"You can judge hoe valuable a job is by who takes it when it becomes available."
That argument would hold some water if coaching decisions were made in a Vacuum.
Alabama is in the middle of a dynasty era. They have won or been in the mix for NC for nearly half a decade. Saban would be crazy to leave Alabama right now, but it was said many times that if he ever did leave, it would be for Texas.
Harbaugh was still the coach of the 49ers when Texas was doing their search. He has now publicly said that it was not his decision to leave the 49ers. Furthermore Michigan is his alma mater.
Myer was waiting for the Ohio State job to open. Again, he is from the area. He wanted to go back there. Thats not a knock on the attractiveness of Texas for head coaches.
The only real argument here for a coach that "turned down" Texas would be Briles. Who knows what really happened behind closed doors, but the prevailing record of events is that he was ready to take the job, but Patterson insisted that he interview for the job. Again, it would be career suicide for Briles to interview for the Texas job if in fact he did not get it and had to go back, tail between his legs, to Baylor. IMO this was a huge fck up by the people in charge of the Texas coaching search, and frankly, insulting to Briles.
On to Strong. I think most people believed when Strong was hired that it was with the caveat that he make a strong hire at OC, and in fact was handed a blank check to do so. If he had done so people would be singing a completely different tune about Strong. Instead he hired Watson, supposedly against the wishes of Patterson, and now he is on a short leash.
That brings me to Sumlin. Even though Aggies have anointed him as some kind of genius coach and recruiter, the guy actually hasn't accomplished much of anything. He put up some big offensive numbers at U of H, but he was seen as an up and comer type of hire, not a hire for a destination program. And lets not rewrite history, a lot of Aggies were pissed about it, and some in fact had hoped for Strong.
That argument would hold some water if coaching decisions were made in a Vacuum.
Alabama is in the middle of a dynasty era. They have won or been in the mix for NC for nearly half a decade. Saban would be crazy to leave Alabama right now, but it was said many times that if he ever did leave, it would be for Texas.
Harbaugh was still the coach of the 49ers when Texas was doing their search. He has now publicly said that it was not his decision to leave the 49ers. Furthermore Michigan is his alma mater.
Myer was waiting for the Ohio State job to open. Again, he is from the area. He wanted to go back there. Thats not a knock on the attractiveness of Texas for head coaches.
The only real argument here for a coach that "turned down" Texas would be Briles. Who knows what really happened behind closed doors, but the prevailing record of events is that he was ready to take the job, but Patterson insisted that he interview for the job. Again, it would be career suicide for Briles to interview for the Texas job if in fact he did not get it and had to go back, tail between his legs, to Baylor. IMO this was a huge fck up by the people in charge of the Texas coaching search, and frankly, insulting to Briles.
On to Strong. I think most people believed when Strong was hired that it was with the caveat that he make a strong hire at OC, and in fact was handed a blank check to do so. If he had done so people would be singing a completely different tune about Strong. Instead he hired Watson, supposedly against the wishes of Patterson, and now he is on a short leash.
That brings me to Sumlin. Even though Aggies have anointed him as some kind of genius coach and recruiter, the guy actually hasn't accomplished much of anything. He put up some big offensive numbers at U of H, but he was seen as an up and comer type of hire, not a hire for a destination program. And lets not rewrite history, a lot of Aggies were pissed about it, and some in fact had hoped for Strong.
