At Least He's Not Collecting Social Security

At a time when you've got two head coaches at prestigious universities who are way past 62, and battling it out to see who retires first, tt's nice to see that there's youth out there that wants to be involved. Though, it would probably help if he had already gone through puberty and could actually drive himself to the stadium. However, that didn't stop 12-year-old Joshua Irizarry from throwing his name into the proverbial hat when West Virginia was looking for a replacement for Rich Rodriguez.

He's only 12, he doesn't have a car and he lives nearly 500 miles from campus. But Joshua Irizarry's heartfelt plea and willingness to work around obstacles got him a brief consideration for the gig as head football coach at West Virginia University.

Insisting it was "a completely serious offer," the Connecticut boy outlined his skills in a letter to WVU President Mike Garrison when the job opened up in December. They included "making up new plays to fool defenses in local sandlot games."

And he showed a knack for public relations: "Consider the publicity your campus would receive," he wrote. "I understand this would be a move more suited for a team like Temple, but I am just asking for your consideration.

"Don't think of this as hiring a 12-year-old kid from a nowhere town, but think of this as hiring a dedicated football mind trying to help a team," he pleaded. "I would work for any conditions you would wish to provide."

Any work conditions? Ah, to be young and naive again. With statements like that he'll be handing out water cups and washing jock straps for a cellar dwelling division 3 team in no time! Though, it is pretty humorous that even a 12-year-old understands just how bad Temple sucks. It's funny 'cause it's true!

The Gators Have Some Holes To Fill

This is somewhat old news, but I didn't get a chance to cover it last week. Greg Mattison, the co-defensive coordinator, has left Gainesville to be the linebackers coach for the Baltimore Ravens.

Apparently, he had been courted before because he's a friend of the Ravens new head coach John Harbaugh. Mattison turned down the first offer, but accepted the second one. The position didn't stay vacant for long, however because former Iowa State head coach Dan McCarney was brought on board to fill it.

Last year, McCarney was the Defensive Line Coach/Assistant Head Coach for a South Florida squad that surprised a number of people. Under his guidance, the Bulls tallied 30 sacks and 113 tackles for a loss. They allowed 130.5 rushing yards per game, but only gave up 8 rushing touchdowns through the season. Hopefully he can mold some of Florida's defensive linemen into a beast like George Selvie was for USF.

Though they were able to fill Mattison's position, Florida still has to fill holes at the safeties and running backs coaching spots. Both of those positions underperformed last season, so the Gators need to fill them with coaches that can make an immediate impact. It will be interesting to see who Coach Meyer goes with when selecting the replacements. Hopefully, the new safeties coach can keep the secondary from getting torched so much in '08.

Dan Henning Returns To The Dolphins

Dan Henning as been hired as the new offensive coordinator of the Miami Dolphins. He returns to South Florida after having been the quarterbacks and receivers coach from 1979-1980.

More recently, Henning was the offensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers from 2002-2006. Under his guidance, the Panthers total offense ranking improved, and gained its highest rank of #13 in 2004. Prior to his stint in Carolina, Henning served as the offensive coordinator for the New York Jets from 1998-2000 where he worked with Dolphins V.P. of Football Operations Bill Parcells.

Personally, I think that Henning is a talented offensive coordinator, but I'm a bit wary that he was out of coaching for the 2007 season. I'm also a bit nervous with Bill Parcells bringing in so many guys that worked "for" him, but might not be the best for the job. Henning is 65, and he's not getting any younger. And while his Panthers squads performed decently, reaching the Super Bowl in 2003, I wouldn't necessarily consider him innovative. Though, with the way that the Dolphins have performed in recent years they need to achieve success any way possible in the shortest amount of time. Hopefully Henning can get them pointed in the right direction before he succumbs to the retirement lifestyle in South Florida like many of his peers have.

Is Paul Pasqualoni A Good Hire For The Dolphins?

