The Awful Announcing Wednesday Newsletter is a deep dive into all things sports media with original commentary, highlights from the week, social media buzz, and much more. Below is our “A Block” that leads off the newsletter. You can read this and more by subscribing here. We send a recap of what’s been on AA on Monday and Friday mornings as well as the extended original version on Wednesdays.
There are a lot of unique elements that make college football come alive as the most cherished and passionate sport of choice for so many fans. The traditions, the rivalries, the pageantry, the bands, the campus environments, the excitement. The insanity of the coaching carousel may not be one of them, but it is so uniquely college football. And the last week has seen the coaching carousel become a circus in a huge way.
* At Texas A&M, Kentucky’s Mark Stoops was reported to be taking the job from Jimbo Fisher, who received a buyout large enough to buy the Dutton Ranch. And then he wasn’t. Whether it was a fan revolt, a change of heart, or bad reporting, Duke head coach Mike Elko ended up taking the job. But not before Ryan Day (???) and Dabo Swinney (!!!) were also linked with it.
* ESPN’s Dan Mullen was reported to have met with Syracuse AD John Wildhack about their job opening. Mullen’s broadcast partner Matt Barrie even joked about the Syracuse opening on air! But Mullen publicly denied any interest and Wildhack denied a meeting took place.
* Indiana fired head coach Tom Allen after seven seasons in Bloomington. While a coach hasn’t been named yet, somehow Jon Gruden was floated out there as a candidate. While seeing Gruden try to resurrect his coaching career at Indiana of all places would truly be mesmerizing, not even a Big Ten cellar dweller would likely go near him.
* Michigan State finally moved on to their next coach after the Mel Tucker disaster and hired Jonathan Smith from Oregon State after somehow being linked to Urban Meyer for months.
* Finally, Bobby Petrino was reported to be making an improbable return to Arkansas as the school’s offensive coordinator. No, wait, this may actually turn out to be true. He has to ride a motorcycle back into town, right?
While nothing has quite risen to the ranks of Greg Schiano’s Tennessee debacle or George O’Leary’s fake resume, this cycle has presented a never-ending deluge of speculation, rumors, reports, comings, and goings – whether they’re right on the money or not even in the same zipcode.
Alas, that’s the state of today’s sports media. With college football fandom at an all-time high and the thirst for information also never more desperate, any booster can seemingly float any name and see it turn into a full day’s news cycle. So who from Oregon State can try to see if they can lure Bill Belichick away from the Patriots to Corvallis?
