I do not agree with that...identifying and hiring a good coach can build any program. Look at teams like Utah that had Urban Meyer...you don't think if Urban went to Iowa State instead of Utah that he wouldn't have built Iowa State into a winner? Of course he would--he turns every school into a winner. Just like he turned Bowling Green and Utah into winners before turning around programs like Florida and Ohio State.
Lets take the SEC for example. Mississippi State has always been awful-they get Dan Mullen and they are respectable. In the East..Vandy has been terrible as long as I can remember and Kentucky has been awful more often than not. Vandy hired James Franklin and he turned that into a good program. Kentucky hired Mark Stoops and he is building them into a pretty good team.
As you mentioned, K State--under Bill Snyder they have been good more than they have been bad...and they were one of the worse teams in football before he built that program. Kansas has usually been awful, Mangino had success at that program. Leach at Texas Tech. Briles at Baylor. Patterson at TCU. Spurrier at Florida and South Carolina. There are plenty of examples of how a good head coach can turn a program around.
People love to bring up exceptions when I talk in generalities, but by and large every single thing I said is true.
Urban is perhaps the best CFB coach ever, guys like him come around very rarely & the chances Iowa State landing him first are sooo slim. But yeah, I think he would have done better than most coaches at Iowa State, but I don't think he would have enjoyed the success he had at Utah, no way. Chizek was a .500 coach there, he bolted to Auburn and won a national title. He was good enough to win a freaking national title, but couldn't get above .500 at Iowa State.
Vandy and Kentucky suck. Did Vandy ever beat a team with an above .500 record with Franklin? Yes he made Vandy respectful, but they were hardly world beaters. Kentucky is building the same thing they always build, a loser. You cannot use Kentucky for this argument, they have won nothing in forever. Miss. State is a great example and I will give you that one, but they are reside in a fertile recruiting territory, so it's understandable, or, the exception like I discussed earlier, and we'll see if he can maintain, jury is still out.
I already agreed K-State over achieves when you hire a once in a generation coach, but look what they were before him, and what they were after he left the first time, and what do you think they'll look like when he leaves? But yeah, they got lucky with Snyder, but they are what they are, a rock waiting to sink in the water when he bolts.
Briles and Patterson reside in Texas, high school talent galore, plus they are amazing coaches who would bolt a low life like Iowa State at the first opportunity. So no, they couldn't build anything sustainable at a lesser school because they wouldn't stick around.
Bottom line, yes, schools can get lucky for a while with the right coach, but those coaches normally leave for greener pastures as soon as they become a hot commodity. But I stick by what I said, every conference has some bottom feeders that will always be bottom feeders, by and large that is 100% accurate.
