Coaching Carousel

Yesterday it was Charlie Weiss; today it's Bobby Bowden. Dan Hawkins was lucky enough to survive, and folks like Rich Rodriguez and Mark Richt have at least another year to prove their worth (at least as far as predictions hold at the moment). As the NCAA football season comes to a close this weekend and we enter the brief down time before the bowl season begins, the coaching carousel has entered full swing. For those of you who, like me up until probably 10 years ago thought that the college football season lasted a mere 14 weeks with the exception of the new years bowl games, you are sorely mistaken. This is the start of the gossip season; with fans and press taking out their frustrations and boredom on the pages of ESPN.com's discusison pages, local newspaper websites, or, in the cases of some truly avid fans, their own blogs. The coaching carousel fills the void between awards shows; then come the 30-some odd bowl games; then recruiting news occupies the ether from the final play of the national championship game until February signing day, and finally, the long, cold winter sets in until the Spring Games arrive. In the world of 24-hour news cycles, football fans can be thankful that the internet has stretched the glorious 14 weeks of fall for at least a few more months of the year.

When I started this post, I'd planned to make fun of the people who know and follow all of this stuff. But, having written it, I have to say, I'm sad to see the season end. Perhaps I'll go check out the latest rumors to bide the time. . .