Paul Pasqualoni has been hired by the Miami Dolphins to be their next defensive coordinator. Prior to joining Miami, he worked with new head coach, Tony Sparano, in Dallas where he was the linebackers coach in 2006 & 2007 and the tight ends coach in 2005. Before coaching in the NFL, Pasqualoni was the head coach at Syracuse University where he compiled a 107-59-1 regular season record and a bowl game record of 6-3. And exactly how did the Syracuse defense perform while he was the head coach there?

Well, it's hard to track down solid statistics for his entire tenure, however we do have a pretty good set to look at from 1999 to 2004, his final year. Also, from '99-'03 Chris Rippon was SU's defensive coordinator. He's now the special teams and defensive backs coach at Ole Miss. In 2004, Steve Dunlap became the DC for Syracuse. He's now the defensive coordinator at Marshall.

Defensive Stats(rush yds allowed, pass yds allowed, tot. defense, pts/gm)
1999: 116.7 rush yds/gm(#28), 184.5 pass yds/gm(#18)[10TD/12INT], 301.2 tot. yds(#14), 22.1pts/gm(#36)

2000: 135.8 rush yds/gm(#42), 176.09 pass yds/gm(#12)[9TD/7INT], 311.9 tot. yds(#18), 19.3pts/gm(#23)

2001: 170.2 rush yds/gm(#72), 189.00 pass yds/gm(#24)[13TD/13INT], 359.17 tot. yds(#46), 20.3pts/gm(#26)

2002: 171.9 rush yds/gm(#85), 303.75 pass yds/gm(#117)[22TD/10INT], 475.67 tot. yds(#113), 33.8pts/gm(#98)

2003: 138.2 rush yds/gm(#42), 222.17 pass yds/gm(#62)[22TD/17INT], 360.33 tot. yds(#47), 25.1pts/gm(#59)

2004: 186.7 rush yds/gm(#86), 240.17 pass yds/gm(#90)[23TD/13INT], 426.83 tot. yds(#101), 28.7pts/gm(#76)


Hmmm, 2004 could be written off as a bad year because of the defensive coordinator change. However, I am a little concerned with the steady decline in total defense from '99 to '02. Though, the defense rebounded a bit in 2003. Part of the sharp dropoff between '01 and '02 could be attributed to Dwight Freeney's departure to the NFL. His pass rushing ability was undoubtably missed, and was a reason that SU's sack total dropped from 40 to 26. They also lost Will Allen to the NFL prior to the 2001 season, and that surely impacted their pass defense in that season and possibly beyond.

From looking at the stats, it appears that Pasqualoni can coach when he has the talent. When he had players like Freeney, Allen and Keith Bulluck his defense performed well. However, without players of that caliber his teams gave up points and yards. And while some might think that this doesn't bode well for his ability to run Miami's defense, I don't think that it's all that bad. After all, Pasqualoni will not be asked to recruit free agents to the team, which I have a feeling is a weakness that hurt him at Syracuse at times.

He does seem capable of coaching players at a high level, as his record at SU indicates. Pasqualoni appears to me to be a decent hire, though it's going to take time and a lot of work to revamp Miami's defense that is filled with aging players, inexperienced young recruits and not much in between. Hopefully he can mold the unit into one similar to some of the top ranked defenses he fielded while at Syracuse, and not one like the one he had in 2002 that was ranked #113(out of 117) in the country.

What Do The Dolphins Get With Tony Sparano?

Well, he's obviously got at least a little bit of a sense of humor as is evident in this "Mayne Event" segment.



But how did the Cowboys teams that he helped coach perform while he was there? Let check out some stats.

Since Sparano contributed mostly to the coaching of the offensive line, I'll compare the sacks allowed and rushing statistics to see how the Cowboys improved(or worsened) under his watch.

Sparano took over in 2003, and inherited a team that was in the lower half in the NFL in terms of average rush yards per game and allowed the third most sacks.

2002(pre-Sparano): 109.6 rush yards/game, 7 rush TD's, 54 sacks allowed

Sparano's impact was noticeable in 2003 when the Cowboys' rush average and rushing touchdown numbers went up, and their sacks allowed went down. Obviously, personnel changes factor into these improvements, but Sparano's coaching did help the Dallas offense perform at a higher level.

