Moving the Chains: Expiration Dates

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Note: Scott Ludwig is out of town this week, his normal College football column will return when he returns

I’ve been following football long enough to know that it has some of the ficklest fans in all of sports.  In no other sport – baseball, basketball, hockey – is the sole judge of how a team, player, or even coach is performing is based solely on their answer to this question:

‘What have you done for me lately?’

In football it’s easy to be on top of the world one day – and be a goat the next.  And I don’t mean G.O.A.T., as in the greatest-of-all-time.  Rather, the kind of goat that smells bad and eats tin cans.

Here are a couple examples:

• Remember Troy Smith?  He won the Heisman Trophy in 2007 playing quarterback for Ohio State, then was rendered meaningless – passing for just 35 yards while losing 29 on the ground – in a devastating 41 – 14 loss to Florida in the game for the National Championship.

• What about the Detroit Lions?  After a promising 7 – 9 finish the prior year, fans had high hopes for an even better finish in 2008.  The Lions wound up with 16 losses – and no wins.   

In both cases they were seemingly riding high one day, then picking themselves off the floor the next.

Let’s discuss coaches in both the NFL and the NCAA.  Where a bad decision or performance could spell the difference between being here today – or gone tomorrow.

All of what follows happened in the last couple of weeks.  If anyone has any interest in coaching at either level, you might want to reconsider.  On the other hand, if you envision a job becoming open, now would be a good time to update your resume.  

• The Washington Commanders were within field goal range to win in the closing seconds in an overtime game against the New York Giants.  But Washington’s quarterback attempted to throw a pass, ended up scrambling, and was sacked for a loss without enough time to spike the ball to stop the clock.  Time expired and the game ended in a tie.  Washington coach Dan Quinn, who had his team playing for the NFC Championship two seasons ago, said the responsibility for the gaffe ‘starts with me.’  Several prominent analysts said they would have fired him on the spot.  Many Washington fans agree with them. 

• The San Diego Chargers, under coach Jim Harbaugh, were 11 – 6 in 2025 and made it to the Wild Card Round before losing to the New England Patriots.  This year the team has lost its first five games.  Harbaugh tried to share the blame with the team owners by saying they were ‘in this fight together.’  That may be true, but only one of them is in danger of losing their job.  

• Texas is a bona fide contender for the National Championship and was rated as the top team in the nation heading into their Red River Rivalry against unranked Oklahoma.  After the Sooners pulled off the upset, Longhorn coach Steve Sarkisian immediately put the focus on Arch Manning, his quarterback, by commenting that unfair criticisms are being made of him because of his family name.  It was Sarkisian’s way of saying ‘look, a squirrel!’ to direct the blame at his most valuable player instead of himself.  

• Texas A&M coach Mike Elko was riding high after last year’s 11 – 2 finish and an appearance in the College Football Playoff.  But after this year’s 3 – 3 start, the latest an embarrassing 21-point loss at home to Missouri, Elko referred to the TexAgs website and a considerable portion of the team’s fanbase as a ‘cesspool.’  Naturally he apologized later, but the damage had already been done.  Elko committed an unpardonable sin in College Station by casting aspersions on Texas A&M’s  ‘12^th man,’ thereby alienating arguably the most vocal and supportive contingent of fans in college football.   

• Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell was riding high after leading the team to a 15 – 2 record as recently as two seasons ago.  Anticipating a return to glory this season after a 9 – 8 finish last year, the Lions are now 3 – 2.  But they could have been 4 – 1 had it not been for Campbell inexplicably going for a first down on 4^th-and-20 while trailing by 13 points with seven minutes still left in the game.  It’s bad enough that Campbell went for it, but calling for a play throwing the ball short of the first down marker is another.  The Lions failed to convert, lost the game, and Campbell drew the wrath of some really angry fans demanding some answers – with some calling for his job.

• The Philadelphia Eagles, after winning the Super Bowl just two years ago under coach Nick Sirianni, were on the verge of winning their game against Jacksonville after a 56-yard field goal gave them a 17 – 16 lead with just eight seconds left on the clock.  But a 57-yard kickoff return by the Jaguars left one second on the clock, which was just enough time for Cam Little to kick a 57-yard field goal to win the game 19 – 17.  With the loss, the Eagles’ record dropped to 2 – 3.  After the game, Sirianni admitted ‘I didn’t make the right decision and I lost us that game.  There’s no way around it … I just didn’t do my job in that situation.’   Eagles’ fans were nowhere near that kind.  Remember, they’re the ones best known for throwing snowballs at Santa Claus.  

• At Florida, first year coach Jon Sumrall raised fan expectations after starting the season with four consecutive wins, none more encouraging than a 52 – 28 upset of #4 Ole Miss.  However, after consecutive and crushing defeats to Mississippi State and South Carolina, the boo birds are already out in full force.  Many Gator fans are already fed up, calling Sumrall ‘Napier 2.0’ (Napier was Sumrall’s predecessor, now in Florida’s ‘gone tomorrow’ annals) as well as criticizing him for not showing the same emotion and energy he had in the first four games of the season – as if that somehow affected the outcome of either game.    

Granted, at this point in their respective careers these seven coaches are nowhere near the caliber of Lombardi, Shula, Bryant, or Bowden.  But that doesn’t mean what happened to them can’t happen to the best of them. 

In all probability these setbacks should only be temporary.  There’s no better example of rebounding than what happened to Nick Saban in 2013.  It only took one second in an Iron Bowl loss to Auburn – one second that Saban pleaded with the officials to put back on the clock at the end of the game – to cause one the biggest backfires in college football history.  (Search for it on the internet using the phrase ‘kick six.’)  Saban stayed at Alabama and went on to win three more National Championships for the Crimson Tide.  

But these changes of fortune don’t always occur in the blink of an eye, as seen in these examples.    

Sometimes falls from grace can take time.  Some even take years.  

To illustrate that point, look no further than what happened to former Penn State coach Joe Paterno.  It may be the most tragic demise in the history of college football.    

You can read about it on the internet.  The word to search by is ‘Sandusky.’     

You’ll be hard pressed to find a better example of how the fortunes of a successful football coach can change from very good to very, very bad.

And that performance is measured not just by what happens on the field, but off the field as well.