John Saunders, Sunday 10/2

[Guest mightymjolnir]

After ripping ND in his Ty Willingham interview, John Saunders was back at it on ESPN's the Sports Reporters. The topic was USC, and their first-half struggles so far. Dan LeBatard brought up the point that if a defense can at least hang in there, if not slow their offense a little, they have a shot of knocking off the #1 team in the country. I think he brought up Cal, then he started to say something about Notre Dame.

At this point, Saunders swooped in, said something dismissive, stopped the conversation dead and switched to, what else, the lack of African-American coaches in college football. The crusade continues.

 

I have to say that I agree with John Saunders that the problem is real and the numbers are UGLY. Yes, only 3 African-American coaches out of 119. Saunders' mistake is that he ONLY talks about the numbers. If he really does care about black coaches, he's creating more problems with his arguments, or lack thereof. Great, let's all go out and hire a black head coach for the sake of hiring a black head coach. How many are enough? Should it be 50-50? Oh, and if you hire an African-American head coach, you may not, under any circumstances, fire him, even if he does not meet his own expectations, to the ruin of your program. This helps no one.

 

My question to John Saunders is, who exactly are we passing over for these jobs? Not ONCE have I heard a list of African-American candidates for head coaching positions. Not that the NFL has reached supreme equality, but it definitely is moving in the right direction. The movement in the NFL didn't start out by repeating over and over again, "Only 2 out of 32 coaches are African-American." It started with, "Dennis Green should be a head coach. Herm Edwards should be a head coach. Tony Dungy should be a head coach. Marvin Lewis, Lovie Smith, Romeo Crennel...etc." Talented and presently nameless black coaches in the college ranks desperately need this kind of PR. Instead, Saunders would use his expansive media reach to

A. Spout atrocious numbers that, with each repetition, lose more of their meaning,

B. Hinge his entire crusade on the firing of a, in the strictest terms of football abilities, legitimately BAD coach, and

C. Blame the whole thing on the great white satan in South Bend.

 

Gee whiz, what a brilliant plan.

[Guest SirJohn]

Mighty. Seen some of this touched on in Blue gray ND Nation as well. Haven't seen it here yet till now..nice to see it. Has to be said

 

Unfortunately Saunders mouth is shooting any black coach in the foot. Who wants a black coach now if he doesn't produce your stuck and if you fire him your in trouble.

 

Coaching is a circus carasol. They want to fire Urban in Florida after one loss. Zook? Think of all the assistants fired and fams uprooted to go elsewhere. Ty dumped half his crew going to Washington. Ones up in Canada. NO fixed jobs in college sports.

 

If you notice Coach Weis Off Co is Michale Haywood up from Texas, AF etc. Hip to hip with Coach Weis on sidelines. Haywood happens to be black. His Biography said his former Head Coach at Texas encouraged him to go to ND under Coach Weis to learn more Offense as Haywood would like to be a Head Coach someday. (All in the older bio.)

 

Coach Weis stated "I call the plays." In other words Haywood is a watchin and a learnin those sort of schemes and when to call them. Coach Weis has also said he would like to eventually pass on the play calls to an Offensive Co so he could just be Head Coach, mayby a yes no say fo him, as is his right.

 

I figure minimally...............ND will start losing Assistant coaches after 2007 to more money thrown at them by other places if we can't match it.

 

Coach Weis has plans to replace any loss.

 

Back to Haywood... I expect by 2007 he would start OC duties letting Coach Weis just HC. Now if offers get excessive?? Will he stay or go be HC somewhere?? Whatever wish him luck if he leaves unless it's a team we play against.

 

Saunders will eventually bore and get jaundice.

[Guest AstroDomer]

Mighty, your post, I think might be the fairest and most pragmatic observation regarding John Saunders' tunnel vision with Notre Dame (rather than the thoughtless venom spat on another board). A problem does indeed exist with race and coaching in college football, and Saunders does have a right to be angry at the overall situation, but he's wasting his voice having such an accusatory tone against Notre Dame. This is no doubt creating a backlash to his cause. I agree-- get people's names out there. Great post, Mighty.

[Guest IrishTobey]

that is one MIGHTY post. Excellent points. It is frustrating that some people only want to look at 2 numbers. first is that 3 out of 117 coaches are AA and second that Ty was fired after 3 years and Davie and Faust got 5 years. They blindly ignore the blow-out losses, lack of recruiting, 12-13 record in 25 games, etc... Astro you are dead on. Why would any AD in his right mind hire an AA coach right now and risk the backlash if you the coach has to be removed?? John Saunders, Mark May, Mike Wilbon, etc... would be better served promoting the Mike Haywood's and Charlie Strong's of the world then ignore the facts and trash ND. A school that consistently graduates over 90% of it's AA football players. If an AA coach was so important at ND then why did Lorenzo Booker, Reggie Bush and countless other top black athletes spurn Ty and go play for WHITE coaches. It's clear Weis gets it and is obviously grooming Haywood to be a head coach. There is no question that the lack of head coaches is disturbing but ignoring the facts and spewing venom on national tv is not the answer either.

[Guest SirJohn]

Yes! Time to get away from this. Asd I reported Yahoo. Well they improved a bit I clicked Yahoo news a bit ago typed ND an WOW Gee WHIZ gang! Only 2 pix of ole Ty off to right. Nothing else I clicked farter images and WO! Gee Whiz gang only two more of Ty down from 7 pix of 8. Super ND is improving

 

Look If I hit a Washington News site type Huskies do I get Coach Weis??????????

 

Yahoo better kick out some of their biased people.