Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Championing the cause...
As much as I'd love to leave the ACC - Big Ten Challenge picks at the top today; I just can't help but do a deeper dive into the "Izzo for football coach" talk that has taken hold in here in Michigan and among MSU fans, followers, supporters, alumni and media alike.

The question I want to get to is, why not? Seriously. I keep reading on message boards and in some media circles about what a bad idea it is. Take a second. Look beyond the surface. Tell me what MSU wants in a head football coach? Let me guess, you answered things such as: The person must be able to recruit; be a great teacher, a master motivator, an innovative mind; someone who can instill a climate of personal, team and institutional accountability and discipline; someone with whom you would entrust your son to help him be a successful person and with whom your son would want to stay in contact throughout his life; and be an effective communicator and committed to community outreach. I

promise you each one of you answered at least some of those things. So again, I pose the question, why not Tom Izzo? Is he not all of those things and more? Should we be any more sold on a defensive coordinator who has never been a head coach than on Izzo - who we know would consult his friends Nick Saban, Jon Gruden and Steve Mariucci - among others - in a quest to field a team of the best assistants in the business?

Who's to say that Grantham, Pelini, Shurmur, Kelly or anyone else bandied about would even hold a candle to what Izzo brings to the table? Think about it. Think deeper than "it would be stupid", or, "it would be embarrassing." Those are your initial feelings. Think about what you want in a coach and tell me that Izzo isn't all of that and then some. Isn't that what Michigan State football needs?

Worried about losing him in basketball - the guy has five former assistants as head coaches in the game. You don't think he'd find an able replacement to keep this program humming? All of your reasons for not wanting it to happen are really just plain stupid. It takes a look beyond the surface to get the real answers. Tom Izzo is the answer.

For more eloquent takes on this, I urge you to read Steve Grinzel's four latest web logs:

Izzo has all the criteria for MSU's next coach
Izzo addresses interest in football job
Izzo backlash
Saban speaks out for Izzo

Bottom line, if Saban thinks it would work and if Joel Ferguson thinks it is the dumbest idea ever, I've never read two better endorsements. One because Saban is the last coach we're truly had that embodies exactly what we need and two, because Ferguson is a meddling (you fill in the blank :) )

Happy Thanksgiving...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I tend to agree with you on this Andy. Izzo would have help from football coaches to put together a decent set of coordinators and he's a smart enough guy to know that he can't do it all by himself.

Not only that, but for a guy who truly has reached the pinnacle of his current career and has made a lasting legacy for himself in the basketball arena, this is one move that would keep him at "his" school. Not to mention, it would squash all the talk of him moving on to the NBA, which I don't believe fits him that well and he knows it.

After seeing some of the anguish that he's displayed over his recent teams not being as successful in the tourney (by the media), I think this would be a move that he could make, and grow into.

Anonymous said...

Emeril Lagase can do all those things.

Inspire
Motivate
Teach

The difference is, he can do it in the kitchen.

Just as Emeril couldn't coach the Spartan FB team, Izzo couldn't either. Even throwing it out there is one more example of why MSU has faultered in Football for 40 some years.

If you can't even conduct a respectable search for a football professional without it wandering into the absurd of personality politics (i.e. why not Izzo), you'll never rise to top of the ranks of the Big Ten.

Let's try to get real about what MSU needs, it's not another session of feed our favorite personality's ego.

Tom's a great coach, don't get me wrong, but he's a great BB coach. Putting him in will be more of a gamble than promoting Bobby Williams.

Anonymous said...

11/27 - Michigan 67 at NC STATE 74
11/28 - Maryland 75 at ILLINOIS 80
11/28 - Florida State 64 at WISCONSIN 77
11/28 - Indiana 71 at DUKE 82
11/28 - Penn State 67 at GEORGIA TECH 72
11/28 - MIAMI-FLA 78 at Northwestern 71
11/29 - MICHIGAN STATE 69 at Boston College 68
11/29 - Virginia 68 at PURDUE 75
11/29 - Iowa 67 at VIRGINIA TECH 77
11/29 - OHIO STATE 81 at North Carolina 79 (TIEBREAKER)
11/29 - CLEMSON 81 at Minnesota 75

ACC wins 6-5 :(

Anonymous said...

You and anybody else who wants Izzo as FB coach are insane. Seriously...insane. MSU will be the laughingstock of college sports if they hire Izzo as FB coach. Not only will you screw up your FB program even more, but you'll screw up your BB program as well. Brilliant.

As a Michigan fan, I'd like to see it happen. It would provide even more unintentional comedy from the Red Cedar. That being said, I objectively think it is about as idiotic a move that a Div I athletic program could make.

Anonymous said...

aaaaaaaaaand...Dantonio it is. One billion times better of a hire than Izzo would have been.