ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 27, 1996 TAG: 9611270020
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
It's a tough job, but a bunch of somebodies want to do it.
It used to be that firemen and policemen were considered the most dangerous occupations, but now it seems college football coaches have joined the list, even after the stress of having to go for two points late in a game was removed by the insidious overtime rule.
Really, coaches aren't hired to be fired. They're hired to win. When they don't, what's happened in the last month happens. There are 111 NCAA Division I-A football programs, and 20 already will have new coaches in 1997. There will be more, simply because of the perennial musical chairs of the business.
Add in the lower NCAA divisions and NAIA schools, and already 38 college head coaches have been fired, resigned, retired or changed jobs. Maybe it really isn't an epidemic. A record-low nine of 111 schools changed coaches before this season. The I-A record is 36 (for 126 schools) in 1973. That may not be touched, but 27, a total reached six times since 1947, probably will be eclipsed.
``I don't think there's a thing we can do about it,'' said Grant Teaff, the former Baylor coach and executive director of the American Football Coaches Association. ``We'll talk about it, but the reality of the situation is that right now we have 27 coaches in I-A and I-AA who are going, and we have 2,700 aspiring to those positions.
``It's a great profession. People are willing to take a chance and gamble.''
Like Cam Cameron, the Washington Redskins' quarterback coach named Indiana's new football boss Tuesday. He's returning to his alma mater, but he's getting a seven-year contract, plus perks. He'll be one of at least four new Big Ten coaches next season.
``I don't know that scary is the term,'' Cameron said when asked about his first head coaching job. ``I've got no fear. I'm not scared about what can or can't happen. I'm going to turn this thing loose. We're going to have a heck of a time. I'm not going to be a worrywart.''
Sorry, Cam. All coaches are worrywarts, and mostly they worry about things they can't control. It's part of a real Glenn Close job description. Coaching seems to be a fatal attraction to so many. They're lured by the money, glamour and competition, but unless they're walking away from the Golden Dome or the Bear's footprints, they usually lose their jobs when the dollars don't make sense to someone else.
``What's happening tells us that coaching has more and more stress,'' said ABC's college football voice, Keith Jackson. ``It's more and more commercial. It's more and more demanding. The [university] presidents say, `We're in business to make a buck.' What's happening clearly says that.''
It's a profession, Teaff reminds, where ``only half can win, because half have to lose every game. And when you trace it back, there's more scrutiny than there's ever been. Academics in admissions, graduation rates, drug testing, behavioral patterns and more. However, the bottom line is winning or losing. Even throwing in all of the other things, when push comes to shove, at the top level, those other things don't seem to make a lot of difference if you don't win.''
Teaff, who was a coach for 37 years, is correct. The impatience with winning and losing has intensified, because each is tied to the financial side of college athletics. And the pressure for college football to turn a profit on most campuses is more crucial these days, because the funding of women's sports in proportion to men's teams isn't a wish. It's the law.
Gate receipts, television and bowl bids come to those who win. Those who don't win get into the unemployment line. What concerns Teaff the most is that for every head coach who moves or is fired, about a dozen assistants or aides are out of a job, too. That is what faces the current assistants at Teaff's old school. Baylor, which fired coach Chuck Reedy on Sunday.
``I've never seen it quite like this,'' Teaff said. ``I'm not sure anybody has an answer why it's like this, this year. It's cyclical to some extent.''
It's also a vicious circle.
LENGTH: Medium: 74 linesby CNB