Gus Malzahn Extended at Auburn; Woody Widenhofer Still Available

All I’ve seen is talk about the lawsuits, but not about whether he did anything wrong.

What is our assurance that he can be trusted with the welfare of the students?

Franklin is not a guy I associate with “good offense”. He may be a decent enough recruiter here in the Maryland area, but I can tell you first hand that he (and Ralph Friedgen) regularly get out-recruited by Larry Johnson, Sr. up at Penn State.

Furthermore, I’ve NEVER seen one of his Maryland teams have anything resembling an explosive and/or innovative offense.

Vandy could save money, if that’s the goal, and just give the job to Herb Hand.

In a way this should be the most attractive job in the country – insane amounts of cash for a very low threshold of success. Hell, two non-losing seasons back-to-back would be the best performance since Steve Sloan in the early 70s. Schedule four sorry non-conf games, beat Kentucky and Ole Miss, get lucky somewhere once a year, and POW, you’re a genius (and probably writing your own ticket to the next job, but still).

I’d love to see some of these so-called genius coaches nut up and prove how good they actually are.

…I don’t think ANYONE thinks Mike Quade is going to lift the curse.

As for Vandy, if Army can be bowl eligible and Navy can be downright good running the triple option, why not give that a chance at Vandy again? I was there when DiNardo was running the eyebone, and we won 5 games with Ronny Gordon at Quarterback! Navy and Army can’t have facilities that are SO much better than we have, can they?

Look at Stanford…admittedly, the PAC-10 is not the SEC, but they are consistently decent.

I wish I could get more fired up about this hire, but when the entire world knows this wasn’t your first pick, it’s going to be damn hard to sit there and watch him put on the hat and feel like we’re going to make the leap to adequacy we thought was in the bag. I’m pinning a LOT on this notion that he is a hell of a recruiter – Maryland is such a mixed bag and the ACC such a show (it’s not the Big Least, I’ll give it that), it’s hard to know what his offense is going to look like translated to the SEC East.

And next year’s schedule is a ballbuster, make no mistake. Right now I see one sure win and two oughtas (LOL Miss and Wake) but I’ve got to be honest, right now 6-6 looks about as likely as Paris Hilton in a convent.

I can’t get remotely excited about James Franklin. He may be young and high energy, and a minority, but there is NOTHING special about his career at Maryland that leads one to believe he’d be able to succeed in a situation like Vandy. Maryland’s facilities are better, they have a better captive recruiting base in DC and they don’t have those pesky academic standards to deal with.

For the last few years, there have been some TERRIBLE offenses at Maryland, and none of them have been particularly innovative in the kind of way that would lead you to believe that they’d be able to succeed with LESS talent. True, Maryland was better this year, mainly because they lucked into finding a stud QB.

Finally, NOBODY up here is sad to see him go. Not that they want him fired, but they aren’t out picketing in the streets like they were at Auburn. There’s no talk of million dollar raises to keep him in College Park.

with pretty much all of what you said here. Before the whole Malzahn distraction I was also more excited at the prospect of getting Roman than Franklin. Stanford’s offense has racked up offensive numbers during a stunning season vs better opposition than Maryland faces. Meanwhile, Maryland is going to….the Military Bowl (after going 2-10 last year). Big wow.

Also, Stanford is what Vandy aspires to, they have similar academic requirements—seems like a natural step to go after someone who has succeeded in similar environment. I guess we have to trust that DW has intereviewed these guys and must have seen something that convinced him that whoever he hires is the best man for the job, despite what the resumes appear to tell us.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Bobby Johnson’s weak point was his offensive coordinator (and/or his loyalty to him). So, if we get Franklin, here’s to hoping he doesn’t botch that vastly important decision.

Ultimately though, it will take more than one man (the new head coach, for example) to turn Vandy football around. Gotta spend the money on bettter facilities, recruiting, the stadium..go all in. Sounds like they may be ready to step up in those areas. Let’s hope so.

I don’t know enough about the hire to have a firm opinion on the guy – nor I suspect do most people. He’s the coach in waiting at Maryland. If Florida takes Texas’s coach in waiting, then I guess it makes some sense that we get Maryland’s. I like that he is young and black. I like that he has done a great job developing quarterbacks (Josh Freeman and Danny O’Brien). I like that he was an NFL coach, albeit in a relatively small role and for a brief stint. I don’t like that Maryland went 2-10 in 2009 or that they are far from an offensive juggernaut.

It’s a less exciting hire than Malzahn, but if people are going to credit Malzahn for Mustain and Newton, then Franklin deserves credit for Freeman (2007 under Franklin was arguably his best season at K-State) and O’Biren (2010 ACC rookie of the year – and hardly the top recruit in the conference).

…Cam Newton got any siblings?

Also, conference solidarity be d____d, I shall be rooting for Oregon like the very devil and could not be more enthused for them were I to strip down to the nude, stuff my posterior with feathers and proceed to quack about the house for five hours on January the Tenth.

(finishes armagnac; slides sullenly into back seat of Dusenberg, orders chauffer home)