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Mandel Mailbag: KD has "One foot out the door"

By Tydides

Today, Stewart Mandel's mailbag fielded a question regarding the job security of Arkansas coach Houston Nutt. This led to a broader discussion of job security nationwide, which is of course, of great interest to us here at BN. He separates coaches into different tiers depending on the "toastiness" of their seats.

Initially surprising is that KD is not in the top (or is it bottom?) tier. The "Dead Men Walking" are Bill Callahan (Nebraska), Dennis Franchione (Texas A&M), Houston Nutt, and Bill Doba (Guess whipping KD's ass isn't all that impressive to WSU).

I realize this is a fairly serious proclamation to make of someone with half a season still to play, and believe me, I don't do it lightly. But these four have simply screwed up far too drastically to save themselves at this point.

Of course, where Bill Doba is, KD couldn't be far behind right? Mandel doesn't disappoint, putting The Sleeper with Tommy Bowden (Clemson), Mike Stoops (Arizona), Phil Bennett (SMU), Ted Roof (Duke), and Mark Snyder (Marshall). That's some mighty fine company you got there KD. While I'm a little disappointed KD wasn't in the Top Tier of Toasty seats, Mandel's explanation does make sense.

It's these egregious crimes that separate those four from guys like UCLA's Karl Dorrell, Clemson's Tommy Bowden, Arizona's Mike Stoops, SMU's Phil Bennett, Duke's Ted Roof and Marshall's Mark Snyder, all of whom are also hanging by a thin thread but could still theoretically save themselves (as Bowden has done countless times before). We'll put them in the "One Foot Out the Door" category. (Michigan's Lloyd Carr could re-join this group as well if his now-resurgent team were to suddenly cool off.)

Yes, as we all know, KD can actually still save himself. Of course, anyone who has actually watched this team play this season knows that his road to salvation is about a hair wide and a thousand miles long, suspended over a pit of snakes.

This is important because reading between the lines, I believe he's talking about a BCS bowl appearance (running the table) as KD's salvation. A Cal loss seals KD's fate according to Stewart's criteria. Losing to Cal obliterates the pie in the sky Dorrelista dream of a Rose Bowl appearance. Losing to Cal is KD taking his remaining foot, and planting it solidly in the unemployment line to join the other "Dead Men Walking". Like N likes to say: No pressure, Karl.

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