2002
Washington: Rick Neuheisel (final year, replaced in '03 by Keith Gilbertson)
Washington State: Mike Price (final year, replaced in '03 by Bill Doba)
Oregon: Mike Bellotti
Oregon State: Dennis Erickson (final year, replaced in '03 by Mike Riley)
Stanford: Buddy Teevans
UCLA: Bob Toledo (final year, replaced in '03 by Karl Dorrell)
USC: Pete Carroll
Arizona: John Mackovic
Arizona State: Dirk Koetter
Utah: Ron McBride (final year, replaced in '03 by Urban Meyer)
Colorado: Gary Barnett
2012
Washington: Steve Sarkisian
Washington State: Mike Leach
Oregon: Chip Kelly
Oregon State: Mike Riley
Stanford: David Shaw
UCLA: Jim Mora
USC: Lane Kiffin
Arizona: Rich Rodriguez
Arizona State: Todd Graham
Utah: Kyle Whittingham
Colorado: Jon Embree
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| The good ol' days were when this guy was our rivals coach. |
Going through the list one-by-one, I'll rank them as I see the coaches now as an upgrade, a downgrade, or neutral.
Washington -- Upgrade. As much as it pains Cal fans given his recent comments, I think anyone would agree Sarkisian has injected more life in that program than it had when Neuheisel's scandal-ridden era was coming to an end, and Gilby was about to take over.
Wazzu -- Upgrade. Mike Price, the guy who was fired before he coached one game in Alabama, and then Bill Doba, who was a very nice man but didn't get results on the field, are not in Mike Leach's league, though it may take Leach a little time to get some players up there.
Oregon -- Slight upgrade. Bellotti got pretty good results year in and year out with the Ducks, but his teams were never quite on the level of Kelly's, who are now seemingly always 1 or 2 in the conference and in the Top 10 conversation on a yearly basis.
Oregon State -- Neutral. I say neutral because Mike Riley was about to come and he is still the coach. Dennis Erickson has coached about half of the conference at one point or another it seems.
Stanford -- Major upgrade. Buddy Teevans vs. anyone else would be a major upgrade. Except maybe Walt Harris.
UCLA -- Neutral. Toledo had his successes in the 90's at various times, but by 2002 his tenure had soured. Dorrell, as we know, was a less than capable replacement, food for thought for those who want Tedford out regardless of who replaces him.
USC -- Slight downgrade. I've never been more impressed with a college coach than I was with Pete Carroll during his time at USC. Kept his players loose, they had fun, and they dominated with a few notable exceptions. Though he has a No. 1 ranked team at present, Lane Kiffin needs to show me he can actually win something meaningful, which he hasn't done so far in his career.
Arizona -- Upgrade. John Mackovic was about to give way to Mike Stoops, both of whom an impartial observer would easily label as failures in the desert. Rich Rod's coaching style should suit the warmer climate much better than it did the Big 10.
Arizona State -- Slight upgrade. Nothing meant easy win more than a date on the schedule with Koetter's Sun Devils. Todd Graham is fairly untested, but it's hard to say he could be worse than Koetter.
Utah -- Upgrade. McBride, like Toledo, had had some success in the 90s but when he gave way to Meyer in 2003, Utah football turned a corner for the better and after two years when Meyer left, Whittingham has done a solid job of keeping Utah pretty competitive.
Colorado -- Slight upgrade. I have to go with a former Redskins tight ends coach here over a guy (Barnett) who is best known for this incident.
That's five schools who definitely have superior coaches now and another three where I think it is an upgrade, but you could make a case that I might be wrong. Still, even if only one of the three I deemed a "slight upgrade" is in fact an upgrade, that still makes over half of the schools with better coaches. There are two neutrals (UCLA and Oregon State) and the only downgrade in my opinion is of the school in USC that is nonetheless still the top team in the country.
This begs the question, has the Cal program regressed under Tedford since Riley's scramble ran out the clock against OSU in '07? Or is it that the Pac-12 has upgrade significantly in the coaching department since 2002 and Tedford has simply stayed more or less the same?
Excellent post, Brian. I think a summary like this paints a real theory as to why Cal football has declined over the years.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, 3 of the 4 coaches that entered in the class of 2003 were atrocious. Riley is the exception, having done a solid job in Corvallis over the past decade. (Meyer's Utes obviously weren't in the conference at the time). So it could be argued coaching in the then Pac-10 was even worse in 2003-2007 than it was in 2002. And what were Tedford's strongest years at Cal? It might just be a coincidence and there are clearly other factors at play too (like having DeSean Jackson, Marshawn Lynch and Aaron Rodgers on those teams during those years), but I think coaching competition did play some role.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of it this way, but you could really be on to something, Brian. Maybe we've stayed the same as we were in the mid-2000s, but everyone else has gotten better. This reminds me about how I was considered the Rebound King in middle school because I was 6 feet tall, but then I stopped growing, everyone else kept going, and I couldn't make the freshman basketball team in high school.
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