Friday, November 19, 2021

Paying forward

 You know what the investment suits like to say: Past performance does not guarantee future results.

What the Blob likes to say is more succinct, but along the same lines.

Charlie Weis, people. Charlie Weis.

Which is to say, Michigan State apparently is about to hand head football coach Mel Tucker a horse-choking 10-year, $95 million extension based primarily on 10 games. OK, so nine games, plus a double-digit loss to Purdue.

State presumably is going to do this mainly because some juicy positions (USC, LSU, etc.) now have Help Wanted signs out, and MSU doesn't want any of those schools poaching their guy. So they'll lock Tucker in, presumably, based on his 9-1 record so far this year and not on the 2-5 mark he put up in his first season in East Lansing, or the 5-7 he produced in his only season at Colorado in 2019. 

Tucker responded the way you figure a guy would who's about out to have a Brink's truck back up to his door. He said on Draymond Green's radio show that Michigan State is a "destination" job.

I suppose it is, sort of.

I also suppose, if MSU closes this deal, it will enjoy continuing to pay Tucker large chunks of cash long after he's moved on to his next destination -- or after Michigan State tells him it's time he found another destination.

I say this because, again, Charlie Weis.

Who, you might recall, got handed his own horse-choking 10-year deal by Notre Dame, and not because of nine wins or even a signature win. He got his deal after a signature defeat, the epic 2005 loss to No. 1 USC in which the Trojans narrowly escaped with the "W." That was apparently enough of a convincer for ND to open its checkbook.

We know what happened next, of course. Weis went 10-3 in 2006 and then ran out of his predecessor Tyrone Willingham's recruits, going 3-9, 7-6 and 6-6 the next three seasons before Notre Dame showed him the road.

But because of that gargantuan deal, up until a short time ago Notre Dame was still paying Weis more per year than Brian Kelly, Muffet McGraw and Mike Brey -- all of whom are still gainfully employed by ND, and all of whom have been far more successful there than Weis ever was.

I hope such an absurd state of affairs is not coming for Michigan State. But, well ...

Well, the Spartans get Ohio State this weekend. Then they get Penn State. Based on past performance, future results suggest Sparty's going to get laminated by the Buckeyes and possibly lose to Penn State, which is far better than its 6-4 record indicates.

Of course, we know what the investment suits say about that.

But what do they know?

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