Three-point stance: SEC slips, hot seat talk
Advertisement
Last week we did our first "Coaches on the Hot Seat" of the year and this weekend's results were mixed. Rutgers head coach Kyle Flood and Virginia head coach Mike London both had good weekends because their teams were on bye weeks and, as expected, Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn beat San Jose State, although he had to do it without throwing the ball much at all. Iowa State head coach Paul Rhoads beat Kansas, but that's as impressive as beating San Jose State. Bret Bielema beat Tennessee, which is a huge win as he tries to hand on at Arkansas. Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason beat Middle Tennessee in comeback fashion on the road, but that probably didn't do much for his resume.
Many are saying the Thursday night loss to Cincinnati was the nail in the coffin for Al Golden at Miami and, while that is a bit premature since he could still win his division in the ACC, it didn't help. Maryland looked horrid against Michigan and Randy Edsall's wearing out his welcome in the land of the turtle while Charlie Strong's situation keeps getting worse and worse as he loses his team. Purdue pushed Michigan State to the edge, which will help Darrell Hazell a little bit, but Purdue is still battling Maryland as the worst team in the conference. Predictions as of right now: Flood, London, Rhoads and Golden are gone and the rest are up in the air.
3. Top tackle tandem
This may not be interesting to anyone but a major recruiting rankings geek like myself, but I was watching the Buffalo Bills play the New York Giants and saw offensive tackle Cyrus Kouandjio enter the game at left tackle, joining right tackle Seantrel Henderson as bookends for the Bills. It got me thinking that this has to be the highest-ranked 1-2 punch along the offensive line for the same team, college or pro, since Rivals.com started ranking kids. Henderson was ranked as the No. 2 player in the country in 2010 while Kouandjio was ranked No. 4 overall the next year in 2011. They are two of the eight offensive linemen ever ranked in the top five overall nationally by Rivals (Eugene Monroe was No. 3 in 2005, Andre Smith was No. 2 in 2006, Mike Adams was No. 3 in 2008, D.J. Fluker was No. 3 in 2009, D.J. Humphries was No. 2 in 2012 and Martez Ivey was No. 4 last year). Smith and Fluker both committed to Alabama, but Smith went off to the NFL in the first round the year Fluker arrived. Humphries was just drafted in the first round this past April out of Florida as Ivey began as a freshman this season in Gainesville. To my knowledge, none of the others played for the same college or professional team.
Should you file this in the "who gives a crap" folder? Perhaps, but to me it was damned interesting after following these guys for years. Henderson committed to USC but refused to sign with the Trojans until March after the Trojans responded to the NCAA infractions committee (which was about to slam them). Once USC was hammered, he asked for his release and it was granted in July. He committed to Miami three days later. Kouandjio was expected to sign with Alabama, where his brother Arie Kouandjio (Washington Redskins) was a freshman, but picked Auburn on national television on Signing Day in 2011. However, like Henderson, he refused to sign his Letter of Intent and signed with Alabama a few days later, leading many to believe he simply picked the wrong school under the lights and pressure on TV. Both recruiting journeys were a wild ride to follow and now they are teammates and, for at least a little while, the highest-ranked bookends ever. Sorry, these are my thoughts and that fascinates me.
Mike Farrell
National Recruiting Director