BARNES HAD RIGHT ANSWER FOR GUY QUESTION
When I was setting up my interview with USU’s new athletic director Scott Barnes, I knew I was going to have to ask him about Brent Guy.
I wasn’t looking forward to it. No other profession has to deal with the level of public scrutiny football coaches do, and I don’t like being a part of the frenzy. If a CPA doesn’t carry the two, it’s not front-page news the next day. If a surgeon leaves his Casio in someone’s guts, it rarely makes the papers unless that unlucky patient dies. But when USU failed to field that kickoff against San Jose State last year, coach Guy was, once again, feeling the heat on call-in shows, Internet message boards and in sports sections across Utah.
I understand coaches are well-compensated for being in the public eye, and if they are winners, the adulation is more than commensurate to the criticism. But I still think it’s in poor taste to speculate about coach Guy’s job security, or, as columnist Brad Rock did last year in the pages of the Deseret News on Nov. 16, call for him to be fired.
I don’t think Rock would appreciate it if the next time he gets scooped, Guy published 650 words about what a lousy reporter he is. But that’s sports journalism in America today. So after tossing Barnes some softballs, I dove right in and asked what we reporters call “the tough questions.”
I asked him if there was a magic number of wins Guy needs this year to save his job.
“There is no number,” Barnes said.
I asked him what he was looking for from Guy’s football team.
“Improvement.”
Finally, I asked him if there is an attraction to bringing in his own guy to run the football team, no pun intended.
“Not even on the radar screen,” Barnes answered. “We have our guy. Brent Guy is our guy.” Pun fully intended.
Now, Barnes didn’t make any promises.
He didn’t paint himself into a corner. A new football coach could be in the cards if Barnes doesn’t see any of that improvement this upcoming season. But if his statement isn’t a vote of confidence for Guy, offensive coordinator Darrell Dickey and the rest of the coaching staff, I don’t know what is.
A lot of people thought the moment the new AD was announced would be the same moment Guy took his six wins and got out of Cache Valley. They were dead wrong. When I spoke to Barnes last Friday, he used the strongest language to indicate his support for Guy.
College football analyst Phil Steele often talks about football programs getting “Baylored.” What that means is the athletics department administrators have a short-sighted, win-now attitude and run the football program into the ground by bringing in a new coach every three years.
Take a look at the recent history of USU football. Going back to the late ’80s, USU has had only two coaches serve for at least five seasons. The turbulence of constant coaching changes rarely fails to send the team in a nosedive to the bottom of the standings. Maybe Phil Steele should start talking about teams being “Utah Stated.”
Guy is still dealing with the effects of USU spending the ’90s and the early part of this decade wandering from conference to conference like Moses’ tribe in the desert.
Guy is still dealing with facilities that were allowed to erode to a level that high school teams in Texas would laugh at. Guy’s winning percentage is miserable, but what do you expect? For my money, the best coach in the country is Florida’s Urban Meyer, but he wouldn’t have been able to do much better here at USU. If life gives you lemons, sure, but what if life hands you a lump of dookie? There’s no such thing as crap-ade.
It’s good to talk to Barnes and hear him talking about building on the good work done by our previous AD, Randy Spetman. I can’t tell the future so I don’t know if Brent Guy will be coaching here the year after next. But I am encouraged that Barnes is talking about our miserable football team in terms of an opportunity, not calling for root-and-branch reform.
G. Christopher Terry is a junior majoring in print journalism. He can be contacted at graham.terry@aggiemail.usu.edu