Tucker: Halftway point tests fans patience

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Just imagine if college football boosters and fans had the "patience of Job."

Maybe the fast-turning coaching carousel of the past 10 years wouldn't have come to a screeching halt, but it definitely would have slowed.

Certainly enough for Bobby Bowden to have shared in the sideline glory of Florida State's 45-17 victory over Miami last weekend.

Quite possibly, Frank Solich would have survived at Nebraska; Ron Zook may not have been given the hook at Florida; Phillip Fulmer could still be running the show at Tennessee; and Tommy Tuberville wouldn't have been run out of Auburn.

Not that Auburn, Nebraska or Florida are having any regrets.

Tennessee could be another story.

Nebraska is 5-0 and, at No. 4 in the USA Today coaches poll, is a serious national title contender for the first time in about a decade.

Then again, that picture could change Saturday with Texas visiting Lincoln.

If the Huskers keep winning, who knows, third-year coach Bo Pelini may soon be looked upon as the second coming of Tom Osborne.

Auburn is 6-0 under second-year coach Gene Chizik and, at No. 7 in both major polls, occupies the highest ranking of any SEC team. But the Tigers, too, face a challenge Saturday at home against QB Ryan Mallett and Arkansas' high-powered passing attack

Despite No. 22 Florida's back-to-back losses to Alabama and LSU the past two weeks, Gator fans can't possibly be disenchanted with Urban Meyer, not after winning a pair of national championships in his first five years at the helm.

However, a third straight loss Saturday, particularly to Mississippi State at home, might stir some grumblings in Gainesville.

Even with tempered patience, it's not likely Tyrone Willingham or Charlie Weis would have survived the wrath of Notre Dame boosters.

Their records at Notre Dame don't come close to the winning percentages of the other aforementioned coaches at Auburn, Nebraska and Tennessee. Zook's record at Florida is better as well, but not by a lot.

How much patience Irish fans have with first-year coach Brian Kelly depends on his ability to re-establish the winning tradition at Notre Dame (3-3) within four or five years, and to sustain it. It also depends on the level of fan and booster craziness.

Patience is the virtue college football fans, by and large, have a difficult time embracing. Which explains why they tend to lose perspective on occasion and allow their expectations to run wild.

It's also why they're so darn unforgiving, especially when it comes to coaches.

Take Les "Mad Hatter" Miles, for example.

Two weeks ago, the Baton Rouge boos were raining down on the embattled LSU coach because of his inept clock management. It would have cost LSU the game against Tennessee, if not for a penalty against the Vols for having 13 men on the field.

Both are the sort of coaching blunders fans find inexcusable, especially after repeated offenses, which explains why they'd be calling for Miles' head, regardless of his exemplary record at LSU: 57-15 (.792 winning percentage); one national championship; and so far this year, 6-0 and No. 9.

After managing the clock to perfection in a gut wrenching, game-winning drive against then No. 14 Florida in The Swamp last weekend, the "Mad Hatter" may have silenced his critics, for the time being.

The Tigers scored a touchdown with six seconds remaining to upset the Gators, 33-29, and win Miles a reprieve from fan fanaticism at least until next week's trip to Auburn.

This Saturday, the Tigers host and feast on McNeese State of the Football Championship Subdivision.

Penn State's legendary coach Joe Paterno gets a reprieve this weekend, too, only because his 3-3 Lions have a much-needed bye week before a trip to Minnesota.

Seriously, though, does JoePa even need a reprieve after everything he's done for college football over the past half century, not to mention what he's done for Penn State University?

You'd almost think so if you were in Beaver Stadium last Saturday, during the 33-13 drubbing by Illinois.

Never mind that Penn State was decimated by injuries, missing nine players from its two-deep depth chart.

The home crowd fans were unforgiving -- mad and frustrated with play calling, and disappointed with the performances of freshman quarterback Robert Bolden and senior tailback Evan Royster.

It manifested first into jeering and, by the fourth quarter, into mock cheering.

Maybe PSU fans -- and opponents -- are too familiar with Galen Hall's and Jay Paterno's red zone (scoring?) script. The Lions have converted just six of 20 trips inside the red zone into touchdowns so far.

Talk about testing the "patience of Job!"

(Contact John Tucker at jtucker(at)unionleader.com.

(E-mail John Tucker at jtucker(at)unionleader.com)

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