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AFM Magazine


Hiring the Enemy

When a coach is hired by a rival school, fans go nuts. But coaches say, in most cases, they\'d be nuts not to accept the job.
by: Richard Scott
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THERE WAS A TIME WHEN CARL TORBUSH AND MIKE O'Cain were enemies. At least that's the way fans and media painted their relationship.

Coaches at rival schools are supposed to hate each other, right? They're supposed to spread evil rumors about each other, undercut each other at every opportunity and wish the worst for each other, aren't they? And they would never, ever profess to respect each other or, heaven forbid, actually like each other.

In truth, even though they coached at rival schools, Torbush at North Carolina and O'Cain at North Carolina State, they actually considered each other friends.

That's the way it is in the coaching profession. Get past the fans and the perceptions behind the heated, hated rivalries in college football, and you might actually find coaches who respect each other enough to want to work together if circumstances and fate allowed.

"In fact, Victory magazine did a story about three years ago and there was a picture of both me and Mike, and it was back when things were really going well for both us," Torbush says. "A year later, here I was about to get fired, and if his team beats us, I probably get fired and he's going to keep his job.

"But we play them and we win the game by six inches, and he gets fired and I had to make some staff changes. Well, the good Lord works in mysterious ways and good gracious all I had to do was go down the road to hire the guy I felt was the ideal guy to give ourselves a chance to win."

That's right. Torbush hired O'Cain as his offensive coordinator. O'Cain, that guy from the "other" school, traded Wolfpack Red for Carolina Blue, and he and his wife never even had to move to a new house or put the kids in a new school.

For Torbush, the decision had nothing to do with the rivalry and everything to do with hiring the kind of coach he respected and needed on his staff.

"I knew exactly what I was getting in Mike," Torbush said. "I knew I was getting a good person. I knew I was getting a coach who knew his X's and O's because I've had a chance to compete against him for 12 years. I knew I was getting a guy who related well to the players. And I knew I was getting a guy who knew as much about recruiting in this area as anyone."

But most fans don't want to hear such talk. To them, once the enemy always the enemy - qualifications be damned.

That's why there's more to such a hire than merely putting out a press release to announce the new addition to the staff. It's a situation that can be fraught with danger for the coach who does the hiring and the coach who makes the move. It's particularly dangerous in a state where rivalries run deep.

In the state of Alabama, Auburn and Alabama fans fed off the tension between Alabama's Bill Curry and Auburn's Pat Dye in the late 1980s. When Gene Stallings replaced Curry, the situation changed. Dye and Stallings obviously respected each other — a relationship that left fans perplexed. Things returned to hateful normality when Terry Bowden replaced Dye and he and Stallings immediately butted heads over a recruiting dispute.

In 1996, when defensive coordinator Bill Oliver moved from Alabama, his alma mater and long-time employer, to Auburn, Alabama fans branded him a traitor and some never really trusted him. And some Auburn fans have never truly accepted current Tiger coach Tommy Tuberville because he came from Ole Miss, an SEC Western Division team that Auburn faces annually.

It's the old question: "If he's not good enough for them , why is he good enough for us?"

Clemson coach Tommy Bowden says no one asked him that question directly when he hired former South Carolina head coach Brad Scott, but he knows the question was floating among fans who wondered why he hired a coach who had been fired by Clemson's rival just weeks before.

"I was strictly hiring a good coach - I didn't care about the background," Bowden said. "People here forget about the background when you win. If you're winning, they don't care where the guy is from. Plus, there were too many pluses in this case."

For Bowden, the positives were too obvious to ignore.

"To me, Brad was the complete package - a good coach, a good recruiter, a good guy," Bowden said. "His background with the high school coaches in this state really helped me. Instead of wasting a year recruiting, I salvaged a year and he was one of the main reasons."

When Torbush looked to make staff changes following the 1999 season, he made sure he checked with North Carolina athletic director Dick Baddour and his closest Tar Heel supporters before hiring both O'Cain and offensive line coach Robbie Caldwell, who had been O'Cain's assistant head coach at N.C. State.

"I've known Mike for a long time and there's a lot more involved in my hiring process than just how much football knowledge a guy has in his head," Torbush said. "That's important, but it's not the most important thing. The most important things are being a good staff member, being able to relate to people, being able to recruit, standing for the right things.

"The same thing was true for Robbie," he continued. "I had known him for a long time, too, and knew he was a good coach, a good recruiter, knew what kind of person he was and how he got along with players."

The real irony is that North Carolina fans didn't cause much of a stir, but N.C. State fans accused O'Cain of being a traitor.

Think about it: N.C. State fires a coach with a winning record, a coach who has led the school to three bowl appearances, and he accepts employment nearby so his wife and children won't be uprooted, and he's a traitor?

"I told him, 'You walked in the back door getting booted and walked out the front door getting a standing ovation, and you never even had to move houses,'" Torbush said. "I still don't know how he was supposed to be a traitor, but that's the business we're in."

