Week 4 nominations

Sorry for the delay again. Winners will be posted hopefully tonight.

Danny Hope, Purdue
Losing to Toledo by double figures? I know Robert Marve was injured but that doesn't explain how you let Toledo, who came in ranked last in the nation in total offense, score 31 points on you!

Tim Brewster, Minnesota
Figures to be automatic under the Mississippi State clause by season's end. It was a bad week for the Big 10 as Minnesota also lost to a MAC team, N. Illinois. There were at least three "Fire Brewster" chants during the game. Deservedly so. The Gophers just put a lot of money into their stadium and its time for them to put some money into finding someone who can coach.

Mike Locksley, New Mexico
Previously winless UNLV put up 45 on the Lobos in a rout. The scary thing is that was the fewest points New Mexico has allowed this season. After giving up 72, 52, and 56, in their first 3 games, the Lobos are last in the country in points allowed at 56.3 per game. They also rank 119th of 120 in points scored, with only 10.3 per game (yes that's an average margin of -46.0!)

Mack Brown, Texas
Losing to UCLA (1-2) would have been a surprise. Losing 34-12 is a huge shocker. Texas clearly has no offense and when you keep turning the ball over, its hard on your defense. Next up: Bobby Stoops and the Red River Shootout. Think Stoops has visions of 60+ like he did a couple times early in his career against the Longhorns?

Derek Dooley, Tennessee
Needed double OT to hold off Alabama ... Birmingham. Shades of Zook vs UK in 2004.

Mark Richt, Georgia
The seat is definitely getting warm after an 0-3 start to SEC play, with the latest loss to the "other Bulldogs" in the SEC. Getting AJ Jones back might not be enough to turn around a Georgia team with lots of problems.

Week 3 winners

Sorry for the delay. Catching up:

Week 3 winner (8 points): Houston Nutt, Ole Miss

Runners-up (3 points each):
Turner Gill, Kansas
Urban Meyer & Steve Addazio, Florida

Honorable Mention (1 point):
Jeff Tedford, Cal

Week 3 nominations

Sorry for the delay in nominations but better late than never.

The Right Reverend, Houston Nutt, Ole Miss:
Houston Nutt may earn himself a Mississippi State clause by the time this season is done. The king of oversigning shows again just how dirty he is with the whole Masoli incident and then after all that he goes out and loses to Jax St. and now gets beat convincingly by Vanderbilt. Yes, the same Vandy whose coach up and quit right before the start of the season!

Turner Gill, Kansas
What the hell is going on with KU? First they lose to a 1-AA team, then they upset GA Tech, now they get blown out by Southern Miss?

Jeff Tedford, Cal
Losing to Nevada isn't the worst thing, although it would have been an upset by itself but giving up 52 points and getting blown out down the stretch is definitely Zookworthy.

Urban Meyer & Steve Addazio, Florida
Yes, we did win the game by 2 scores but it took a fake punt (side note: Meyer is now 8-8 on fake punts all-time at UF) to get the momentum back and put the game away. The defense played fine other than one busted coverage but the playcalling is still atrocious and it seems people are finally starting to notice. Add to that Chris Rainey's arrest, the 30th arrest under Meyer at UF (and we no longer have Tim Tebow to balance out the arrests). Meyer says he is fed up with it. Well then here's a novel idea, coach: try giving players more than a slap on the wrist. Now if a kid gets arrested for underage drinking or something stupid like that, there's no need to suspend him -- and a lot of the 30 arrests are misdemeanors like that or driving with a suspended license. However, the players who commit serious felonies need to know there are serious consequences, like getting kicked off the team for a whole season. Carlos Dunlap is passed out at a green light with a .18 BAC, 4 days before the SEC title game, and he gets reinstated for the bowl game. Is it any surprise that Frankie Hammond does the same thing a few months later (he was going 45 and swerving in a 20mph zone on campus with 2 open whiskey bottles). He knew he'd get a slap on the wrist and after some tough talk, was reinstated for Tenn and caught a TD pass last Saturday. We'll probably see Rainey back for the Bama game if history is any precedent. By then he probably won't be the latest arrest anymore anyway.

