The Sporting News has a nice piece (by Matt Hayes; I can't remember, do we like Matt Hayes?) on the performance of the various first-year coaches around CFB. It gives the grade each originally received when they were hired as well as a grade now that the season is over.
Urban went up from an A- to a solid A. I'm not sure what he would have to do to get to an A+.
"The big question was which Urb would Ohio State get? He answered that with dogged recruiting and influential motivation of a team playing for nothing—but still playing for an unbeaten season. Meyer hit the perfect storm: a talented team that bought in, playing in a watered-down conference and playing with house money. Let’s see what happens this fall when huge expectations are thrown into the mix."
Other coaches of note:
Ol' Charlie Cheeseburger fell from a B+ to a D at Kansas. I'm not sure his grade has bottomed out.
Tim Beckman went from a C to a D at Illinois. I'm actually sort of sorry to see that he didn't have a slightly better first year.
BOB went from a C to an A at State Penn, which represented the biggest upswing.
Kevin Sumlin went up from a B+ to an A at A&M. Hard to argue with that.
The biggest drop was Mike Leach at WSU, who went from an A+ grade (?!) down to a D.
Good fodder for debate during the loooong offseason.
According to the coach of the year voters, you'd think going 8-4 and losing to Ohio might warrant an A+
the kids are playing their tail off, and the coaches are screwing it up! - JLS
I have nothing but respect for what O'Brien did for Penn State. He took over a program in shables and held them together. I said all that to say this. Urb took over a program that had its problems, had limited recruiting time, had limited time to install his o & d, but nobody could beat him. I agree with the above, what more can this man do to earn an A+. They said he had a stacked deck. He took a TE and turned him into a tackle and in the middle of the season took his starting fb and turned him into a very good lb. We all know this. We all know just how lucky we are to have URB. I am looking forward to the next few seasons. I thought Tress was the golden years, but I think the best is yet to come.
Lucky to be a Buckeye
Collards
I, too, have respect for BOB and the job he did at PSU, but not nearly as much as many, apparently. He took over for a team that lost 4 games (3 in the regular season and all to ranked opponents) in 2011.
They graduated a couple of impact players (as does almost everyone every year), lost a couple to transfer, and were a team that again had 4 losses, but with a much easier schedule than the previous year.
Was their off-the-field drama much more than OSU's? Absolutely. However, Urban improved his team by 6 wins and BOB essentially decreased by 1, since his losses all came during the regular season.
Sorry, probably an old debate from MANY previous posts, but seemed to fit again.
lol if you can't remember, as a fan base, if we don't like X media member...default to YES!
I understand why they say it, but I ABSOLUTELY HATE when they say he took a team that had nothing to play for and made them buy in. Those are the words of someone who has never played sports or been on a team. First and foremost, there's pride. You don't want to get beat down by the other team because losing sucks. Every team I played for we played are butts off for eachother, the fans, and the coach too. Players don't need a bowl game months or weeks in the future to play hard. We saw 2 examples of this in the B1G this year.
I'll step off my soap box now! I just hate that.