John L Smith is looooonnnng gone!
Boopotts
Posts: 6,784 ✭✭
in Sports Talk
Rejoice, my fellow Spartan fans! John L will not be returning next year. Of course, unfortunately neither will Stanton, but hey-- you can't have everything.
Who will be the next figurative Christian that Ron Mason feeds to the wolves of the Big 10? Any guesses?
Who will be the next figurative Christian that Ron Mason feeds to the wolves of the Big 10? Any guesses?
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The funny thing about it all - Stanton will be drafted and will probably eventually become a decent NFL QB.
<< <i>Didn't the Spartans have a lame duck coach a few years back, too? I seem to remember them having a coach that was 'fired' half way through the year? >>
That was Bobby Williams. The firing came down shortly after an interview with a reporter who asked Williams 'What do you need to do to make this team better?' (Or something like that). Williams responded by saying, 'I don't know what to do'. Which, to his credit, was a truthful answer, but not exactly what the university was looking for.
In any case, visit these boards again on November 1st, 2010, and we'll have another post entitled "<insert new coach's name here> is looong gone!". Much like the Lions, the Sparties could hire Vince Lombardi and it wouldn't matter. I'm no John L fan, but he was far from the only problem.
I think it's funny that Saban's National Championship at LSU somehow made everyone forget that he really wasn't worth a damn when he was at MSU. He had four .500 seasons and one 9-2 season when he predicatably did the thing he flirted with doing after every other season: leave abruptly. He only seemed like a good coach because he blamed everyone but himself for failures. If anyone thinks there weren't Notre Dame-like debacles under his watch, check the record. At least John L has a personality.
As for Stanton, for the life of me I will never understand how Chris Hill, Alan Anderson, and Kelvin Torbert from the basketball program were considered mentally weak and lacking the traits of champions (i.e. losers), even by their own coach, yet Stanton is still the poster boy. He's a great kid and a warrior, but he has stepped up exactly zero times in his career.
Spartan fans can be excited knowing that we will win the final 3 games this year plus the bowl game by 20+, just so we can agonize over whether or not firing John L was really the right decision (even though it was), especially when the new guy starts out 4-0 next year and finishes 5-7.
<< <i>Didn't the Spartans have a lame duck coach a few years back, too? I seem to remember them having a coach that was 'fired' half way through the year? >>
Bobby Williams - another dismal failure of a coach. (who later worked for the Detroit Lions, what a surprise)
If you're talking 2005, good point.
If you're talking 2006, then you've proved my point.
About 1% of me wants the skunkbears to beat OSU and win the national championship this year, just so Lloyd Carr can take a lap around the Big Outhouse with his middle finger on both hands fully extended to the 100,000+ skunkbear fans and walk off into the sunset (or maybe even become the MSU coach).
<< <i>They had 3 solid weeks to do this with little fanfare, as everyone was gaga over the Tigers. They should have done it the Monday after the Illinios debacle, or the Monday after Maggs went deep to put the Tigers in the World Series. But in typical Michigan State fashion, they waited until there was absolutely nothing going on in the Detroit area sports world to make the announcement. Maybe it's my Sparties way of stealing some press from all the Buckeye/skunkbear discussion.
In any case, visit these boards again on November 1st, 2010, and we'll have another post entitled "<insert new coach's name here> is looong gone!". Much like the Lions, the Sparties could hire Vince Lombardi and it wouldn't matter. I'm no John L fan, but he was far from the only problem.
I think it's funny that Saban's National Championship at LSU somehow made everyone forget that he really wasn't worth a damn when he was at MSU. He had four .500 seasons and one 9-2 season when he predicatably did the thing he flirted with doing after every other season: leave abruptly. He only seemed like a good coach because he blamed everyone but himself for failures. If anyone thinks there weren't Notre Dame-like debacles under his watch, check the record. At least John L has a personality.
As for Stanton, for the life of me I will never understand how Chris Hill, Alan Anderson, and Kelvin Torbert from the basketball program were considered mentally weak and lacking the traits of champions (i.e. losers), even by their own coach, yet Stanton is still the poster boy. He's a great kid and a warrior, but he has stepped up exactly zero times in his career.
Spartan fans can be excited knowing that we will win the final 3 games this year plus the bowl game by 20+, just so we can agonize over whether or not firing John L was really the right decision (even though it was), especially when the new guy starts out 4-0 next year and finishes 5-7. >>
Re: the seeming inconsistency between the treatment of Torbert and co. and Stanton, I think it can at least partially explained as follows.
1) In basketball, one player can singlehandedly lift a team from mediocrity to being a contender; and three players can take a team in the toilet and make it a dynasty. Torbert and co. had an opportunity to have an impact on their team that Stanton could not possibly have, simply by virtue of the differences in their respective sports.
2) Torbert and co. were still playing beneath the long shadows of Cleeves and Peterson. The MSU basketball program is considered one of the nation's finest, yet it seemed to take a step back with Torbert, Anderson and Hill. MSU football, by contrast, has long been represented by apathetic no-shows and spaced out bongjockeys. Stanton, in other words, wasn't asked to uphold the sporting reputation of the university the way Torbert, etc. were.
Of course, Stanton is also white, and I think that probably plays a role (albeit a small one) as well.
<< <i><<The weird thing is, at the end of last season, it was Lloyd Carr's head people were calling for! >>
About 1% of me wants the skunkbears to beat OSU and win the national championship this year, just so Lloyd Carr can take a lap around the Big Outhouse with his middle finger on both hands fully extended to the 100,000+ skunkbear fans and walk off into the sunset (or maybe even become the MSU coach). >>
This is a toss up for me. I loathe the UM alums, and would love to see their hopes for an undisputed national title dashed in front of all those barbarians in the Horseshoe. But, I also have precious little respect for OSU, which is really little more than a University that the football team can be proud of.
Whenever I can't decide who to root for, I usually look to the team that has either a black quarterback or a black head coach, since I still think that seeing blacks succeed in both these positions is not only good for athletics, but provides at least a small benefit to our society as a whole. So I'll probably offer up a weak cheer for OSU on game day.
through coach after coach with very little stability, even during the George Perles era when they went to the Rose Bowl there was
ugly stuff going on behind the scenes. MSU has long suffered this inferiority complex in relation to the University of Michigan, maybe
that is a factor.
MSU is a great institution but they are selling themselves short hiring coaches like Smith. jmho