There have been plenty of good times under Coach D Normally I try to get this update out between the NFL Championship games and the Super Bowl but work was a bitch so I decided to wait. Good thing I did as it allowed for the most important update I’ve had to do.
For the first time in 13 year, MSU went looking for a new HC. When the news dropped that Coach Dantonio was retiring my reaction like most everyone else was WTF, why now and you got to be kidding me. The reactions among fans then split into equal parts suspicion and admiration, suspicion as to the timing and admiration for what he has done for Spartan football. The same fault lines that divided the Spartan nation back last December re-erupted.
But the fault lines quickly healed as the discussion turned to who would be the next head coach. Nothing like a shiny new thing to get you to move on from old issues. The debate seemed to die down and divisions healed when Cincinnati HC Liuke Fickell emerged as the leading candidate. He checked all the boxes. Recruits Ohio well, check. Defensive background with stint as DC for Ohio State, check. Hell, he even came from the same school as MD, Cincinnati. In comparing Fickell's and Dantonio, Luke looked like Mini Me. If anything, he checked too many boxes.
For the first time in 13 year, MSU went looking for a new HC. When the news dropped that Coach Dantonio was retiring my reaction like most everyone else was WTF, why now and you got to be kidding me. The reactions among fans then split into equal parts suspicion and admiration, suspicion as to the timing and admiration for what he has done for Spartan football. The same fault lines that divided the Spartan nation back last December re-erupted.
But the fault lines quickly healed as the discussion turned to who would be the next head coach. Nothing like a shiny new thing to get you to move on from old issues. The debate seemed to die down and divisions healed when Cincinnati HC Liuke Fickell emerged as the leading candidate. He checked all the boxes. Recruits Ohio well, check. Defensive background with stint as DC for Ohio State, check. Hell, he even came from the same school as MD, Cincinnati. In comparing Fickell's and Dantonio, Luke looked like Mini Me. If anything, he checked too many boxes.
That sound you here is the Brinks truck they backed up to land me. And then in a plot twist rivaling "I'm your father" Luke went to sign the contract and ....backed out.
What a gut punch. Turned down by a AAC coach. MSU is a dream job, not a stepping stone to Ohio State or Notre Dame. I went from "What a great fit" to "Get the F out of here."
Now State, already trying to play on the Coaching Carousel long after it stopped, had to go to Plan B or was it C? Or Plan Z?
So after spending considerable time and effort to lure Luke, State went back to other HCs previously vetted during the process and selected Mel Tucker from Colorado. Supposedly, Mel turned down the job until State upped the ante, a lot. He'll make far more than MD did. If it looked like a panic move, it was.
Maybe it will work out. Tucker has a impressive resume including stints as DC for UGA, interim HC for the Jacksonville Jags, DC for Da Bears and DB and Co-DC at Ohio State. Jumping between the NFL and college ranks, you wonder if he has strong recruiting ties. Early indications are that he will recruit nationally rather than in the Midwest and Georgia like MD did.
But it's hard to get a read on his recruiting in this very weird year. And one year at Colorado, with an unimpressive 5-7 season, it's also difficult to get a good read on Mel. With 2020 shaping up to be the weirdest wildest college football season ever, even one year under his belt still won't give you a bead on how good he is or will be. Guess we will just have to stay tuned. But I doubt he will reach the heights of MD.
What a gut punch. Turned down by a AAC coach. MSU is a dream job, not a stepping stone to Ohio State or Notre Dame. I went from "What a great fit" to "Get the F out of here."
Now State, already trying to play on the Coaching Carousel long after it stopped, had to go to Plan B or was it C? Or Plan Z?
So after spending considerable time and effort to lure Luke, State went back to other HCs previously vetted during the process and selected Mel Tucker from Colorado. Supposedly, Mel turned down the job until State upped the ante, a lot. He'll make far more than MD did. If it looked like a panic move, it was.
Maybe it will work out. Tucker has a impressive resume including stints as DC for UGA, interim HC for the Jacksonville Jags, DC for Da Bears and DB and Co-DC at Ohio State. Jumping between the NFL and college ranks, you wonder if he has strong recruiting ties. Early indications are that he will recruit nationally rather than in the Midwest and Georgia like MD did.
