Two weeks into his prolonged search for a new defensive coordinator in December of 2009, Georgia coach Mark Richt flew to Texas to meet Todd Grantham for the first time.
They got together at the home of the then-Dallas Cowboys defensive line coach in the middle of an NFL game week.
“It was more of a get-to-know basis,” Grantham said. “Him feel me out, me feel him out.”
Legendary former Ole Miss quarterback Archie Manning quickly discovered something in his role as co-chairman of the selection committee charged with hiring the Rebels' next football coach.
He has learned that imagination runs wild when compiling a list of candidates to replace lame duck coach Houston Nutt, fired a week ago effective at the end of the regular season.
The odds of Ole Miss approaching, interviewing, selecting and hiring James Franklin away from Vanderbilt are slim. Very slim. So slim that no one is even mentioning the possibility.
But we believe Archie Manning and crew could do worse than lining up a chat with Vandy’s Mr. Turnaround.
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
In college football, if you can recruit the big-time players, there’s a good chance that you’re going to win some ball games, whether you’re an elite game day coach or not, but it’s the truly special coaches who figure out how to sustain greatness and keep their teams in the Top 10 year after year.
These folks seem rather cheerful. Well, don't they? (AJC photo by Brant Sanderlin)
I’m on record as having picked Georgia to go 10-2 , win the SEC East and finish No. 11 in the land . I would say that qualifies me, just this once, as an optimist.
