New to the Forum, I live in Memphis and this was an excerpt from the local paper I thought the board would find interesting. The agent Jimmy Sexton's phone starts ringing a lot this time of year. It's November, and headhunters and athletic directors know that Sexton, a Memphis-based agent, has one of the most impressive client lists of college head football coaches and coordinators in the business. Sexton's roster of college coaches includes such names as Tuberville (Sexton's first coaching client), Spurrier, Tennessee's Phillip Fulmer, Arkansas's Houston Nutt, Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer, Miami's Larry Coker and Memphis's Tommy West. Sexton also has four NFL coaches, most notably Nick Saban of the Miami Dolphins and Bill Parcells of the Dallas Cowboys. Sexton's job is to run interference. If a school calls, Sexton passes on the information to his client. From there, it's either a green light from a client to pursue further, or a red light to slam on the brakes. The last two Christmas and New Year's holidays, Sexton has spent emotionally wrought moments with Nutt and Saban. Two years ago, Nebraska was ready to hire Nutt to replace the fired Frank Solich. The school sent a plane to Fayetteville to bring Nutt to Lincoln. If he hopped on it, there was no turning back. He kept asking Sexton "Should I go, should I go?" "Then he got a call from his dad (in Little Rock)," Sexton said. "He told Houston how he'd finally gotten all his family and grandkids back close to him where he could watch them grow up. He told Houston, 'I know they've offered you a lot of money, but there are some things more important than money.' "After that, there was no way Houston was getting on that plane to Lincoln." Last Christmas, it was LSU's Saban considering an offer from the Dolphins. "We were 45 minutes late to meet (LSU athletic director) Skip Bertman because we were sitting in Nick's office while he was still trying to make a decision," Sexton said. "We looked out his window at the Tiger Stadium at the new West side addition being built, and I asked him if he wanted to be remembered as Bear Bryant or Don Shula. "He said, 'Bear Bryant.' But in the end, the challenge of coaching in the pros and re-building a once great franchise was too much for him to pass up."
That sounds right. These guys are ultra competitive, and smart. There was NOTHING WRONG WITH LSU. NOTHING. But the challenge of taking on the best of the best, matching wits with the masters on the most competitive level of all, is too much to pass up. If you think you may be one of the best of all time, you have to go where you have the opportunity to test that theory and see just how good you really are. I don't blame Nick. He had to do it, or always wonder if he could have done it in the pros as a HC. He just had to do it.
Here is the link, I didn't post it because you have to register and all of that but if you want it here it is. http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/football/article/0,1426,MCA_478_4211443,00.html
Today's paper Its titled 'It get kind of crazy'...i'll try again http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/football/article/0,1426,MCA_478_4211443,00.html
