ESPN.com - Zook, Morriss breathing easier -- for now

ESPN.com: College Football

Wednesday, September 25, 2002
Updated: September 26, 9:23 AM ET
Zook, Morriss breathing easier -- for now

By Pat Forde
Special to ESPN.com

The two most relieved coaches in the Southeastern Conference -- and perhaps the free world -- meet this week in Gainesville.

Flip a coin to decide who exhaled longest: Guy Morriss of Kentucky, whose Monday contract extension removes him from his preseason spot near the top of the endangered list; or Ron Zook of Florida, whose Saturday pounding of Tennessee brought blessed cessation to the Steve Wouldn't Have Done It Like That chorus he's endured since taking the job.

Only the creator of the notorious www.FireRonZook.com or relatives of Hal Mumme would begrudge these guys their happiness right now.

Bustle Busts Through With Win No. 1

Rickey Bustle had already waited until he was 49 to get his first head-coaching job. Waiting until the fourth week of the season for his first victory wasn't overly onerous by comparison.

After 16 turnovers in three losses, Louisiana-Lafayette finally kept the ball to itself and shocked -- no, humiliated -- UAB 34-0. Bustle, the former offensive coordinator at Virginia Tech who was a candidate for several jobs in recent years before finally becoming boss of the Ragin' Cajuns, already sounds like a veteran.

"It's a heck of a win," Bustle said, "but it's a memory."

A good memory, though, amidst the most memorable football Saturday in the Sun Belt's brief existence. The league actually had a winning record against I-A competition, going 3-2. Not only did UL-L smoke UAB, but New Mexico State beat New Mexico 24-13 and Idaho beat San Diego State 48-38. In addition, Middle Tennessee played unbeaten Kentucky tough and North Texas nearly knocked off Texas Christian.

Not bad, boys.

For Louisiana-Lafayette, it simply was a matter of not giving away the game. Consider what it did in its season opener against Texas A&M: six turnovers in the first half, after which UL-L trailed just 3-0. By game's end the Ragin' Cajuns had turned it over a ghastly 10 times -- how's that for a head-coaching debut? -- including twice inside the Aggies' 10-yard line.

They were slightly less generous in losses to Minnesota and Houston. By the time UAB arrived to play in a rain storm Saturday night in the Cajundome, they were ready to break through.

A team that had only 124 rushing yards on the season ran for 123 against the Blazers, and put up 365 total yards. Pretty good for a school that lost 47-2 to UAB two years ago -- and no turnovers in the rain was well-received also.

Clearly, the learning curve is steep with Bustle's fuzzy-faced staff. With six assistants aged 33 or younger, this group is enthusiastic about getting its on-the-job training.

"Everybody's always excited," Louisiana-Lafayette sports information director Daryl Cetnar said. "Nobody's old and grouchy and tired. You've got people happy to come to work every day."

After an off week, the work gets more interesting. October will be big in Lafayette.

First UL-L plays state kingpin LSU for the first time in 64 years. Then come three straight games against the acknowledged strength of the Sun Belt: at New Mexico State, at Middle Tennessee and then home against North Texas.

After that run, this head-coaching thing might seem easy to Bustle by November.

-- Pat Forde

Both men spent years rattling around the coaching ranks as worker bees, hoping to someday get lucky and avoid the dreaded Career Assistant label but never knowing if the head-coaching opportunity would arrive. Finally, in middle age, both men got bolt-out-of-the-blue chances to be the boss.

Morriss got the job at Kentucky at age 49, on the literal eve of signing day, February 2001. Mumme had been forced out when the stench of scandal enveloped his program, and then-athletic director Larry Ivy basically threw the keys to the head coach's office at the first untainted assistant he saw and said, "Here. You're in charge. You've got 12 hours to save this recruiting class, and we're a cinch for probation. Congratulations."

What followed was a 2-9 debut season in which Morriss barely retained his job, a change in president, a change in athletic director, a body slam from the NCAA and fairly rampant speculation that new AD Mitch Barnhart would nudge the incumbent coach off the cliff's edge and bring in his own guy. You want to try working under those conditions?

