Back Story

SU's former Head Coach Paul Pasqualoni has a good eye


The New Britain Herald has a good story about high school stars from the past and present in Connecticut and it includes several paragraphs about how Austin Knowlin became a football player.

It turns out Knowlin caught the eye of a certain FBS coach and that started him on the path from basketball to football.

The story is another brief example of how long-term success is often just a stroke of luck. I suggest reading Malcom Gladwell's new book, Outliers, for more insight on that.


JAKEYS UPDATE

I'm still taking ideas and nominations for the 2008 Jakey Awards. I'm also still on the fence about doing a prediction-like "Most Likely to Emerge" award, but it does seem like we have a decent number of nominees now for all the other categories.


Replacing Jack?

I have no idea who's in the running for the Yale head coaching job, but I think it might be fun to find out who or what we all think would make the best kind of Ivy League football coach.

In my mind, the best guy would be someone who has had good success at the FBS or even NFL level, but has become disgusted with the greed and even criminality, (Pacman Jones and Plaxico Burress anyone?), that seems to be growing in "big time" sports. There have been some Ivy coaches who have come from bigger-time football, but none have been head coaches, save for one or two who were HC's, but failed to gain winning seasons.

I would have loved to see someone like Joe Paterno 15 years ago step down from Penn State to finish his career at an Ivy. But maybe that's just me.