Chow Time

Last night's Orange Bowl put to rest the notion that surfer dudes cannot play football, as the Men of Troy kaboomed, kerplowed and kerplunked the Boomer Sooners of Oklahoma, 55-19 for the whole nation to see. Click here if you need to read more about it.

Last night's national championship probably marked the first time that a blogger starred in the national spotlight. A blogger, of course, who also has the Heisman Trophy on his young resume. The entire blogging nation, with the possible exception of bloggers in Oklahoma and other Big 12 states, should be cheering this fact. Okay, so perhaps that's a reach, but a great game by a great QB nonetheless. Here's one piece of gratuitious advice to a fellow blogger: go pro, be the #1 pick in the NFL Draft and take your huge signing bonus. You deserve it. I know college is fun and that you'd like to stay another year, but strike while your very hot. You have nothing more to prove in the college game.

But we all know about Matt Leinart, about USC's head coach Pete Carroll, and some of us heard this morning on ESPN Radio that Sean Salisbury, another former USC QB, believes that if Leinart returns USC will be even better next year, if that's possible. That's all, of course, interesting stuff, but now we have to turn to a man who has never really gotten his due.

The best offensive mind in the college game, the guy behind the 55 points last night and the national title the year before, a guy who inexplicably got passed over for the head coaching job at BYU, his alma mater and the place where he spent most of his coaching career, about 5 years ago (maybe it's now 7). A guy who has mentored so many quarterbacks that you lose count. Yes, he's USC's offensive coordinator.

His name: Norm Chow.

I believe that Stanford hired Walt Harris over Chow several months ago, and that perhaps the concern about Chow is his age, as he's 59. Okay, so maybe he won't be coaching at his next gig for 25 years, but name a coach with a better offensive mind than Chow in the college game. You can't, and perhaps there are only two or three in the pro game who are worth a comparison (their names are Weis, Reid and Martz, and the latter hasn't exactly had the smoothest of seasons in both of the past two years). Plain and simple, if the USC defensive line coach (remember, head coach Pete Carroll is the Trojans' defensive coordinator) got the Mississippi job (Ed Orgeron), Chow is more than worthy of a head coaching job at his own. I had blogged on potential new head coaches a while back in the context of Penn State and Joe Paterno, and Chow (and Orgeron for that matter) was on the list.

So, Syracuse, are you listening? Because if you aren't, you should be? Your program has floundered over the past several years, and what a better way to pack them in than to hire Norm Chow to run your team. It's that simple.

Because if you don't, you wonder what could be brewing in the minds of Brian Billick in Baltimore and USC alum Jack Del Rio in Jacksonville, both of whom just fired their offensive coordinators. If I'm Del Rio, and I want to improve the 29th best offense in football, I go to my alma mater, offer Chow the big bucks and ask him to bring his great brain to the pros. Byron Leftwich and Norm Chow would form an awfully potent combination.

I would hope that Norm Chow wants to see what he can do running a college program, and I would hope that some AD at a school looking to improve its program wakes up and moves away from the blown-dry old boy (actually, if you think about it, younger boy) network and hires Chow.

They say that offense sells tickets and defense wins championship games, and that's usually the case. But last night in Miami, the offense was so far out of this world, that it almost won the title game all by itself.

If you're an alum of a football program looking for a head coach, send blast e-mails, faxes, hire sounds trucks, send telegrams and overnight mail, stand on the rooftops and shout for all to hear that you want Norm Chow.

He deserves the chance.