How to lose people and not alienate fans

Sometimes all it takes is a change of scenery.

Look at Joe Torre of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Or Doc Rivers of the Boston Celtics.

Or the giddy fans of both teams.

It can work in football, too.

There are 10 coaches who might be better off with new fan bases, and vice versa. Coincidentally, job swapping makes a lot of sense in almost all 10 cases.

Already gone

Lane Kiffin, Oakland Raiders. Fired "with cause." Or because it was a lost cause. Too young to be an NFL head coach at 33 but adroit enough to get plenty of nice college offers.

Sizzling seat

Phil Fulmer, Tennessee. Gets almost no credit for getting the Volunteers to the Southeastern Conference championship game as recently as 10 months ago.

Greg Robinson, Syracuse. The wheels have come off a formerly Beast of the East program.

Al Groh, Virginia. What's worse, going into the Duke game as an underdog or losing by four touchdowns?

Hot seat

Tommy Bowden, Clemson. Perhaps you have heard this tune before.

Mike Sherman, Texas A&M. The honeymoon ended with a season-opening loss to dreaded Arkansas State.

Warm seat

Wade Phillips, Dallas Cowboys. One of those strange Jerry World hires in the first place and Son of Bum appeared pretty bummed out losing at home to the Washington Redskins.

Bill Stewart, West Virginia. School officials got caught up in emotion after Rich Rodriguez bolted for Michigan; Stewart is off to a 2-2 start, with the wins coming against Villanova and Marshall.

Kirk Ferentz, Iowa. Has fallen from cushiness. Presently a hard-luck 3-2 with close losses to Pittsburgh and Northwestern after going 6-6 in 2007.

Looking uncomfortable

Steve Spurrier, South Carolina. A win at Mississippi cures a lot of ills but he sounds more frustrated by the week.

Better fits

--Clemson — Kirk Ferentz. Clemson fans want first-place finishes; Ferentz way overachieved to win a share of Big Ten titles in 2002 and '04. They want toughness; Iowa plays a no-nonsense brand of football best personified in Indianapolis Colts and former Hawkeyes safety Bob "Hitman" Sanders. They want rugged offensive line play; Ferentz brings ties to Bill Belichick from his days as a former Cleveland Browns offensive line coach under The Hooded Genius.

--Dallas Cowboys — Phil Fulmer. Think about it: Jerry Jones hasn't won a Super Bowl since he employed a national championship-winning college coach most people thought was over the hill, Barry Switzer.

--Syracuse —Bill Stewart. Robinson's NFL-heavy resume clashes with Orange and rebuilding. What Syracuse needs is a veteran college football coach with strong recruiting ties in the East.

--Tennessee — Steve Spurrier. And the storybook closes with the Head Ball Coach completing his career in the state where he burst onto the scene as a high school phenom. Spurrier can be Spurrier at Tennessee, where recruiting quarterbacks is easier.

--West Virginia — Tommy Bowden. Right now, a West Virginia graduate who gets bowl-eligible every year must sound pretty good in Morgantown. Bowden's ties to Rich Rodriguez are outweighed by his ties to revered former WVU head coach Bobby Bowden.

--Virginia — Wade Phillips. NFL minds blend with the intellectual collective at Mr. Jefferson's University, and Phillips (64-43) has a better NFL record than Groh (9-7).

--Oakland Raiders — Al Groh. A coach with NFL experience has a better chance with Darth Vader than a college coach. And Groh, 64, is almost old enough to relate to Davis, 112.

--Iowa — Mike Sherman. His success as head coach of the Green Bay Packers means more in a state bordering Wisconsin than in deepest Texas, where Cheeseheads are despised.

--Texas A&M —Greg Robinson. OK, this is a reach. But he was defensive coordinator at Texas before taking the job at Syracuse and might have insight into how to out-wit Mack Brown.

--South Carolina — Lane Kiffin. Worked as Pete Carroll's recruiting coordinator and offensive coordinator at Southern California and knows defense (father Monte Kiffin is a longtime Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator ). His brother-in-law is Gamecocks recruiting coordinator David Reaves.

Reach Gene Sapakoff at gsapakoff@postandcourier.com or 937-5593.

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