You surely saw this coming.
"Cornell? Is that like Clemson?"
What? No, not at all. Who are you and how did you get to be so dumb? Get out. Yeah, I mean it because we're about to have a roundtable discussion on the matter and, if you're going to participate, we're going to need you to not be functionally horseshit-for-brains stupid.
If you're still in, here is how this works: Juco, WW, Ivory and I shot a few emails around as soon as we heard the news. We mulled over reasons Austin would leave, the impact this change could have on our program, and even tossed about some names for potential replacements. It's after the jump, of course.
Ghost: Cornell? The fuck is this shit?
Ivory: Didn't you know that he was a Rhode's Scholar? (ed: are we sure this ever happened?)
Juco: Well we need to get the ball rolling quickly on a replacement and I'm starting to think that promoting from within may not be the worst choice after all. The OC doesn't really have an impact on a Houston Nutt-led staff anyway, and we'd have trouble convincing a good OC to come here just to be a glorified position coach. We can promote someone (I have no idea who) to OC and then hire a good QB coach to fill in whatever duties Austin had there.
Ghost: I think the obvious answer, if we're promoting from within, is Mike Markuson (ed: for the uninitiated, he's the offensive line coach).
Whiskey: We need a good name, quick. I'm honestly worried about recruiting. Not so much because Austin is a great recruiter, but because of the timing. You know Dan Mullen has already called Vincent Sanders to tell him that we're going to run the wishbone next year. Also, Austin is Shon Coleman's recruiter. (ed: see our recruiting wish list)
Juco tossed out Gunter Brewer's name in our earlier discussion, the co-OC at Oklahoma State. He is Billy Brewer's son so he has an obvious Ole Miss connection and his experience should suffice well enough. If I read his bio correctly, he's coached both QB's and WR's for the Cowboys.
Also in this discussion, both agreed that Hugh Freeze is a guy we should talk to. He was just hired as the OC at San Jose State, a small-time program way out west. He might be willing to move back to the South for a more prominent position where he has some significant recruiting connections and coaching experience, even if it means he won't have much control over the offense.
Juco then pipe dreamed about Leach for a minute. I think he's another guy we should at least contact. Make him an unprecedented offer for a coordinator and see what sort of mood he's in at the time.
Ghost: Contacting Leach to be your OC is a ridiculous venture. I know there's no harm in trying, aside from wasted time, but unless he just really loves Houston Nutt in some bizarre and unforseen way it would never happen.
Whiskey: I know, Juco is dumb.
Ghost: Totally.
Whiskey: I think we certainly need to find another spread specialist to complement Nutt and Markuson's run-first philosophies. We can't just shift gears from a recruiting standpoint to reflect a move to a really run-heavy offense.
I'm of the opinion that promoting from within is offensive suicide. If Nutt wants to run the ball a hundred times a game next year, and score 14 points per outing, that's fine, but I won't watch it. Dude needs to suck it up, check his ego at the door, and hire someone who can help his goofy ass score some points. This move is really disturbing; even if the offense wasn't that great last year, most of us still thought that Austin could be a good HC for us in the future. Maybe he still could be, but this isn't the way we saw it happening.
Juco: Well, despite the revalation of my dumb-ness, I would like to suggest the Cup take a firm stance against promoting from within and moving to bring Hugh Freeze back to Ole Miss to serve as our offensive coordinator.
Ghost and Whiskey, in unison, it's cute: Seconded!
Ivory: Wait, what about Gus Malzhan?
Now, it's your turn to ruminate, reply, or rant. Don't be shy.