Zook got the job at Florida at age 47, when Steve Spurrier finally followed through on years of daydreaming about the NFL -- and only after Bob Stoops and Mike Shanahan turned the job down. Zook was hired so hastily that you wondered whether AD Jeremy Foley was having rejection issues and lunged at the first guy who wouldn't say no.

Reaction ranged from disappointment to outright hostility. Enthusiasm finished up the track.

Saddled with merciless expectations and intense scrutiny, Zook was nearly cooked three weeks into his tenure. A blowout loss to Miami, followed by an uninspiring win over Ohio, had the entire world predicting doom against Tennessee in the rivalry game that helped make Spurrier a giant. Not exactly an ideal working environment, either.

Well, now. Today Morriss is the Coach of the Month in the SEC and Zook is the Coach of the Moment.

As former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said recently, "There is no middle ground in sports. You're either a hero or a bum."

Better to be on the hero's side of the fence, where Morriss and Zook currently reside.

The Wildcats are 4-0 for the first time since 1984. Kentucky's sweep of its non-conference schedule, highlighted by a Sept. 1 upset of Louisville, culminated in Morriss going from the worst contract in the country -- no buyout -- to a five-year, $2 million guaranteed deal that was announced Monday.

"You're talking about some incredible circumstances," Barnhart said. "You've got a coach on basically a year-to-year contract, facing NCAA sanctions, not going to a bowl, new boss, and none of that is easy. And he's gone under the lights and proven himself without blinking. I don't know of anybody else who could have taken that set of circumstances and done what he's done."

Morriss himself choked up while thanking the effort of his players.

"These guys have never wavered, never blinked, never taken a step back," he said. "All they've done is bow their necks against all kinds of odds and done everything we've asked them to do. ... I love these guys."

The Gators are back in the national title hunt after making the Vols look every bit as bad -- and arguably worse -- than Spurrier ever did. No wonder Foley wrapped Zook is a hug right there in soggy Neyland Stadium last Saturday. That was vindication day for both men.

"Big win," Zook said, understatedly. He might be a rookie head coach, but Zook clearly understood that September chest-beating is never wise.

He didn't have to say any more. Everyone knew.

The achievement was made all the sweeter for Zook when the Neyland P.A. guy pronounced his last name as "Zuke."

"I only worked there for three years," Zook joked, referring to his tenure as a Volunteers assistant.

Zook/Zuke's pregame speech touched on the pronunciation gaffe, according to the Orlando Sentinel: "They don't respect you, they don't respect me, they don't respect the coaching staff. It's time to show the world what you can do."

If you don't think the mental game matters in college football, consider Kentucky and Florida. Both got their validating victories in rivalry games where they'd been given scant chance, despite playing teams of comparable talent.

The Wildcats will again have the underdog's edge this week, which has Zook on the lookout for complacency. His message to the Gators:

"Think how you guys felt last week. No one thought you had a chance. Obviously, they're coming in here thinking the same thing. They're good enough, and our players understand that."

But the talent may not be so comparable between Florida and Kentucky. It hasn't been for years.

Defensive tackle Arpedge Rolle certainly meant well this week when he said, "Kentucky has always given us a run for our money because we are Florida." In truth, the Wildcats haven't even given the Gators a run for their pocket lint.

Last time Kentucky beat Florida: 1986.

Average score since then: Gators 44, Cats 18.

It's true that this Kentucky team has a ground game improved enough that it could conceivably keeps its defense off the field for a while. And it's true that the defense has taken huge strides since Mumme's let-'em-score days. And it's true that quarterback Jared Lorenzen is at least the match of Florida's Rex Grossman when it comes to shaking off sackers and throwing amid great duress.

Whether all that translates into a rare competitive game between these two Eastern Division teams remains to be seen. Much will probably depend on the Gators, and whether they can avoid coming out flat and slipping back to the uninspiring performance against Ohio.

The bad news is that one relieved coach will have his bubble harpooned this weekend. But hey, the good news is that the winner should have another week on the hero's side of the fence, where there's no looking over the shoulder, avoiding the newspapers and turning off the talk radio.

