There’s a saying in the coaching world that it’s better to hire a promising coach a couple years early than to miss out on him altogether.

Such was the thinking of Rice head football coach Todd Graham when he hired former Syracuse quarterbacks coach Major Applewhite as his offensive coordinator last week. After spending two years as a graduate assistant at Texas, the 27-year-old’s only coaching experience came in SU’s 2005 season.

But to Graham and to Peter Olasky, it was never too early to grab hold of Applewhite’s coattails as he began his ascent in the coaching ranks.

Olasky, a Texas native who now works as a lawyer in New York, purchased the domain name fireMajorApplewhite.com in 2004 when Applewhite was still a graduate assistant at UT. Olasky maintains the site to this day, but he is unlike many fire-coach domain gurus. No, Olasky isn’t obsessed with seeing the demise of the Texas folk hero, and he is not Chris Simms’ No. 1 fan, he is simply a football guy who foresaw Applewhite the coach, and he did it as a joke.

For $9.95 a year, Olasky feeds the anti-Applewhite (albeit small) contingent on the Internet. You can chat all things Applewhite on Olasky’s discussion board or be the first to purchase an orange ‘Fire Major!’ T-shirt. The site shows 17 updates since November of 2004, but don’t be misled: All of Olasky’s posts are pretty kosher to Applewhite’s journey through the coaching world.

‘You have to understand,’ Olasky said, ‘I’m from Texas and (Applewhite) is still a huge guy in Texas. You can easily get into a Chris Simms versus Major Applewhite debate anywhere you go.

‘To be honest, I have nothing against Major Applewhite, but it seems like a very rapid ascension. A couple years as a graduate assistant, then working with a less-than-successful offense to offensive coordinator?’

Olasky theorized Applewhite was hired at Rice solely on name recognition, and he seems to be right. After a week on the job, Applewhite’s already coaxed a 6-foot-4 speedy quarterback prospect to visit Rice, a team which is in the doldrums of college football (its 1-10 season in 2005 included a 41-9 home thumping to Navy).

I admit, I didn’t really get Olasky’s joke at first, and he cautioned me that you can’t fully understand the Major Applewhite phenomenon unless you’re a Texan. But read it a second time like I did knowing that Olasky is writing sarcastically and you’ll see the value.

In his second post on the site in January of 2005, Olasky reminded visitors that the site is always for sale, though he told me he is not expecting to turn a Major profit any time soon.

Evidence suggests this type of entrepreneurial endeavor may never turn a profit. A guy named Doug from Austin, Texas (sorry, he wouldn’t tell me his full name), has purchased 31 fireCoachName.com Web sites over a two-year span to sell at a profit. He markets the domain names on redshirted.com and, so far, only four have been purchased.

Doug said he isn’t doing it just to make money (he develops Web sites in many walks of life), he largely began redshirted.com as an experiment to ‘to observe the interaction between football, media and football fans.’ In November 2004, about the time Olasky started his Applewhite site, The New York Times published a 1,300-word story about the effect of these Web sites.

Whatever the purpose they serve, Doug said their effect on the college football world is undeniable.

‘In the case of (former Florida head coach Ron) Zook, I think one could successfully argue that without the existence of fireRonZook.com, he likely could have had another

year at Florida to turn it around,’ Doug said in an e-mail interview.

The Zook site, pioneered by seven former UF students, started a contra-Zook culture in Gainesville, Fla., that left him a short leash in his attempt to replace Steve Spurrier. A similar site that sees Penn State head coach Joe Paterno as being too old to coach college football at 79 has gained similar notoriety.

Doug says the publicity for these sites alone has convinced him to keep his current domain names, though there are no buyers lurking in the near future. Olasky says the Google ads on fireMajorApplewhite.com allow him to break even on his $9.95 investment. But as he stated in his first-ever post on the site, Olasky may just be keeping the seat warm until Applewhite becomes a hated head coach:

‘One day his luck will turn, boosters will start calling for his head … and this site will be ready.’

Tim Gorman is the sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his columns will now appear every Tuesday. E-mail him at tpgorman@gmail.com.

Published on January 17, 2006 at 12:00 pm