2003(Sparano's 1st season): 124.9 rush yards/game, 11 rush TD's, 37 sacks allowed

Sparano continued to coach the offensive line unit into better shape, and they performed well under his guidance. Though, in 2005 they did allow quite a few sacks(50), but that probably had to do more with the fact that the picture of immobility, Drew Bledsoe, was their quarterback.

2004(2nd season): 110.6 rush yards/game, 14 rush TD's, 36 sacks allowed

2005(3rd season): 116.3 rush yards/game, 13 rush TD's, 50 sacks allowed

2006(4th season): 121.0 rush yards/game, 21 rush TD's, 37 sacks allowed

2007(5th season): 109.1 rush yards/game, 14 rush TD's, 25 sacks allowed

By all accounts, Sparano is a no-nonsense type of coach that gets along well with his players. He obviously has a good working relationship with Bill Parcells and Jeff Ireland, and both of those guys believe that he can coach the Dolphins back into form. It's going to take a lot of work, but right now I'm confident that he can get the job done. Though, he is taking over a unit that averaged just 98.1 rush yards/game, scored 14 rush TD's and gave up 42 sacks. Lik I said, it will be tough work, but Sparano is the new capo in Miami and he's shown that he has the juice to get the job done.

June Jones Says Aloha To Hawaii

Seriously, June Jones must be smoking some mauwie wauwie because he's accepted the SMU head coaching position, and is leaving Honolulu behind for Dallas.

Honestly, it's a move that I can't really figure out. Jones didn't attend SMU, nor was he raised anywhere near Dallas. And moving from the WAC to Conference USA doesn't really increase his chances of contending for a BCS title year in and year out. Besides, he's turned Hawaii into a contender, and really reaped the fruits of his hard work this season with a Sugar Bowl berth.

Obviously, Colt Brennan won't be back next year, but Tyler Graunke has proven this year that he can step into the starter's role. So it's not like next year's squad will be devoid of talent.

The biggest factor I see in Jones making this decision is that he probably believes that it will be easier to recruit in Dallas. It is tough to get young kids to leave their comfort zone, and head a few hours offshore of the U.S. with the possibility, not even a guarantee, that they will play. Being based in Dallas, Jones gets to canvas Texas, as well as the surrounding states for recruits, and they can make it home without having to fly through a few time zones.

While I'm not sure that leaving Hawaii for SMU is the best decision, even if Jones was determined to get back to the mainland, I do applaud all the work that he's done in making Hawaii a competitive program. Though, I'm sure that a part of him hopes that he won't be remembered solely for that awful Sugar Bowl loss. On the brightside, I'm pretty sure that Colt Brennan doesn't remember much of that loss at all.

Yes, You Heard Correctly, Petrino To Arkansas

It was announced last night that Bobby Petrino, now the former Atlanta Falcons' head coach after just 13 games, is leaving to take the vacant head coaching spot at Arkansas. Some are probably happy, and some are probably mad. Pat Forde says that he's worse than Nick Satan, and cautions Arkansas fans against getting too excited about anything long-term.

Back in August, I touched on the fact that the Falcons team he was preparing to coach was much different than the one that was there when he signed on. Jokingly, I wondered aloud if he would try to get his old job at Louisville back before the season even started. Looks like I was a little wrong on the timeframe, and in the wrong conference, but other than that I wasn't too far off.

Petrino has a history of making these types of moves, as Forde covers in his column, so it's not too surprising to see this. A little suspect? Yes. But certainly not surprising. Though, with the ongoing Vick debacle looming over the team, I'm sure that some feel that Petrino should get a "free pass" of sorts. Personally, since I'm not a Falcons or Razorbacks fan I can't say that I care too much one way or the other. The SEC gets another solid college coach which makes the conference stronger(for at least a few games), but outside of that Petrino's move out of Atlanta doesn't really bother me. All the parties involved knew what his tendencies were before he was hired, and no matter what he said there always had to be a belief, no matter how small, that he could bolt at any time.

