Just wondering. Check around please. Did anyone use my suggested headline?

Taking readers back to November 2016 and one of these articles, I was reviewing the University of Georgia football season up to that point. Just as a sidenote, I threw this little tidbit in:

“Not that I ever advocate someone losing a job, but if Ole Miss ever lets their head coach go, here’s the headline: Hugh Freeze’s Over.”

Fast-forward to January 2017 and another of these Matthew-pieces. It’s the end of the college season with Clemson being hailed as national champions. Midway through these comments are made:

“Doesn’t it seem strange that, in the Southeastern Conference, so far there were no end-of-season head coaching changes among the football programs … There’s the possibility then that 11 out of 14 coaches in the conference will go into the fall on either a warm or burning hot seat … teams started so great but inexplicably fizzled down the stretch (yes, so did Ole Miss after nearly beating Alabama and rolling over the Georgia Bulldogs).”

Now we are back to the present day, July 2017. The SEC held its Media Days, all coaches present and accounted for to do interview after interview with this TV station, that radio show and some web site (yes, anyone can get a credential to this, even if you run touchdowns.org or something of that sort).

Alabama played Clemson in that College Football Playoff championship game on Jan. 9. For 191 days afterwards, all SEC coaches that ended last season were still on the job … then it’s day 192, 42 days before the first SEC game of 2017 kicks off (Arkansas vs. Florida A&M), and we just couldn’t keep a good thing going.

Hugh Freeze is out as Ole Miss head coach, so any soundbite you got out of him over in Hoover a couple of weeks ago is now obsolete. It reminds of the good old days when the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in Macon hosted a Peachstate Pigskin Preview. That’s a gathering of the state’s college football coaches and some selected players for media interviews.

Any year I could make it, either from Americus or Perry, I did that journey. Who was always Mr. Popular? UGA’s Mark Richt of course. They always brought the most giveaways: pocket schedules, reporter’s notebooks with a red cover and the big G. Who would stuff as many of those schedules as possible in his pockets because nobody else was doing it? Me.

Always felt sorry for the Division II or lower level colleges. Oh they showed up, but never had near as much attention as Georgia, Georgia Tech (loved how Chan Gailey never showed up when he was head coach but sent a coordinator like Patrick Nix, ex Auburn QB, in his place), even Georgia Southern and their revolving door of head coaches (because they always found greener pastures), and one of the nicer people you’d want to meet, Bill Curry, when he started the Georgia State program.

But they got an awesome BBQ meal out of the trip.

Where was I? Oh yes, how does this compare with the Ole Miss news? Some years I didn’t get to go to the Peachstate Pigskin, and one year I’m actually glad of it. That was 2012.

Remember Isaiah Crowell? In 2011 the running back was named SEC Freshman of the Year at Georgia. Folks, he wasn’t even the Bulldog Freshman of the Year in my opinion, not over Malcolm Mitchell.

Anyway, this event in Macon is held in early June, and for certain much of the talk with Richt had to be over what he expected out of Crowell. Would we see more of the Crowell two-step, that dance move when he hobbles to the sideline when crunch time is arriving?

Turns out, we weren’t going to see any of that ever again in Athens, for in late June Crowell was arrested for weapons possession charges and subsequently dismissed from the Bulldogs.

That would have resulted in quite a bit of wasted writing.

There was another example in 2015, which is the last year this event was held, about the Georgia quarterback position and Brice Ramsey’s expectations as starter. It was practically the very next day news comes out Greyson Lambert is seeking to transfer to UGA from Virginia.

Just to show I am not picking on Crowell, as I have stated before how things worked out for the best in his career and life. He was productive for Alabama State, and he’s played every game the last three seasons for the Cleveland Browns with 20 career touchdowns and almost 3,000 total yards.

As for Freeze, a continuation in college coaching isn’t a far-fetched possibility. Mike Price put in nine seasons as head coach of UTEP after his tenure at the University of Alabama ended before it could begin in 2003. I posed the question back then if he can be considered a former Crimson Tide head coach even without ever coaching in a game. He did conduct spring practice before his mess began, but I remember reports stating he had yet to actually sign his contract, which made it easier for the Tide to cut him loose.

Alabama is not listed on Price’s coaching bio.

And Bobby Petrino too. It’s always amazed me how he went full circle back to Louisville where it all started. The secret meeting with Auburn when it still had a coach, leaving UL for Atlanta one year into a big contract extension (which might as well been written in crayon), leaving the Falcons after not even one full season, and you should know his Arkansas story real well.

Reminds me. Not only did the SEC go a long time before an offseason coaching change, the ACC – with just as many schools – didn’t make one in football … not yet anyway. That’s after four changes prior to the 2016 season, including the aforementioned Richt at Miami.

Who is the dean of the ACC after Frank Beamer’s retirement from Virginia Tech in ’16? It’s a three-way tie, all hired in 2008: Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech, David Cutcliffe at Duke and … the national championship winner Dabo Swinney at Clemson.