Heather Dinich has an eye-roller of a post.
… You can’t put a price tag on integrity, though, and the ACC’s got it.
The ACC has earned a reputation for hiring coaches with consciences, and both Steele and Cutcliffe have reminded us it’s a trait that still exists is the big business of college football. Steele went to Tennessee. He’s a proud 1981 graduate. He played there. Cutcliffe’s daughter goes to school there. He spent the first 16 years of his career there. Yet both of them are focused on finishing what they started in the ACC.
Loyalty runs deep in the conference. Look at Frank Beamer and his staff. Jim Grobe and his staff. How Frank Spaziani stuck by BC, even when he didn’t get the head-coaching job the first time around. How Maryland stuck with Ralph Friedgen, and he in turn kept his staff in tact, despite a 2-10 season.
Me laugh. Maryland “stuck with” Friedgen because it can’t afford the buyout. Spaziani got the BC job because his predecessor had the temerity to interview with an NFL team. Bud Foster indicated to Mark Richt that he had some interest in the open DC job and Virginia Tech had to open up the wallet to dissuade him from further pursuit. And don’t kid yourself into thinking that Kevin Steele – who just jumped from Alabama, what, a year ago? – isn’t getting a sweetener from Clemson. By the way, whatever happened to that Dave Wommack fellow? It seems like he was just hired the other day.
Jim Grobe is a rare bird, and I do give him credit for that. But you know what? He’s been at Wake Forest for the same amount of time that Mark Richt has been at Georgia.
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UPDATE: By Dinich’s lights, shouldn’t LSU and Chavis get as much credit for loyalty as she’s giving Clemmins and Steele? (Don’t forget that Miles turned down overtures from his alma mater, too.)
And what has all that loyalty gotten the ACC? One BCS game win in its history.
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2 right?
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Oh yeah, I forgot about VT’s menaingless win over Cincinnati. Somehow that did not register. Make that 2.
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At least she didn’t try to claim some sort of long-wrought “integrity” for Paul Johnson.
Likely next month’s post, I guess.
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I’m sure Heather voted for Coakley in Tuesday’s election in Massahusetts. One thing you have to learn is to discount 90% of the “stuff” from ESPN and in the AJC. They are “in love with the ACC”. They are based in the ACC. What intergrity? Yeah the ACC has really good coaches. Well let’s see how Heather explains the loss in MA by a liberal, while she ponders and explains the 14 losses by FSU under Bowden. Plus she could revisit some more violations in the past by the ACC teams. Her article is what is wrong with sports today…blind prejudice and galaxitic stupidity.
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Will, how can you make this about politics?
If there is any conference that ESPN ski poles on a regular basis, it’s the ESSS EEEE SEEEE. And rightfully so, it is the best conference by leaps and bounds, which is why the Worldwide Leader opened its doors and coffers to basically create a sub-network for the SEC.
All of the bloggers, from Chris Low to Rittenberg to Turner have biases toward the conferences they respectively cover. But I will admit that her article is crap and she’s a piss poor writer – the worst of the conference bloggers in Bristol. Besides, everyone knows that Maryland didn’t dump Friedgen because the only landfill large enough to contain his disposed remains was filled with Mangino blubber.
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Disregarding the lib-baiting…
Bristol, CT is ACC country. Huh. Interesting.
But you’re right, ESPN signing that ginormous TV deal with the ACC and all.
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Although, I do have to touch on this:
Oustanding non sequitur, dude.
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Maybe the underlying logic is that:
(a) Bristol is close to Boston College, which has been a long time loyal member of the basketball conference for a couple of years, and
(b) Somehow Heather fails to mention that Georgia and South Carolina loyally served for a short time as football co-champions of ACC last season, so
(c) Therefore Heather must be a long time loyal wingnut.
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Additionally, there is a black hole between Bristol and Storrs, just negating the proximity of a tried-and-true Big East team to ESPN HQ.
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Co champs?
No way.
Dawgs > Tech. Cocks > Clemson.
And you’ll remember UGA beat SC in SEC play so…
The 2009 Georgia Bulldogs, YOUR 2009 ACC CHAMPIONS!
: )
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Ironically, Will, it’s “galactic,” not “galaxitic.” “Stupidity” is correct, though–nice work there.
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And, not to rub it in, but Kirby Smart didn’t head UGA – his alma mater too.
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And Rodney Garner didn’t bolt when he was pursued by other SEC teams in the past few years…. he even stuck around when the rest of the defensive staff was fired and it was made clear he had no chance of being promoted — as he continued to reassure recruits who could have in all likelihood been playing for his replacement.
Now his loyalty is being rewarded…. and not monetarily.
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There’s absolutely no truth to the rumor that the lady wrote that column to curry favor and gain more access to the coaches because her regular program of hummers wasn’t producing the necessary results.
What a bunch of hooey.
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She’s right. No coach would leave an ACC school for more money.
Just ask my friend Steve Spurrier.
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You know who else was extremely loyal? Jeff Jagodzinski
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Ask Bobby Bowden if FSU was loyal to him …
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She apparently didn’t consult w/ Chuck Amato and (insert various Duke HC name here).
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All I can say Senator, is welcome to our world. We’ve get to read it all year.
Its already been well documented that the only reason Cutcliffe hasn’t started his third tour in Knoxvegas was because of the assistant coach situation.
Steele’s situation might have been one of a guy not wanting the tag of a coach having three jobs in three years, but you’re right, he’ll get a nice bump.
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The thing that really gets me about her piece is this: who do you think is happier right now, Tech fans who saw Johnson replace Wommack because he thought he needed an upgrade, or Maryland fans faced with Yow’s “loyalty” to Friedgen?
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The reason Coach Cutcliffe is not in Knoxville, is that Mike Hamilton wants no part of Philip Fulmer in his football program.
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heather dinich is a former baltimore sun sports reporter who got herself a “promotion” to espn’s acc blogger because she’s kinda sorta cute. ’nuff said?
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“Cute” as in that face-run-over-by-the-tech-wreck sort of way I suppose.
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Would ya’ll require the bag over her head?
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People, people, people! How tacky! Please elevate this discussion to the facts. Anyone with half a brain knows that the SEC is the meat grinder of college football and is way more fun to watch than the ACC, hence the hefty television contract. Simple minded bloviators may wax romantic about the ACC but hey, who watches their games? The stands in the old Gator bowl have looked fairly desolate during the post season playoffs…
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You’ve written about it and are driving traffic to the site with your link, so Mission Accomplished for Ms Dinnich.
She’s got to write several posts a day, which is pretty tough here in the off season, and controversial things work.
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