Coaching changes are what drive the bus in our business, but Friday that peddle was planted firmly on the floorboard over two jobs that did not come open.
First, Baylor head coach Art Briles, rumored and pursued as a candidate to replace Mack Brown at Texas practically since his point-a-minute offense scored its first touchdown in Waco, announced he intended to stay at Baylor. And he did so by stepping in front of the noise, both in his own tweet and through a university announcement.
A few hours later, Bruce Feldman issued a tweet reporting that Paul Johnson was unhappy at Georgia Tech and hoped the school would buy him out. Johnson denied the report. Vehemently. Like Briles, he stepped in front of the story. He called Atlanta Journal-Constitution beat writer Jeff Schultz and Feldman himself to deny it.
Then the school issued its own denial.
There are two takeaways here:
First, facts change and people change their minds. Something that is true at noon may not still be true at one o'clock. That doesn't mean the original fact was wrong, just the circumstances change. This season already we've reported close to five hundred coaching transactions from high school to the NFL. We've been wrong on probably four or five of them. Some clowns like to try to make a big deal of it when information we pass along is incorrect; but 99% success rate is pretty darn good.
That leads to point to number two. In the event that information is wrong, coaches should correct it. No one wants to have incorrect information. That's why we're such big fans of what Briles and Johnson did today. If you're one of the few coaches clinging to life without Twitter, today should give you all the more reason to jump on board.
Step out in front of the story before it swallows you up.