Frank McGuire was hardly all-time legend status at North Carolina. We're not talking about replacing McGuire (who coached at South Carolina for longer than North), Fairbanks (six years does not a legend make) or Schnellenberger (only at Miami for five).

Robinson did a very good job replacing McKay. I buy that comparison, though it would be more concrete if he'd stuck around a little longer the first time.

 

You are right, then. It is a bitch replacing a legend.

 

Cooper lost control of the talent, and the second he did that, he was gone.