The Right Reverend Houston Dale Nutt

I was not a fan of Nutt at Arkansas after the 2003 season when a team loaded with seniors, including several that went to the NFL, badly underperformed. He then flirted with the Nebraska job, received a lucrative contract extension and promptly produced two losing seasons. He lost to Vanderbilt in 2005 and should have been fired the next day. He has just signed an all-american candidate quarterback at Ole Miss who has had numerous run-ins with the law. Jeremiah Masoli led his team to the Rose Bowl last year and was then kicked out of Oregon after two different criminal incidents.

Nutt is of dubious character but this one takes the cake. I can remember one of his stars was arrested when he was found drunk and asleep in his car by the Fayetteville police. He played the full season. Nutt's idea of discipline starts with how much the player can help him as a coach. He did kick off a troubled player from the Ole Miss team weeks before this event. He then said he had no interest in Masoli but after his backup QB left the team he changed his mind. I hope this blows up in his face.

My favorite Nutt story is that one of the 1,000 text messages he sent to the "woman not his wife" (see Mandel's story in SI) was 20 minutes before the kickoff of a bowl game against Wisconsin. We lost the game.