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"If you don't think he needed to go you haven't been watching"
"Check the recruiting rankings man, this guy can't get it done."
"I don't care what the buyout is, he's gotta go."
"I'm done with this team and this coach, I am finished."
Pick one. Pick them all. Those quotes are all over message boards(do people really still use message boards?), social media, sports bars and anywhere anyone will listen. The new college football world may include pay-for-play or NIL, but it also includes a climate where fans want coaches fired...immediately. It doesn't matter if it's your first season. If you don't win them all, someone else will. Who that someone is? No one knows, but just go get him.
Wisconsin fired Paul Chryst on Sunday. Chryst was born in Madison and went 67-26 with the Badgers. He won division titles and double digit wins in four of his first five seasons. But "he's only 15-10 in his last 25" screams a rabid fan base who felt after former Wisconsin coach Brett Bielemia brought an Illinois team in Madison to blowout the Badgers, 41-10, Chryst was fired. The AD said what all ADs say at that moment, "I feel this is best for the program." That is code for "we can do the buyout and I hear fans and donors yelling at me and if I want to keep my job I have to do this now."
Wisconsin was supposed to be different. Fans and alums pride themselves on being different from those crazed programs where it's a national title or bust. You were supposed to be able to contend for the conference title but if you won a lot of games and went to fun bowl games, all was good. Well, 15-10 wasn't good. And the natives got restless and so Chryst is gone. This is the new college football where there is always someone better to coach your team. Now just fire the current guy so we can get that other guy.
Oklahoma's first year coach, Brett Venables came to Norman celebrated as the former defensive coordinator coming back and taking over a perennial playoff team after Lincoln Riley went west. The hype was big with Dillon Gabriel coming in and the pre-season ranking had the Sooners inside the top 10. Now Oklahoma has lost back-to-back regular season games for the first time since 1999 and after getting blown out by Kansas State and TCU there are grumblings that Venables is in over his head. And there is buzz that his defense can't stop anyone and some in Sooner Nation wonder did they make a mistake.
Ask Texas A&M money men how they feel about Jimbo today and all that money committed to players. The buyout is almost $90M but that hasn't stopped fans from griping about the guy who they think can't get it done.
Just a reminder, your team is not likely going to win all of its games. But it doesn't matter to fans. I've said for years fans expect their team to win them all. When they lose a game or two they start to question the coach. When they are no longer in the playoff hunt or can no longer win the conference title, fans love to play the "who can we get next" game. It's fun for them and they love coming up with lists.
Is this fair? Life is not fair and nothing in college football matters to fans if they are no longer winning. Patience? Who has time for patience? If you can't get it done, we will find the next guy. FIRE THEM ALL!!!
Nuggets: FSU lost to a better Wake Forest team. The Seminoles played hard but committed 11 penalties, had too many missed tackles, struggled on the offensive line and gave up 10 third down conversions. Now at 4-1, FSU faces NC State and Clemson in the next two games...Why is UCF playing Wednesday and why not this past Sunday? Drive around the UCF campus and see the flooding and people without power and unable to get out and you need to be able to staff a stadium. Those are some of the reasons for the game being moved. Before you complain because it didn't work for you, go ask someone still dealing with flooding and other storm related issues and maybe you can understand...UCLA-USC might be for the Big Ten title at the end of the season...I think Greg Schiano beats Ryan Day in a fight. It's close but I go Schiano...
Final note: People in the US consume 15 billion quarts of popcorn a year.