Chris texted awhile back "You watching football?"
"Canadian?" I asked
"No the Hall of Game - not real football"
But it was football none the less. I turned on the game.
Won't be long now before real football starts. College football a couple of warm up games on Sat Aug 26 with a full slate starting on Labor Day
I'm geeked already.
It's been awhile since I posted (that's Dan in the Peanut Gallery shouting "Not long enough!!")
But it's not to late to start studying up for the upcoming year. No better way to start than taking a look at the new head coaches. Every year in the college ranks coaches get fired for "not meeting expectations" aka losing, or winning coaches get fired for doing things so stupid that the AD has to move them along...cough...cough...Ole Miss
The Big Boy programs then reach down in the ranks to hire the latest, hottest, can't miss head coach leaving the smaller programs trying to keep things going with another reach hire. .
Here's who new in 2017
"Canadian?" I asked
"No the Hall of Game - not real football"
But it was football none the less. I turned on the game.
Won't be long now before real football starts. College football a couple of warm up games on Sat Aug 26 with a full slate starting on Labor Day
I'm geeked already.
It's been awhile since I posted (that's Dan in the Peanut Gallery shouting "Not long enough!!")
But it's not to late to start studying up for the upcoming year. No better way to start than taking a look at the new head coaches. Every year in the college ranks coaches get fired for "not meeting expectations" aka losing, or winning coaches get fired for doing things so stupid that the AD has to move them along...cough...cough...Ole Miss
The Big Boy programs then reach down in the ranks to hire the latest, hottest, can't miss head coach leaving the smaller programs trying to keep things going with another reach hire. .
Here's who new in 2017
Teams | Out with the Old In with the New | What to expect |
Out - Jim Grobe In - Matt Rhule - HC Temple | It's been a sh!t show in Waco for awhile now. Former HC Art Briles, a world class ahole, was fired after covering up a gang rape, domestic violence and other assorted sexual assaults by his players. Jim Grobe was brought in to clean things up but made the mistake of keeping some of Briles' relatives including his son and son in law. They went about underming Grobe, going so far as to tweeting before the TCU game, supporting Art and denying he knew of the gang rape. Baylor promptly lost the game 62-22. Rhule (ironically a former Penn State LB) has been brought in to clean house. His tough nosed defenses and running game had back to back 10 win seasons at Temple and last years American Conference championship. Rhule has no experience in the wild west of Texas recruiting and started out with only one commitment when he was hired. But he has hired assistants with Texas connections and the class is filling out nicely. I like Rhule. He has a Dantonioesque vibe to him and he mirrors MD's style of play - a welcome contrast to the wide open Big 12. He'll be in contention with teams that remind you of Kansas State. |
Out - Sonny Dykes In - Justin Wilcox - Wisconsin DC | Sometimes the grass isn't always greener. Dykes was fired for flirting with job openings at Baylor, Mizzou and Houston. That, and a 19-30 record along with the worst defense in Div 1A got him the ziggy. In a typical knee jerk reaction, Cal went with a DC. Wilcox has had some good ones. Last year, Wiscy he had the 7th best defense overall, 4th in scoring defense. To keep the Dyke's high octane offense going, Wilcox brought in Eastern Washington's HC Beau Baldwin. Wilcox knows the recruiting landscape having played at Oregon and was DC at Boise State, Washington and USC. Solid hire by the Bears. They will start going to bowls again and score the occasional upset. Going to miss being able to bet the over on Cal games. |
Out - Tommy Tuberville In - Luke Fickell - Ohio State DC | Most coaches treat Cincinnati as a stepping stone to bigger and better things (see Mark Dantonio, Brian Kelly and Butch Jones). Tuberville wasn't able to after going 4-8. Cincinnati not only went with the rising assistant coach route, but went with a local boy. Fickell has spent his entire career playing or coaching in Ohio. To further help with recruiting the Cincitucky area (as Chris calls it), Fickell brought in former Kentucky HC Joker Phillips as WR coach. Fickell's defenses (or co-defenses, he was co-DC the last three years) have been superb. OSU finished 3rd in scoring defense last year. Guess we will find out if it's his coaching or having a roster full of 5 star recruits. My guess, Fickell will carve out a nice career with the BearCats but it won't lead to a bigger position. |