I guess that's it for this week. I'm tempted to nominate Zook for having to come from behind to beat NIU but I'm sure he'll have worse performances than that in the weeks ahead. We'll post the final winners tomorrow.

Week 2 winners

Winner: Frank Beamer, VA Tech, 11 points (1 for winning poll)

Runners-up (4 points each): Paul Hewitt, GA Tech and Doc Holliday, Marshall

Honorable Mention (1 point each):

Jimbo Fisher, FSU

Lane Kiffin, USC

Dan Hawkins, Colorado

Tim Brewster, Minnesota

Rick Neuheisel, UCLA

Full point totals to be updated soon but I'm on my phone in ATL on the way to Knoxville right now.

Week 2 nominations

Sorry for the delay - was at games both Sat and Sun! Let's move on to the week 2 nominations:

As David mentioned, Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech. Automatic under the Hawkins-Carr clause for losing to a 1-AA team. I believe VA Tech is only the 2nd ranked team to lose to a 1-AA team. Boise State pretty much beat the Hokies twice as this was the classic case of a hangover game after a tough loss. And who is to blame for not getting the players properly motivated? Yep, the coaching staff. Horrendous performance by the Hokies and no one is more upset about it than Boise State who is hoping VA Tech wins out the rest of the way.




As nominated by Gerald, Paul Hewitt, GA Tech. Horrible day for the Techs and the ACC in general. To answer Gerald's question, he is not automatic but certainly Zookworthy nonetheless. I would advocate runner-up status.

Doc Holliday, Marshall for blowing a 15-point lead late in the 3rd quarter by going to a prevent defense, which we all know only prevents you from winning! Also take note of Aaron Dobson dropping the ball before crossing the goal line - although this was not seen by the refs, this is absolutely inexcusable and carelessness like that falls on the coaching staff as well.




Jimbo Fisher, FSU, for his team not even showing up to Norman in a game that was supposed to be competitive at the least. Many people were picking FSU to pull the upset and make a statement. Instead, FSU's porous defense allowed over 300 yards passing ... in the first half alone en route to a 34-7 halftime lead. Only a meaningless TD on the last play of the game kept it from becoming FSU's worst defeat in 20 years.

Lane Kiffin, USC, for looking anemic offensively and barely surviving a bad UVA home in the Coliseum, 17-14. The Cavaliers outgained the Trojans and both teams played very undisciplined, having over 100 penalty yards each.



Dan Hawkins, Colorado. Already on the hot seat, loses embarrassingly 52-7 to California. A sign of things to come in the PAC-12? Well we're pretty sure Hawkins won't be around to see.

Tim Brewster, Minnesota for losing 41-38 to 1-AA South Dakota. This following a 2007 loss to North Dakota State. No division 1-A team should ever lose to a Dakota period. This is not automatic as Minnesota isn't good enough to qualify for the Hawkins-Carr clause but Brewster, like Hawkins, was one of the coaches on every preseason hot-seat list and this loss has likely all but sealed his fate.

Rick Neuheisel, UCLA. Losing to Stanford was expected. Losing 35-0 was ridiculous. UCLA is supposed to be a program on the rise and they just completely got dominated in this game.

Week 2 Potential Nomination

Does Va Tech potentially qualify for losing to FCS James Madison? They continued to make the same mistakes they did against Boise State. 1 TD and 3 FGs is unacceptable.

Preseason and Week 1 winners

Ok guys, let's step it up for week 2. I see some votes in the poll but no comments. I'll go ahead and name the preseason and week 1 winners under our new scoring system:

Lane Kiffin Preseason Award
And the Kiffin goes to ... its a tie between Butch Davis and Rich Rodriguez both under serious NCAA investigations. 10 points apiece.

Runner-up (4 points): None other than Lane Kiffin himself.

Honorable mentions (1 point each): Houston Nutt, Les Miles, Derek Dooley


Week 1 Winners

Co-winners:
Houston Nutt, Ole Miss 11 points. Automatic under the Hawkins-Carr clause. The extra point is awarded for winning the reader poll.
Turner Gill, Kansas, 10 points. Also automatic under the Hawkins-Carr clause for losing to a 1-AA team.

