Latest Cornell football candidates

[Al DeFlorio]

Footballscoop is saying Kent Austin is the selection, which should be welcome news to the Cornell football players.

I don't think I'd seen his name mentioned before.  Austin has spent the last two seasons as the offensive coordinator at Mississippi (where he also played QB back in the '80s), and before that had a long career as a player and coach in the CFL.  He's only spent one year as a head coach, and that in the CFL, but in that year he led the Saskatchewan Roughriders to a Grey Cup championship and won the CFL's coach of the year award.

The Cornell appointment is already in Austin's Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Austin

[Chris '03]

Footballscoop is saying Kent Austin is the selection, which should be welcome news to the Cornell football players.

I don't think I'd seen his name mentioned before.  Austin has spent the last two seasons as the offensive coordinator at Mississippi (where he also played QB back in the '80s), and before that had a long career as a player and coach in the CFL.  He's only spent one year as a head coach, and that in the CFL, but in that year he led the Saskatchewan Roughriders to a Grey Cup championship and won the CFL's coach of the year award.

Two straight picks from Ole Miss? Let's hope this one works out better.

[phillysportsfan]

I wouldnt mind seeing us drop football and devote more of those resources to basketball especially, hockey and lacrosse. Look at the A-10 schools, I dont think any of them have football ...

You are incorrect; half of them have football, though they don't compete as the A-10. Most of the teams that do have football compete in I-AA, same as the Ivy League (Temple is in the D-I MAC). The A-10 football teams are spread out across conferences: Patriot (Fordham), Colonial (UMass, URI, Richmond) , Pioneer (Dayton), NEC (Duquesne). Charlotte, GW, LaSalle, St. Joe's, St. Bonaventure, Saint Louis and Xavier don't have football.

Yes, the Atlantic 10 conference has 14 teams. TAKE THAT, Big "10".

Yeah I am stupid, I guess I was thinking of there being no A-10 football conference.

[Jim Hyla]

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell University Department of Athletics and Physical Education will hold a press conference tomorrow (Wednesday, Jan. 27) at 10 a.m. in the Hall of Fame Room of Schoellkopf Memorial Hall to announce the Big Red's 26th head football coach in school history. Live video of the press conference will be available at www.CornellBigRed.com.

[BigRedAllDay]

Taking this long, having to convince a guy to take the job and picking someone who spent most of his career in the CFL is a huge mistake not only for Cornell football but for Kent Austin.

[rmandel]

Article from Jackson, MS Clarion Ledger

http://blogs.clarionledger.com/um/2010/01/26/source-austin-will-be-named-cornells-coach/

[French Rage]

Hopefully he'll be able to live up to our expectations as well as Ole Miss did to their preseason ranking last year!

[Ken711]

Welcome aboard Coach Austin!

[Jim Hyla]

I liked this quote:

Recruiting was never really Austin's strong point, and he told me several times that it was "interesting" trying to woo athletes in the SEC.

That being said, Austin should be a very good fit at Cornell. It's an Ivy League school and Austin has an Ivy League-caliber brain. It's not that Austin can't recruit — it's just that the wild and wacky world of the SEC sometimes drove him crazy. Recruiting to Cornell shouldn't be quite as complicated, though I'm sure it will present its own challenges. As far as Xs and Os, Austin is very talented.

Also the replies to the blog suggests that a lot of fans had very good feelings about him. A few comments like "I am now Cornell's number one fan." That's a good sign.

They implied he did this for better family life, and might have taken a pay cut. But then they talk about him possibly going back if the head coaching job opens up.