Buddy Teevens was fired from his position as head football coach at Stanford University, and the decision to look in another direction can't really be questioned. Teevens followed three successful coaches -- Denny Green, Bill Walsh, and Tyrone Willingham -- and much was expected when he was brought to the Farm three years ago. Ten wins and twenty losses later, he's gone.
In the beginning, it seemed like a nice fit. Stanford has a tradition of wide-open offenses, and Teevens had been the offensive coordinator for Steve Spurrier's Fun-n-Gun Florida Gators. At the time, though, I remember commenting that being Spurrier's offensive coordinator is probably like being Martha Stewart's interior decorator. It looks nice on your resumeé, but you're probably not contributing a lot to the final product.
The Cardinal looked good at times this season. They held leads late in many of their games, and they came closer to beating USC than anyone else, but those near misses probably started athletic director Ted Leland wondering if he had made a mistake in hiring Teevens. The USC loss was excusable, but the last-minute breakdown at Arizona State was devastating, and the Cal loss was embarrassing.
Stanford teams have always been prepared and disciplined, but those were two areas in which this year's squad failed miserably. Teams which are properly prepared to win do not squander as many fourth quarter leads as this team did, and disciplined teams don't self-destruct down the stretch the way this team did against Cal in the Big Game. Teevens's team likely sealed his fate during the closing minutes of that debacle as one player was ejected and several others drew pointless personal fouls.
And so what's next for Stanford? The most prominent name that's been mentioned in connection with the job opening has been Norm Chow, the man behind USC's prolific offense. Unfortunately for the Cardinal, Chow will probably be celebrating a national championship five weeks from now and fielding several high-profile job offers likely to include the University of Washington and Cal (assuming that Jeff Tedford leaves as expected).
After Chow, there's a drop off to the next group of names: Boise State's Dan Hawkins, ex-UCLA head coach Bob Toledo (please, no), and current Stanford linebacker coach Tommie Williams. (The word, though, is that they're looking to hire a bigger name, though, so Williams will probably just get a courtesy interview.)
But if they're really looking for a name, why not go after the hottest coach in college football, Utah's Urban Meyer? Most of the country assumes that Meyer is headed for Florida, but it might be worth Ted Leland's time to give him a call.
The big problem, though, is that I'm not sure that Stanford can be competitive in football. It's difficult enough to maintain an elite basketball program in a sport in which three or four recruits enroll each year. But given the university's strict enrollment requirements, it may not be possible to find fifteen scholarship players each year who can compete in the Pac-10. And since I'm not the only one who realizes this, Chow and Meyer might just say thanks, but no thanks.
Which leaves us here: Holy Toledo!
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