Runner-up: As much as I'd like to give it to Addazio, I have to go with Mike Locksley, UNM. Absolutely horrendous. And what else would you expect from a Zook protege. I expect Locksley to receive an automatic award under the Mississippi State clause by the end of the season. 4 points.

Honorable mentions (1 point each): Urban Meyer & Steve Addazio, Ron Zook.

Boise State
Finally, congratulations to Kellen Moore and Boise State! What a great game and a great finish on Monday night! Once again the Broncos have proved they are for real and unless they slip up, they have a good chance of making the BCS title game. I for one and excited to see what they can do if they make it there! If Boise State gets there over a 1-loss Ohio State team, the anti-playoff Big 10 will all of a sudden be supporting ACC commissioner John Swofford's plus one system in 2014 and we will finally move toward a playoff!

Season Standings
1. Houston Nutt, Ole Miss (12)
2. Butch Davis, UNC (10)
Turner Gill, Kansas (10)
Rich Rodriguez, Michigan (10)
5. Lane Kiffin, USC (4)
Mike Locksley, UNM (4)
7. Derek Dooley, Tennessee (1)
Urban Meyer & Steve Addazio, Florida (1)
Les Miles, LSU (1)
Ron Zook, Illinois (1)

Week 1 nominations

College football season is finally back and there's loads of incompetence to go around on the coaching side of things as always! There's still one more day of football to go but here are the nominees so far for week 1:

The Right Reverend, Houston Nutt, Ole Miss - Hotty toddy gosh almighty who the hell are we? Hey! Flim Flam, Bim Bam, JAX STATE BY DAMN! Automatic under the Hawkins-Carr clause for losing at home to 1-AA Jacksonville State in 2OT 49-48!





Urban Meyer & Steve Addazio, Florida - For having only 25 yards of total offense including negative yards rushing through 3 quarters against a Miami of Ohio team that went 1-11 last year. There were lots of bad snaps that got UF out of their rhythm but you know what, Addazio is the OL coach too so that's also his responsibility. Addazio handcuffed Tim Tebow as much as you can handcuff Superman last season and now we're seeing even more tangibly why you never see OL coaches promoted to OC. Or as the old adage goes, Never hire a football coach with a Z in his name. Always hire a basketball coach with 2 Z's in his name. Meyer meanwhile is a fantastic program manager, the best in the business - he's perfected what Bobby Bowden pioneered - but he is like Bowden a terrible gameday coach and needs coordinators with A) the brains to call a good gameplan and B) the balls to stand up to Meyer when he panics. Addazio has neither and Meyer needs to realize that.




Mike Locksley, New Mexico - former Ron Zook assistant somehow got a head coaching job at UNM last season and led them to a 1-11 record amidst allegations of sexual discrimination and a 10 day suspension for punching an assistant coach. He's picked up right where he left off, with a 72-0 humiliation by Oregon which was 59-0 at the half before Chip Kelly took his foot off the gas.





Ron Zook, Illinoise - Yes, it sometimes seems just too easy to put him on here and sometimes it seems like he has to fail extra-spectacularly to be nominated but I think at the start of the season, we need to remind ourselves just how bad he is and that if this seemingly pedestrian performance were from anyone else, it would have certainly landed them a nomination. Illinois led Mizzou 13-3 at the half and had controlled the game for the entire first half, moved the ball well, and had shut down a Missouri team that had to kick its starting RB off the team earlier in the week because of sexual assault charges. Then of course Ron Zook came out in the second half in his patented prevent offense (they gained all of 85 yards the second half) and prevent defense (Mizzou's QB had 167 of his 281 yards passing in the second half) and Mizzou won going away, 23-13.

Turner Gill, Kansas - Lost 6-3 to division 1-AA North Dakota State in his debut. Can I get a judgement from people - does Kansas qualify as good enough for this to be automatic under the Hawkins-Carr clause? They did lose their final 7 games last year but still, no one expected this. I would lean toward making this automatic.

Post additional nominations in the comments section and we'll discuss this week. I find it unlikely that either of the coaches tomorrow night will end up on Zookwatch but its definitely one of the games of the season so check out Boise St. vs VT - you'll probably see a clinic on how not to end up here, lol! I'm on record as going out on a limb and picking Boise St. to win the national title but this is definitely going to be their biggest test, on the road basically against another top 10 and well-coached team! I'll hopefully catch the second half at a bar after I land in Minneapolis!

