Jay Kersting's Blog

So Mizzou is set to play Arkansas on New Years Day at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.  Arkansas closed out their season by defeating LSU in triple overtime and knocking them out of the National Championship hunt. 

Well, that was the wisdom at the time.  In the 2007 season, that statement never should have been made. 

So now that the bowl games are set, the coaching changes continue.

Lets go back to Arkansas for a second.  After that big win over LSU, Houston Nutt's time in Fayetteville was locked in for a long time.   Two days can be a long time, right?  So while Arkansas, where long time Athletic Director and former coach Frank Broyles retires before the Cotton Bowl, is looking for their new coach, Reggie Herring takes over for the bowl game.  Incoming AD Jeff Long is now courting his friend Tommy Bowden for the gig.  Bowden is getting $1.3 million now at Clemson, looking to get a raise there up to $1.7 million....but Arkansas might give him the $2 million that Nutt was getting. 

Now, I don't know about you, but is it worth moving your family for just an additional $300k a year? 

OK, so this is going to be the FOURTH team this season that Mizzou will face with a coaching change.  Of course, this one is happening BEFORE they play.  But I doubt that the new coach will handle the bowl game...well, the NEW, NEW coach.  Reggie Herring is a NEW coach, for now.

Other changes of note....yesterday UCLA fired Karl Dorrell.  Normally, this would not bother me. I have less love for ucla than I do for even Florida.  In fact, my distaste for these two schools is so great that if they played each other in a game, I'd be for the meteor. Not a dinosaur killer, just enough to improve the gene pool.  Well, this firing leaves me a little concerned because of the collateral damage.  The bruins O-line coach is someone that I got to know a little bit, Bobby Connelly. 

I was supposed to meet Bobby back in 2003 following the Tennessee-Alabama game.  However, one of his lineman broke his leg and he spent his time with his player that night.  In 2005, following an Alabama win, he came over to his neighbors house, my good friend Roger Thompson.  He was enjoying a win over a Tennessee team that was good, but had fallen apart following that game.  As is tradition in this game, there were post-game cigars, something started by Bear Bryant himself.  In defeat, we enjoyed cigars with Bobby.  

The following year, Roger and Deb had moved their family to Indiana.  When they came down to Knoxville, Roger and I met with Bobby the night before the game. 

Anyhow, I don't know him well, but I do know him.  I certainly hope things work out for what is best for Bob and Rocky.  Good people and they deserve better...of course, in my opinion, most anything is better than ucla.

Other coaching changes are sort of out there where you don't think much about them.  Not at a school you follow, no one you know is working there.

But what else makes it easy to build the distance from these jobs, is the money associated with them.  How many people do you know that can relate to seven figure paychecks?

I know many people are envious, or outrightly jealous, of those who get those big paydays.  And that is understandable.  But my mom once pointed out, if you want to trade places with someone, would you really trade for EVERYTHING?  That is where I am not sure.  I would love that big paycheck, but I am not sure I want all that pressure.  Nor am I sure that I would want to trade the years of TINY pay to get to the level of the big checks.  Considering that most who take that path never get there, I doubt I would venture down that path.

When you consider that your actions and success, or lack there of, can effect others lives, I'd rather not jump into that mess.

For now, I will sit back and watch what happens on the college football coaching roller coaster.  And be thankful that I am not on that ride.