Consumed by the Challenge

By Charlie Barnes, Executive Director - Seminole Boosters

Rick Trickett

Rick Trickett stretched out his legs and propped his cowboy boots up on the opposite seat. “I’ll tell you what I’ve learned,” he began. No one had asked him, but that’s never necessary. Simply to be in the presence of Rick Trickett is to be entertained.

“In my 39 years of coaching, I’ve learned never to fall in love with houses, horses or universities.”

The best offensive line coach in America paused and smiled. “I’ve left some schools because I wanted out, and I’ve been pushed out of some schools that I really liked. That’s what a career in coaching is like.”

Yes. Coaching at the top of the college football pyramid is different today. Trickett knows that the profession of coaching has become more transient than ever before.

There’s so much money on the table now that the very weight of it has changed the game. It has certainly changed the coaching business. Now, more than any other time in the history of collegiate athletics, coaches are paid to win. You have to win or you have to go.

A wise fellow gave me some advice long ago, when I joined Seminole Boosters. He said, “Never forget that those coaches on the sidelines wearing your colors have more in common with their counterparts across the field than they do with your fans in the stands.”

Yes. Coaches know, as Rick Trickett warned, not to fall in love with their university. They know that being fired is part of the business they’ve chosen, and that someday they may have to look to one of those counterparts on the other side of the field for employment.

Money has changed the market. Most athletic departments enjoy the same familiar sources of income. There are ticket sales, of course, and Booster contributions. But those numbers pale in comparison to the money received through the various conferences from television contracts.

The general costs associated with just fielding intercollegiate teams keep rising. The cost of winning is increasing even faster. Not everyone will be able to keep up.

Jimbo Fisher

Schools considered to be elite competitors compensate their head coaches on a scale undreamed of even a decade ago. Jimbo Fisher will earn more as a second year head coach in 2011 than Bobby Bowden made after 34 years at Florida State. Neither man is surprised by that fact; it’s the state of the market today.

Bobby Bowden

We remember the generation of coaching greats characterized by the likes of Bobby Bowden, Bear Bryant, Shug Jordan, Bo Schembechler, Woody Hayes, Darrell Royal. You even have to give Steve Spurrier his due.

But it seems that a different breed of cat defines this new generation of elite college coaches. These new icons also have claims to greatness, but they’re different. They employ a more corporate approach to the game. Men who might otherwise have become trial lawyers or CEOs now look to college coaching to make their fortune.

Think about that. When you first started following sports, would you have been surprised to see a lawyer coaching college football? It’s different now. Terry Bowden, who still owns the highest winning percentage in Auburn history, is a lawyer. Mike Leach, the controversial former Texas Tech head coach (and still the all-time winner there), never played college ball, but he did attend Pepperdine Law School. And Vince Dooly’s son Derek, now head coach at Tennessee, practiced law for two years before turning to coaching.

FSU Indoor Practice Facility

All of this brings us roundabout to the subject of the much-discussed Indoor Practice Facility.

Fisher and Seminole fans have identical goals: winning championships. Jimbo has already given us a glimpse of what he can do, and we want him to continue to do it for the Seminoles. We sense that Fisher is special, that he is destined to find his place among the elite.

Fisher and his assistant coaches are consumed by the challenge of winning it all. They are relentless recruiters; they exercise extraordinary control over the health and fitness of the players, and they attend to every element of the program in excruciating detail.

Magic can follow when a new coach and a fan base both exhibit the same driving hunger for championships. The most highly competitive programs reward a head coach handsomely for winning, but win he must.

Each of these elite coaches sets his top priorities, and those priorities vary. One coach may insist on making his coordinators the most highly paid assistants in the country. Another coach may feel his most immediate need is a dedicated weight-training facility just for football.

What do you need to win, Coach? Jimbo Fisher’s top priority is a covered practice facility. That’s why it has now become a top priority for our fans and for Seminole Boosters as well.

If you can’t practice, you can’t compete. In the last decade, Florida State has lost crucial games because bad weather kept the players off the field. Once upon a time coaches and players claimed they stayed on the practice field until lightning actually struck the tower.

But now, all schools are required to keep a radar eye pointed at the sky, and if lightening flashes within a given distance, practice is over. At one time, Tallahassee actually was the lightening capital of the United States. I don’t know where we rank in that category today, but August in Tallahassee is dependably electric.

We want to keep Jimbo here and, like Rick Trickett said, coaches these days do move about.

Last month, a columnist in the ACC Sports Journal wrote this about the transient nature of coaching today, “The game has changed...FSU fans will have to get used to this new world order, even though it’s going to be difficult for them. For 34 years, they had a coach in Bowden who stayed put despite overtures from some of the top programs in the country. Now they’re just like everybody else.”

Well, maybe not just like everybody else. There are only a handful of schools that, either through tradition or the blessings of geography, have any real chance of winning a national championship. Fisher is a realist. He wants to win championships, and he knows Florida State has access to the best players in the country.

Top recruits are leaning toward the Seminoles. They want to win, and they know if you can’t practice you can’t compete. The new weather restrictions have impacted all schools. The elite programs either have covered practice facilities now or they’re going to have them soon.

This coming football season will be one to enjoy. And all Seminole fans will have the opportunity to help make the covered practice field a reality.

These are exciting days, with wonderful possibilities. Clear skies ahead for the Seminoles.