[CTcard]

"we just need to find a Shaw/Harbaugh-like coach to turn things around". That's really hard.

There is much truth to this.

It appears that the standard fan complaint of about 80% of college teams is that their administration simply doesn't want to win. If they really wanted to win, all they would have to do is build the fanciest facilities and go hire a new coach.

Right now exhibit A for how easy this would be is Stanford. In fact, just today in checking out what Boston College thinks of the football verbal they lost, I read it: "Stanford was terrible in football. They invested $X million in a new stadium and hired a new coach. That would be us if the administration wanted."
[not an exact quotation - paraphrase only.]

In fact, Stanford was extremely lucky in stumbling into Jim Harbaugh as coach (and possibly in his moving on as well). Perhaps there isn't another person in America who could have made that turn around as well; and it wasn't at all clear before hand he was that guy. As far as I can remember Stanford had no competition for his services other than San Diego.

[CTcard]

"we just need to find a Shaw/Harbaugh-like coach to turn things around". That's really hard.

There is much truth to this.

It appears that the standard fan complaint of about 80% of college teams is that their administration simply doesn't want to win. If they really wanted to win, all they would have to do is build the fanciest facilities and go hire a new coach.

Right now exhibit A for how easy this would be is Stanford. In fact, just today in checking out what Boston College thinks of the football verbal they lost, I read it: "Stanford was terrible in football. They invested $X million in a new stadium and hired a new coach. That would be us if the administration wanted."
[not an exact quotation - paraphrase only.]

In fact, Stanford was extremely lucky in stumbling into Jim Harbaugh as coach (and possibly in his moving on as well). Perhaps there isn't another person in America who could have made that turn around as well; and it wasn't at all clear before hand he was that guy. As far as I can remember Stanford had no competition for his services other than San Diego.