re: Gene Wojciechowski: Alabama is the 3rd best college coaching job after Texas, ND

What a lazy article. Bama has the best stadium in the country and sits in the middle of recruiting heaven.

ND has serious recruiting limitations with academics. Before Kelly how many coaches did they go through after Holtz? Sure they get pub but it isn't a Top 5 job anymore, it's a real challenge to win there and you also have no Conference Title to win, it's NC or bust.

Texas is also no longer the best job in CFB. A few years ago maybe but not now. The LHN is a plus? Seriously? Mack Brown would disagree. All it means is your team is on a permanent version of "Hard Knocks" and you get to do 3 Coaches shows a week so that dozens of people can watch. How many coaches would be thrilled to have TV cameras all over their practices and spending huge amounts of time to keep up with TV commitments on a network few people and even fewer recruits can see and almost no one cares about. Texas also doesn't own the state in recruiting anymore and with A&M in the SEC there is no legit signs that is going to change anytime soon. It will pay well and the program is valuable but it isn't the best CFB job anymore than the Dallas Cowboys isn't the best NFL job. Both have a ton of baggage.

Florida should be higher than 9th for sure, honestly I think it is neck and neck with Bama as the best job in the SEC. Unlimited resources and dominance of Florida recruiting is hard to beat.

I'd put Oregon as a Top 10 job for now as well and probably USC. Both have unlimited resources and huge sex appeal for recruits, USC can offer LA on a plate and Oregon has Nike.

I'd put at least 5 SEC jobs in the Top 10 though.

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I can assure it that it's very loud if you're standing on the field, especially since they've added both upper decks.

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Oh, I know it can get loud. I was on the field helping ESPN out during the 2008 Mississippi State game and, despite the cold and sleet, the atmosphere was very electric.

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aggressor

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GTFO you aggie

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*map*

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Cool map. It explains why Mississippi produces so much on a per capita basis.

I love opinion pieces that cite preference as fact.

Texas is not a good job. It may appear to be, but it is career suicide now.

Read this comment from HeyMoe on TexAgs (yeah, I know, but it's a good comment). This was in response to an article by HornNation on the state of longhorn athletics.

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If you ask me, this is where it started...



Texas has always had an arrogance about them, but historically it was more of a smug, smirking arrogance; a quiet, better-n-you cockiness.

But sometime in the last six years or so, their arrogance has just gone completely off the charts. And it starts at the top; president Powers, AD Dodds and Mack Brown; all of them mouthing and trash talking like basketball players on a court in Brooklyn. Posing for a magazine cover with arms folded and staring into the camera like some bad-arse motorcycle gang.....

The arrogance and ego became institutionalized;

* "We're Texas"
* "We're the Jones"
* "We didn't start it, but we'll finish it."
* "We can go wherever we want"

And the actions;

* Going behind A&M's back and trying to take them and four other schools to the PAC without talking to A&M first. And then the tu president telling the A&M president in effect. "We'll let you know when we've decided what your athletic future will be."

* Double crossing the PAC by trying to insist on their own network after they'd been told from the very beginning that such a network was a deal breaker.

* Using Baylor as their sock to try to cause legal trouble for A&M and the SEC.

* Setting up the lhn in such a way that it makes a Big 12 Network almost impossible, or at the very least much less profitable than it could be.

* The whole Thanksgiving Day game business.


And then Mack Brown frets where this sense of entitlement among his players comes from?

It comes from YOU, Mack. And Dodds. And Powers.

It creates a school full of athletes who are told during the recruiting process that, "You're Texas Good, that's why we want you.....and not that kid who goes to A&M or wherever." And they're helped along by the Bobby Burtons and Staples of the press who laud every tu athlete as the best of the best of the best.

A&M's resurrected football program? That's your fault. You could have prevented it.

HOW?

When the Big 12 came back together in the summer of 2010 Dodds and Powers could have walked back into the room and said;

"OK, we're back. It wasn't our first choice, but now that we're back we're going to use all our power and influence to make this the best conference in the country. We're going to insist on a conference network, equal revenue sharing and also that we find two quality schools to make up for the two we lost. We could demand a bigger share and get it, but we're going to be team players now. In exchange we're going to insist that every school sign a paper that makes a 20 year commitment to the Big 12, with huge exit fees if one tries to leave."

And you know what, A&M would have stayed. They would have had no choice. There were plenty of A&M people who wanted the SEC, but there was just as big a group that wanted to stay in the Big 12 and "stay close to Texas". If Texas had made those proposals, there's no way Texas A&M could have left. The pressure from the outside as well as the inside would have been too great.

But you had to push it. You couldn't help yourselves. And so here we are. Texas A&M is one of the biggest stories in college football right now. We've gone to the Carnegie Hall of college football and we're thriving. And when the SEC Network goes on the air and the TV contract gets redone, we're gonna be stinking rich.

There's a danger of course. That we get too big for our britches, that we get arrogant and start thinking our success is a right rather than something we've had to earn.

But if that happens and we need an example of what institutionalized arrogance can do to a school, we need only look to Austin.

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Wojciechowski is a moron. I don't know why anyone pays attention to him.

LSU does deserve to be above Florida for numerous reasons:

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1.) No competition for recruitment from other in-state schools. Louisiana has a very strong football pool. Florida has FSU and possibly Miami at some point in time again. There are also tons of smaller schools who have jumped into the spotlight every now and then (University of South Florida and University of Central Florda). While the smaller schools definitely aren't on par in football with Florida, they do offer some recruits who might consider getting grey shirted or walking on an option with a scholarship from the start. It matters.

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Mostly true but we don't grey shirt or at least I can't remember the last one. Walk-ons almost never produce a ton at any big school. UCF and USF rarely take a recruit we really want.

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2.) Not a whole lot of competition out of Mississippi. Mississippi produces a lot of football talent. With Southern Miss self-destructing, there hasn't been much stopping LSU from running the table here. Most of the state likes LSU a lot better than they like Alabama. Few people who actually play football have strong ties to Ole Miss or State. Those who have ties to State usually don't hate LSU.

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OK, I guess.

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3.) Baton Rouge has a very good location. It's not very far from New Orleans. It's not far from a beach. Louisiana, in general, is a very fun, great state. I would say in terms of location and the actual city, LSU comes out ahead.

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Beach you say...

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If its not the prettiest campus, its in the top 10.

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Has Gene Wojciechowski ever been to Tuscaloosa?? Our campus is beautiful and Bryant Denny is one of the best stadiums in the country. I could care less where he ranks BAMA overall but his statements are inaccurate.

Id also rank Florida and Georgia higher. Florida goes without saying... and there is tons of talent in Georgia and its a great school.

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Mostly true but we don't grey shirt or at least I can't remember the last one. Walk-ons almost never produce a ton at any big school. UCF and USF rarely take a recruit we really want.

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They aren't picking up any of your primary targets. I doubt FSU is taking that many. I do think they're picking up a fair number of guys Florida would like to have, but who might not start for a while and might never be a big impact player.

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OK, I guess.

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You guess?

LINK /

LINK /

This is a huge advantage for LSU.

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Beach you say...

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Yes, while Florida the state is great for beaches, Gainsville is not. The closest ones are not really any better, if any at all, than a Mississippi or Alabama beach.

Oxford MS is better than just about any college town in the U.S. Athens has a good reptutation, although I have never been there. T-town is pretty good. Baton Rouge is BR. Gainesville is like College Station. Not the best, but not South Bend.

The SEC's expanded footprint makes all jobs within more attractive. Get a virgina and NC school and it is ON. DNC conference and every job goes up in value.