We have till Thurs to make our final awards this week because of the late game and since we're getting a late start on just getting back!

The 2010 Lane Kiffin Preseason Award

Ok so we're a little late on this one having just got the blog back up and running, but in a tumultuous offseason, here are the nominations for the 2010 Kiffin Preseason Award:

Butch Davis, UNC - for having 13 players suspended for the season opener due to alleged improper contact with agents. Add to that an investigation into academic fraud involving a tutor that Davis used to personally employ.

Houston Nutt, Ole Miss - the king of oversigning now decides to exploit a loophole to sign Jeremiah Masoli after he had been kicked out of Oregon. Read Stewart Mandel's take here.

Leslie Miles, LSU - Gregg Doyel thinks Les is a bad guy. Normally I'm not one to agree with Doyel but what he did to Elliot Porter is inexcusable.

Lane Kiffin, USC - for being stupid enough to take the USC job knowing sanctions were pending and for the way he handled leaving Tennessee.

Derek Dooley, Tennessee - Sticking with the Tenn theme - and some of the blame for this probably goes to Kiffin as well given that they were his recruits but still any head coach should be able to step in and convince his kids that starting a bar brawl and knocking a police officer unconscious is not a good idea.

Rich Rodriguez, Michigan - While still being investigated for secondary NCAA violations at Michigan, the NCAA announced that they were now also investigating charges that he committed similar violations while at WVU. All this after leading Michigan to a horrendous 8-16 mark the last two seasons. He'd better surpass the 8 win mark this season alone if he wants to be around for year four.

Any other nominations? Post them in the comment section and let's discuss!

The Zook Awards Bylaws

Each week, we will accept nominations throughout the weekend for the most incompetent coaching performances of the week. The nominations may include youtube videos or links to illustrate how bad the coaching was and discussion will take place in the comments section. Every Wednesday, we will announce the winner(s) for that week.

• There may be 1 or 2 co-winners. These coaches will receive 10, 8, or 6 points depending on how incompetent they were. Automatic winners must receive at least 8 points. There may also be 1 or 2 runners-up (for a total of no more than 3 coaches) that receive 3 or 4 points each. An unlimited number of runners-up may receive 1 point each provided there is general consensus that they are Zookworthy. Note that it is not necessary to lose a game to be considered for a Zook Award.
  

• There is an exception made to the above when there are more than 2 automatic winners in a given week (see below). There can be as many automatic winners as that week's games warrant. The automatic winners are determined by the clauses listed below.
  

• Mississippi State clause: The Mississippi State clause states that if a coach is fired as the direct result of the game, he is an automatic winner that week. [Until the end of 2007, this clause also stated that a coach was an automatic winner if they coached a major team to a loss at the hands of Mississippi State. This part of the clause was to be rescinded if/when MSU turned their program around which they did by going 8-5 and winning a bowl game in 2007. Congratulations Coach Croom! We wish you the best of luck in the future!]. Origin of clause: Mississippi State 38, Florida 31, Oct 23, 2004. MSU was ranked #117 out of 117 teams in the computers, having lost to 1-AA Maine earlier in the season. Zook was finally fired the following Monday.

• Out-Zooked clause: The Out-Zooked clause states that if you coach a game so poorly that you are upset by a Ron Zook coached team, then you are an automatic winner that week. Note that this would not include a 1-AA team which would presumably be an underdog to Illinois but only teams that were favored against Zook. Origin of clause: Illinois 23, Michigan State 20, Sept 30, 2006. Michigan State was 3-1 and favored by 26 points. Instead they gave Illinois its first Big 10 win since 2004 (worst of all at home). After the game, Zook's "classy" Illini players started a brawl with the Spartans by trying to plant their flag at the 50 yard line. Eventually, Michigan State finished the season 4-8 and John L. Smith was fired on Nov 1.

