The coaching carousel churns, and in its churning, it illustrates two important pieces of the skeleton of college sports:
One of these two pieces is the importance of regionality. When South Florida didn’t land Ryan Odom, the coach who came up through an East-Southeast pipeline, they turned to Amir Abdur-Rahim, the coach who transformed Southeastern low-major Kennesaw State.
This isn’t a hard and fast rule—Odom ended up at Utah State for a few years, after all—but there’s a regionality to college sports. It was evident on the rosters last night at the NIT. Wisconsin’s starters were exclusively from the Midwest. North Texas’s were mostly from Texas and adjacent states. UAB’s were mostly from the South. Only Utah Valley didn’t fit the mold perfectly, and it still started guys from Nevada and Arizona. There are exceptions, but even when they’re athletes, kids usually look first at schools close to home, which leads to coaches staying in similar regions, fostering their local networks.
The other of these two things is the power structure of jobs. It’s a fluid thing, of course—Odom’s Southeastern roots ultimately appear likely to make VCU more attractive than Utah State, whereas the opposite would probably be true for someone from the West—but there is a pecking order, an informal ranking based largely on resources, resources both concrete and nebulous. This pecking order became evident when Odom was even considering South Florida, with eyebrows raised around us media but a realization that South Florida will pay its coaches. It was illustrated again when Odom reportedly turned to the VCU job after Mike Rhoades reportedly took the Penn State job. Penn State does trump VCU. South Florida can trump Utah State in the right circumstance, but VCU probably trumps South Florida. The Rhoades job at Penn State isn’t announced, and it doesn’t sound that Odom to VCU is official, but in the wild landscape of mid-major hoops (and lower high-major hoops, like Penn State), part of what makes the coaching carousel so captivating is how it delineates these things for us. It’s not just basketball, either. When speculation was linking Lane Kiffin to Auburn, part of what made that so concerning for Mississippi fans was not just losing Kiffin, but being shown to be below Auburn on the hierarchy.
Other carousel news? Temple’s president resigned yesterday, and Mizzou assistant Charlton Young reportedly responded by removing his name from consideration for that job. That kind of instability is a big setback for an already struggling program. Meanwhile, Mark Madsen has taken the Cal job, as expected. Busy week for Mark Madsen.
Brock Purdy Is the Starter
I have seen very little sports news aside from college basketball news over the last few days, and that might just be because this is a light week outside of college basketball and the NBA/NHL (where I’m not especially plugged in if I’m not making an effort). I have, though, seen that Brock Purdy is probably the 49ers’ starting quarterback once he’s healthy, per John Lynch on Monday.
There’s the practical implication here, and then there’s the speculation piece. We’ll talk practical first.
Practically, this means that Purdy is heading a QB room that also includes Trey Lance and Sam Darnold. It means that Lance and Darnold are competing for the initial starting job, but that unless one pulls a Brock Purdy themselves, they’re going to sit once he’s ready to play.
Speculatively: Is Brock Purdy ready for this? Asked twelve months ago to rank those quarterbacks, the order would be clear, and Purdy would be last. He did a lot last year, but there was “game manager” chatter. Yet at the same time: Isn’t what the 49ers need a game manager? With all that talent, and with all that schematic advantage? (I’d expect the league to catch up a bit this year, just as they ultimately caught up to the Kaepernick Niners about decade ago, but…still.) Ultimately, I wonder if the question boils down to the 49ers’ specific needs regarding ceiling, floor, and ability to perform the functions Kyle Shanahan asks his QB to perform. For now, a long way from the season and a longer way from Purdy’s likely return, he evidently checks the boxes.
Cyclones in the Draft
A quick Iowa State/NFL hit, going off of that:
On PFF’s big board right now, Iowa Staters rank out as follows:
- Will McDonald IV: 29th
- Xavier Hutchinson: 154th
- MJ Anderson: 277th
- Anthony Johnson Jr.: 354th
On paper, that leaves McDonald as a borderline first round pick, Hutchinson with a fifth round projection, Anderson around the edge of being drafted, and Johnson undrafted. That’s on paper, that’s still a few weeks from the draft.
The Bally Sports Mess
Diamond Sports Group, who runs the Regional Sports Networks (RSN) for 14 MLB teams, 12 NHL teams, and 16 NBA teams, is bankrupt. This isn’t all that new. It’s been looming over this offseason, the filing happened two weeks ago, and MLB is projecting excitement about it, saying confidently they’ll step in and take over broadcasts if contracts are breached, ending the maddening blackouts in the process. In other words, Diamond Sports Group’s bankruptcy could conceivably be good for fans, if we’re taking MLB’s stance at face value. Should we? I’m not sure. It’s probably not a good sign if there’s financial trouble anywhere in a sport’s industry, but the blackouts do really suck.
For the moment, nothing has broken. Diamond Sports Group reportedly made its payment to the Padres on time to keep broadcasting their games, and though it defaulted on a crucial Diamondbacks payment, the word is still that Diamondbacks broadcasts are going on as scheduled for now. It’s going to be a big deal over the first two months of the MLB season, though, so stay tuned.
