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re: Chips are down: Is there a fired coach you once hated but look back more fondly now?
Posted on 7/2/26 at 1:27 pm to ManBearSharkReb
Posted on 7/2/26 at 1:27 pm to ManBearSharkReb
He did the same with Danny Ford players in 98 and 99.
Just like with Orgeron's players, he didn't take advantage.
Just like with Orgeron's players, he didn't take advantage.
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Posted on 7/2/26 at 5:16 pm to madmaxvol
He was way cooler and had much more personality than boring Saban 
Posted on 7/2/26 at 5:21 pm to Marcelo Lavanda
I absolutely despised Les Miles' offensive philosophy, goofy antics, wearing a jacket in 100 degree Aug heat, and time mgmt skills but appreciate the toughness his teams had.
(especially after enduring 4 years of soft, no personality, arse hat Brian Kelly!)
(especially after enduring 4 years of soft, no personality, arse hat Brian Kelly!)
Posted on 7/2/26 at 5:26 pm to Marcelo Lavanda
Spurrier, no doubt.
Never hated, but despised...
That ol' Billy Goat is a hoot.
Never hated, but despised...
That ol' Billy Goat is a hoot.
Posted on 7/2/26 at 5:28 pm to Jauquismos
quote:
wearing a jacket in 100 degree Aug heat
Now that's weird.
Posted on 7/2/26 at 5:36 pm to Robert Shields
quote:
Houston Nutt. He was despised by most of the fanbase and I do think it was time to move on, but 2012 onward, in hindsight, has made me much more aware of what a solid job he actually did.
As a former Hog fan, I agree with this. He was quite a bit better than everyone else they've had except Petrino.
Posted on 7/2/26 at 5:49 pm to Marcelo Lavanda
Malzahn. I felt like he had given up on being a football coach, especially after he was parading around in sports cars. But really, he was just in a tough situation with Alabama having a historic run and Georgia turning into a dynasty. He certainly had some asinine play calls and let too many games slip away, including the NC. I think he was a good coach though all considering.
Posted on 7/2/26 at 6:50 pm to Marcelo Lavanda
Les Miles no doubt. ..well not hated but disliked. Now? Wish he was my uncle and would love to get him and Spurrier drunk and hear the things they say.
This post was edited on 7/2/26 at 6:51 pm
Posted on 7/2/26 at 7:07 pm to Arksulli
quote:
Arksulli
I didn't hate him but I miss Coach O blundering along the sidelines. And I don't say that as an insult. We need more coaches that look like they'd kill and eat the opposing HC during the post game handshake.
If you have never read "Letters from Coach O" circa 2006 or so, boy are you in for a treat. Just read them with someone nearby who can arrange for medical help for cracked ribs from laughing so hard.
Letters from Coach O - vol 1-7
quote:
"I was still starvin', though, so I put on some gym shorts (per the terms of my contract with Ole Miss, I had to) and a pair of flip-flops and headed downtown to Smitty's. Went through the hole in the fence around the yard. Every damn fence I build has a hole in it. Anyway, went to Smitty's, kicked the door open and yelled "any damn Starkvillers in here can just head on back to Brokeback Mountain right now." Everybody in the place said "Hotty Toddy, O!" so I sat on down, ordered a dozen scrambled and a bottle of green tabasco sauce and head-butted the guy in the next booth.
quote:
“So we headed back to Oxford. But we’re going to keep recruiting Tebeaux, even if he is leading us on. Believe me, if a boy is possessed by Satan himself, Auburn has some built-in advantages. But at Ole Miss, we ARE NOT QUITTERS! Sometimes, recruiting is easy. You go in, drink a beer with Daddy, eat some of Mama’s fried chicken, then you beat the hell out of the boy until he commits. You’d hope they were all that simple, but they ain’t. “But a boy who can levitate four feet in the air and spew green vomit, I can use that boy down on the goal-line. That boy is BY-GOD OLE MISS MATERIAL!! So I'm going to keep on workin'..."
This post was edited on 7/2/26 at 7:13 pm
Posted on 7/2/26 at 7:25 pm to StringedInstruments
Malzahn was about the only coach in the SEC getting any wins at all against Saban in those years. 3-5 record I think plus he had Saban crying to the NCAA that they had to slow the offenses down.
Posted on 7/2/26 at 7:42 pm to iglass
Coach O was who he was. In a way that's admirable. Warts and all he wasn't trying to corporate speak.
Posted on 7/2/26 at 9:33 pm to hogcard1964
If you wanted to see what Nutt would have been like in the SEC if he stayed around then go look at his final two seasons at Ole Miss.
Posted on 7/3/26 at 12:43 am to iglass
Wait wait wait - are those real?
I just spit my beer out multiple times reading a couple haha
I just spit my beer out multiple times reading a couple haha
Posted on 7/3/26 at 9:45 am to LSU713Tiger
quote:
LSU713Tiger
LOL, no... but they COULD'VE been. You can just HEAR him saying that stuff in your head, amirite?
