By Julie Buehler
Let’s say you’re Mr. or Ms. Most Eligible Bachelor/Bachelorette in your hometown.
Let’s say you think rather highly of your well-dressed, Audi-driving, Harvard-educated self and are seeking a new special someone in your life.
Let’s say you think most members of the opposite sex would drop their current partner for a chance to call you their one-and-only.
Now, let’s shift to reality.
In reality, you WERE a 10, but after some years of neglect are now a 6.5, topping out at a 7 when fully dressed up for the holidays.
In reality, yes, you have the latest Audi and $400 jeans and all the financial trappings that others deem important, but NEWSFLASH Copernicus, so does the majority of the people you’re looking to woo. So that’s not a selling point, you actually kinda look douchey trying to push that.
In reality, as you begin perusing your dating landscape and other eligible bachelors/bachelorettes see you coming, they bolt the other direction, straight into the arms of their current suitor and sign extensions with THAT relationship.
This past week the University of Texas and their head football coach Mack Brown decided to end his tenure as coach. It came after more than a week of speculation that Brown would step down, denials of such reports, statements from the athletic director and president supporting Brown and a flurry of media speculation as to who would replace a man that had yet to be fired.
Texas, under the impression that any coach would drop their shorts to become the next leader of one of college football’s most illustrious programs, began compiling a wish list of top-named coaches who should replace Brown. Alabama head coach Nick Saban became a hotly debated name on the table.
Only problems were 1) At the time, there was no coaching vacancy 2) Saban was already so well established at Alabama, he wasn’t going to up-and-leave for Texas and 3) because the speculation swirled, Saban promptly received contract extension.
Same scenario for the likes of Jim Mora at UCLA, Jim Harbaugh with the San Francisco 49ers and other coaches that were on Texas’s list to replace Mack Brown. So to be clear: Texas was getting turned down before they even had a job opening to offer.
Thinking they were the top program in the nation that could flaunt contracts upwards of $10 million per year, Texas ended up bungling the firing of Mack Brown by leaking it to the media a week early, dissuading would-be candidates from negotiations because they earned contract extensions and ultimately cast a cloud of suspicion across the program for handling this transition so badly.
Texas turned out to think its program is a 10, but in reality, even dressed up in the Alamo Bowl swagger, is now a 7.
Texas figured it could woo top coaches with oozing bundles of cash, neglecting to realize the NFL, Alabama and UCLA are also very well endowed and most of all, Texas failed to understand the manner in which a coach is fired or replaced is perceived by other coaches to be an important matter. No one wants to be publicly embarrassed by their employer and once a program shows it’s lack of foresight and lack of loyalty, it raises red flags in the coaching community.
Texas is hoping for an A-lister to replace Mack Brown, they think they deserve a 10. But reality is, they’ll be lucky to net a 7.
Julie Buehler hosts the Coachella Valley’s most popular sports talk radio show, “Buehler’s Day Off” every day from 3-6 on 1010 KXPS, the valley’s all sports station. She’s an avid gym rat, slightly sarcastic and more likely to recite Steve Young’s career passing stats than American Idol winners. Tune in M-F 3-6 pst at www.team1010.com or watch the show on Ustream.
