Your Dream Job Could Be A Nightmare

by Cheval John

I have something to say to Kevin Sumlin, head football coach at the University of Houston (UH) Cougars: Stay where you are because you have a chance to build a legacy at UH.

The Cougars are 12-0 and are playing for the Conference-USA championship on Saturday. If they win, then they will receive an automatic bid to play in one of the five bowls in the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).

The reason why I am saying this is because his name is being mentioned for coaching vacancies at several schools including Texas A&M and Arizona State University. History has shown that the majority of coaches that left their previous jobs for their “dream job” have failed to duplicate their success that was achieved at their previous school.

Here are a few coaches that comes to mind:

Billy Gillispie: Gillispie was the head basketball coach at Texas A&M from 2004-2007. During that time, he led the Aggies to 70-26 overall record and a Big 12 conference record of 31-17 and have made the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament in 2006 and 2007. In the latter, the Aggies made it to the Sweet Sixteen where they lost to the Memphis Tigers. After the 2006-07 season, he was hired by the University of Kentucky Wildcats to return them to their glory years when they made 105 appearances in the NCAA tournament and won 7 national championships. In his two years at the helm, he led them to a 40-27 record and have reached the NCAA tournament only once. Even though it was decent records, he was fired because it wasn’t enough to meet the expectations of the fan base for the University of Kentucky. Now, he is the head coach at Texas Tech University.

Turner Gill: Gill was the head football coach at the University at Buffalo from 2006-2009. Before his arrival, the Bulls was 8-49 and was considered one of the worst Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) programs in the nation. In his first year, the Bulls finished with a 2-10 record. The next year, the team improved to an overall record of 5-7 and a Mid-American Conference (MAC) record of 5-3. Their breakthrough came in 2008 when they finished the regular season with an overall record of 7-5 record and a conference record of 5-3. They played in the MAC championship game against Ball State at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan, where they defeated them by the score of 42-24 to win the MAC championship and made their first bowl appearance since joining the FBS in 1999.

In 2009, the University of Kansas hired Gill as their next head coach, replacing long-time coach Mark Mangino. In his two seasons, the Jayhawks compiled a 25-49 overall record and a Big 12 conference record of 1-12. Gill was fired after the 2011 season.

Here is a quote that sums up this post: “The grass is not always green on the other side.”

If you agree or disagree with this post, you can respond by emailing me at chevaljohn80@yahoo.com.