Good Academics: Hide the players?

On Tuesday's (7/13) ESPN Podcast with Ivan Maisel and Beano Cook they discussed that the Big 10 conference was good now with Nebraska and that all the teams could win except for, according to Beano, Northwestern who he said could not "Hide their players" due to being such a small school with no easy classes.

This logic does make sense and it bears exploring. Could it be that Bobby Johnson's sudden retirement echoes that sentiment and the poor coach is tired of losing in conference due to strict academic standards and sometimes when he does have that recruit that fits the full profile of the school and has the solid athletic ability that recruit chooses the higher profile football program (See Bradley Robey out of Peachtree, GA who switched verbals to Ohio State).

The Vanderbilt vice chancellor David Williams offered Johnson green eggs and ham to stay but Johnson doesn't plan on coaching anymore and scorned fellow colleagues without saying any names (Paterno, more notably Urban Meyer) by saying that some coaches will coach with one foot in the grave. Is it a cheap shot on his way out due to his own health reasons or would he stick around if he could recruit better or recruit under a different, more big-time program that compromises academics for the sake of its football brand?

We can't always understand the nuances of every decision people make. Many times we don't understand our own decisions, fully, ourselves. You may even get that feeling of enlightenment after the fact and say to yourself, "yeah, that's why" as though your subconscious knew all along the real reasons. For coach Johnson it could be as easy as the reasons in the quote from the rivals article below:

Vanderbilt also has endured its share of off-field tragedy during Johnson's
tenure. Running back Kwane Doster, 21, was shot and killed in 2004 in his
hometown of Tampa. Powder Springs (Ga.) McEachern running back Rajaan Bennett, the top recruit in Vanderbilt's
incoming freshman class, was killed in a murder-suicide in his home in February.

(The above quote comes from David Fox: a national writer for Rivals.com.)

In the end who knows but the stresses can also come from being the Northwestern of the SEC. I wish I could've asked Beano if Northwestern can't hide players then does that directly imply other top academic schools can? Michigan, Stanford, Cal, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, Duke? Most likely is my guess.

I'm curious to see who wants to step up to the challenge at that weigh-station Vanderbilt. I recently perused a Bill Parcells book and he coached there and it explicitly spoke of the coach there going to a bowl and getting out while he was hot right after and in many seasons we see this happen where the coach rides his hot season to the bigger and better program. They make money doing this but sometimes shorten their career (think John L. Smith) when they do this because once they get to the pinnacle, if they don't win, they are done (think Larry Coker or any former Ohio State Football coach). Once you get to a top place and cannot produce with all the luxuries a coach could ask for ie brand name, facilities, a conference affiliation that leads to amazing bowls you're really out of excuses. In Bobby Johnson's case, he missed his hot ticket after the bowl win 2 years ago, had 2 wins last year and didn't feel like being under the duress of the grind that is coaching FBS (division 1 A to you and me) ball. Looks like he certainly made a quality of life decision and good for him for doing so. Now, let's see how long till he gets tired of his wife or golf or both.