Article of the day - Coaching Succession Plans

I generally try to feature an article each day from another site. Usually they're from Penn State or Big Ten blogs, sometimes from other sites. Please check out the author's Web site. I always supply the link in the introduction.

You knew it was only a matter of time before some columnist had his rant on the new trend of choosing a head coach's successor. The first one I saw was from our dear old friend over at ESPN.com, Pat Forde. Actually, this one isn't as bad as the Ohio State bash-fest he wrote a while back. This article has some semblance of thought to it. So, without boring you anymore, here is Pat Forde's take on the coaching succession fad.

Those newfangled succession plans shouldn't be just for coachesBy Pat Forde
ESPN.com

Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for coming for this announcement. I've decided it's time to reveal my succession plan here at ESPN.com:

When I retire from column writing, it has been arranged for my 12-year-old son, Mitchell, to take over. (This is me now, but ESPN.com couldn't get a better shot of Forde's daught--er, I mean, son.)

All the suits in Bristol have signed off on it. I'd introduce you to the Columnist-in-Waiting, but I can't get the Wii control out of his hand long enough to put on his clip-on tie and pose for pictures.

I know you'll be excited about this. Many of you already think I write at a seventh-grade level, especially readers from the great state of Ohio, so the transition should be seamless. But it won't be immediate.

Sometime in the next 20 years, I'll shut down the old laptop and turn it over to my kid. When in the next 20 years? I have no idea. Probably when they pry my stiff, dead fingers off the keyboard, but don't ask because I won't tell.

Determining a timetable is not the point. The points are these:

A. For me to exert control past the termination of my tenure and into the next.

B. To force my employer to buy into it.

C. To show how much political capital I've earned during my tenure.

This is the hottest trend in Sportsworld -- naming your own successor without naming a succession date. Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts did it this week, establishing assistant Jim Caldwell as the next coach of the Colts at whatever point Dungy decides to join his family in Tampa.

(I know it's almost sacrilege to say anything bad about Dungy, but does anyone else find it a bit odd that the alleged No. 1 family man in the NFL sent his family to Florida while he stays in Indy to chase another championship?)

Succession Mania is all over the place in college. Especially basketball: Bob Knight will be succeeded at Texas Tech by Pat Knight, time TBD; Lute Olson will be succeeded by Kevin O'Neill at Arizona, time TBD; Jim Boeheim will be succeeded by Mike Hopkins at Syracuse, time TBD. Sean Sutton, Tony Bennett and Keno Davis already have taken over for their dads at Oklahoma State, Washington State and Drake, respectively.

In college football, Kentucky just named offensive coordinator Joker Phillips as the heir apparent to Rich Brooks. Offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher has been slotted to replace Bobby Bowden at Florida State, should Bowden eventually decide he doesn't want to coach until he's 100. Purdue just hired Eastern Kentucky coach Danny Hope as an apprentice to replace Joe Tiller.

The Purdue deal at least comes with a finite retirement date, effective after next season. The rest of them? Whenever the old buzzard in charge feels the urge.

Hey, lots of kids and/or other handpicked successors take over family businesses. But in most of those cases, the guy turning over the top job owns the business. In sports, there allegedly are school presidents and team owners calling the shots -- but apparently not all the shots.

Washington State's Tony Bennett is one successor who has been as good as promised.
Some of these agreements have worked out splendidly. Tony Bennett has dramatically improved the product at Washington State, and Keno Davis has done the same in a breakthrough season at Drake.

But the open-ended succession scenarios are probably worth about as much as the paper used for the press releases. They might last as long as a ninth-grader's oral commitment. Coaches already walk out on contracts and commitments all the time; what makes you think this will be any different?

For instance: Fisher came to Florida State last year for a handsome sum. On Dec. 7, the school announced that Fisher was its choice to succeed Bowden at a later date. About two weeks later, Fisher listened to West Virginia's overture about becoming the next head coach of the Mountaineers. He decided to stay in Tallahassee, but the succession agreement hardly deterred him from looking at another job almost immediately.

(One other thing about Fisher: He has a great rep in coaching circles, which helped earn him superstar coordinator pay at FSU. But in his first season the Seminoles deteriorated from 45th nationally in scoring offense and 70th in total offense under the excoriated Jeff Bowden to 90th in scoring offense and 80th in total offense under the sainted Fisher. Hm.)

Kentucky could be facing a similar situation with other schools making runs at Phillips. Brooks' oft-stated goal in Lexington is to become the longest-tenured head coach of the Wildcats. That would be 10 years on the job, and Brooks is halfway there. If Kentucky's offense keeps lighting up scoreboards the way it has the past two years under Phillips' command, do you really think he's going to sit around until 2013 waiting for a job?

My suspicion is that Kentucky and FSU were trying to pre-empt other job offers, while assuaging recruits at the same time. Most of these collegiate succession arrangements are used to convey continuity on the recruiting front -- so commit now, kid, and quit worrying about who your coach will be.

There probably are or have been other succession arrangements that went unannounced. Nobody was shocked when Bill Guthridge took over for Dean Smith at North Carolina, for example. But as Michigan football is likely to find out with Rich Rodriguez, breaking out of a familial mold can eventually serve a stale program well.

Change is often good. Job searches that expand beyond the usual suspects with ties to a school or a beloved coach can be beneficial. (See: Rick Pitino at Kentucky, Pete Carroll at USC, Urban Meyer at Florida, and so forth.)

But quite frankly, that kind of thinking is for other suckers. Here at ESPN.com, I'm riding the succession wave. My 12-year-old kid is taking over this space -- just as soon as he learns how to type faster than 18 words a minute.

Pat Forde is a national columnist for ESPN.com. He can be reached at ESPN4D@aol.com.