• Jeff Bowden clause: The Jeff Bowden clause states that you are an automatic winner if your inept gameplan leads a traditional powerhouse to get blown and and shut out or otherwise completely embarrassed at home. Origin of clause: Wake Forest 30, FSU 0, Nov 11, 2006. At 8-1 entering the game, it wouldn't have shocked a lot of people that Wake won but no one expected powerhouse FSU to lay a goose egg, especially given that Wake's 4 ACC wins that season had been by a combined 17 total points. Days later, Jeff Bowden was forced to resign as offensive coordinator.

• Hawkins-Carr clause: The Hawkins-Carr clause states that if you lead a top 25 school or otherwise traditional power to an upset at the hands of a 1-AA team (or even a very lowly rated 1-A team), you are an automatic winner for that week. Note that this would not include a poorly rated 1-A team such as Duke or Vanderbilt losing to a 1-AA team. Origins of clause: Montana State 19, Colorado 10, Sept 2, 2006 and Appalachian State 34, Michigan 32, Sept 1, 2007. Colorado was coming off a Big XII north championship and had high expectations for incoming new head coach Dan Hawkins at the time. Hawkins has been on the hot seat ever since. Even that was nothing compared to the shocker that App State pulled on Michigan in the season opener of Lloyd Carr's final season. This game is the only time a division 1-AA team has ever beaten a team ranked in the AP poll, much less a team that was in the top 5.

• Bowl Game Award Presented By Larry Coker: Each year, one Zook Award will be given out for the entire bowl season. This special award has been named in honor of Larry Coker and his stunning 40-3 blowout loss to an LSU team without their starting QB. Coker's Miami players subsequently started a brawl in the tunnel with the LSU players.

• The Lane Kiffin Preseason Award: Starting in 2009, we hand out a preseason award for the coach with the biggest display of incompetence in the preseason. It is named after inaugural winner Lane Kiffin who displayed an unnatural level of ignorance of NCAA rules while unnecessarily making false slanderous statements about opposing coaches that resulted in violations against his own program and him having to issue public apologies to the opposing coaches.

• Postgame Comment Bonus: If a coach compounds a Zookworthy performance by making a complete idiot out of himself at the post-game press conference, they can be awarded an additional point. Examples: "Rex was open", "We've got a long way to go, but we're close.", "I felt like they [Tenn] thought we were gonna try to get points.", or Tommy Bowden throwing his starting QB Cullen Harper under the bus or ridiculously claiming that he'd never had a team block a kick against him before or actually asking Nick Saban for coaching advice after getting his ass kicked by Saban's Bama team.
  

The Zook Awards: History and Qualifications

The Zook awards started after Clemson's Sept 24th, 2005 loss to BC when I remarked to Gavin and Forrest that Tommy Bowden had won the Ron Zook Award of the week for absolutely blowing a game we should have won with terrible playcalling and decision making in the fourth quarter. However, the award was given out prematurely as Les Miles of LSU Zooked it big time against Tennessee the following Monday night, blowing a 21-point lead to a Tennessee team that ended up finishing the season 5-6. And so the weekly tradition of recognizing incompetence in college football coaching began...

Qualifications for winning the Zook Award

Now let's look at reasons you may be nominated for the Zook Award each week:

1. Playing a soft prevent defense to pull defeat from the jaws of certain victory late in the 4th quarter (see: UF vs Miami 2003, UF vs. Ole Miss 2003, UF vs. FSU 2003, UF vs. Tenn 2004, UF vs. Ole Miss 2004, UF vs. LSU 2004, and UF vs. Miss St 2004).

2. Giving up special teams or otherwise stupid scores

• Example1 : UF vs. Tenn 2003. With Florida leading 3-0 just before halftime, Zook decides to run the ball on first down. On 2nd down instead of taking a knee so UF can go into halftime with the lead, Zook decides to throw and try to pick up the first down. He then turns around and runs a draw play on third-and-long allowing Tennessee to use their last timeout to stop the clock and get the ball back with enough time for a 50-yard hail mary. When asked after the game about the play calls, Zook responded "We thought we'd try to get some more points before halftime". When further questioned as to why then did he run the ball on 1st and 3rd downs, Zook said "We felt that they thought we were going to try to get some points..." Yes, he thought they thought he thought ...

• Example 2: UF vs. S. Carolina 2003. Florida is punting on the last play of the first half with the lead. Instead of simply punting the ball out of bounds and going to the locker room, they decide to kick it right to S. Carolina's most dangerous return man, who returns the punt for a TD.

