The Year of the Coach

More than any other year in recent memory, head coaches in college football have dominated the headlines. In the last few weeks alone, there have been three major stories involving head coaches of BCS teams; Urban Meyer did his best Brett Favre impersonation, Mark Mangino was fired for mistreating players, and Mike Leach was supposedly let go for the same reason, though we will probably never get the full story on that one.

The season began with Lane Kiffin shooting off his mouth as soon as someone put a microphone in front of it, and the coaching future of both Charlie Weiss and Bobby Bowden dominated headlines virtually every week. Kiffin then made another splash by leaving the Vols and heading back west to be the head man at USC. The move so angered Vols fans that there is a referendum to name the local sewage plant after Kiffin.

Why are these coaches in the headlines more than their star players (with the exception of Tim Tebow)? Coaches have always been an important part of the college football landscape and some legendary names such as Bear Bryant are as big as the college football programs they built, but it seems as if the media frenzy over coaches gets a bit more frenzied each year.

There are several issues that can shed some light on this, though it must first be mentioned, that with the excessive amount of media outlets and forums today, everyone is more in the news than ever before. Regardless of this, coaches are becoming more and more important and thus they are under more scrutiny and get more media attention, especially when they do something wrong.

Money is the number one reason for the increased attention given to head football coaches. A top-ranked football team brings money to a university through increased attendance, major bowl payouts and the selling of more licensed apparel. In addition, it brings prestige, which can then lead to higher application rates and either expansion of enrollment or more selective acceptance guidelines and higher tuition.

Needing to keep up with the past is another reason that coaches are so much scrutinized presently. At universities with decorated football histories such as Notre Dame, Alabama, and USC to name only a few, the facilities and other costs of the football program grow with success. If success stalls, less money comes in, but that beautiful new stadium and the wonderful new practice and training facilities still need to be paid for. The high priced coach that isn't winning enough still gets his check. These types of programs cannot afford to lose games for too long, which is why Bobby Bowden was forced out, Charlie Weiss was canned and why they were calling for Joe Paterno's head a few years ago.

The right coach can quickly bring a historic program back to glory (Pete Carroll, Mack Brown, Bob Stoops) or can build a program from nothing (Frank Beamer, Bobby Bowden, Joe Paterno). Because of this, colleges throw big money at these coaches, but with this money comes an incredible amount of responsibility. The coach becomes the face of the program, sometimes even the university. Players come and go every few years, but coaches are around for five or ten or twenty years.

Limiting scholarships to 85 per school has made a big difference as well. At a time when there was no scholarship limit, coaches such as Bear Bryant would give scholarships to players he knew would probably never play at Alabama simply to keep them from his competitors. Coaches are now forced to be more selective in recruiting and to be better evaluators of talent and potential. A coach that knows how to recruit and evaluate talent is a hot commodity.

Because of the increasing importance of a football program due to the money and responsibility involved, coaches are more in the spotlight than ever before. Coaches will probably become even more important in the years to come as the smaller conferences gain ground and the number of competitors for players increases and the money available increases. Expect more coaches to be fired more quickly in the coming years, and you can absolutely expect more headlines about your team's head man.