[Van Hagar]

It’s sort of a moot point, because Cal’s contract means he is NEVER getting fired short of some scandal that would nullify his deal. He has a contract that would be a bad deal for a university if your coach was Nick Saban, or Coach K, or Pat Summit. But aside from that, no, he is a very poor in-game coach. Yelling at the top of your lungs and making funny faces on the sidelines during games does not equal great coaching. He gets too locked in on certain players, while others can make one mistake and out they come. Just one example, I have felt bad for Lance Ware for two years now, a kid with limited ability, but who plays his ass off every second he is on the court, and really seems to care about the game. But he’s never gonna get more than a 3 or 4 minute run during a game, one mistake, sit him down. And there’s a long list of guys like that. Plus, the failure to call timeout at the end of games—I think it’s because Cal has no idea what to tell them, so he just hopes the talent will figure it out.

Now, I will say this job would eat up a lot of coaches, and Cal does have the right personality for it, the Pitino style of thinking he knows more than everyone else. But our recruiting has slipped, it may slip some more with Kenny Payne now at Louisville, and Auburn and Tennessee have basically caught us in the SEC. It may get worse before it gets better. When does football practice start?