Rodney Garner has learned that lesson the hard way in his 10 seasons as a college football assistant. Garner was a popular player and assistant coach at Auburn when Terry Bowden decided to resolve a rift in the coaching staff by firing two coaches, including Garner, following the 1985 season.

Just weeks later, Garner was offered a full-time assistant coaching position by Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer, and believe it or not, some Auburn fans were actually miffed when Garner accepted the job. Some were also mad when he didn't come back to Auburn when Tuberville took over in December 1998.

"That's to be expected," Garner said. "Fans just don't understand we're trying to do what's best for our family."

During his two seasons at Tennessee, Garner married his wife Kimberly, and they had a child. Their daughter, Brie, was just a baby when Georgia coach Jim Donnan called with an offer that Garner couldn't ignore. The money was nearly equal, but, "It wasn't a money issue for me," Garner said.

Instead, it was a chance to move his wife and daughter much closer to her family in Augusta, Ga., and Jacksonville, Fla. It allowed Kimberly to spend more time with her family, who doted on Brie, the family's first grandchild.

Fans might not understand that, but for married coaches with children, it's easy to see why Garner made the move from Tennessee to Georgia. Tennessee fans called him a traitor and accused him of being ungrateful, but Garner was unmoved by their negative response.

"Fans didn't understand, but I definitely think Coach Fulmer understood," Garner said. "If I had to do it over again, I would do it again."

The move turned bittersweet for Garner when his wife's mother died from breast cancer a year after their move to Athens. "I'm thankful my wife got to spend more time with her mother before she passed," Garner said. "I wouldn't change for that for anything."

In both moves, from Auburn to Tennessee and from Tennessee to Georgia, Garner never even considered the rivalries between the SEC schools. "I don't think rivalries enter into it when a coach is changing jobs," he said. "You just make a decision, hopefully, that's in your best interests of your family and your career. In my case, it wasn't even professional. It was personal.

"In most cases, when a coach changes jobs it's forced upon you, when you're fired or just trying to get a job. Rivalries are thrown out of the deal once that becomes a means to an end for you, as far as supporting your family and supporting your career.

"I played and coached at Auburn, and I love Auburn, but if I had to go to work at Alabama I'd have no problem going to Alabama. It just has to be the right situation, not just money."

Money certainly wasn't the issue when three Kansas State assistant moved to Oklahoma in December 1998, to join new head coach Bob Stoops, a former Florida and K-State defensive coordinator. The issue caused some initial tension between K-State coach Bill Snyder and the assistants — Mike Stoops, Brent Venables and Mark Mangino - that became public through a Sports Illustrated story published last summer.

Snyder is known for his relentless work ethic and thorough attention to detail, and it's safe to say those qualities have played a huge role in K-State's amazing turnaround from major college patsy to Division I-A power over the past decade.

In the SI story, Mike Stoops was quoted as saying, "I don't know if anybody leaves coach Snyder on good terms. He simply doesn't accept that you would leave. But then again, there's no having a personal relationship with him even when you are there."

What bothered both Stoops and Snyder was the fact that Stoops actually said more than was used in the story.

"I feel badly," Stoops said. "I said it, but I also said how much he meant to me and how much I appreciated the opportunity he gave me. "We love the guy. He had his way of doing things, but I had tremendous respect for him as a coach. He was very good to me and family."

Mike Stoops was quick to point out that it was Snyder who gave him and his brother opportunities to coach at the major college level, and when their father died from a sudden heart attack, it was Snyder who corresponded frequently with their mother. "Coach knows how I feel about him and how much I respect him," Stoops said. "It is business. He's got a business to run and we need to run ours."

The decision to leave K-State was especially tough for Venables, who grew up in Salina, Kan., played at K-State and started his coaching career under Snyder. When Venables rejected Snyder's offer to become defensive coordinator and joined Bob Stoops at Oklahoma, he was deluged with letters critical of his decision.

"I looked at it from purely a professional standpoint," Venables said. "How would it help or enhance my career? I did what was right for my career and my family. Sometimes you have to get out of the nest to grow. It was hard to leave. I played and coached for coach Snyder. We were close. Football or not, he was there for me when I went tough times. When we talked, it was genuine."

Of course, when Oklahoma played at Kansas State this fall, the three former K-State assistants were greeted by harsh comments and signs, including one that read "STOOPid is as STOOPid does."

But a few insults from some misguided fans is not worth considering when a coach is ready to hire the enemy or join the enemy for the right job at the right place and the right time.

"My family lived there until July and were treated well," Mangino said. "I have no hard feelings. I have nothing, but good things to say about Kansas State.

"I wanted a new challenge and [a chance to] demonstrate my own creative thoughts on the field. Coach gave me great latitude in the run game to do that, but their staff looked like they were going to be intact for a long time and I wanted a new challenge. OU was an opportunity and a chance to work with a trusted friend, Bob Stoops.

"I only left because I thought OU was a better opportunity for my career. I didn't leave because I didn't like it there."

Spoken like a true coach, not a true enemy. Richard Scott is the college football editor and a columnist for SportsWritersDirect.com and a correspondent for Football News.






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