So it’s time for the coaching carousel to crank up to full speed, as the silly season in college football—full of BCS arguments and regime-change agitation—gets underway.

As the old proverb goes, “A change in rulers is the joy of fools.” Silly season never fails to provide such joy.

Some of the latest rumors surround Tommy Tuberville at Auburn, whose ten-year tenure has seen five SEC West titles; and, from his second year forward, an average of nine wins a season. That’s nothing to sniff at. Yet this season was bad, so some Auburn folks are already in search of greener pastures.

How anyone can be confident that the team would fare better than that with a new coach, however, is beyond me. Especially when no one really knows whether your new hire would be the next Saban or the next Willingham. Heck, it’s hard enough sometimes to figure out how to gauge the guy who’s already in charge of your team.

Consider, Aubies: Not long ago, you were so desperate to keep Coach Tuberville you threw a huge buyout his way; now you’re desperate enough to consider paying it. Did he change that much between then and now? Or, perhaps, have you not seen him clearly on either occasion?

And how well equipped are any of us, really, to evaluate the job that a head coach is doing? It’s not like he’s the one on the field making the plays…or, in many cases, even calling the plays.

Your humble Blog Goliard had hoped that coacholatry was due to fade, but the roaring success so far of the Saban hire in Tuscaloosa has nixed that return to sanity. We’re right back to crediting or blaming everything on the head coach, seeing him as having the power to win national championships or utterly ruin a football program, all on his lonesome.

It’s as naïve as placing the entire credit or blame for the economy on the White House, as if there were a master control panel resembling a 747 right off the Oval Office.

No wonder monarchy seemed the natural and inevitable human condition for so many centuries.