2009 College Preview – An Offseason Review

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Who says men don’t like soap operas? You may not know many who would admit to watching General Hospital, but most guys tune in as much as possible to the soap opera that is the college football off season. He-said she-said? Relationship troubles? Betrayal? Suspicion? It’s not an episode of As the World Turns but the travails of high-school recruits reneging on commitments, coaches jumping ship, and athletic directors on the hot seat.

Where to begin? How about with betrayal? Coaches getting canned always makes for a salacious topic. Just for kicks, let us know how many synonyms for betrayal you spot. (We’ll put the over+/under- at 7.5.)

1. Auburn: Tommy Tuberville replaced by Gene Chizik.
2. Boston College: Jeff Jagodzinski replaced by Frank Spaziani.
3. Clemson: Tommy Bowden replaced by Dabo Swinney.
4. Kansas St.: Ron Price replaced by Bill Snyder.
5. Miss. St.: Sylvester Croom replaced by Dan Mullen.
6. Purdue: Joe Tiller replaced by Danny Hope.
7. Syracuse: Greg Robinson replaced by Doug Marrone
8. Tennessee: Phil Fulmer replaced by Lane Kiffin.
9. Washington: Tyrone Willingham replaced by Steve Sarkisian.

Just a few years removed from leading Auburn to an undefeated season in the SEC (for our money the toughest conference in the land) head coach Tommy Tuberville was the victim of a double-cross of sorts when he was pushed out of town.


Former Boston College head coach Jeff Jagodzinski was accused of double-dealing for interviewing for the New York Jets head coaching job while still under contract. In certain circles what Jagodzinski did might be called an attempted sellout. One benefit is that the Eagles now have the felicitously named Dabo Swinney as head coach.
Clemson treacherously fired Tommy Bowden (son of the redoubtable Bobby Bowden) after 9 1/2 disappointing seasons. Under Bowden, the Tiger couldn’t take advantage of the currently depressed state of the ACC.

(The ACC)
Phil Fulmer was the victim of Tennessee’s perfidy, being let go after returning the Volunteers to prominence in the (much better than the Pac-10) SEC. Even though he led the Volunteers to a national title in the 90’s, Tennessee had been noticeably down in recent years.

(Tennessee in recent years)

The performance of the Orangemen under Greg Robinson could be qualified as virtually treasonous by the Syracuse faithful. Under him the Orangemen had a 3-25 record in the Big East and a
10-37 record overall.

(This is either a picture of a dead wombat or of Syracuse under Greg Robinson)

In Joe Tiller’s first two seasons at Purdue, the Boilermakers won consecutive bowl games. After that Purdue knew mostly mediocrity. And when it comes to Big Ten football, mediocrity pretty much amounts to treachery.

Washington head coach Ty Willingham may have felt himself the victim of duplicity after receiving a vote of confidence following the 2007 season. Huskies fans may have felt the same way about him as he led the school to a winless season the very next year and finished with the worst winning percentage (.229) in the university’s history.

Washington Huskies Fabric: Squares

This is just a brief preview of some of the changes in the coaching landscape for the upcoming season. Come August we’ll have more on the preseason rankings. As always, we enjoy hearing your thoughts on NCAA football. Who do you think are the top teams for 2009?

In the meantime take a look at the following fabric categories on our web site:

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