Out - Bob Diaco In - Randy Edsall - Detroit Lions Special Projects | I guess you can go home again. It's extremely rare for head coaches to get a second chance at a school but UConn is giving Edsall a shot. He had great success in Storrs. From 1999 to 2010 he took them from Div 1AA to Div 1A, where they started as an independent and then joined the old Big East, won a league title and went to five bowls including a marquee matchup against Oklahoma in the 2011 Fiesta Bowl. He then bolted to the for Maryland where he failed miserably. As did his replacements Bob Diaco and Paul Pasqualoni. Combined they went 21-39 with one flea bag bowl appearance (a loss naturally) Big Al and the Husky faithful are excited to welcome back their winningest coach ever. Good hire |
Out - Charlie Partridge In - Lane Kiffin - Alabama OC | Lane Kiffin keeps working his way down the coaching ladder. After the NFL he went down to the college ranks at Tennessee and USC then down to OC at Bama and now down to HC of a bad Sun Belt team. FAU needed a splashy hire after FIU got Butch Davis, South Florida got Charlie Strong and Miami (FL) getting Mark Richt last year. But Kiffin? I don't know. He always seemed overrated to me. And FAU's problem was defense. They were fifth worst in Div 1A last year. Not exactly Kiffin's strong suit. His assistant coach hires don't inspire a lot of confidence. He went with Art Briles son Kendal as OC and his own son Chris as DC Kiffin is trying to resurrect his career. Won't happen. |
Out - Ron Turner In - Butch Davis - North Carolina HC | It took four seasons for FIU to figure out what I knew from the beginning - Ron Turner is an awful head coach. He proved me right by going 14-34. FIU AD Pete Garcia reached out to his old buddy from their days together at Miami (FL) and the Cleveland Browns to put FIU back on the map. Davis was last seen putting together some solid Tar Heel teams before leaving under a cloud of allegations of "improper benefits and academic misconduct". Ellis was always quick to point out that he was never implicated nor charged. Assuming he stays out of trouble this is a great hire. Davis is an excellent coach. He was a legend at Miami (FL), took the Browns to their last playoff game in 2002 and took a losing UNC program to 3 straight 8 win seasons and bowl games. And at 65 won't be bucking to move on up. |
Out - Tim DeRuyter In - Jeff Tedford - Cal HC | Fresno State has a green V on the back of their helmets. It stands for the California's San Joaquin valley. FSU is the only Div 1A school in the Valley. De Ruyter was certainly able to take Fresno State from the mountain top into the valley. Before there was Boise State, Fresno State was the mid major teams feared. After inheriting a team from the legendary Pat Hill, De Ruyter went 9-4 and 11-2 his first two years. It went downhill from there. He won only 4 of his last 20 games. FSU decided to go with an alum in Jeff Tedford. Tedford played QB for the Bulldogs back in 1981-82. He also was their QB coach in the early 90's It was as a QB coach that Tedford earned his reputation. Over the years he coached 6 first round NFL QB picks (to win the bar bet see the list below). But those successes were a long time ago. His last years at Cal were unimpressive to say the least going 15-22 over his last three years. Since then he has drifted about going to Tampa Bay where is was OC for three games before leaving after heart surgery. Then to the CFL as HC for BC losing 8 of his last 12 regualr season games and then to the Washington Huskies as "Offensive Consultant" Fresno will be mediocre and nowhere near the old glory days |
Out - Trent Miles In - Shawn Elliott - South Carolina OC | New stadium - new head coach. The Panthers bought the old Ted Turner Field and turned it into a nice little football stadium. No more playing in front of pathetically empty seats in the old Falcons stadium Old HC Trent Miles took Georgia State to their only bowl game in 2015 but regressed to 3-9 last year and was left to get demolished like the old Falcons stadium Shawn Elliott has been steady in his coaching career having only coached for two teams. At Appalachian State he TEs and OL from 1999-2009. During that time the Mountaineers won three national championships but even better beat Michigian back in 2007. From there he went to South Carolina where he rose from coaching OL to OC and a quick stint as HC when Hatin Ass Spurrier left mid season. He promptly went 1-5. Elliott has no track record of turning around teams but things can't get much worse. Panthers show an uptick with the new stadium and then who knows. Elliot is worth a shot. |
