The truth about boxcar Joe Kines

The strangest day in the Mike Sherman era came on February 8, 2008, when Defensive Coordinator Assistant Head coach Reggie Herring resigned to join the Dallas Cowboys. Waves of shock pulsated throughout Aggieland. Mike Sherman had proclaimed at his press conference when hired that he was taking a lessor salary so that he could get the best assistance. And then, within a month, the key component to the coaching staff quits.

Mike Sherman hires Joe Kines as a desperation hire. Basically, he was the best person out that currently did not have a job. However, this last minute desperation hire may end up being his best.

Joe Kines was born July 13, 1944 on a train in route from Georgia to Alabama. He spent his early life traveling from city to city on train performing as a street performer for pennies. Not really. None of that is important, but this is.

When Joe got the call from Sherman, he was on working for Alabama in their Tide Pride office. Joe decided that he wanted one more crack at it and he loaded up the truck and moved to College Station. That would make 2 out of 3 defensive coordinators at Texas A&M from Alabama (Torbush and Kines), and the second straight defensive coordinator who was not working in football (Darnell and Kines). Why is he different than Torbush and Darnell?

Joe Kines has been coaching in the NCAA Division 1 and the NFL since 1977.
Joe has:

• 26 years experience at D1
  
• 4 years experience in the NFL
  
• 17 years experience coaching linebackers
  
• 17 years experience as a defensive coordinator
  
• 8 years experience as an assistant head coach
  
• 10 games experience as a head coach
  

The teams he has coached have a winning percentage .542. Just above average, right? That number is skewed by his stint as a Linebackers coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. During that time the Bucs were 20-43, a winning percentage of .318.

His NCAA winning percentage is .620.

Here is what is impressive about Joe Kines. Joe has been a coach when a new head coach is brought in 6 times in his career. Twice in his career, he has been retained on the staff when a new coach has been brought in.

Kines knows the aches and pains associated with a new staff. He understands building the chemistry of the staff and developing rapport with the players. He's very experience in taking what the players do well, putting them in a system that will lead him to succeed. His first year at Florida in 1979 they went 0-10. His worst record as a coach. The next year 8-4. The next 7-5. 8-4. 9-2-1. 9-1-1. This was the beginning of the Florida foundation of football excellence and he helped build it.

In 1995, he joined Georgia as the DC. They went 6-6 and head coach Ray Goff was fired. New coach Jim Donnan retained Kines as the DC. In 1996, they went 5-6. 1997, 10-2. 1998, 9-3. 1999, 8-4.

He joined Alabama in 2003 after Dennis Franchione decided to come to College Station. Isn't it ironic, don't you think? They went 4-9 in 2003, 6-6 in 2004, 10-2 in 2005, and then 6-6 in 2006. Even more impressive was Kines' units finished second nationally in total defense in 2004 and in 2005. He was not retained by new Alabama coach Nick Saban following the 2006 season, when the Crimson Tide finished 23rd nationally.

He has a history of helping to turn programs around. At 62, is he a long term solution? No. But for now, he's a great fit with the experience to turn Texas A&M around.

And lastly, if this guy doesn't fire you up, nothing will.

A tale of 3 coaches

One of the biggest things that is often overlooked in college football is consistency. A coach finds a system that works, teaches the kids the system, and as they progress through it, there is consistency.

When a new coach is brought in, the expectations for immediate results from the fan base have nothing to do with the actual factors the coach is facing. I'm sure he wants to win as much, if not more than even the most die hard fan. Starting over, teaching 85 scholarship kids and 20 walkons a new system a challenge, especially with the 20 hour college rule. The coaches that have their system in place, and they're not teaching every kid the entire system.

Three NCAA DI Coaches in their first 5 seasons.

Coach A



Coach B



Coach C


All three coaches struggled in their first 5 years. They are all in a highly competitive conference. One of these coaches was gone after that 5th year.
The other 2 coaches were kept, and stayed at their university.

Coach A


Coach B


Who are these men?