But it's hard to get a read on his recruiting in this very weird year. And one year at Colorado, with an unimpressive 5-7 season, it's also difficult to get a good read on Mel. With 2020 shaping up to be the weirdest wildest college football season ever, even one year under his belt still won't give you a bead on how good he is or will be. Guess we will just have to stay tuned. But I doubt he will reach the heights of MD.
| Teams. | Out with the Old New Position | In with the New Old Position | The Skinny |
 | Chad Morris Fired OC Auburn | Sam Pittman OLC Georgia | Pittman returns to Arkansas where he was AHC and OL coach back in 2015. He moved to Georgia for the same position and was the highest paid OL coach at $900,000. He's considered a strong recruiter. But he's never been a coordinator let alone a head coach. Did Arkansas give up on Chad Morris too early to grab an older coach that has coached nothing but the OL? Arkansas tried to land Mike Leach, Lane Kiffen and Josh Heupel and missed. This looks like a plan C. Look for the Razorbacks revert back to strong OLs and smashmouth football and bottom dweller in the SEC West. |
 | Ed Drinkwitz Missouri HC | Shawn Clark OLC App State | The Mountaineers are on their third coach in three years, but continuity has been the key to success and Clark should be able to keep that going. He played at Appalachian State, and has served as an offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator the past four seasons. Some programs would not be able to withstand that kind of turnover, but the Mountaineers should be fine. There are very few candidates out there more familiar with the program or the players. It's a logical hire for a program looking to maintain its run of success in the Sun Belt. |
 | Matt Rhule Carolina HC | Dave Aranda DC LSU | Matt Rhule was one of my favorite college coaches. He had superb results wherever he went. He took Baylor from the deathbed to being in the playoff mix well into the 2019 season. Baylor decided to stay with defense again, nabbing another DC. Aranda has been quietly waiting for a good HC gig after 3 year as DC for LSU including strangling Clemson in the championship game. During the 3 years in Baton Rouge, the Tigers consistently averaged less the 22 PPG allowed. Prior to LSU, Aranda was the DC in Wisconsin where the had the #1 scoring defense in 2015. He knows the Southern recruiting landscape. Baylor will stay as the best defensive team in the Big 12 and remain in the playoff hunt. |
 | Steve Addazio Fired HC Colorado State | Jeff Hafley DC Ohio State | After working as an assistant in the NFL for a combined seven seasons with the Buccaneers, Browns and 49ers, Hafley returned to the collegiate level last fall and helped Ohio State’s defense regain its form. The Buckeyes led the Big Ten in scoring defense allowing just 13.7 PPG. Hafley’s position of expertise, the secondary, allowed only nine scores through the air. He has some familiarity with the recruiting landscape having been the DB coach at Rutgers and Pitt but he's going to need to establish roots with local HS. BC is best when the are playing defense. Hafley brings that. After years of 7 wins seasons, Hafley will get a few eights and an occasional nine but that's about it. |
 | Mike Bobo Resigned OC South Carolina | Steve Addazio HC Boston College | I guess Colorado State prefers mediocrity. In seven seasons at BC, Addazio was a perfectly average 44-44. Not only that he went 7-6 five times and 7-5 once. Consistently average. Amazing. He'll fit in well with a Rams team that went 46-44 over the same time frame. There's not much upside to Addazio and he's never coached west of Indiana. Looks like a placeholder hire. |
 | Lane Kiffen HC Mississippi | Willie Taggart HC South Florida | Things sure turned quickly for Willie. After going 10-2 with USF, Taggart took the HC job at Oregon, bolted after one year (7-5) for his dream job at Florida State. He plummeted the Noles to 5-7 and after starting 4-5 last year was canned. FAU is hoping he can restore his magic from USF and Western Kentucky. He has the contacts in Florida so the recruiting should be there. Lane Kiffen has given the Owls a glimpse of the good life and they wont tolerate a step back. If Taggart cna get his mojo back, expect some more solid years at FAU. But I'll wait and see. |