Around the SEC

Alabama
Running back Ahmaad Galloway's college-career-ending knee injury against Southern Mississippi could affect the Crimson Tide more from an intangible standpoint than in the running game. Alabama is deep at that position, with Santonio Beard having rushed for 199 yards last year against Auburn and Shaud Williams running for 135 yards last week against the Golden Eagles. But coach Dennis Franchione loved Galloway's leadership qualities. "We have other people who can carry the football," Franchione said. "The most significant loss with Ahmaad is that we lost a great person, a great leader, a chemistry guy. When somebody needed to pick up the pace in practice, he didn't wait for the coaches to do it. He did it." ... Franchione is maddeningly secretive about injuries, which means he isn't saying how much quarterback Tyler Watts' sprained foot is affecting him. Much-hyped redshirt freshman Brodie Croyle stepped in last week and at least kept the offense moving, even though his personal stats were uninspiring (six carries for 21 yards, 4 of 15 for 15 yards passing with two interceptions).

Arkansas
The Razorbacks' collision with the Crimson Tide could boil down to a toughman contest that is won on the lines and at the point of impact. Arkansas is first in the SEC in rushing offense and defense, and Alabama is second in both categories (against much tougher competition). Whichever team can run the ball stands to be at a pronounced advantage. ... If forced to the air, the Hogs feel they are capable of responding -- at least more capable than they were last year. "We're going to try to open it up a little bit more," split end George Wilson told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Sophomore quarterback Matt Jones, who struggled with anything beyond option running and scrambling last year, is 16 of 26 for 254 yards in two games, with five touchdowns and no interceptions. "The best thing he's done is improved his passing," Houston Nutt said of Jones.

Auburn
Think Tommy Tuberville has some lingering issues with Jackie Sherrill dating to his days as the coach at Ole Miss? He removed all doubt last week with a rather blatant, rub-it-in fake field goal in the fourth quarter of a game the Tigers had already locked up. The play, a pitch to kicker Damon Duval -- putting your all-SEC kicker at risk seemed rash under any circumstance -- did not succeed. At least not at first. But Mississippi State was penalized on the play, Auburn got its first down and then drove for another touchdown in what wound up a 42-14 pounding. Making it all the more blatant was the high fives Tuberville distributed after the penalty and after the touchdown, with a wide smirk on his face. Sherrill, who has earned a legion of enemies over the years, insisted he was not bothered by it. "I probably would've been years ago," he said. "I've been in this game a long time. ... Those things do happen. You consider the source and go on down the road." Asked to expand on the "consider the source" remark, Sherrill directed questions to Tuberville, who skipped the SEC weekly teleconference. ... Tuberville spent much of the preseason worrying about his team's four-games-in-18-days stretch to open the season. On the back end of it, it wasn't so bad. The Tigers went 3-1, losing only a hard-fought game at USC, and seemed to get stronger with each passing week. Quarterback Daniel Cobb has been steady if not spectacular, running back Carnell Williams is the offensive centerpiece and the defense looks as good as advertised. Auburn forced six turnovers against Mississippi State and was led by defensive end Reggie Torbor, who had two sacks, a fumble recovery and caused a fumble after not practicing for two weeks with a sprained knee.

Florida
Just when you thought Rex Grossman was sliding out of the Heisman Trophy race, he performs like the swaggering playmaker of old against the Volunteers. Grossman threw for 324 yards and three touchdowns, and repeatedly stepped out of potential sacks or made passes when he appeared doomed. On a soaked field, his feet have never looked better. ... Offensive tackle Mo Mitchell continues to miss practice for what Zook describes as "personal reasons." Mitchell was reportedly ready to transfer last week but rejoined the team this week, although he did not practice Tuesday. ... Key stat: Florida's defense hasn't allowed a first-quarter touchdown this year, while Kentucky's offense has outscored its opponents 55-3 in the first quarter.

Georgia
Greene-to-Gibson is back -- at least on the stat sheet, and against chump-change opponents. Quarterback David Greene, no longer having to fend off freshman D.J. Shockley for playing time, completed 26 of 43 throws for 346 yards and a school-record-tying four touchdown passes in a rout of Northwestern State. Flanker Gibson had eight catches for 134 yards. But Greene misfired often enough that Bulldogs coach Mark Richt was no more effusive than "He executed pretty well." And Gibson's two fumbles resulted in him doing some extra running after practice Tuesday. Just a sophomore, Gibson already has tied the school record for 100-yard receiving games with seven. ... Richt might take the redshirt off of two more freshmen. Wide receivers Bryan McClendon and Mario Raley might both play this week against New Mexico State, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, after season-ending injuries to backup wideouts Jarrett Berry and Kirby Towns. ... New Mexico State's option-flavored ground game could help Georgia get a look at what it will face next week, when it travels to Alabama.

