College Coach of the Year

[Tom Baker]

Taking an informal poll as to who has done the best head coaching job this season. I've narrowed it down to a few choices:

Coach / Team / Why?
Bob Stoops / Oklahoma / Duh
Lou Holtz / S. Carolina / From 0-11 to 7-4&bowl
George O'Leary / Georgia Tech / 9-2 in "rebuilding" yr
R. Neuheisel / Washington / 10-1 & beat Miami
T. Bowden / Clemson / 9-2; rebuilt program
F. Beamer / Va. Tech / 10-1 with new "D"
T. Tuberville / Auburn / Auburn was dead 2 yrs ago
B. Bowden / FSU / Could be headed 4 repeat
B. Davis / Miami (FL)/ Back in champ. contention

There may have been some I neglected, but I think that's a fairly decent pool of candidates. Stoops is probably the most obvious choice. Neuheisel has done good work in Seattle but not head and shoulders above the rest of the field, Washington could easily have been 7-4 or 8-3 with different breaks (they could also be 11-0 tho). Lou Holtz is the feel good story of the year but his team collapsed down the stretch & probably played above their talent level most of the year. Ditto for Tommy Bowden at Clemson. Frank Beamer was the man last year, in a tougher conf. the Hokies would not be 10-1. Bobby Bowden's won enough. Butch Davis is talking too much and played McNeese State.
Outside of Stoops the two best candidates are O'Leary and Tuberville. Edge to O'Leary because he lost the Heisman Trophy runner up but still managed to play FSU close (some would say the Jackets were robbed in that game) and lost to N.C. State in OT. If not for Stoops, O'Leary would be hands down the coach of the year, IMHO.

[Marc]

I will have to say Lou Holtz. I mean, South Carolina didn't win a game last year, and now they're going to a bowl. You might be right with Stoops, he has done an excellent job, but my choice is Holtz, who has taken his team out of the dumpster in the toughest conference in college football. Like the NFL, there are many good choices here.

[Tom Baker]

I forgot to list Notre Dame's Bob Davie. I'm no fan of the Irish, but the guy was under a ton of pressure at the start of the season and faced an incredibly tough schedule. They finished 9-2 and were an overtime and one blown defensive assignment (against Michigan St) away from being 11-0.

I think I'd still go with Stoops, O'Leary, and Holtz, in that order.

[Nate]

I admit I really didn't pay too much attention to this season on the national level, I was more concerned with the big ten. I don't know how he compares to some of the coaches you listed, but what about Purdue coach Joe Tiller? He probably isnt even close the the success some of those other programs like Oklahoma have had, but a succesful season none the less. Despite a 9-3 reocrd, they won a trip to the Rose Bowl. I'm just interested in how close he is to any of those other coaches.

[Tom Baker]

Tiller has done a remarkable job at Purdue. He's had a lot of success going against the traditional Big 10 mentality and turned a loser (under Colletto) into a solid team. Don't know if it's fair or not, but the national perception of Tiller is that his teams are somewhat one-dimensional--explosive offensively and shaky on D. The general consensus is that Purdue wins more by outscoring teams than dominating them. Sort of like Florida in the early years of Spurrier's regime. Also at 8-3 some think Purdue kind of backed in to the Rose Bowl in a down year for the Big 10. Again, not saying it's fair, but that's the feel I get.

[Marc]

Originally posted by Tom Baker
I forgot to list Notre Dame's Bob Davie. I'm no fan of the Irish, but the guy was under a ton of pressure at the start of the season and faced an incredibly tough schedule.
Davie has certaintly done an excellent job at Notre Dame (I dislike the school, too), but I disagree with your statement that he had tremendous pressure at the beginning of the season. The team did pretty bad the last year, and so they didn't expect a national championship or anything.

[Nate]

Thanks for the info. It's good to have some insight on Tiller from a national perspective. The newspaper here in my home town is extremely biast and concentrates mostly on the local/Big 10 level and less on the national.

[Pgoodman]

I like Rick Neuheisal a lot and I am not just saying that because I am a Huskies fan. He is a fine coach who relates to his QB's and also has recruited some great players.

[Tom Baker]

[/QUOTE]
Originally posted by M. James:
Davie has certaintly done an excellent job at Notre Dame (I dislike the school, too), but I disagree with your statement that he had tremendous pressure at the beginning of the season. The team did pretty bad the last year, and so they didn't expect a national championship or anything. [/QUOTE]

Just being at Notre Dame means you're under pressure, IMHO. I'm not an ND booster or an alum, but most ND fans I know of expect a BCS Bowl (if not the national title) every year. Pretty much anything less than 9-2 and Davie would have been gone. That said, at ND I think they have access to more talent, $$, and facilities than a lot of other schools, plus there is the ND mystique that often works in their favor, and they pretty much have their own TV network (NBC), so it isn't like Davie was handed the keys to some bottom-rung program when he took over. Being the most storied program in college football history has its perks, that's why Davie doesn't get the nod for Coach of the Year.

[Tom Baker]

Originally posted by Pgoodman
I like Rick Neuheisal a lot and I am not just saying that because I am a Huskies fan. He is a fine coach who relates to his QB's and also has recruited some great players.

There's no denying Neuheisel has been successful. His first two Colorado teams were a combined 20-4, and he's had similar numbers now in his first two Washington seasons. BUT, I wonder about his recruiting. He hasn't yet proven he's a great recruiter. His best seasons at Colorado were largely achieved with Bill McCartney's players. The year his first real recruiting class made an impact ('97), the Buffs were 5-6. They rebounded to 8-4 the following year but then he bolted to Washington.
In Washington he's fielding a team that was largely recruited by Jim Lambright (a loyal Washington man who got a raw deal, IMHO).
None of this is to say that Neuheisel cannot be an effective recruiter, but I don't think he's earned his stripes yet in that regard.

[Pgoodman]

He does have some great recruits in players like Dan Dicks, Paul Arnold, Zach Tuiasosopo.

[PeterDewar]

I've had season tickets to Purude for 5 years now and watching what Tiller has done is absolutly incredible. When going to the Rose Bowl, I had my eyes set on a possible win. The team and the fans have a huge bit of confidence now, all to Tiller!