Coach A


Coach B


Coach C


Does that mean to say that Fran deserved to be fired? No. But perhaps that consistency with 3 head coaches in 7 years is going to severely retard the program at Texas A&M. Who is to say in year 6 or year 7 that Fran wouldn't have taken the program to the level of Ku and Mizzou?

A&M was set for 8 wins because of the schedule and consistencies. Instead, they're in a complete rebuild mode that will may lead to 4 victories. 2 rebuilds in 6 years.

Texas Aggies hold on to beat the Lobos 28-22

My thoughts on this game: From the Aggie perspective, of course.

Both teams made a hell of a lot of mistakes. 4 fumbles for A&M, 4 fumbles for NM. The difference is that A&M lost one, a muffed punt that lead to a field goal, and NM lost 3. The 2 int's lead to 2 scores as well. Roughing the passer: It appears as if A&M's fortunes are turning in this regard. 2 games were lost last season with crucial roughing the passer calls. This season, it turns into a TD for A&M.

A&M's offense: Boring. Little imagination. West Coast Offense dumbed down. It's a very straightforward offense that can be effective if executed properly. Can college kids learn to execute it? Previous NFL coaches, even the one of the greatest ever failed to implement it effectively in college. Walsh.

You'd think A&M would've done better against the offense that NM was running. Wasn't it almost exactly what A&M was running the last 3 years? Option, zone read, etc. I guess they tried to block out everything Fran taught them.

Special Teams: What was that? 2 delay of game penalties and punting line drives? It lead to great field position.

Goodson: I wonder if he read all his clippings and rantings about his talent from Sherman. It's almost as if he's running around like he did his freshman year and not protecting the ball. He seems to run out of control, and he still has yet to convince me he can run between the tackles. I hope he proves me wrong. Of course, that picture is from last year, so apparently he wasn't protecting the ball last year either.


Jerrod Johnson: I like this kid. I really do. He can make plays and tries to make things happen. If only he had more accuracy. Hopefully he can improve upon this. I'd like to see how well the team does. I love McGee too, and if this team progresses, the best QB should play. If it's him, great. However, if the Big 12 is out of reach, Johnson needs to be playing every down. He just needs to be more accurate. His second TD pass was a crappy pass. It should've been an interception. Which brings me to Fuller.

He's the best true freshman WR I've seen in my years watching A&M football. Hopefully he'll progress throughout the season and throughout his career. That 2nd TD was one of the most amazing plays I have seen by an A&M WR in a long long time.

Injuries: McGee, Goodson, Tannehill, and a few others...If our starting QB, our 3rd string QB and starting WR, and starting tailback are hurt, we're in trouble. If our first string slot receiver is playing QB...that's bad news.

Defense: Did I hear correct? Was that really the first pick six since 2002? Was there really not a pick 6 in the history of Fran?? A&M missed so many tackles it was ridiculous. I don't remember a linebacker being called by name on a tackle all game. It seems like there were not huge missed assignments, unlike last week. Of course, there

Overall: It's a W. And that, in the end, is all that matters. I truly believe that this staff, and this team will get better week to week. Most of the mistakes can be corrected, and I feel good about the program? Why? Because it's more fun to be positive than negative.

Top 25 programs all time in NCAA Football

I've often wondered why some programs are elite, and why they always feel like they should be in the elite status. How did they get there in the first place, and why do they stay there? Why do some programs feel they deserve to be winners? Why they fire their head coaches after a .500 season despite never having a losing season? I came up with a theory as to why and who a program becomes successful and stays successful.

To have a historically good program, you need to be either:
1. The flagship state school. It doesn't matter if your school name has state in it or not. Who ever heard of The University of Louisiana? When you think of football in Louisiana, it's LSU. Or Ohio and tOSU.
2. Have a desirable location. It's great to go to school in Sunny LA or Sunny Florida. Who in their right mind would want to live in a cold state over LA during the school year??

I started to put together a list on programs and their historical AP rankings. I picked AP rankings because it's been around a long long time, and they penalize teams for being on probation, but I started looking around and realized it had been done already.

Here is the list of total appearances in the final AP poll.



