By Nino Colla
Published: September 24, 2008 PrintEmail
Oh how the mighty have fallen…
For the first time, in a long time, as far back as I can even remember
there’s not a plethora of big name College Football programs that rank
in the Top 25, nor do most of them have a chance of sniffing it.
These teams are long-term dynasties with history books thicker than Joe
Paterno’s lenses. Call it what you want, but rather than “reloading,”
these teams have opted to “rebuild.”
Ohio State, Southern California, Florida and Oklahoma can reload given
their coaching situations. Is it any wonder that these four teams have
constantly been up inside the top of the rankings for most of this
decade?
They’ve already latched onto the boat that set to sail.
Other programs, they haven’t been so lucky to have done that.
So, in order to catch up, programs like Miami, Michigan, UCLA, and
Florida State to an extent have purchased a speed boat in order to do
so.
A new age in College Football has dawned, and while some storied
programs avoided it, others have had to adjust. However, those
adjusting might be better off for the program in the long term, despite
its setbacks and early frustrations.
It’s not just a new wave of systems or talent; it could be an attitude or environment adjustment.
Take the UCLA Bruins for an example.
Rick Neuheisel isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel here. He’s just trying to change the culture.
Sure, USC has a bit of a stranglehold on the talent in the area, but
that isn’t anything a good old fashioned attitude adjustment can’t fix.
Change the outlook of your program and all of a sudden some of those
recruits that have been picking USC over UCLA might pause long enough
to consider UCLA.
Little by little, UCLA can get back in the game. It isn’t rocket
science to understand that if a recruit sees a certain atmosphere
within in a program and he hears from people currently on the team that
it’s a great place to be and that the coach is a great guy to play
for…Well, hell…Just add in the fact that you could play at UCLA a lot
quicker than you could at UCLA. You got something brewing.
You don’t have to bring in a new scheme or anything to make a program
like UCLA a contender again; you simply need a change in the way you
operate.
You could probably say the same thing about a program like Miami. The
Hurricanes were in need of a serious facelift before they hired Randy
Shannon to take over the program. Maybe the culture isn’t getting
tweaked too much, but they did need to go back to their roots.
Shannon’s solution was simple. Stop letting South Florida gobble up all the talent.
Is it any wonder why programs like USF are on the rise? Scholarships
are now limited, which have an impact, but some teams have simply
gotten away from what made them great.
Bring back that Hurricane pride, storm back into southern Florida and take back what you used to claim.
That could have something to do with the attitude, but make no mistake about it; it’s mostly about the talent.
Florida State probably doesn’t need a change in talent they bring in;
they’ve had probably some of the best roll through there the past few
years, just look at some of the rosters in the NFL.
They just needed a new scheme.
“Ride the wave of the new era” was the thought the Seminoles had, and
that they did. To cure the problem they brought in Jimbo Fisher to fix
the offense.
The talent is still there, the attitude is just fine, and they just
needed a way to maximize all of it. Consider this job a tune-up.
Sometimes though, you just need a whole new car. Trash the old one and
purchase a brand new one that will set you up for years to come.
That brings us to Michigan, who upon losing their coach, decided they better get with the program, and fix their own.
Not only has Rich Rodriguez adjusted the attitude to his liking, he’s
bringing in new talent to fit a new scheme. Soon, that Michigan swagger
will follow, with a little bit of Rodriguez air of attitude.
The system and style Michigan had in place had been working. But, the
Wolverines didn’t want to let go and realize that the new era was
underway. They were able to stick around, no doubt, they still had the
talent.
But, it was time to push forward, before they were left completely
behind. Lloyd Carr was a great coach and they were winning games with
the way he ran things, so I can understand the decision not to move
forward.
But Carr’s retirement opened up the possibilities for Michigan.
Athletic Director Billy Martin wasn’t afraid to go for it when he
realized it. It’s the reason they paid an arm and a leg to get Rich
Rodriguez to come to Ann Arbor. They needed a new brand of everything
and they weren’t afraid to invest for the long term.
Some programs didn’t need to. Some programs just needed a few tweaks.
One program that seemed to be ahead of the curve was Nebraska, when
they brought in Bill Callahan to change not only the culture, but the
system.
Uh, bad move to say the least.
Callahan didn’t change it for the better, he actually made it worse.
Nebraska didn’t need full-blown change; they needed to restore the
attitude they once had. Callahan changed the attitude, but he buttered
it up.
It wasn’t the black shirt defense; it was the red-shirt offense. Wimps…
His west-coast offense was supposed to bring a new style to Nebraska,
it didn’t work out.
Luckily for Nebraska, they fell into the good fortune of restoring that
attitude with Bo Pelini. They won’t miss the boat and their back on
track to being Nebraska.
Be it luck, or thinking ahead, teams like USC were prepared for the new
wave. They had either the good fortune or the cunning instincts to
bring in Pete Carroll for a talent facelift. Oklahoma did the same.
Ohio State had the wits to rid themselves of John Cooper to undergo a
change in attitude. Florida adapted to their surroundings and changed
the system with their new coach.
There were and still are plenty of ways to adapt to the new era of College Football, it just depends on your program.
Some teams got lucky, some teams were smart. Some teams had to make a decision and others just stuck with what got them there.
A few programs might be left in the dust, only to return when another
new era of College Football starts. Who knows when that will be? But
maybe, just maybe, this time more of the historic programs will be
prepared for it.
