Who Is Your SEC Coach of the Year?
by Year2 on Dec 6, 2011 10:30 AM EST
in SEC Football
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PrintLes Miles won the AP's SEC Coach of the Year award, and he's certainly deserving. However, you can make the case for other coaches as well. Here's the best I can make those cases, after which you can vote for who you think should get it.
LES MILES
Miles is the head coach of the sole team to finish the year undefeated, but that only scratches the surface. Few coaches had to deal with as many distractions as Miles did. Before the season began, he had to deal with the Will Lyles scandal, Steve Kragthorpe's unfortunate illness shaking up the coaching staff, four players (including starting QB Jordan Jefferson) getting mixed up in a fight, and eligibility issues with Russell Shepard. Then he had to suspend three players including stars Tyrann Mathieu and Spencer Ware mid-season after they got busted for synthetic pot. Through it all LSU kept mauling everyone but Alabama, who he beat thanks in large part to outcoaching Nick Saban.
JAMES FRANKLIN
It's hard to overstate how bad Vanderbilt has been the past two seasons. By some measures, the Commodores were literally off the charts bad in 2010. Franklin came into Nashville talking a good game, even winning SEC Media Days in the process. Unlike most Vandy coaches, he actually made good on that talk as he led the team to a bowl in his first year. The novelty has worn off that some thanks to VU's 2008 bowl run, but this is only the school's fifth bowl game in history. That '08 team even did it with some smoke and mirrors, winning four of its six regular season games by one score and getting outscored by its opponents on the season. Franklin's team has five blowout wins to its name and had four other one-score losses. This was a dramatically better Vandy team than last year, and it might be the best in recent memory.
MARK RICHT
The "Mark Richt is on the hot seat" meme was one of the most pervasive over the last couple of years. So pervasive, in fact, that it's difficult to imagine the players never heard of it either in the media or, in the case of the young guys, from other coaches who recruited them. In that light, it would have been entirely predictable and understandable if the Bulldogs fell apart after getting dissected by Boise State and losing a strange heartbreaker to South Carolina to begin the season 0-2. Instead, UGA ripped off 10 straight wins including a clean sweep over rivals Florida, Auburn, and Georgia Tech. It's the first time Georgia has both won 10 games and gone 3-0 against its rivals since 2007. It also resulted in the program's first SEC Championship Game appearance since 2005.
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It's Les Miles
And really, it’s not close. Franklin has been entertaining and has lifted Vandy to mediocrity, but that is not award worthy. Richt fielded a much improved team and deserves consideration, but he still falls short of the job Miles did.
Some days, it seems like there isn't enough coffee.
Some nights, it seems like there isn't enough vodka.
Les Miles?
LSU was a consensus top 10 team, and fully expected to compete for the Division, Conference, and National title.
So, meeting expectations is COY?
Inanity @gothlaw
"Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is." -Sir Francis Bacon
by Stuck in the Plains on Dec 7, 2011 6:56 PM EST up reply actions
If pitbull doesn’t win this going away I’ll be damned
TV Journalist Chris Hanson is a cockblocker
by rocket8188 on Dec 6, 2011 12:01 PM EST via mobile reply actions
I stand with my pitbull brethren
But if I could have had a second vote, it would be for Franklin.
I managed to resist,
….but putting Pitbull on that poll was a stroke of genius! Or idiot savant, I’m not sure which…
…..Franklin got bowl eligible at Vandy. That’s good enough for me!
......Drowning in cool elixir.
call me a Homer
But I think Petrino needs some consideration.
Arkansas lost Ryan Mallett, DJ Williams, and two senior OT’s to the NFL plus lost Knile Davis for the season to injury and the Hogs still finished with a 10 win season.
Also, the team’s two best defenders in DE Jake Bequette and Tenarius Wright were injured and out for several games.
Probably not the SEC coach of the year, but should be among the “also receiving votes”
"I solemnly swear to tell the truth as I know it, the whole truth as I believe it to be, and nothing but what I think you need to know."
Homer
Some days, it seems like there isn't enough coffee.
Some nights, it seems like there isn't enough vodka.
Might as well
throw Spurrier’s name into the ring for getting to 10 wins with a 5th string running back and 2nd string quarterback.
Dum spiro spero - "While I breathe, I hope"
State motto of South Carolina
by The Feathered Warrior on Dec 6, 2011 12:26 PM EST reply actions
And for beating Mark Richt in Athens
"Lattimore, as the kids can say, can ball, and sometimes does it to the extent one might say [he] is out of control in his balling." - Spencer Hall
by GwinnettGamecock on Dec 7, 2011 12:41 AM EST up reply actions
Anyone that takes Vandy bowling in year 1 should be COY hands down IMO.
Not to mention had things actually broken right more than they did wrong they had a shot to win 9 games. That’s just unreal. I’m not sure there is another coach in the country that could do what he did in year 1.
by AeroEngUA07 on Dec 6, 2011 12:48 PM EST reply actions 3 recs
Gotta be Miles
But if Richt had come out of ATL with a 7 point loss, I would’ve said him. I’ll make no bones about it, I’m a Franklin hater so my opinion on him should be disregarded
by Mark Mandingo on Dec 6, 2011 1:29 PM EST via mobile reply actions
A famous Kiwi cricket player, of course!
(Thanks)
Team Speed Kills -- SBNation's SEC Blog
If you're so inclined, follow me @Year2
Miles
Actually, I think he should’ve won it for his work last year. That’s when everyone outside the program was talking about the slide into mediocrity and how other programs had passed them by. He laid the groundwork for this season with his work last year, pulling the Tigers back into the SEC elite. this is just enjoying the fruits of his efforts.