16 of the top 25 are the flagship state school
3 of the top 25 are destination schools
19 out of 25 are either main or destination schools

8 of the top 10 are flagship state schools
9 out of the top 10 are either flagship or destination schools

The 6 in the top 25 that don't fit either criteria are:
#3 Notre Dame
#11 Auburn
#19 Texas A&M
#20 Clemson
#22 Georgia Tech
#24 Michigan State

What's amazing about these 6, with the exception of Notre Dame, they are all in the same state as another top all time team.

So Ags, take heart. Despite being #2 in the state, despite a bad location, you are indeed, a top 20 program. Or at least until some of the programs below pass you.

McGuffie starting for Michigan

Link…

Rich Rodriguez fully expects to play freshmen this fall. Not just one or two, but probably 10. While playing them on the offensive line might be a necessity, playing TBs Sam McGuffie and Michael Shaw will be a reality because they're both very good, very adept at the offense and already look seasoned. Running backs coach Fred Jackson has profusely praised both, even saying McGuffie has speed like ex-Michigan back Justin Fargas . While Brandon Minor and Carlos Brown entered camp as the favorites to handle the bulk of carries, this will be a tailback-by-committee situation, and McGuffie and Shaw likely could be at the head of the table.

Now, the comparison may be true, but off all the tailbacks in the history of Michigan, they compare him to the whitest looking one of the bunch.

It never ceases to amaze me why our brains cannot compare black athletes to white athletes, vice versa.

Can Sherman be successful at TAMU?

What do these numbers mean?

He's going to win regular season games.

He's a proven winner in the regular season. In 26 seasons, he's only had 6 losing seasons. He's won .617 of all games he has coached.
As a head coach, his winning percentage is greater than Jackie Sherrills.

Mike Sherman had a long climb to get to where he is today. He worked his way up, working in the trenches coaching OL and TE's. He not only knows where the game is won and lost, but he has the technical savvy to teach the intricacies of line play.

Where Mike Sherman has failed, is at the NFL level. And that was one season in which his top 2 WRs and top 4 running backs were hurt. He had a good run, was in a role as coach and GM that many people have not succeeded at. Jimmy Johnson, Bill Parcells, Mike Holmgren, are all Super Bowl winning coaches that are unsuccessful in a the duel HC/GM role.

The difference between the NFL and the NCAA is that in the NCAA, success breeds success. The NFL makes it harder and harder to maintain the success the longer you have it.

Lets put it simplistically: Imagine that the Cowboys have the worst record, and the Texans have the best record. Assuming that there are no trades and compensory picks...

Cowboys
1
33
55
87
119
151
183

Texans
32
54
86
118
150
182
214

It doesn't take a genius to figure out which team is going to have a better draft if they make wise decisions. Of course, you can still end up with better players if you're the Texans, but you have a much larger pool if you're the Cowboys. Every year that you do well, you have bad draft positions. Teams get around this by being smarter than others, but the very nature of the slotting handicaps success.

Also, the NFL, based on your record, has a system to determine which teams play which. One portion of the determination, is that first team teams play first place teams. Makes better television.

In the NCAA, there is nothing like this. In fact, success truly does build success. Winning games in the NCAA is the true snowball rolling down the hill. The better you get, the easier it is to get better. At some point you plateau, but it's easier to stay at that point than it is in the NFL, which is why the same programs stay at the top over the years.

Win games get on TV more. Get on TV more, recruits see you more. Fans see you more, and unbiased football fans become fans of the program. Everyone wants to jump on a bandwagon, and you get more t-shirt fans. It snowballs.

My only concern looking at his history is his playoff and bowl game wins.


Even if Sherman maintains the .375 winning percentage in post season, it is better than the .200 Texas A&M has had since 1989. Instead of winning 3 in 18, they'll win 6in 18, and hopefully one of those will include a Big 12 and Bowl game championship.

Sherman, to be successful, needs to have the success of his first coach in DI football, Jackie Sherrill. Jackie had a career winning percentage of .593 and .571 in bowl games.

Who is Mike Sherman?