More below the fold...

Pat Forde: (BCS) Ambulance Chaser

I'm not sure if he was super busy celebrating with his SEC lovers, or if he was completely plastered when he wrote it; ESPN's very own Pat Forde managed to write an article about the BCS Championship Game losers, Ohio State, that had no coherence, no journalistic restraint, and definately no bipartisan view of college football whatsoever. I know, that's his job--create Web site hits and (ESPN) talk show banter. But this article went way over the line between educated opinion and drunken redneck rant.

"Because next year's BCS National Championship Game will be played in Miami, and the Ohio State Buckeyes aren't invited. Especially if the Southeastern Conference champion is invited."

Gee, thanks Pat, you've already managed to taint next season's (mythical) national champion. Tell you what, let's just say, for one season, the Big Ten has to play in the FCS. Then, if you feel like it, you can "let" the Big Ten back into the tree house. In fact, let's just go all out and say, "Until further notice, the SEC champion will be proactively given each and every national title, regardless of record or bowl win. Likewise, all past SEC champions will be retroactively awarded each and every national title ever given in the history of college football." Oh, but I almost forgot, "The Big Ten conference champion, until further notice, will have to go sit in the corner until they learn they suck."
Let's get back to the point. I will now quote Pat's article, and follow each excerpt with actual facts which completely blow up Pat's feeble attempt at a point.

"Nobody wants to see it a third time. Give Ohio State credit for consistently being very good -- but until Jim Tressel's team proves it can step up to the highest level of competition and actually stay on the field with an SEC opponent, stay away.
When the program's bowl record is 0-9 against the SEC, the evidence is overwhelming."

Pat, if the highest level of competition is the SEC, then why aren't they their own super-mega-football bowl subdivision? In case you didn't realize, James Laurinaitis and Chris Wells weren't on John Cooper's squad that lost to South Carolina, or Earl Bruce's teams in the '80s. So all but last season's loss to Florida are irrelevant. Go look at the Big Ten's overall record versus the SEC. You're probably too lazy to look it up, so it's: But LSU plays in the absolute toughest conference in the nation.

"Been there, overcome that -- three times, in fact. They were down 10 against Florida and Auburn and Alabama. All SEC opponents, not coincidentally."

Florida lost to Michigan, Auburn lost to South Florida, and Alabama--drum roll please--lost to SunBelt powerhouse LOUISIANA-MONROE. Oh yeah, Florida lost in Orlando, Auburn lost in Auburn, and Alabama lost in Tuscaloosa. Louisiana-Monroe lost to 2-10 North Texas.

"The Big Ten, by contrast, has been the baby's crib. Ohio State has coasted through that league 15-1 the past two seasons, only to collapse in the face of an SEC champ with a lower BCS standing and a worse record."

Just who gives the SEC champ that lower BCS standing? Did the entire Ohio State team get to vote LSU below them? Last I checked, it was the writers and coaches voting LSU lower than Ohio State. Last I checked, Ohio State never demanded they belonged in the title game. Last I checked, if LSU didn't sustain so many key injuries, they would have been No. 1 all season long and undefeated. And last I checked, LSU was ranked No. 2 in the preseason, and Ohio State was No. 10. So are you really that surprised that LSU won? You shouldn't be. Or are you acting surprised for ratings and readership?
I should know better. I should expect this from a writer like Pat, though.

"The Buckeyes have achieved just enough the past two seasons to rise to a level where they're incompetent."

Please, Ohio State's rise was only possible with the clatter of the sports writers' keyboards and the ranting into the microphones. The media has no one to blame for this second consecutive BCS bomb, but themselves. This time, it was Pat Forde chasing after the ambulance, on its way to clean up after another BCS train wreck. He saw the opportunity to pounce on a situation, offering an opinion which is in almost direct contradiction of what he had said prior to the game. From his pre-bowl Forde-Yard-Dash:

"The Buckeyes lead the nation in total D, while the Tigers are third. LSU has had time to heal a lot of battered bodies, perhaps most importantly that of defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey, who has been dragging himself through the last half of the season on a bad leg. His matchup against star Buckeyes tackles Kirk Barton and Alex Boone will make the trenches well worth watching. But it's on the perimeter where LSU should have the edge with a similar speed advantage to what Florida enjoyed last year. Hard to see Ohio State QB Todd Boeckman (four interceptions, zero touchdowns his last two games) making enough plays to beat LSU.

Dash pick: LSU 27, Ohio State 14."

Pat seemed pretty damn sure LSU would win by a large margin. So what's so surprising to him? If he knew LSU would win, then fine. But don't come out a day later and then go on a tangent saying how horrid the Buckeyes and the Big Ten are--a day later, when Pat could smuggly compose his article knowing the game's final score. There was not one hint of "I told you so" in the article, something you would come to expect from a person who believes in what they write. But after all, it's all Ohio State's fault. The Buckeyes should have told the BCS, "No, I think we'll pass this season. We want to go to the Rose Bowl instead." Shame on you Ohio State. Shame on you Jim Tressel. How dare you, wanting to compete for a national title. The voters and the coaches begged you, pleaded that you don't bully them into voting "Ohio State: No. 1." Pat Forde is a leader, a man among boys when it comes to chosing who should play in the national championship, and we should all bow down to him. For it is he who should be the sole dictator of college football, and no petty minion should dare question his word, especially if that word says the Big Ten sucks balls.

"And he should know not to bring that weak Big Ten stuff back to the BCS National Championship Game again next year."

Well, I guess Ohio State AD Gene Smith has no choice. The Buckeyes should just drop their football program. They don't deserve to play the game. Ohio State, you can just take your toys and go home! You're not my friend anymore, and you can't come to my birthday party, either!

More below the fold...