Grading Every 2015 SEC Coordinator Hire
The coaching carousel has finally stopped spinning, and around the SEC, that meant moving companies were busy.
There will be 14 new coordinators around the south, including friendly faces Will Muschamp at Auburn, John Chavis at LSU and Geoff Collins at Florida.
How does each coordinator hire grade out? Our picks based on resume, fit and available options are in this slideshow.
Arkansas Offensive Coordinator Dan Enos: B+
1 of 14
It's difficult for an ultra-conservative head coach like Bret Bielema to find new offensive coordinators, since so many rising stars in the coaching ranks have backgrounds in spread offense.
So why not hit the head coaching ranks?
Dan Enos comes over to lead Arkansas' offense after five years as the head coach of the Central Michigan Chippewas. During his time at Central Michigan, he produced two 1,000-yard rushers and four 3,000-yard passers and led the program to three straight seasons in which it finished .500 or better.
He'll have a veteran offense to work with that returns two 1,000-yard rushers of its own, a veteran quarterback in Brandon Allen and four starters along an offensive line that was the biggest in football last year—pro or college.
He's not going to sling the ball all over the field but will swing the pendulum ever so slightly away from such a run-heavy offense and be a little more balanced than his predecessor, Jim Chaney.
Grade: B+
Auburn Defensive Coordinator Will Muschamp: A+
2 of 14
Auburn hit the equivalent of the coordinator lottery in December when it let go of Ellis Johnson and hired former Florida head coach Will Muschamp for his second stint as Auburn's defensive coordinator.
Muschamp was Auburn's defensive coordinator from 2006 to 2007, and he was the last man to lead Auburn's defense to finish in the top half of the SEC in yards per game (2007). He's back to recapture the magic on the Plains and help head coach Gus Malzahn not only get back to the national title game but win it.
He has plenty of talented pieces to work with including defensive ends Carl Lawson and Byron Cowart, defensive tackle Montravius Adams, cornerback Jonathan Jones and linebackers Cassanova McKinzy and Kris Frost.
What's more, he doesn't have to be a miracle-worker at Auburn—he just has to be adequate. If Muschamp can help Auburn's defense finish in the middle of the pack in the SEC in scoring defense in yards per play, it should be all the Tigers need to get back into contention.
Grade: A+
Florida Defensive Coordinator Geoff Collins: A-
3 of 14
The "psycho defense" is coming to Gainesville, which should terrify the rest of the SEC East.
Florida has been known for its defense for quite some time, and when new head coach Jim McElwain took over, he tabbed former Mississippi State defensive coordinator Geoff Collins to keep the train going in the right direction.
Collins was at the helm in Starkville over the last few years. He was a big reason defensive lineman Preston Smith was a first-team All-SEC member in 2014 and the Bulldogs finished tops in the nation in red-zone scoring percentage (63.64 percent).
He'll have plenty of talented pieces to work with, including defensive lineman Jon Bullard, linebacker Antonio Morrison and cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III.
Florida will still be multiple but may veer more toward a 4-3 under Collins. He's flexible and talented enough to fit his scheme around his players, and he has some horses in Gainesville.
Grade: A-
Florida Offensive Coordinator Doug Nussmeier: C
4 of 14
New Florida head coach Jim McElwain made a name for himself as a fantastic offensive coordinator during his time at Fresno State and Alabama, as well as his time as Colorado State's head coach.
He better keep his hands in the cookie jar, because the addition of new offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier to the coaching staff is less than inspiring.
Nussmeier's Michigan offense was a mess last year as the Wolverines fought through injuries and ineptitude to finish last in the Big Ten in total offense (333.0 YPG) and 10th in yards per play (5.32). What's more, there's a reason Alabama head coach Nick Saban wanted more creativity when he hired Lane Kiffin to fill the role formerly occupied by Nussmeier at Alabama following the 2013 season.
Nussmeier has experience in the SEC and won a national title with Alabama in 2012, but that doesn't do an awful lot to suggest that he's going to kick-start a Florida offense that's been plagued by a remarkable lack of creativity over the last four years.
Grade: C
Georgia Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer: D+
5 of 14
New Georgia offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer has NFL experience...and that concludes the positive portion of this slide.
That experience, first with the New York Jets (2006-2011) and then with the St. Louis Rams (2012-2014), has largely been filled with frustration. Only once since 2009 has Schottenheimer's offense finished better than 20th in the 32-team NFL in total offense.
No, he hasn't had the best offensive pieces to build around. But it's not like Georgia is filled with certainty. Whether it's Brice Ramsey, Faton Bauta or Jacob Park taking the snaps, he'll still have a wildly inexperienced quarterback to work with. That quarterback will be without top receivers Michael Bennett and Chris Conley.
Yes, Nick Chubb will be lining up in the backfield, but you can't win division titles and be relevant in the national picture playing "Nick Chubb left" and "Nick Chubb right."
Former coordinator Mike Bobo earned the trust of head coach Mark Richt to become Georgia's play-caller late in the 2006 season. If Richt doesn't reclaim those duties, Georgia's offense will take a step back under Schottenheimer.
Grade: D+
Kentucky Offensive Coordinator Shannon Dawson: B-
6 of 14
Kentucky established an identity under head coach Mark Stoops when he brought Neil Brown in to run the air-raid offense over the last two seasons.