Posted on 7/3/26 at 11:03 am to Robert Shields
quote:
Houston Nutt. He was despised by most of the fanbase and I do think it was time to move on, but 2012 onward, in hindsight, has made me much more aware of what a solid job he actually did. He'd have clunkers against bad teams and then pull off an insane upset, it was definitely frustrating, but he never fielded a team that would go Ofer in conference (at least at Arkansas).
For our generation (and i'm mid 40's), watching the rise of message boards starting around 2004-2005 up to his last year at Arkansas and how enough internet based fans banded together to run Nutt off was amazing. That's exactly what happened, the vocal internet fans ran him off. Then landed Petrino who carried the torch, then 12 years later had a chance to bring back a contrite Petrino and ran him off. I don't think the Arkansas fans wanna win, they just want a new coach every 3 years. Take out Nutt and Petrino's years, and Petrino won with Nutt's players plus some homegrown talent which they don't get anymore, you've got 2 coaches in 14 years with a winning SEC record and outside of them Arkansas is about 27% vs the SEC all time.
Posted on 7/3/26 at 11:33 am to dchog
I don't agree with that. I think players at Ole Miss turned on him b/c they realized he had an axe to grind against Arkansas . That's a hang up he had, ego. When he was coaching at Arkansas that was usually a good thing. Remember when no one had heard of Dexter McCluster until half way through the 2nd year when he ran for about 250 yards against Arkansas? Every time he took the ball he ran at least 5 yards to the sideline and Petrino had no way to prepare or stop him. If he had those 2 bad years at Arkansas he did at Ole Miss I could see making a change then but that should have been decided by play on the field not idiot fans that thought they could win more. Arkansas will never be more than "mediocre" in football. Running Nutt off after his last 2 years at Arkansas which isn't even a football school was probably the dumbest coaching move in the history of all sports.
Posted on 7/3/26 at 12:30 pm to carguymatt
Nutt quit in his last two seasons at Ole Miss. Both Arkansas and Ole Miss have made him millions by getting him fired twice. Good job on Nutt for being the smartest of the three as he had an early retirement.
It was certainly a good thing at Arkansas if you liked run heavy no balanced offenses, monthly or sometimes weekly arrests of thugs and druggies. Getting blown out 2-3 times a season and not showing up in bowl games when it meant more back then.
The worst of is having enough talent to make BCS level bowls and win an SEC title in 98, 99, 03, 06, 07 seasons but continued to waste those opportunities.
It was certainly a good thing at Arkansas if you liked run heavy no balanced offenses, monthly or sometimes weekly arrests of thugs and druggies. Getting blown out 2-3 times a season and not showing up in bowl games when it meant more back then.
The worst of is having enough talent to make BCS level bowls and win an SEC title in 98, 99, 03, 06, 07 seasons but continued to waste those opportunities.
Posted on 7/3/26 at 2:01 pm to Marcelo Lavanda
Will Muschamp
Posted on 7/3/26 at 2:03 pm to m2pro
quote:
Spurrier.
I'm confused. Spurrier wasn't fired.
Anyways...I would definitely throw Les Miles out there. He was a character.
Posted on 7/3/26 at 5:23 pm to carguymatt
The stupid message boards had nothing to do with running Nutt off.
He made that decision himself and his superiors didn't want to fire him and tried the golden hand cuffs, he said no. He wanted to resign and still get his money, so they fired him and made it look like he resigned.
He was floating his name out for months before the start of the 2007 season. He agreed to take the Ole Miss job once Orgeron was fired. Frank Broyles supposedly helped him get that job.
Bringing back Petrino was a mistake. This wasn't the Petrino in his prime but a coach that had his best years behind him and the 2025 season was worst than the Chad years because they tried.
Arkansas wouldn't be going through so many coaching changes had they stopped hiring bad coaches in the first place. None of them except Bert had some shocking ending.
Nutt was such a good recruiter that Petrino in his first season had to take redshirts off of most if not all of his freshman class.
Arkansas still has talent in the state but Pittman was too lazy to recruit players such as Braxton Lindsey From Rogers and his teammate Jeff Regan that would have helped Arkansas a lot.
He made that decision himself and his superiors didn't want to fire him and tried the golden hand cuffs, he said no. He wanted to resign and still get his money, so they fired him and made it look like he resigned.
He was floating his name out for months before the start of the 2007 season. He agreed to take the Ole Miss job once Orgeron was fired. Frank Broyles supposedly helped him get that job.
Bringing back Petrino was a mistake. This wasn't the Petrino in his prime but a coach that had his best years behind him and the 2025 season was worst than the Chad years because they tried.
Arkansas wouldn't be going through so many coaching changes had they stopped hiring bad coaches in the first place. None of them except Bert had some shocking ending.
Nutt was such a good recruiter that Petrino in his first season had to take redshirts off of most if not all of his freshman class.
Arkansas still has talent in the state but Pittman was too lazy to recruit players such as Braxton Lindsey From Rogers and his teammate Jeff Regan that would have helped Arkansas a lot.
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