3. Coaching a talented team to a terrible loss against a vastly inferior opponent. For example, getting blown out at home by an unranked opponent (see UF vs. LSU 2002). Also going 0-for the state of Mississippi (see UF vs. Ole Miss 2003, 2004; UF vs. Miss St. 2004). Losing to the team ranked #117 out of 117 teams in division I-A -- a team that lost to a division I-AA team (see UF vs. Miss St. 2004). Or even a narrow escape if the opponent is bad enough (having to come back from down 17 in the second half to beat Kentucky ... in football).

4. Having a playbook so predictable that everyone in the stands, not to mention the opposing team, knows which play is being run simply by looking at the offensive formation.

5. Completely tanking in a bowl game.

• Example 1: UF vs. Michigan 2003. With Heisman runner-up Rex Grossman leading Florida down the field in a sustained drive late in the 4th quarter, Zook decides that it is the perfect time to have freshman cornerback Vernell Brown take a pitch back and attempt to throw the ball back to Grossman. Brown retreated about 20 yards and heaved up a high floater with a man in his face, which was predictably intercepted to seal the Michigan victory. When asked about the play, Zook's comment was "Rex was open."

• Example 2: UF vs. Iowa 2004. In a game in which ESPN analysts said beforehand that Iowa had no business being in due to the huge talent difference between the teams, Florida was completely blown out right from the start. After the game, ESPN analysts commented that Kirk Ferentz outcoached Ron Zook in every single phase of the game.

In the 2005 Peach Bowl, Larry Coker of Miami turned in a textbook example of how to Zook a bowl game.

6. Pure stupidity

• Example 1: Running to the wrong sideline when coming out of the tunnel at a UF-UGA game.

• Example 2: After offsetting personal foul penalties on Florida and Vanderbilt, Ron Zook declined the penalty on Vanderbilt, giving the Commodores 15 yards of field position.

• Example 3: Trying to throw the ball against the worst run defense in the conference (Kentucky 2004) followed the next week by trying to run the ball against the worst pass defense in the country (Ole Miss 2004). Zook stated "Just because they didn't do well against the pass last week doesn't mean they won't be better this week." The previous week, Ole Miss had gotten torched for over 660 passing yards!

• Example 4: After Ben Troupe had carried Florida's offense (and literally many Ole Miss defenders) for the first half with nearly 100 receiving yards including a TD where he dragged three defenders into the endzone, Zook did not call a pass thrown in Troupe's direction the entire second half.

7. Complete lack of control over players.

• Example 1: A couple of days before a big game vs. Tennessee (a game they subsequently Zooked), a group of players leave practice to start a fight with some fraternity members. Ron Zook instead of punishing his players, proceeds to threaten the fraternity members himself.

• Example 2: One player threw a half-full keg at a student's head yet was still on the team. Another was arrested multiple times yet was never removed from the team.

• Example 3: Players have been quoted as saying they didn't try under Zook because there was an attitude of it didn't matter if you win or not.

Note the important difference between Zook and just plain dirty coaches such as Bobby Bowden who will also let their players get away with anything but only if they help the team win.

Time for a reboot

Somehow the blog got deleted by google during the offseason so I think this marks a good time for a reboot of the Zook Awards. Luckily I have almost all of the previous award winners saved and will be reposting them but I also think its time to change things up a little bit.

First, we are going to be adding polls so readers can vote and we can include links to youtube highlights (or lowlights actually) of the games we are discussing. Second, we are going to move away from the old system of just 3 points for a win, 1 point for a runner-up.

The new system will still allow for 1 or 2 winners and 1 or 2 runners up (for a total of no more than 3 coaches) but we will now be listing an unlimited number of honorable mentions. This way a coach who is consistently very bad but just not quite the worst every week will get his fair share of recognition and points. The points system will also be more flexible because not all incompetent coaching performances are created equal. The winner can receive either 10, 8, or 6 points depending on how bad he Zooked up the game. The runners-up can receive 3 or 4 points and the honorable mentions will receive 1 point each.

I'll be reposting the Zook Awards history, qualifications, and by-laws and kicking off this week's round of nominations shortly!