 | Willie Taggart Fired HC Florida Atlantic | Mike Norvell HC Memphis | The Willie Taggart era was shut down after just two seasons and now Norvell, who just took the Memphis Tigers to a New Year's Six bowl, is tasked with getting Florida State back to the top of the ACC. Norvell won three division titles at Memphis and had two 10-win seasons and a conference championship in four years. He's done all this despite continually having his staff raided by bigger schools. He runs an exciting offense and should bring a renewed energy to FSU. He's stumbled out of the gate with his handling of the Covid. Players are claiming they were misinformed and lied to as the virus affected fall practice. If he gets right with his players again, FSU should be the first team to give Clemson a run for its money. Should be a superb hire...if he can get his players behind him. |
 | Jeff Tedford Resigned | Kalen DeBoer OC Indiana | DeBoer previously worked at Fresno State from 2017-18 as the OC under Jeff Tedford. The Bulldogs ranked near the top of the Mountain West in scoring in 2018, with DeBoer’s offenses being a big reason why the program won 22 games and a Mountain West title over that two-year window. At Indiana, the Hoosiers had one of their greatest offensive seasons in program history. He has previous head coaching experience at Sioux Falls where he took the Cougars to four straight NAIA championship games, winning three. Could be the best under the radar hire of the year. |
 | Nick Rolovich HC Washington St | Todd Graham HC Arizona St (2017) | Hawaii is going with the experienced coach route with this hire. Graham is 95-61 over 12 seasons with four different programs. We last saw him at Arizona State where he stumbled after two 10-win seasons. Still, in 12 seasons as HC his gone to 10 bowls. While Graham’s background is on defense, his teams have produced high-powered offenses – a staple of the Hawaii program in recent years. Things keep rolling on the Islands. |
 | Mike Norvell HC Florida State | Ryan Silverfield OLC Memphis | Memphis hit a home run with its last two hires (Justin Fuente and Mike Norvell), so the program opted for continuity by promoting Silverfield to the top spot in December. Silverfield joined Norvell’s staff in 2016 and tutored the offensive line over the last four years. The Tigers were solid up front under Silverfield’s watch. The players love him, and he's obviously earned the faith of the administration. The resume is solid. Before Memphis he spent time with the Lions and Vikings in the NFL but he has no coordinating experience let alone being a HC. Third time is a charm, right?. Not this time. Memphis reverts back to average at best. |
 | Matt Luke Fired OLC Georgia | Lane Kiffen HC Florida Atlantic | Oh yes! Kiffen is returning to the SEC - this should be fun. Easily the most polarizing hire of the season. Kiffin’s stints as a head coach at Tennessee and USC didn’t end well, but the 44-year-old appears to have matured a bit. After failing at those gigs, St Nick hired him as Bama's OC in 2014. The Crimson Tide averaged 35 or more points every year from 2014-16 and led the SEC with a 38.8 mark in ’16. Kiffin landed as HC at FAU in 2017. The Owls went 26-13 and won two Conference USA titles under his direction from 2017-19. Kiffin’s recruiting ability and background on offense have never been in question. If he has grown up since his times at Tennessee and USC, this could be a home-run hire for the Rebels. |
 | Joe Moorhead Fired OC Oregon | Mike Leach HC Washington St | Mel wasn't the only PAC 12 HC to leave for more money (and to go to an MSU no less). Mike Leach had his own Brinks truck back up and agreed to go to Starkville. The Pirate has thrived at tough jobs like Texas Tech and Washington State, where he guided the programs to a combined mark of 139-90 over 18 seasons. The Red Raiders never missed a bowl under Leach, with the best year coming in 2008 at 11-2 overall. It took awile to get things going at Wazzou, but in Leach’s first three seasons he posted at least eight victories in four out of the final five years. Leach will bring that pass-every-down-offense to Starkville, but will it succeed against better defenses in the SEC. Not known as an enthusiastic recruiter, Leach will need to pick up his game. At least he's the perfect one-up-hire to Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin. Let the fun begin. |
 | Barry Odon Fired DC Arkansas | Eli Drinkwitz HC App State | Drinkwitz took over a loaded team from Scott Satterfield at Appalachian State and parlayed that into a 12-1 record and a sizable contract at Missouri. Drinkwitz has been considered a rising star in the coaching world ever since he came up from the high school ranks with Gus Malzahn and documented with some high powered offenses as OC at NC State. But the terrain in the SEC is significantly tougher. This is likely too fast too soon for Drinkwitz. |