Out - Tom Herman In - Major Applewhite - Houston OC | Houston has been a stepping stone gig for years now. Three of the last four head coaches moved on to better things - Art Briles to Baylor, Kevin Sumlin to Texas A&M and now Tom Herman to Texas. The only one not to go was Tony Levine who as OC stuck around to keep things going. They didn't and he got canned three years later. Houston is going to try that route again by promoting Major Applewhite from OC to HC. His OC credentials are top notch having been OC at Texas, Alabama and Rice. But he was not the first choice. Several other names were bandied about but none came to fruition. The pressure will be on. The chairman of the Board of Regents has been quote as saying "I think you can look forward to Major being here for many years. But he better win 9,10, 11 games a year from our standpoint. He won't. He'll get the Tony Levine treatment in three years. |
Out - Kevin Wilson In - Tom Allen - Indiana DC | Based on the performance this was a huge surprise. Wilson had Indiana on the right track getting bowl eligible for the second straight year. Something unknown in Bloomington since Bill Mallory in 1991. It was an investigation into player mistreatment (aka giving them the Beckman) that did him in. So the Hoosiers went to their DC Tom Allen. In his first year as DC for Indiana, Allen took the 121st ranked defense to 37th in 2016. The year before he took South Florida from 72nd to 35th. He's a good DC. But his rise has been rapid. Prior to 2011 he was coaching at Drake and other small schools. And defense isn't the way to put the Hoosiers on the map, quirky offenses are. Indiana returns to sitting home over the holidays. |
Out - Les Miles In - Ed Orgeron - LSU Interim HC and DL | College football's best interim coach gets another chance. Orgeron was 6-2 at USC after they canned Lane Kiffin but didn't get the full time gig. He went 6-2 at LSU after they moved on from Les Miles. This time he got the permanent position. Orgeron is a natural at LSU with his good ol boy Cajun drawl and his ability to recruit. Despite being a DL coach, he was able to turn around a moribound offense. LSU will retain its position in the SEC West pecking order, battling Auburn for 2nd behind Bama. |
Out - Tracy Claeys In - PJ Fleck - Western Michigan HC | Tracy Claeys was a good coach but was in over his head when it came handling University investigations into sexual assault. Late last year 10 players were suspended before the Holiday Bowl. The rest of the team decided to boycott the game. Claeys made the mistake of supporting the team without reviewing the investigative report. When the University President reviewed the report and all the graphic details with the team they ended the boycott. Minnesota went on to win the Bowl game despite being down several key players but Claeys goose was cooked. Advice to head coaches, unless your first name rhymes with prick, you don't take on the University President. Minnesota, in the press release announcing the firing of Claeys said they wanted to go in a different direction. Boy, did they ever. PJ Fleck was the hottest name in this years carousel outside Tom Herman. What Claeys (and Jerry Kill before him) lacked in persona and enthusiasm, Fleck brings in spades. He personally willed Western Michigan from the bottom of the MAC to the only undefeated team outside the Power 5, earning a trip to the Cotton Bowl. Along the way, they won all their MAC games by 14 or more points and beat two Big Ten West teams - Illinois and Northwestern. Fleck is known as a superb recruiter. He has had the best recruiting rankings in the MAC three years running and even out-recruited two Big Ten teams - Illinois and Purdue. This is a swing for the fences hire by Minnesota. For years they have been stable, a step behind Wisconsin and Nebraska in the BIG West. It should be interesting to see if they can pass them by in a couple of years. I think they will. Good hire. |
Out - Hugh Freeze In - Matt Luke (Interim) Ole Miss OC | This is by far my favorite canning of the year, if not of all time. All Freeze had to do was apologize to former Ole Miss HC Houston Nutt and he would still be hanging on to his job - maybe Freeze has been running a dirty program for years. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it. Just Ole Miss never admitted to it. So after years of top notch recruiting classes and Larry Tunsil putting down his bong long enough to say "I would kind to have to say Yes" live on ESPN when they when asked if he was paid to go to Mississippi the NCAA decided to look into things What they found was not pretty. As they were about to drop the bomb on Ole Miss, Freeze panicked, and in an attempt to keep another top notch signing class together, he started calling reporters "off the record" and blamed Houston Nutt for the sanctions about to happen. The reporters filed their stories blaming Nutt citing anonymous sources. That's when Nutt asked for an apology that never came. It all blew up when the NCAA filed their report clearly blaming Freeze. - going so far as to allege the worst of all charges - lack of institutional control. Nutt was livid and filed a lawsuit. As part of the lawsuit he filed a Freedom of Information Act request on Freeze's phone calls. An intrepid reporter for Mississippi State reviewed the records