Tomorrow: 12/8/2007 (Coach Watch Day 41)

SMU will not have a coach tomorrow. This, I know. Tomorrow, in the Dallas Morning News, there will be something. Or nothing. One of the two. And by "something," I don't mean a paragraph saying Pal Johnson signed a contract with Georgia Tech.

If there is nothing, it means SMU isn’t listening to me. I am telling them to be more open about this process. Orsini doesn’t have to say, “Les Miles is on Ray Hunt’s plane right now; we plan to offer $17 Million a year.” But Orsini has to say something. I don’t want names and dates. I want to know if other have interviewed and when. I want to know when they expect to bring people in. I want to know what kind of person they are looking at now.

SMU keeps its current silence at its peril.

SMU may think the message board is nothing but a bunch of vitriolic ranting, but the truth is the posts reflect the opinions of people that give a [expletive] about SMU and those people represent a number of people who don’t post on message boards. In the world of consumer complaints, studies show 1 in 20 people with complaints actually complain to the manufacturer, yet each person with a complaint tells an average of 8 to 10 people. When I worked in politics, we used to say one yard sign on a block represented seven votes (now you know why there are so many yard signs).

If there is any merit to any of that, the SMU has a real confidence problem. I suggest it begin doing something about that.

I have one other comment and it is directed towards the loyal readers of this blog. SMU missed out on one guy that was being pursued by no fewer than four schools and ultimately got paid more than $2,000,000.00 per year by a perennial bowl team in a BCS conference. You don’t go from that straight to hiring Hudson Houck, a juco coach(!), a failed HC, now loathed assistant like Greg Davis or an “untouchable” coach “with baggage” like Barnett.

If Les Miles is a 10, then Paul Johnson is an 8 or a 9. You don’t go straight from chasing a 9 to settling for a 2. There are levels in between. In other words, just because the hottest chick in the bar turned you down, doesn’t mean you try to take home her ugly cousin with the lazy eye and a large adams apple. There are other women in the bar and there are other bars.