 | Bob Davie Resigned | Danny Gonzales DC Arizona State | In terms of fit, it doesn’t get much better than Gonzales at New Mexico. The Albuquerque native played from 1994-98 with the Lobos and later spent time as an assistant there under Rocky Long from 1999-2008. Gonzales followed Long to San Diego State in 2011 and remained with the Aztecs through the ’17 season when Herm Edwards hired him away as part of his first staff at Arizona State. His 3-3-5 scheme he designed at NM made an instant impact at Tempe as their PPG allowed dropped from 32.8 points before he came to 22.4 in ’19. He knows the recruiting territory and what it takes to win at NM. Should be a great hire. |
 | Bobby Wilder Resigned | Ricky Rahne OC Penn State | Ummm, what? Under Rahne, Penn State's scoring dropped by 7.3 PPG. Sure, losing Saquon Barkley had something to do with that but a good OC would find a way to keep the scoring up. He's young (40) and has only two years coordinating experience under his belt. Seems like there are better up and coming coaches out there. ODU whiffed here. |
 | Chris Ash Fired DC Texas | Greg Schiano DC Ohio State | Reunited and it feels so goooood... Great song, maybe not such a great (re)hire. The track record of coming back after leaving is not good, right Mr. Edsall. Still, it's worth a shot. Schiano did the impossible at the beginning of the century, He made Rutgers football respectable. In 2006 he went 11-2 and won National Coach of the year. From 2006-2011 he went 49-24, going 5-0 in Bowl games. Since he left, Rutgers has gone 36-63. He left for Tampa Bay where he floundered before returning to the college ranks as DC for Ohio State (ironically replacing Chris Ash the fired Rutgers HC) This one should be interesting. Schiano makes Rutgers respectable again. |
 | Rocky Long Retired | Brady Hoke DL San Diego State | Remember Hoke-a-mania? yeah, that didn't work out to well on AA. Hoke is also another returning HC. Hoke led SDSU back 2009-10 where he went 13-12 before taking the reins at scUM. He bounced around after getting canned in the sewer down south before ending up back at SDSU as DC. The Aztecs were left in a lurch when Rocky Long suddenly retired for health reasons. SDSU is one of the better Group of 5 programs. There will be some slippage but they will still go bowling. |
 | Charlie Strong Fired | Jeff Scott OC Clemson | Now here's a good "up and coming" young coach hire. It was just a matter of time before one of the Clemson asst OCs got hired. Scott has been with the program for 12 years working his way up from WR coach. He's from Florida and is considered a strong recruiter. The Bulls are back! |
 | Frank Wilson Fired HC McNeese State | Jeff Traylor RB Arkansas | So, UTSA fired Wilson, who was hired due to his recruiting prowess and his ties to area high schools. but had never been a coordinator or head coach at any level, then turn around and hires Traylor, who has no head coach or coordinator experience at the college level but is known to his recruiting prowess and his ties to area high schools. Yeah, this should turn out OK. UTSA stays as an underperforming program. |
 | Tony Sanchez Fired | Marcus Arroyo OC Oregon | UNLV gets a new stadium, using the new Raider stadium, so what better time to get a new HC. UNLV also failed at hiring a local legendary HS coach but rahter than make the same mistake as UTSA they landed Arroyo. Oregon inherited Arroyo as OC after Taggart left. In his second season, Arroyo was OC for the Pac-12 champions, developed Justin Herbert and is regarded as a premier recruiter. Nice upgrade for the Runnin' Rebs. |
 | Chris Petersen Resigned | Jimmy Lake DC Washington | Petersen's resignation came as a surprise, but the program maintained continuity by promoting DC Lake. It's his first HC gig. Prior to his last four seasons under Petersen. Lake spent six seasons in the NFL as a defensive backs coach before joining Petersen at Boise State, Defense is how UW won Pac 12 championships and the Huskies should keep on rolling. |
 | Mike Leach HC Mississippi State | Nick Rolovich HC Hawaii | From one high-octane offensive system to another, the Washington State Cougars go from losing Mike Leach and the Air Raid to bringing in Rolovich and his run-and-shoot. Rolovich may actually be an updgrade. Leach is known for his laid-back approach to recruiting and relying more on X’s and O’s to succeed, Rolovich has a proven track record of identifying elite talent early and also developing players who are somewhat under-recruited. WSU is going to be fun to watch....still |
