Coach Hard 2: Coach Harder

If you can't tell, about a year ago, I decided I was really tired of Phil Bennett and his "I have forgotten more about football than you will ever know" shtick. Whenever Bennett says something odd or stupid, I throw up just a little bit in my mouth. Keep in mind, this has nothing to do with any actual decision on the field!

And I just thought I would let it go now that Bennett will soon be the former head coach of SMU. But man, two things in the last two weeks just have climbing the walls.

The first is the following quote in the today's SMU Notebook:

I'm going to come in tomorrow and coach the [expletive] out of them.

This is an odd statement for two reasons. First, aside from being nonsensical, were we not "coach[ing] the [expletive] out of them," before? I just want to know because I would think you might want to have been doing that for the past six years. Because, you know, that was your job. Me and my friends in the stands jokingly say, "Coach harder!" It is a joke. What does it even mean? And now Bennett basically says just that. Memo to Phil Bennett: Coaching is not riding a bike; there are not ten speeds-just one. You are either coaching 100% or not.

The statement is odd for a second reason, because you have to ask, "What does it mean?" I guess he is going to yell at him more. Well, Phil. Yelling ain't coaching. There is a little more to it than that.

The second thing driving me nuts was in the Houston game. And to explain why it drives me nuts, I have to go back even further to the Patriots-Cowboys game. In the Cowboys game, I was surprised/perplexed to see Belichik in a defensive huddle on the sideline. You just don't see head coaches in the huddle on the sideline while a game is going on very often. Then, in the SMU-Houston game, I saw this:





To be clear, I have never seen Bennett do this in a game ever. And I have seen almost every home game and televised road game, thanks to Tivo. So why the heck is he doing it now? The answer is obvious: Bennett is going to prove what a good coach he is, gosh darn it!!!! AAARGGHH! He is a fiery coach! He coaches players on the sideline! He is a defensive genius!!!

(There is, of course, the little detail that the 2007 SMU defense leaks like a sieve.)

We all know what is going to happen. Bennett is going to be the Defensive Coordinator some place next year; I would be willing to bet it is in the big XII. He wants that job; he'll take that job and despite what he thinks, that is probably what he ought to be and probably what he is best at. I warned everybody a long time ago that Bennett would haunt SMU on the recruiting trail the moment he left. And so it will be. Arguably, Bennett is haunting SMU on the recruiting trail today, the way he is talking and the excuse making.

Now, did Saturday's loss and this BS make me want Bennett canned today? No. I just want this season over as soon as possible.

P.S. I can't imagine what it would be like today if the decision to remove Bennett hadn't already been made.