Houston Nutt’s Fall: What We Learned

It was bound to happen.

Following a 30-13 beatdown at the hands of hapless Kentucky, Ole Miss announced that Houston Nutt would not return to coach the Rebels in 2012, ending his time in the SEC spotlight. For all those schools with a coaching vacancy, it's time to summarize all we've learned from his last 14 years at Arkansas and Ole Miss.

1) Houston Nutt is a "season-builder"

The best coaches are program-builders. They have a philosophy they believe in strongly, recruit to fit it, lay the foundation early to build on it, despite taking lumps along the way, and build long-term success from it. Alabama's Nick Saban is a program builder. So is Oklahoma's Bob Stoops. Anyone remember Alabama losing to Louisiana-Monroe a few years ago? How about Oklahoma losing to Ole Miss in the Independence Bowl? Both were losses in the first years of Saban and Stoops. Now both are perennial top-10 programs.

Houston Nutt is not a program-builder. Rather, he is a season-builder. Instead of laying down a foundation and recruiting off of it, Nutt takes strong recruits from the previous coach and gains success by rallying those players. Then, he scrambles from season to season to find a "super freak," a player that he can create an offense around. Add in a soft non-conference slate and he tries to scrap a winning season each year.

While at Arkansas, Nutt lucked out with Matt Jones, who carried the Hogs for a few seasons, and then Darren McFadden and company a couple of seasons later. Jones and McFadden were in-state players who would've worn the Razorback jersey no matter who the coach was, and they managed to keep Nutt around Fayetteville for a decade. His time ran shorter in Oxford as he found Dexter McCluster late in his career, then gambled on Jeremiah Masoli next season, but failed miserably and had no options afterwards.

2) Houston Nutt fails as a recruiter

Houston Nutt recruiting reminds me of Chevy Chase at Hoover Dam in National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation. Remember how Clark W. Griswald kept sticking gum in the cracks, yet more cracks kept emerging? That's vintage Houston Nutt. He recruits for star power and not to fill holes in needed positions? Lack depth in the defensive line? Don't worry, in two years, you'll have plenty of depth on the line, but have nothing in the secondary.

This goes back to the first point of Nutt being a "season-builder." Nutt thinks on the short-term. He recruits on what helps him in the now, and not for long-term success.

3) Nutt is an excuse-making machine

Anyone listen to Nutt on the Tim Brando show? To summarize, it was 15 minutes of excuse making by Nutt and kissing up by Brando. Though Nutt claimed "no excuses," he blamed Jevan Snead, the movie "Mississippi Burning," numerous injuries, and anything else he could think of for the failures of his tenure. Instead of playing hardball, Brando kept adding fuel to the fire, suggesting that Nutt's biggest failure was that he gave up play calling duties. This, of course, followed years of comments from the ex-Rebel coach that play-calling "was overrated," then it was "one of the most fun parts of the game," and with Brando, Nutt agreed. The man can flip-flop better than anyone on Capitol Hill.

4) Arkansas fans were right: Ole Miss fans can hope again

As much as Gregg Doyel tried to attack, criticize and demean Arkansas fans, they've proven him to be dead wrong. Don't expect any apologies from Doyel, who is nothing more than a weak imitation of Paul Finebaum (though Finebaum admits when he makes a mistake), but nevertheless the truth still stands.

Arkansas fans were trashed for flying banners, going through cell phone records and doing whatever they could in pushing their school's administration to rid them of a coach who smugly mocked them to the boiling point. They were told they'd never get a coach as good as Nutt. Then they were scolded by the media in getting Bobby Petrino to leave Atlanta for Fayetteville.

"Bobby Petrino and Arkansas, they deserve each other," said ESPN's own Chris Berman shortly after Petrino's hire.

Well, if they do, it's made for a beautiful marriage. The Hogs have won 20 of their last 25 games. Arkansas sits 9-1 this year and No. 6 in the BCS. I'm sure they feel really, really bad about getting rid of Houston Nutt.

And Ole Miss fans, suffering through a miserable season, should be glad Arkansas fans are being redeemed. It will take some serious cash and even more patience, but the Rebels have seen that, with the right type of coach, a true "program-builder," that they can aspire for better days in quick time.

As for Nutt, the future lies ... somewhere outside of the SEC. But for schools interested, you've been warned.