Coach O at OM and the mistake that haunts him

(TL,DR: Not sure who our next HC should be, but CEO's record at OM should be considered in context. Downvote away.)

The biggest knock against hiring O to be our HC is undoubtedly his record at Ole Miss. This is reason enough for many posters to dismiss him from any consideration. The idea that he learned from his mistakes there is routinely mocked on this board.

I contend that the biggest mistake that he made was ever taking the job in the first place. Obviously it was a great opportunity for him and I can't blame him for taking it. But his record there haunts him. No doubt it was a dismal record.

However, I think coaching records should be considered in context. Boxing promoters don't put their up and coming fighters in the ring early on against tough competition if they want to build their record up.

The fact is that since Johnny Vaught left the program in the early 70's, no coach has had success there. Of the 10 coaches who have coached at OM since 1971, including Freeze, only 5 have had winning records. Only 3 have broken .600 winning percentage. None have a division championship, much less an SEC or National Championship.

My point is that I'm not sure anyone coaching at Ole Miss can have the kind of high level, sustained success that we expect at LSU. David Cutcliffe, Tommy Tubberville, and Hugh Freeze are pretty good coaches in my opinion. But they didn't have the kind of success at OM that Miles had at LSU. And we fired Miles (appropriately) because he wasn't getting it done.

There are a few programs in the SEC that we should expect to compete for the elite spots in the modern era...Alabama, Florida, LSU, Auburn, and maybe Georgia. The rest may never have sustained, high-level success again, regardless of who the coach is.

Steve Spurrier is one of the greatest college football coaches ever. He worked miracles at South Carolina. But nobody really ever worried about USCe being a sustained national threat. I see no reason to think that USCe, Vandy, MSST, OM, KY, Mizzou will ever be truly competitive regardless of coach. You could make arguments for occasional success for A&M, Tenn, Arky. But sustained success? Perhaps I'm too much of a homer, though.

The lesson here is that if you want to be considered for elite coaching positions, be careful where you take positions on your way to the top. Coach in the MAC, I guess. You may get a chance to prove that your a good coach at a major program or you may just prove that you were really good in the MAC. But at least you might get a chance.

Even great coaches need some help from their competition to have great success. Consider Saban's tenure at LSU 2000-2004.

What great coach did he coach against?

Bama: Dubose, Franchione, Price, and Shula
Auburn: Tubberville (3 and 2 vs. Saban I'm pretty sure)
MSSt: Sherrill, Croom
OM: Cutcliffe
Arky: Nutt (2 and 3 vs. Saban)
Florida: Spurrier (2 and 0 vs. Saban...good thing for Saban he went to the pros) Zook (1 and 2 vs. Saban)

Would Saban have been just as successful no matter where he coached? Would Ole Miss have a Nat'l Championship if Saban had been there from 2000-2004? I think not.

Where you coach and when you coach there is highly determinant of your W-L record.