Kentucky
Reserve offensive linemen Sylvester Miller and Michael Aichison were both suspended for the Florida game after being involved in a brawl just before halftime of the Wildcats' 44-22 victory over Middle Tennessee State last week. Kentucky should be able to handle that loss, but the SEC office was still reviewing tape of the fight on Tuesday and could yet hand down further suspensions. ... Count Grossman among those who finds Jared Lorenzen great entertainment. "He's fun to watch when he's on TV," Grossman said. The pair of juniors are 1-2 among active players in most SEC career passing statistics. Grossman currently is 56 yards ahead of Lorenzen in career passing yardage.

LSU
Competing Trends I: The Tigers have won nine of their last 10 against Mississippi State, which visits Baton Rouge Saturday, but have lost 12 of their past 18 home day games. Even worse for the home ghouls: This one is scheduled to kick off at 11:30 a.m. Central Time, which should blunt the usual bourbon-stoked ardor of the home team. Or maybe it just means that the drinking starts earlier. ... Competing Trends II: LSU has lost three straight SEC openers, but has won its last five SEC openers when the opponent is Mississippi State. ... Coach Nick Saban had the Rev. Jesse Jackson speak to his team at practice last week, leading to a few yelps from Tiger fans/Jackson critics.

Mississippi
No SEC coach has greater reason to wail about injuries than David Cutcliffe. Last week against Vanderbilt, the Rebels boss lost all-league senior tight end Doug Zeigler for the season to a broken leg and likely lost senior linebacker Lanier Goethie for the year after breaking his left foot. Zeigler has 48 career catches and Goethie has 178 career tackles. ... After surrendering three fourth-quarter touchdowns -- and nearly the game -- to Vandy, Ole Miss is looking to make some lineup changes on defense. "There are some things I'm not ready to go public with right now, but we're looking," Cutcliffe told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, adding that there will be depth-chart changes but not offering specifics. ... Eli Manning showed some of his 2001 fourth-quarter flair against the Commodores, coolly leading the Rebels 80 yards to the winning score after Vandy had rallied to tie the game. Manning threw for a career-high 386 yards and two touchdowns.

Mississippi State
Sherrill isn't feeling the love from Tuberville, but he might be feeling the heat in his own backyard. The Bulldogs went 3-8 last year, began this season with an NCAA investigation and now have been drilled in their only two games against I-A opponents by a combined score of 78-27. He might be the winningest coach in school history, but that doesn't mean he's not under some pressure to turn around this season and give some believable explanations to NCAA investigators. ... One of State's problems is bulbous senior running back Dontae Walker, who clearly looks out of shape but was not displaced from the lineup until a shoulder sprain made him doubtful for the trip to Baton Rouge. The Bulldogs have depth at the position in backup Fred Reid and a pair of promising freshmen (one, Jerious Norwood, sprinted 31 yards with a shovel pass against Auburn in his only touch of the game). Some Bulldogs backers are wondering whether State might be making the same loyalty-based mistake with Walker that it made last year by sticking with senior quarterback Wayne Madkin.

South Carolina
Lou Holtz was serious enough about sending his no-more-turnovers message last week that he benched senior running back Andrew Pinnock against Temple, a week after Pinnock fumbled twice inside the Georgia 5-yard-line. Pinnock didn't touch the ball against the Owls, giving way to freshman Daccus Turman, who had 39 rushing yards. "You can't get too discouraged and let it break you," Pinnock told the Columbia State. But Turman hurt his left shoulder Tuesday and was held out of contact drills Wednesday. Holtz was noncommittal about who would start Saturday against Vanderbilt. ... South Carolina actually won the turnover battle with Temple, taking away two and giving away one. The Gamecocks had lost 11 turnovers in their previous two games, both losses. ... Since South Carolina came into the league, it has not allowed Vanderbilt more than 17 points in any of their 10 meetings.