and found a weird phone number. So he called it. It was to an escort service in Tampa. Rookie mistake, if you are going to call an escort service - use a burner. Freeze was cooked. His carefully crafted morally upright, Christian, bible totin', scripure quotin' persona was shown to be so much bull crap. Ole Miss fired him for cause (meaning no severance) citing the moral turpitude clause in his contract. About time With training camp about to start Ole Miss promoted Co-offensive coordinator Matt Luke. He has all the personality of a tranquilized gorilla. This hire won't last long and with the sanctions about to drop on Mississippi there won't be any high profile coaches lining up to move to Oxford any time soon. And for the trivia buffs that means that there are only two active coaches left who have beaten Saban twice - Mark Richt and Urban Meyer, Spurrier quit and Les Miles was canned). With a transition to a HC in over his head and sanctions about to drop - Ole Miss is going to be bad for several years. |
Out - Brian Polian In - Jay Norvell - Arizona State WR | Norvell is a head coach 31 years in the making. He's coached in the Super Bowl with the Raiders, and in the College Football National Championship game with Oklahoma. He's also coached at Iowa, Iowa State, Nebraska, Texas, Wisconsin, Texas and lastly at Arizona State mainly on the offensive side of the ball. He has good connections in recruiting California which Nevada has tended to neglect lately. This is a solid hire. Nevada will return to a bowl eligible team and factor in the Mountain West. And for Spartan fans there is an MSU connection - see below |
Out - Mark Helfrich In - Willie Taggert - South Florida HC | The Pac-12's only opening this offseason was a big one. Mark Helfrich was let go just over two years after having Oregon in the national title game. But going 4-8 in 2016 and losing to Oregon State for the first time in 10 years got Helfrich his walking papers. Willie Taggart is known for turning around teams. In fact, a 4-8 team is the best record he's ever inherited. Western Kentucky was 0-12 the year before he arrived. The next season he took it to 7-5. South Florida went 3-9 prior to his arrival. the Bulls went 10-2 this fall. Taggart has some West Coast experience, spending three years (2007-09) as running backs coach at Stanford under Jim Harbaugh. He helped develop Heisman Trophy finalist Toby Gerhart during that time. That said, Taggart is off to a rough start in Eugene. In January, three players were hospitalized for grueling military style workouts. Later that month co-OC David Reaves was arrested for drunk driving. He resigned. Oregon then hired Marcus Arroya (RB Okla St) to be co-OC with Mario Cristobal. I like Cristobal. I'm waiting for him to pop up as HC again some day. This is a solid hire. Oregon won't be Oregon again but they will be nipping on Washington's heels in the PAC 12 North. |
Out - Darrell Hazell In - Jeff Brohm - Western Kentucky HC | Purdue has been awful for a long time. They haven't had a winning regular season since 2007. Over the last four years they have gone 9-39. Since they let Joe Tiller go back in 2008, they try to promote head coaches from the lower ranks. Brohm is going to be the latest to try and turnaround this mess. His track record at WKU was fantastic. He led them to three straight winning season and back to back CUSA championships. Brohm is an offensive master mind. His offenses have ranked no lower than ninth in yards per game over the last three years. He knows he recruiting area having coached at Louisville and Illinois. Purdue figures to get better. then can hardly do worse. And at least they will be exciting. But challenge Wisconsin in the BIG West? Don't get your hopes up. Your going to need a defense too to do that. |
Out - Ron Caragher In - Brent Brennan - Oregon State WR | It's tough to make a splashy hire if you are San Jose State. So the other Spartans went with an assistant from years past. Brennan was an assistant at a variety of positions at SJSU from 2005-2010. He then went to Oregon State to coach the wide receivers, the last year coaching the outside WRs (Spartan note - the inside WRs were coached by former MSU OC Dave Baldwin). He knows the recruiting area well from his days at SJSU. At OSU he was the primary recruiter for California. This hire has continued losing written all over it. When the best part of your resume is saying you coached James Jones and Brandin Cooks, well that's nice but who cares. SJSU will be looking again in 2-3 years |