Greg Schiano Writes His Own Knight's Tale

If some people were writing the "Greg Schiano: A Knight's Tale" story it would go something like this:

*Grow up and play high school football in New Jersey

*Play college ball at Bucknell
*Return to old high school as assistant coach

*Become grad assistant at Rutgers, then move onto Penn State

*Coach in the NFL(Chicago Bears)

*Return to college as defensive coordinator for the Miami Hurricanes

*Head back to New Jersey as head coach at Rutgers

*Parlay success at Rutgers into head coaching position at storied program(i.e.-Michigan)

However, it seems that for the second time in less than a week that the University of Michigan has been told "no" by a potential coaching candidate.

Last week, it was Les Miles and his crazy pre-SEC title game press conference that was called just to tell everyone that he wasn't going to Ann Arbor. This, after numerous outlets had reported that Miles was heading back to his old stomping grounds.

Now, Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano has apparently told the Wolverines that he doesn't want their job, eventhough some reports had indicated on Wednesday that Schiano had tentatively accepted the job.

Schiano has achieved remarkable success at Rutgers by directing the Scarlet Knights to their third straight bowl game, but coaching in Piscataway, NJ comes with significantly less pressure and scrutiny than it does when it's being done within the confines of Michigan Stadium. Schiano has lead Rutgers to success that it's never known with regard to college football, and in doing so, he's pretty much set himself up for life there. It's hard to walk away when you're not just the king of the castle, but also the one who built it and bestowed tremendous prosperity over the entire kingdom.

At this point, it appears that Michigan's nasty case of transitive football herpes may be flaring up again. Hopefully the Gators wear their Durex uni's on New Year's Day.

Thanks to Woodmania for the picture.

Could Billy D Pull A Disappearing Act On The Gators?

The newest Billy Donovan-to-the-NBA rumor involves the newly head coach less Orlando Magic. It's a rumor that, at first glance, seems plausible due to Orlando's proximity to Gainesville and Donovan's success at the college level in Florida, but not extremely likely.

It's unlikely that Orlando would grant Donovan anything near "full control", and GM Otis Smith hasn't seemed that intent on getting Donovan since the rumors first started. However, there are a few intriguing thoughts that make the Donovan to Orlando move seem possible.

First, he still hasn't signed any type of new contract, extension, etc. It's been almost two months since Florida won their second straight national championship, and UF hasn't been able to get Donovan locked up in a long term deal. Each side is talking about it, but there's still no ink on a contract.

Second, like I mentioned in my post about Vince Carter possibly heading to Orlando, the Magic need to energize the fan base in order to rally support for a new arena. Right now, their part of the three piece project seems to be the most unpopular. Adding Billy Donovan and possibly Vince Carter would immediately draw in fans.

Third, the NBA predraft camp is happening right now in Orlando. If the Magic are going to make a push, then this is their best chance. Donovan's two time championship point guard is playing in the camp, and Noah, Horford and Brewer will be attending for the physical portion.

Fourth, while Noah, Horford and Brewer will most likely be off the board when the Magic pick at #44, Green probably will still be available. He isn't the top point guard prospect in the draft, but Donovan knows how to use him better than anyone. Although, Orlando does seem sort of set at the PG position. However, adding Green to a line-up of Dwight Howard and possibly Vince Carter would inject some optimism, and help with the solution to point #2.

Obviously, Donovan heading to Orlando is a long shot. There are more than a few examples of successful college coaches that couldn't duplicate anything near their college success at the pro level. And, Donovan is poised to become the king of men's basketball in Gainesville for years to come. Some might believe that trying to maintain a successful basketball program at an historically football rabid school would be difficult, but I think it's actually easier because the football program can help "absorb" any negativity in down years.

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks as Florida AD Jeremy Foley focuses on getting Donovan signed. What seemed like a one-time thing with Kentucky calling has snowballed into other rumors that has some Gators thinking Donovan really might not be back next year. Though, those back-to-back national championship trophies would help ease the pain of losing "Billy The Kid" for this Gator.