http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/preview04/columns/story?columnist=curry_bill&id=1857779
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Updated: August 13, 12:36 PM ET
New coaches are perfect, for now
By Bill Curry
Special to ESPN.com
Zero and zero ... (0-0) ... bliss.
Nobody ever says much about it, but it sure is fun. Anyone who has ever coached in the
cauldron of serious sport (which seems to begin at Little League these days) can
testify to it. If one of us coaches should find a cure for cancer, settle the Middle
East crisis, or be canonized by the church, we know still that upon our death none of
those accomplishments will grace the first paragraph of our obituaries. Oh no, first
there will be something else, something that will be indelibly imprinted on the public
consciousness forever. Come on, you know full well what it is.
Yes, the parentheses! And within the accusatory little brackets, our coaching record,
how we did in the most important thing in the history of the world. (DID HE WIN! OR
LOSE?) Unless your name is Paterno or Bowden (uh, Bobby) you find yourself reliving
all those wins that might have been. If only...
But the zero and zero days are so cool, so welcoming, and so wonderful one can
actually enjoy them. Ask George O'Leary or Mike Price. It is redemption on the run and
can be intoxicating. The first year head football coach is uniquely vulnerable. He has
a long, long offseason, unless his name is Mike Shula.
Even if one is a veteran, the trap is seductive. The new coach, already a confident
cuss, thinks all the love is caused by his personal charm and awesome potential. He
thinks that marginal recruiting class really wowed the alums, and that the model for
the new stadium is enough to increase season ticket sales. He thinks the former regime
loaded up the schedule for all the right reasons, and goes about proclaiming, "We will
probably win a few we shouldn't." This is extremely dangerous because the more he says
such stuff, the more he believes it. (Writer's note: my first year at Georgia Tech our
out-of-conference schedule was Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Florida, Notre Dame and
Georgia.)
There is one reason folks love the (0-0) coach, only one. There are no losses. Folks
stay happy as long as there are no losses. Ask Terry Bowden.
The wealthy egocentric alumni froth at the mouth to get close to the new coach. On one
occasion I was told, "You are harder to reach than the president of the United States!
I want you to stay in our million dollar house on the beach this summer!" I indicated
that I would be somewhat easier for him to reach in the future.
Three years later, when the record was not zero and zero, after many happy hours on
the beach for the Currys, he marched into my office again. He announced, "I just left
the athletic director's office, where I demanded that you be fired!" I asked the
important question, "I guess the beach house is out of the question this summer?"
But back in the last hours of my zero and zero days, I walked onto Legion Field in
Birmingham, Alabama where our Georgia Tech team was to play our first game against No.
1 Alabama and their legendary coach, Bear Bryant. I had played for him in the Coaches'
All-America game and he had been wonderful to me ever since.
As I stood in the 120 degree heat on the artificial surface during stretching, I could
not for the life of me locate Coach Bryant. I knew there was some kind of hand shaking
ritual with head coaches, but was not sure how to go about it. Before, he had always
assumed his cross-legged lean onto the home team goal post, wearing his hound's tooth
hat. But he was nowhere to be found.
At length I got distracted but then I felt more than saw the phalanx of photographers
moving in my direction at a dirge-like pace. In the middle towered Coach Bryant,
wearing a funny little white hat. He approached, grabbed me by the hand, and growled,
"Hell son, can't you say hello to a fellow when you visit his place?" I said, "I could
not find you, and besides, you have on the wrong hat."
He mumbled something about the other one being too hot, and then with surprising
quickness grabbed my sansabelt slacks, began to affectionately yank me around, and
insisted, "Coach Dodd put you up to that stuff about not finding me, didn't he?"
Here I was, just prior to our very first game, about to suffer "wardrobe malfunction"
in front of seventy thousand people. And this was not Justin Timberlake who had ahold
of my pants.
I managed to keep my britches on but lost the game. It was Alabama 26, Georgia Tech 3
... The Coach was kind to us. I had gone from Bill Curry (0-0) to Bill Curry (0-1),
and life was never quite the same again.
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