Wikipedia says:

Michael Francis Sherman (born December 19, 1954 in Norwood, Massachusetts) is the head coach of the Texas A&M Aggies football team. Prior to coaching the Aggies, he served as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers from the 2000–05 seasons. Sherman led the Packers to five consecutive winning seasons from 2000–04 and three divisional titles in 2002, 2003, and 2004. Before he started an NFL coaching career, Sherman served as an assistant coach at five different colleges, including Texas A&M, where he coached the offensive line for seven seasons.

Let's look at Sherman's career.

He started his coaching career at a public high school in 1980. He coached there for one year and moved to the prestigious prep school Worcester Academy. Worcester is the stereotypical movie NE prep school. Think School Ties. In fact, scenes in that movie were filmed there. Interesting tidbit: Rick Carlisle, Dallas Mavericks head coach went there. So did Donnie Nelson, President and GM of the Mavericks.

In 1981, Sherman joined the Jackie Sherrill's staff Pittsburgh as a GA. He was there for 2 seasons. Pitt was a top notch program and they went 19-3 in regular season and 1-1 in bowls. Interesting tidbit 2, Wikipedia says that he didn't have a room to rent, and slept in the stadium, a la Rudy.

In 1983, Sherm left Pitt to go to Tulane to coach the OL under Wally English. Tulane was bad, and in the 2 years they went 5-17. Can't blame all that on the OL coach. Interesting tidbit 3, Mack Brown became the head coach at Tulane after Wally English was canned. Mack got them to .500, and the left to take over North Carolina. Greg Davis became the head coach there. Greg is fired after 4 years, and joins Mack in Carolina. They've been bosum buddies ever since. Betcha didn't know that.

Sherm then finds himself without a job and ends up at Holy Cross. Yes, back to Rudy. I wonder if he had a room to rent there?? He starts there coaching the OL and does that for 3 years. They have a bad first season, but in those 3 years they go 25-7, including a perfect season of 11-0 in 1987. I'm sure the OC at Holy Cross was given a head gig somewhere, and Sherm is promoted to his first gig as an OC. They go 9-2.

Meanwhile, in Aggieland, Sherms first NCAA boss is ran out of Aggieland chased by NCAA investigators, and RC Slocum is made HC. Big money of Aggieland comes calling, and Sherm flys to Houston, and drives the lonely road up Hwy 6. Along the way he thinks, "Where the bleep am I?" As he takes Business 6, and gets to the top of the hill and sees Kyle field in the distance thinks, "Ok, not so bad." (Note, this is the authors extrapolating thoughts to Sherman.)

We all know the regular season success of the Aggies in this period. From 1989 to 1993, the Aggies go 39-8-1 in regular season. However, 1-4 in bowls. That one victory can be seen here. Aggies, when they're feeling down, think about this game with a smile.

Compliments of Doug Keegan with the Pearl Jam soundtrack. Not bad for a VCR and a Commodore 64.

Sherman is decides that he needs to act, and where else do you learn to act? LA. In 1984, Sherman joins Terry Donahue's staff at UCLA, and things didn't go so well. I don't profess to know any details, but the team only goes 5-6. He also failed at acting, and couldn't even get the role of Coach Harris in Revenge of the Nerds and Sensei John Krese in The Karate Kid. Back to Aggieland.

This period in Aggieland was the beginning of the end of RC's tenure at TAMU. He's again the OL coach, and they go 15-9, with 1 bowl victory.
Following the 1996 season, RC promotes Sherm to OC. Sherm, however, gets an offer from the defending Super Bowl Champions to be the TE Coach. Tough decision...in his own words from Wikipedia, "There is absolutely no other college job I would have left Texas A&M for and only one professional job that I've ever had any interest in and that being the Green Bay Packers. I've enjoyed the small-town atmosphere of College Station for my family, and Green Bay offers that same atmosphere. If the truth be told, there is not a whole lot of difference between an `Aggie' and a `Cheesehead."

He serves as TE's coach for 2 years. They go 13-3 and 11-5, and lose a Super Bowl. Overall, they go 24-8, and 1-2 in playoffs.

