Why Good People Go Bad

My cohort in crime here touched on a phenomenon that I independently was pondering throughout the weekend - how come brilliant people suddenly stop being so brilliant? Why did General Lee, one of the best generals in history, suddenly believe he was invincible and make an ill-advised charge at Gettysburg? Why did Napoleon suddenly decide it was a good idea to invade Russia during winter? Why did George Lucas, who made three great movies, make such mediocre prequels? Gene Roddenberry started the most iconic science fiction franchise ever with little budget, go-go boots and spandex uniforms - how did the same man that created Star Trek come up with Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Wesley Crusher? Most importantly, at least for the purposes of this blog, how did Chris Ault go from College Football Hall of Fame hero to pariah?

Many of you already have an answer in your heads: He was in Division I-AA! Of course he was brilliant there - he was competing against lesser coaches and lesser competition. What's easy to forget here, however, was that he had the same athletes everyone else in Division I-AA had. Before he showed up, Nevada was not known for any form of football prowess. He managed to take what was otherwise an utterly forgettable backwater and turned it into the best of its class. By any objective measure, that's pretty impressive. When Nevada made the jump to Division I-A and into the Big West in 1992, the first thing he did was win a Big West championship - yet again, we were the best of our class, such as it was. You can't ask for much more than that.

So, what went wrong?

Yes, it's true that our class is suddenly a bit more competitive than it used to be. Boise State would be a formidable opponent in any conference. We're actually having to play better teams instead of just beating up on I-AA opponents when given half a chance. There's an even bigger issue at play, here, though:

Ault is the victim of his own success.

Before he left to become athletic director, he had assistant coaches that were there when Ault first started and consequently possessed the personal pull with Ault necessary to keep his worst tendencies under control. Now, however, he's effectively the savior of the program. He was the athletic director, he's the only coach, other than Horton, to lead us to bowl games, and he's the only coach since World War 2 to maintain a winning record at Nevada. In short, he's Keith Hernandez... err... Chris Ault! Chris Ault does what Chris Ault wants to do! If Napoleon says it's a good idea to invade Russia, we'll invade Russia! If General Lee says we should attack up the middle uphill against a well-fortified position because "it's where they'll least expect it", well, that's what we'll do! If George Lucas says we need more muppets and kids hitting on 14-year-olds, well, by George, that's what we'll have! If Gene Roddenberry says we need a know-it-all teenage kid to barge in at every conceivable moment to save the day because the flagship of the Federation is otherwise staffed by incompetent boobs, well, we'll give them Wesley Crusher! And when Chris Ault says that, instead of just using a QB sneak on 4th-and-1 like every other sensible team in the country, we should run a drawn out run up the middle from the pistol, well, that's what we're going to do! Why? Because he's Chris Ault, that's why! Go ahead - try and stop him! He built this program! He's in the College Football Hall of Fame! Who are you, Mr. Assistant Coach of Whatever with your conventional ideas, to question that sort of greatness, hmm?

That's what I thought.

This is why Ault needs to go. It's not that he's lost his touch. He might still have it, if he was willing to accept his weaknesses and let his assistants call more of the plays and manage the clock for him. He's clearly a decent recruiter - talentwise, we measure up pretty well against the rest of the WAC. He has some solid big picture ideas - the Pistol is a better way to run the spread offense than the Tisdel/Tormey single back formation that we sat through for years. He's also a solid motivator - honestly, it's been a while since I've seen our team absolutely quit in a game, which is more than could be said under Tormey. Unfortunately, he's too caught up in his own reputation to be more good than harm these days.

He had a good run. Nobody here is denying it. Even so, it's time to let somebody else, somebody with a bit of humility and some fresh ideas, take the reins and make the most of things. It won't be pretty. We probably won't get a decent coach on the first try, or even the second. But, we know how far we'll get with Ault.

We're already there.