I had an interesting debate with my brother that was spurred on by watching Auburn in the tourney the other night. My brother said “I’d take Bruce Pearl and Hugh Freeze in a heartbeat. Auburn takes crap for firing people constantly but they played roulette til they got it right”. now with guys like Pearl, Freeze, Chris Beard… you can make arguments about why they have too much baggage but it got me to thinking about UF, Stricklin, UAA and what the athletic department is trying to accomplish. So here’s the experiment- and be honest… You get to trade BOTH Golden AND CBN for any other TWO SEC coaches. You have to take both. Personally I think that puts us around 7th-8th in the league for coaching pedigree. That’s a huge sway from SOS/Krueger or Urban/Billy… ton of potential for CBN and Golden but today, right this moment - I’d take Bama- Saban & Oates Ole miss - Kiffen & Beard Auburn - Freeze & Pearl UK- Stoops & Calipari (that’s a tough one… I don’t think Stoops is great but it’s interesting to consider what he’d do here… plus he’s owned us lately) Tennessee - Heupel & Barnes LSU - Kelly & McIntyre (debatable one here cuz im not sold on McIntyre and hate Kelly… but we’d win) Cue the “I wouldn’t trade CBN for anyone. You’re a bad fan etc” Listen, I love CBN and Golden. Im really hopeful but tentative about what they can do here because I think with UAA-academics- all sports success philosophy - I think they have a tougher road to hoe than other schools who are all in with NIL etc.
Shows how sleazy the SEC really is. but I think the obvious answer would be Saban-Oates (which is also a good name for a cereal)
my question wasn’t necessarily “who is the one set you would trade for” but rather, name EVERY set you would trade for. So I listed the 6 sets I’d consider seriously/ which in my mind sits us at the middle of the pack
Well, our set is one year in so I have no valid opinion as to where they may fall in that group in the years to come. The others for some are fairly obvio and some wait and sees also. Some may care if the coaches may or not be a little dirty and others may hope our staff is a little dirty. I’m of the opinion that if ya cheating, ya ain’t tryin but my acceptance of such does have bounds. There still needs to be integrity involved but also none can win by following all the rules.
I only included who I’d consider swapping for. I wouldn’t want White and I think Smarts success is a product of an athletic department that is all in which I’m not sold we have here. Swap CBN for Smart and I think you’d see similar results on both sides. Although I do like Smarts fire
Bruce Pearl is the ultimate sleazebag used car salesman. Proven liar and cheat. Wouldn't want him under any circumstances. Calipari, also, has a history as a cheater (UMass & Memphis) and while a great recruiter he's done less with more than any coach in D!, IMO. So no to him as well. Oates and Saban are the only 2 of those pairs listed I'd swap our 2 guys for.
You want Oates? Dude has murderers and accessories to murder all over the place and don’t even sit them unless they’re in jail. I would say he’s a much bigger scumbag than either Pearl or Cal.
Valid point. Although I would still argue Pearl as the ultimate, sweaty dirtbag. The guy I would really prefer among SEC coaches is Eric Musselman.
I don’t think I have any qualms with Musselman. Seems like a pretty good coach. Not sure I’d go out of my way to trade for him, but wouldn’t cry about that trade if it happened. If we were still trading both coaches, the bama duo is the only one I really see as a vast improvement, coaching wise. But, as noted, I would not want Oates near our program.
The big question would be if we had Saban (and Oates or whoever their Bball coach was over the years), would we have racked up multiple nattys? Not sure but if so then that's an easy trade. One could argue that Saban was a catalyst to get the Bball team into a number one seed in the tourney. Among other good performing sports teams (softball, baseball etc.)
