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A post on another thread got me thinking. Let's compare our coach to others around the league, for instance let's take these eight for football:

PB vs
Art Briles
Skip Holtz
George O'Leary
Mike Price
Todd Graham
Bob Toledo
Jeff Bower

In terms of recruiting, reputation, game day preperation, and overall confidence, how would you rank them 1-8 (1=overall best, 8=overall least)?

Now, lets consider the same criteria for
Doh vs
Eustachy
Penders
Calipari
Barbee at UTEP
Wilson at Rice
Wojcick (sp) at Tulsa
Mike Davis at UAB

1-8?

Mike Anderson is at Missouri

George S. Patton wrote:Mike Anderson is at Missouri

fixed. Wrong Mike.

interesting concept

PB - 6
Art Briles - 3
Skip Holtz - 4
George O'Leary - 8
Mike Price - 7
Todd Graham - 2
Bob Toledo - 5
Jeff Bower - 1

Doh - 2
Eustachy - 4
Penders - 5
Calipari - 1
Barbee at UTEP - 6
Wilson at Rice - 8
Wojcick (sp) at Tulsa - 7
Mike Davis at UAB - 3

PB - 7
Art Briles - 8
Skip Holtz - 4
George O'Leary - 3
Mike Price - 1
Todd Graham - 2
Bob Toledo - 6
Jeff Bower - 5

Doh - 2
Eustachy - 4
Penders - 5
Calipari - 1
Barbee at UTEP - 6
Wilson at Rice - 8
Wojcick (sp) at Tulsa - 7
Mike Davis at UAB - 3

CalallenStang wrote:interesting concept

PB - 6
Art Briles - 3
Skip Holtz - 4
George O'Leary - 8
Mike Price - 7
Todd Graham - 2
Bob Toledo - 5
Jeff Bower - 1

Doh - 2
Eustachy - 4
Penders - 5
Calipari - 1
Barbee at UTEP - 6
Wilson at Rice - 8
Wojcick (sp) at Tulsa - 7
Mike Davis at UAB - 3

How can you explain O'Leary and Price being last? They are well known and can recruit better than SMU.

No doubt, PB is the sparest of the bunch.

A coach of a top 25 team is always prepared for the most part, puts his players in a position to win, or at the very least compete effectively, and is able to get the most out of his players. Like I said before I've never seen PB display any of these characteristics

On the surface to me, it seems like when PB was a DC at A&M, LSU, and KSU he had the benefit of coaching and recruiting great players with out the recruiting restictions of SMU. I commend him for being successful and for not f'ing that up.

But if he was truly a great coach, he would have already had SMU in a bowl by this time now, and quite frankly "overachieving" is what this job needs.

Here are some coaches who have overachieved with under talented teams relative to their competition:
Paul Johnson
Tom O'Brien
Gary Barnett
Ken Hatfield
Ty Willingham

PB simply doesn't measure up to these guys. One could argue SMU has underachieved since PB has taken over.

So if SMU goes 7-5 this year, and goes 4-7, or 3-9 in 08 will some of you guys give PB a pass, or be angry?

I for one would not be satisfied. I don't want 3 or 4 mediocre to poor seasons followed by a 7-5 toilet bowl season. If we were in the Big 12 that would be acceptable but we're in the spare CUSA.

smupony wrote:How can you explain O'Leary and Price being last? They are well known and can recruit better than SMU.

Not to mention the #1 factor, they have both led successful teams.

PB - 8
Art Briles - 1
Skip Holtz - 7
George O'Leary - 4
Mike Price - 3
Todd Graham - 2
Bob Toledo - 6
Jeff Bower - 5

Doh - 3
Eustachy - 5
Penders - 4
Calipari - 1
Barbee at UTEP - 7
Wilson at Rice - 8
Wojcick (sp) at Tulsa - 6
Mike Davis at UAB - 2

PB - 8
Art Briles - 4
Skip Holtz - 3
George O'Leary - 5
Mike Price - 6
Todd Graham - 2
Bob Toledo - 7
Jeff Bower - 1

Doherty - 2
Eustachy - 5
Penders - 3
Calipari - 1
Barbee at UTEP - 7
Wilson at Rice - 8
Wojcick (sp) at Tulsa - 6
Mike Davis at UAB - 4

smupony wrote:

CalallenStang wrote:interesting concept

PB - 6
Art Briles - 3
Skip Holtz - 4
George O'Leary - 8
Mike Price - 7
Todd Graham - 2
Bob Toledo - 5
Jeff Bower - 1

Doh - 2
Eustachy - 4
Penders - 5
Calipari - 1
Barbee at UTEP - 6
Wilson at Rice - 8
Wojcick (sp) at Tulsa - 7
Mike Davis at UAB - 3

How can you explain O'Leary and Price being last? They are well known and can recruit better than SMU.

Because when you look at the talent O'Leary and Price have had to work work the past couple of years and then look at the results they achieved, it's even more sad than the situation has been at SMU under Bennett.

MustangStealth wrote:

smupony wrote:How can you explain O'Leary and Price being last? They are well known and can recruit better than SMU.

Not to mention the #1 factor, they have both led successful teams.

Successful? They've had decent success, yes, but they haven't met expectations in the past couple of years. Sure, Price had some good success in his first two years at UTEP, but not recently. O'Leary was brought in to be the savior of UCF yet they are just as inconsistent as ever.

CalallenStang wrote:Successful? They've had decent success, yes, but they haven't met expectations in the past couple of years. Sure, Price had some good success in his first two years at UTEP, but not recently. O'Leary was brought in to be the savior of UCF yet they are just as inconsistent as ever.

O'Leary has 1 national coach of the year award and was ACC coach of the year twice. He took UCF to the CUSA title game in his second year. He led Georgia Tech to a winning percentage over .600 in the ACC.

Price took Washington St. to three 10-win seasons and one Rose Bowl. He also has been named national coach of the year.

Just comparing records at their current schools:
Price: 22-15
O'Leary: 13-24
Bennett: 17-42


I would gladly take inconsistencies like those over consistently bad.

of course, Bennett is the only listed coach who hasn't taken his PRESENT team to a bowl game(except for Toldeo who hasn't coached his first game)-that should at least be a factor. Price and O'Leary should rank way way above Bennett if you are being fair.

May I ask why only 8 of the 12 team's coaches are being ranked? Bailiff at Rice, Callaway at UAB, Snyder at Marshall, and West at Memphis are not even mentioned. (for football at least)