There's times where you hire known, or seemingly known, quantities. There are other times you take risks in hiring a resume. Sometimes you stay far away from someone simply because they are a known quantity even if the resume looks amazing.
Networking and knowing the right people is 100 times more important than being the best in the game of life unless you are one of the very, very best.
Figure out ways to get in the fringes of certain circles and see how fast the game changes. Other than a few select circles, it's still open to anyone. I've watched it happen too many times.
Networking is a skill just as much as knowing the chemical composition and interaction of methane and oxygen is a skill, and one that is important. It shows you can interact with other humans, communicate and express your ideas properly. So I don't think it is sad, other than yes, some people fall through the cracks, but that is going to happen no matter what. One of the reasons I believe a good, solid liberal arts education is indispensable in life, because it allows you to have background knowledge on lots of different topics, thus allowing you to talk to different people about different things.
I get where you're coming from, and nepotism definitely exists in college coaching. But I think there's a clear difference between a person trying to minimize risk by hiring the person he knows more about and nepotism.
I literally got my first job because the guy interviewing me asked me where my home address was and it led into a 45 minutes discussion on high school football, then college football, and then college basketball. With about 5 minutes left in the interview he looks as his watch and says "well, I guess we need to spend a little time talking about job stuff". Couple of days later got a second interview. I'm convinced I don't get that job if it weren't for the away from the job stuff. Heck, at a client meeting this morning we spent 25 of the 30 minutes discussion UT basketball and OC search.
I would go 9 wide, screw linemen (and the rules), and I would throw three hail mary's then another. Screw punting.
Too bad there isn’t a playoff system like in high school that you could get us to, only to lose in first round. You know, like what you experienced growing up.
Don't think we ever got out before the quarter finals when I was there. The early exits are a recent phenomenon.
My highschool won a total of 3 games while I was there. Ah, but what a wonderful three games to some schlep teams that was!
My high school (Lavergne) has beaten it's "rival" (Smyrna) 1 time out of I believe 32 games. The 1 win was my sophomore year, score was 28-0 and Smyrna never crossed the 50 yard line. One of the most dominant games of football I have ever seen... We had a pretty solid team that year, but to this day I can't explain it.
We had a nice run to the Clinic Bowl my sophomore year. beat Cedric Wilson and about 37 other D1 guys in the third round but lost to Eric Westmoreland and Marion Co. Was 7-6 in the 3rd and the wheels fell off.
Senior year we backed into playoffs with a 3-7 record when a team ended up getting a 2 point conversion on a bad snap when trying for the extra point. And then nearly won first round game.