Mike Holmgren leaves Green Bay because he was not allowed to be both coach and general manager, and takes that role in Seattle. He takes Sherm with him, and makes Sherm his OC. Ok...so Sherm hasn't been OC since 1988 at Holy Cross, and now he's OC with the Seahawks. Seattle has a good year, go 9-7, and make to the playoffs and lose in the wild card. 0-1.

Now, here's the shocker. Green Bay doesn't give Mike Holmgren the job as GM and Head coach, but after hiring Ray Sherman as HC, they need some help. In 2000, the Green Bay Packers hire Mike Sherman to be Head Coach, and then in 2001 when Ron Wolff leaves, they make him Head Coach and General Manager. They didn't give that job to Holmgren, who is a Super winning head coach, they give it to Sherman, who hasn't had a head coaching job since 1980.

From 2000-2004, the Pack go 53-27 with a winning percentage of .663. The offense is off the charts, and Pack are winning regular seasons, but they only win 2 play off games and lose 4, including the 4th and forever in 2003.

In 2005, Sherman is demoted out of the General Manager role, and Ted Thompson is brought on board. The Pack go 4-12, and are are completely decimated by injuries. They lose their top 2 WRs, and their top 4 RBs. Sherm is shown the door.

Sherman goes to work for his old buddy from Aggieland, Gary Kubiak with the Texans as Asst. Head Coach. In 2007, he serves as the OC. The Texans go 6-10 in 2006 and 8-8and 2007 and were generally on an upward trend.

On November 26th, 2007 Sherm becomes head coach at Texas A&M. That day shall be forever known as Sherman Day.

Coming next: Can Sherman be successful in Aggieland?

Wascist?

Norm Chow...

Why didn't he even get a look at as a head coach somewhere?

Collegiate coaching career
Chow served as BYU's offensive coordinator from 1982 to 1999, during which time he helped coach the Cougars to their only national title in 1984, which is also the last time a non-BCS school (sometimes called a mid-major) won the NCAA Division I FBS (then I-A) national championship. He then left BYU for a short stint as the offensive coordinator at NC State, before accepting the position of offensive coordinator at the University of Southern California.
In 23 seasons as offensive coordinator, Chow coached 8 of the top 14 career passing efficiency leaders and 13 quarterbacks who rank among the top 30 in NCAA history for single-season passing yardage. The BYU Cougars scored 30 or more points in 106 of 181 games. His list of pupils include Robbie Bosco, Steve Young, Philip Rivers and Heisman Trophy winners Ty Detmer, Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart.
Chow helped lead the Trojans to the 2003 Associated Press title (their first since 1978) and the 2004 BCS Championship.
He left USC in spring 2005 after being passed over for the Stanford University head coaching job to join the Tennessee Titans as offensive coordinator under head coach Jeff Fisher, a USC graduate.
After being fired by the Titans following the 2007 season, Chow was hired by new UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel as offensive coordinator.

Professional coaching career
Chow served as the offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans from 2005 to 2007. During this time, the Titans had non-losing seasons in 2006 (8-8) and 2007 (10-6), and appeared in the 2007 AFC Playoffs. In 2007, the Titans were 21st overall in total offense, with a total of nine touchdown passes.[4] On January 15, 2008, Chow was fired by the Tennessee Titans; however, he had two years left on a contract that will pay him more than $1 million a year and if Chow were to take another job the Titans would only be responsible for the difference in salaries; thus, the Titans must pay the difference between his UCLA salary and what he was earning with the Titans.[4]

Head coaching interest
The extent of Chow's interest in a head coaching job is well known. In addition to Stanford, Chow has been officially "interviewed" for the head coaching jobs with the NFL's Arizona Cardinals, North Carolina State University, the University of Kentucky and the University of Hawaiʻi.
Chow was a candidate to replace Karl Dorrell at UCLA, but withdrew his candidacy soon after interviewing.Chow was also considered for the replacement of June Jones at the University of Hawaiʻi.

Personal
Chow is of Chinese and native Hawaiian descent. He and his wife, Diane, have four children, all adults: Carter, Maile, Cameron and Chandler. Carter serves as his father's agent. One of his sons graduated from the University of Southern California and another is still a student there.