ACC football: Does that ‘A’ stand for ‘awfully managed’?
Tech coach Paul Johnson: By ACC standards, he's an institution. (AJC photo by Johnny Crawford)
Here’s a fun fact: Paul Johnson, who’s about to enter his fourth season at Georgia Tech, ranks fourth among football coaches in his 12-team league in on-the-job seniority, and the only reason he’s not third is that North Carolina State hired Tom O’Brien instead of PJ in December 2006.
Think about that. The ACC isn’t some fly-by-night conference. It has been in operation since 1953. And yet it has taken to operating as if it’s some geographically incorrect start-up.
North Carolina fired Butch Davis on Wednesday, two days after he was allowed to meet the media assembled in Pinehurst, N.C. This was but the latest in a series of weird ACC coaching maneuvers. Since 2007 the conference has seen two Bowdens nudged aside — one at Clemson, the other at Florida State — and one Fridge moved. (Ralph Friedgen was bought out by Maryland last December after going 8-4, but not before James Franklin, who had been designated the Terps’ coach-in-waiting, had bolted to Vanderbilt.)
In January 2009 Jeff Jagodzinski was canned by Boston College AD Gene DeFillippo after interviewing for the New York Jets’ head coaching position. (Jagodzinski, best known as Matt Ryan’s college coach, has since lost jobs as Tampa Bay’s offensive coordinator and as head coach of the UFL Omaha Nighthawks.) That same year Al Groh, who’s now Georgia Tech’s defensive coordinator, was fired by Virginia, and his final act in Charlottesville was reciting a poem. Last fall Miami dumped Randy Shannon; back in 2006, the U had promoted Shannon after dumping Larry Coker, who’d won the 2001 BCS title.
If you’re keeping score, Frank Beamer, who became Virginia Tech’s coach in 1987, has been in his current job the longest, although technically Beamer has worked in the ACC only since 2004. (That’s when the Hokies joined.) If you count his time at Boston College, O’Brien has been the head coach at an ACC school since 2005. (He worked at BC when the Eagles moved from the Big East.) And Jim Grobe has been in place — at both Wake Forest and in the ACC — since 20o1. So he’s the dean, I guess.
Oh, one thing more: Even the unshakable Beamer had a tough offseason. It has been revealed that he invested with alleged Ponzi schemer Jim Donnan, who played at — wouldn’t you know? — N.C. State. (Though Beamer says he didn’t lose any money.)
And this, too: Carolina AD Dick Baddour announced today he’s stepping down.
By Mark Bradley
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163 comments Add your comment
RambleOn84
July 29th, 2011
8:39 am
A couple of things:
First, Bobby Bowden had to leave sometime.
Secondly, I think the big problem with the ACC’s turnover rate is that the schools, at the end of the day, don’t regard football very highly. Take just two examples in BC and Miami. Boston College is a constant revolving door of assistant coaches; could they get a real-life established coach to come to their school? I don’t know. They seem to consistently attract and develop above-average OL talent. I think the team could be much better with a good coach. But they don’t even seem to try.
Miami, on the other hand, is just too darn cheap. It is quite apparent that their administration doesn’t agree with their fanbase on the importance of football. Miami should be a top 10 school for a coach to want to be at; yet their last three hires (Coker, Shannon, Golden) have all been ridiculously underwhelming. I mean what does it say when the most prestigious coach you have had in the last ten years is a guy who had only moderate success coaching the most talented team in the worst conference in the country?
gt4ever
July 29th, 2011
8:54 am
Heels Rock and Rule,,,
Are you serious! UNC football SUX and it always WILL SUCK!
DawginLex
July 29th, 2011
9:24 am
t3
so let’s compare:
Calipari didn’t know Camby had hired an agent. Clearly all the player’s fault. Once he found out, he owned up to it and took the punishment
GT AD finds out about problem with player, decides to tell coach after being told not to by the NCAA and the coach and AD decide to play the player, forcing NCAA to vacate league title
Now which one is worse?
You went to Tech so you are a lot dam smarter than me.
You tell me.
smarta$$
DawginLex
July 29th, 2011
9:27 am
T3:
and you are also FOS regarding the Columbus situation.
Jones was playing for USC, not Georgia when all the money got paid. He transferred to Georgia so his individual eligibility is in question. That is the only link to Georgia.
IC didn’t play basketball for the AAU coach and is not from Greenville where Jones and Pope-Caldwell are from. No connection to IC.
You are supposed to be so dam smart since you went to Tech, you really should do a little more research before spouting off.
steverino
July 29th, 2011
9:37 am
In the last 13 seasons, the SEC has utterly dominated the weak,mid-major ACC in head to head football games to the tune of 53-43 (.552). See, a little research shows you that it is not even CLOSE.
Tifton Jacket
July 29th, 2011
10:00 am
Mark when I read the headline I thought the article was targetted a John Swofford. If you want to compare conferences, look at the horrible job Swofford has done in comparsion with Slive in the SEC. Swofford is one of the biggest reasons the ACC is so far behind the Big Ten, SEC, and Big 12 (i guess it’s now the Big 10 as well). The ACC would be better served by pushing Swofford out of the way and putting somebody that can push the league to compete with the bigger football conferences.
A good example is the new TV deal the ACC put together this week. Not only did we get less money that the other big conferences, but we had to package basketball to get ESPN to pony up the money they did.
About ACC football: Does the 'A' stand for 'awfully managed … | Antalya Football Travel Blog
July 29th, 2011
9:48 pm
[...] Read the original post: About ACC football: Does the 'A' stand for 'awfully managed … [...]
TechMom77
July 29th, 2011
10:30 pm
No Mark, but articles by you regarding Tech generally bring another three letter A word to mind!!
Buzz 2011
July 31st, 2011
5:31 am
Dawgs commenting, what a joke…..
Buzz 2011
July 31st, 2011
5:49 am
UGA is the trash of the SEC and will always be. They can’t keep players out of jail, the AD is caught with his pants down, constant recruiting violations, etc.. What makes it worse is the kids signed can’t even write in some cases. They are brought in as athletes only, meat on the lines.. Now they can’t even play on top of everything else and are at the lower end of the SEC.
” UGA”
Under…..Gators……….Auburn
Under…..Gators……….Alabama
Under…..Gators……….At most six wins
Score Check
July 31st, 2011
10:41 am
ACC football: Does that ‘A’ stand for ‘awfully managed’?
YES
Yeller Bug
August 1st, 2011
4:47 pm
If Tech loses an ACC championship over an unproven $312 of improper gifts, then UNC will get the death penalty in football. The scuttlebutt is that the problems run deep and wide—-AD is stepping down—the school Chancelor may go next. It’s a large Wiener-like scandal that will be hard to cover up. All the lies will soon come to a head.
Sting Time
August 1st, 2011
11:24 pm
The academics are much harder in the ACC than the SEC. Ever thought it might be easier to keep a coach in the SEC? It is easier to recruit when the only requirment for a player to get into your program is that he fog a mirror. UGA had a player just get in that had a hard time graduating from high school. This type of thing happens in Athens every year and all we hear about is how great they are. Give me a break. The SEC is a joke academically with the exception of Vandy and I feel sorry for them being stuck with a bunch of football factories.