Out - Willie Taggart In - Charlie Strong - Texas HC | In the NFL this would have been a pretty even trade. Maybe USF might have to give up a late round round pick but that's about it. Four years ago Strong was the coach to have. He was 37-15 at Louisville with two Big East Championships in four years. Prior to that he was the DC at Florida that won national championships in 2006 and 2008. Then he went to Texas were he stumbled losing 7 games all three years. It's an aberration, the man can coach. And he lands in a great situation, he inherits a dynamic offense that needs some retooling on the defense - Strong's specialty. He also can recruit Florida from his Gator days. this is my favorite hire of the year. USF is going to remain a force in the American Conference and get into the conversation for the playoffs. And a trivia note - with the hire USF becomes only the third Div 1A school to hire back to back African-American head coaches (Bowling Green and East Carolina) |
Out - Matt Rhule In - Geoff Collins - Florida DC | Temple liked what Matt Rhule did in his four years with the program, winning 10 games the last two years, AAC east champs two years ago and champs last year. So they stuck with the blueprint, up and coming hungry coordinator. Collins spent the last two seasons running Florida's defense. In that two-year span, the Gator's defense has put up top-10 numbers in Div 1A in scoring defense, total defense and passing defense en route to helping the Gators earn back-to-back SEC East titles. Collins' also had stints as defensive coordinator at Mississippi State and Florida International. Rhule liked the hire saying “Anything good about me originated with Geoff. He was the first coach I worked for.” That was at Albright College where Rhule was the LB coach and Collins was the DC. They also crossed paths again at Western Carolina where once again Rhule was LB caoch and Collins was DC. Collins will need to reestblish his Northeast recruiting ties while building on his Georgia and Florida ties. Temple is going to take a step back and then try to catch up with South Florida. All around good hire though. |
Out - Charlie Strong In - Tom Herman - Houston HC | For whatever reason, and there are a lot of theories, it didn't work our for Charlie Strong. back to back to back 7 loss seasons just don't cut it in Austin. Herman has been on an extremely fast track during his coaching career. He's risen from offensive coordinator at Texas State to Rice and Iowa State and then finally to Ohio State, where in 2014 he overcame the loss of two starting quarterbacks to injury to help the Buckeyes win to a national championship. At Houston he kept things rolling by going 22-4 with wins over Florida State, Louisville (twice) and Oklahoma. He knows the recruiting landscape and inherits a great roster from Charlie. Many have Herman as the next great coach. I'm not in that camp. His lost four of his last eight games last including losses to Memphis and SMU. He won't have 7 loss seasons but Texas will be on the outside looking in for playoff spots. Good but not great hire. |
Out - Jeff Brohm In - Mike Sanford - Notre Dame OC | This hire was a real head scratcher. Sanford comes in from Notre Dame where he was OC. His first year in South Bend the Domers were 27th in offense. Last year they regressed to 62nd. He supposedly coached up DeShone Kizer. I didn't see it. The connection is that he was QB coach for the Hilltoppers back in 2010. Big yup. He has little in the way of recruiting the area. Most of his career was spent at Stanford with a stop at Boise State. Terrible hire. In a couple of years people will be saying "Remember when Western Kentucky was good" |
Out - PJ Fleck In - Tim Lester - Purdue QB | Western caught lightning in a bottle with the hiring of Fleck. But rather than try and swing for the fences again and build on that momentum they went the "Alum who may stick around" route. Other than the fact that he was a QB at Western back when Razr phones were the coolest thing, Lester has no reason being a head coach there let alone a coordinator. He's been the QB coach at Syracuse. They were awful. Then QB coach at Purdue. They were worse. Western, you had a chance to make another up an coming hire. Fleck had something going. You blew it. One of the worst hires of the year. Broncos go back to being really bad. |
Trivia answers:
Who were the six NFL 1st round picks coached by Jeff Tedford?
Trent Dilfer and David Carr while OC/QB coach at Fresno State
Akili Smith and Joey Harrington while OC/QB coach at Oregon
Kyle Boller and Aaron Rodgers while HC at Cal
He also coached a couple good RBs while at Cal in Marshawn Lynch and Jahvid Best
Jay Norvell's MSU connection - The AD at Nevada is Doug Knuth. He was an Asst AD for MSU back in 2000. His boss was AD Merritt Norvell, Jay's father.
Who were the six NFL 1st round picks coached by Jeff Tedford?
Trent Dilfer and David Carr while OC/QB coach at Fresno State
Akili Smith and Joey Harrington while OC/QB coach at Oregon
Kyle Boller and Aaron Rodgers while HC at Cal
He also coached a couple good RBs while at Cal in Marshawn Lynch and Jahvid Best
Jay Norvell's MSU connection - The AD at Nevada is Doug Knuth. He was an Asst AD for MSU back in 2000. His boss was AD Merritt Norvell, Jay's father.