Honestly, I’d give the ward to Franklin this year.
Fake Pundit. Real Fan.
And The Valley Shook!
I self-indulgently tweet @ATVSPoseur
Miles is my pick.
Sorry, but the coach of the year award shouldn’t to to the coach of the team that didn’t suck as much as we thought it would. When a team goes undefeated, the coach should be coach of the year.
Jrlz rhymes with Charles.
My Tumblr- cfbinbadmspaint.tumblr.com
by Jrlz on Dec 6, 2011 4:05 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
But you can't deny what Franklin has done there...Vandy has been a coaching graveyard.
Having said that…Miles is the answer here.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the face of the Alabama fanbase, the Manager of the blog RollBamaRoll.com, and the kind of person Alabama fans get their football perspective from:
"Been saying it for six f**king years now...That g**damn hurricane just wasn’t big enough." - Outsidethesidelines, Manager, RollBamaRoll.com
http://www.rollbamaroll.com/2011/12/3/2607240/sec-championship-game-open-thread#
outsidethesidelines@gmail.com
This what's wrong with people's perception of coaching awards.
A coach’s prowess is not necessarily defined by the fact that his team went undefeated.
LSU has consistently oversigned over the last 4 years to the point where they and Alabama have effectively signed an extra entire recruiting class over non-oversigners like Georgia and Florida (and, for that matter, Vanderbilt). Les Miles and Nick Saban are playing poker with an extra card in their hands. That doesn’t make them the best poker players at the table.
James Franklin won 6 games in his first year at Vanderbilt. His first year. I’m no Vanderbilt historian, but he’s got to be the first Vandy coach ever to do that… or at least the first in 30+ years. And the Commodores didn’t just scrape by against the Richmonds and Memphis’s of the world. They took top-10 team Arkansas to the wire and only lost by 3, and they beat poor teams like Ole Miss and Wake Forest by double-digits… something Vanderbilt really hasn’t done in 30+ years. And that’s added onto the fact that their talent is significantly below that at virtually every SEC school not named “Ole Miss.”
As much as I don’t like his attitude, Franklin has done the best coaching job this year. He deserves the award.
Editor, Dawg Sports.
Go Dawgs!
by vineyarddawg on Dec 6, 2011 10:05 PM EST up reply actions
Historical Perspective
The last first year Vandy coach to win 6 or more games was Ray Morrison in 1935 (7-3, 5-1); however, Vandy did not go bowing that year.
The last first year Vandy coach to go bowling? It hadn’t been done – until this year.
Les Miles should get it, but
Nick Saban at least deserves a nod. He coached his team into the BCS Title game for the second time in 3 years, and you can argue about the rules of that mess but the leadership he encouraged from his team to serve in rebuilding a town that is still a wreck and to perform the way they have is worth something. If everyone else lost one more football game maybe we’d all be talking about them more.
Saban doesn’t earn it for how he coached against Miles and flushing that game away (not that it would have changed the result of the BCS Title game teams), but I think he deserves a nod. Memories are short, but I still think he’s one of the best for what he does off the field instead of just for an hour a week every fall. I dunno.
A part of me wants to vote for Derek Dooley
He inspired Kentucky to finally beat Tennessee again. That deserves a medal.
Or maybe it was Pitbull. You know what, let’s just go with having a real good time.
Miles deserves the award, no question, along with all national awards.
But Spurrier, Petrino, or Saban would all be better choices than Richt. I know the media loves the “beat the hot seat” meme, but Richt didn’t do anything he shouldn’t have, and he blew the only three chances he had on the year to beat good teams. Yawn. Glad he had a good year because he’s a likeable coach, but he still has a lot to prove. The beatdown in the Dome showed that his team is still unable to perform to its talent level, which seemingly shouldn’t be too far below LSU’s.
Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog by and for Gamecocks Fans.
Not really. We won the game and avoided the Outback
He’s just speaking the truth.
"Lattimore, as the kids can say, can ball, and sometimes does it to the extent one might say [he] is out of control in his balling." - Spencer Hall
by GwinnettGamecock on Dec 7, 2011 5:05 PM EST up reply actions
Miles and Franklin - co COY
They both deserve it. Miles had to get his team through some tough issues and Franklin got Vandy three plays from 9-3. Actually the most amazing thing that Franklin changed was the player’s attitudes and fitness. In 35+ years of watching Vandy I have never seen this determination.
Wish both coaches would get award.
by vandygal78 on Dec 7, 2011 9:23 AM EST via mobile reply actions
I would honestly say Franklin
but the horrible chokejobs against UGA and Ark are too much. I get the feeling he’ll win those games in the future.
nemo me impune lacessit
Franklin is the one.............
Les Miles is a great coach who has taken a great team and made them the best team in the country. He deserves credit for that. That is one notch better than his team last year.
James Franklin has taken one of the worst teams in college football, to a decent bowl bound team in the SEC. What he has done is a slight miracle. A rise of several notches over last year with a team he just adopted. That to me is deserving of COY.
Your chart tells the story.
The last two years Vandy was near (and for most of the nation, actually) unwatchable.
This year we get to complain about nearly beating ARK, UGA, and FLA. We absolutely annihilated Ole Miss, Kentucky, and Wake. This is from a team that has not had a single victory like that in recent memory – and Franklin led us to 3 of them in one season. I wish we could have finished off a couple of those close call games, say UGA and ARK, so that the final record would reflect just how dramatic a turn around Franklin has precipitated at Vanderbilt.
Just about beat Tennessee as well
Also, took down the reigning Big East champions although that might have been the worst team you played.
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