Tennessee
The most humbling five minutes in program history has led to considerable fallout. The Volunteers' fumble-intensive flop against Florida has fans ripping coach Phil Fulmer for being a lousy big-game coach, and has players bickering among themselves. A players' meeting Monday is said to have cleared the air, but not until a variety of grievances were heard. Among them: some criticism of self-proclaimed superstar Kelley Washington, whose braggadocio and alleged selfishness has reportedly rubbed some of his teammates the wrong way. Washington is hardly the scapegoat, however, with seven receptions for 102 yards -- not in a game where the Volunteers struggled mightily simply to execute the center snap, to get the right number of players on the field or to tackle with any competence. Nevertheless, former UT QB star Heath Shuler criticized Washington on the radio for avoiding contact, either falling down in front of defenders or running out of bounds. Fulmer dismissed the Washington-bashing Wednesday, saying that his sophomore wideout is "one of those lightning-rod people." ... Best cure for a team coming off a full-blown disaster: A date with Rutgers on Saturday.

Vanderbilt
Moral victories are out in Nashville. Coming close to upsetting Ole Miss didn't cut it with coach Bobby Johnson. His postgame speech to the Commodores, according to the Nashville Tennessean: "If y'all expect us to come in here as coaches and talk about how well we did, y'all have another thing coming." ... Freshman quarterback Jay Cutler didn't practice Sunday because of what Johnson termed "body soreness." That's one way of saying he got the stuffing beaten out of him against Ole Miss. Cutler's toughness helped lead the Commodores to within a few yards of a major upset in Oxford, as he further stamped himself the quarterback for Johnson to build around. He doesn't have the strongest arm and might not pitch the ball on the option without a court order, but he's gotten the Vandy offense in gear. ... The Commodores had two 100-yard rushers against Ole Miss in Kwane Doster and Norval McKenzie. Doster is a freshman, McKenzie a sophomore. ... Linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer leads the SEC in tackles with 36.

Around the Sun Belt Conference
Arkansas State's 33-21 win over Louisiana-Monroe was its first road victory since 1999. ... Idaho quarterback Brian Lindgren has further established himself as the offensive star of the league after leading the Vandals to a 48-38 upset of visiting San Diego State. Lindgren leads the league in passing yards by nearly 100 per game over second-place Jon Van Cleave of Louisiana-Lafayette. Lindgren has thrown for 1,052 yards, completed 65.5 percent of his passes and has 11 touchdowns to only three interceptions. ... Louisiana-Lafayette leads the league in net punting and punt returns. Gee, did Rickey Bustle used to coach under special-teams master Frank Beamer or something? ... Louisiana-Monroe's opening drive of Mike Collins' tenure as interim coach was a 79-touchdown march, and the first play was a double pass back to the quarterback. Heck of a nice start, but the Indians couldn't keep it up in a 12-point loss. Nevertheless, true freshman QB Steve Jyles continues to make plays. In two games, he has as many touchdown passes (five) as any UL-M quarterback has had in a season since 1999. That makes Jyles' 38 percent accuracy more palatable. ... Speaking of productive quarterbacks: Middle Tennessee's Andrico Hines is ninth in the league in rushing at 49 yards per game and second in passing yardage. Middle finally gets a break from the SEC grind by hosting Southeast Missouri, which should result in both complete culture shock and the Blue Raiders' first win of the season. ... Paul Dombrowski became the first freshman quarterback to start at New Mexico State in six seasons, but that wasn't enough. He also became the first QB to run for 100 yards in the Aggies' inspiring upset of New Mexico. The Lobos beat the Aggies 53-0 last year in Albuquerque. ... North Texas had its fourth Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Week in five weeks with linebacker Chris Hurd, who 16 tackles in a hard-fought loss to TCU. The Mean Green held the Horned Frogs to a season-low 178 yards total offense. The North Texas defense currently ranks 18th in the country, despite facing Alabama and Texas. Next up is Arizona, so it doesn't get a whole lot easier.

Pat Forde covers college football for the Louisville Courier-Journal.