Brown moved on to take over the Troy program, and Shannon Dawson has moved in to continue the legacy after a successful stint at West Virginia. The Mountaineers finished ninth in the nation in passing offense last year with 317 yards per game, and Dawson will have a talented quarterback to work with in 2015 in Patrick Towles.
But was it really his offense?
It's no secret that Dana Holgorsen ran that offense, and while Dawson did provide information and have plenty of input in the game plan, he didn't call plays. That's what makes him a B-minus and not something higher. Once he proves he can call plays at this level, he could become the perfect fit for what Stoops wants to do with this Kentucky offense.
Grade: B-
LSU Defensive Coordinator Kevin Steele: B-
7 of 14
I sat in the press room at LP Field in Nashville on the night of Dec. 30, 2014, and could sense the frustration. Fresh off a last-second 31-28 loss to Notre Dame in the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl in which his defense gave up 449 yards, LSU head coach Les Miles was angry at his defense and, more specifically, his defensive coordinator.
John Chavis had been the subject of rampant speculation surrounding the vacant Texas A&M defensive coordinator job, and Miles was fed up, frustrated and mad. Not at the media. At Chavis. He wanted to vent his frustration, tell us what really was going on and explain why his defense looked so unprepared, but he couldn't.
Fast forward a couple of weeks, and Miles made the best of a bad situation, replacing Chavis with former Alabama inside linebackers coach Kevin Steele. He is most known for giving up a country mile to West Virginia in the 2012 Discover Orange Bowl but was successful sending players to the NFL during his time at Clemson.
He'll have plenty of talent to work with and will benefit from the presence of defensive line coach and super-recruiter Ed Orgeron.
Is Steele a home run hire? Not at all. But he's an adequate defensive mind who, when combined with Orgeron, is capable of keeping LSU's defense competitive in the SEC.
Grade: B-
Mississippi State Defensive Coordinator Manny Diaz: B+
8 of 14
Not too long ago, Manny Diaz was a hot-shot defensive coordinator who was on the fast track to becoming a superstar head coach.
Then the Texas debacle happened: The Longhorns gave up 550 rushing yards in a loss to BYU in early 2013, and Diaz was suddenly looking for work.
He found it at Louisiana Tech in 2014, where he led the Bulldogs to finish second in Conference USA in total defense (362.5 YPG) and yards per play (4.94). That vaulted him back to a program that helped propel him into the national consciousness—Mississippi State.
Diaz helped the 2010 Bulldogs earn a bid in the TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl, when his defense finished second in the SEC in red-zone touchdown percentage (42.5 percent) and third in third-down conversion percentage (34.95 percent).
He has some work to do with a defense that's going through massive roster turnover, but he did it once and should be able to do it again.
Grade: B+
Missouri Defensive Coordinator Barry Odom: A-
9 of 14
Barry Odom's return to Missouri, where he played from 1996 to 1999 and coached under head coach Gary Pinkel from 2003 to 2011, didn't receive the notoriety that other higher-profile coordinator hires had this offseason.
Maybe it should have.
Odom had been mentioned in coordinator roles in the SEC over the last few years while he helped rebuild Memphis into a competitive football program under head coach Justin Fuente. The Tigers gave up just 349.5 yards per game and 4.74 yards per play last year, and the talent Odom will have to work with at Missouri will be much better across the board.
He knows Pinkel, Missouri and how to coach players up and get them playing to the best of their abilities.
What's not to like?
Grade: A-
South Carolina Co-Defensive Coordinator Jon Hoke: B-
10 of 14
Something had to be done at South Carolina, and head coach Steve Spurrier was wise to go for more of a minor tweak than a massive defensive overhaul.
In comes Jon Hoke fresh off a stint with the Chicago Bears to help fellow co-defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward fix a defense that was mediocre at best and awful at worst last season. Hoke has worked with defensive backs for nearly three decades, which will help a Gamecocks defense that is loaded with youth on the back end.
He'll help, but Ward and the defensive front will have to find a way to generate pressure to make the secondary's job easier.
The addition of Hoke didn't make a splash, but it did signify that Spurrier recognized a problem and, rather than tearing up the playbook and starting from scratch, understands that in the wide-open SEC East, a minor change was more appropriate.
Grade: B-
Tennessee Offensive Coordinator Mike DeBord: C+
11 of 14
As long as Tennessee's offense remains head coach Butch Jones' baby, the addition of offensive coordinator Mike DeBord won't change much in terms of the progress of the Vols offense.
Among many other positions, DeBord was Michigan's offensive coordinator from 1997 to 1999 and 2006 to 2007. He won a national title in 1997, but for the most part, those Wolverines offenses were simply average in the then-conservative Big Ten.
Now he comes to Tennessee, where Jones' hurry-up attack clicked down the stretch once quarterback Joshua Dobbs took over.
Can DeBord adapt? That's the biggest question.
Jones was on DeBord's staff at Central Michigan, and that familiarity was one of the biggest factors for the hire.
"We wanted an individual who could come in, understand our terminology system, understand our coaching staff and look to enhance our offense, not rebuild our offense," Jones said earlier this month.
DeBord has been out of coaching since 2013, and wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni certainly fits those parameters more than DeBord does.
Grade: C+
Texas A&M Defensive Coordinator John Chavis: A+
12 of 14
Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin needed to make a splash after he fired former defensive coordinator Mark Snyder one day after losing to LSU on Thanksgiving, and the solution to his lingering defensive problems was on the other side of Kyle Field that night.
John Chavis.
The Aggies lured "The Chief" to College Station after a wildly successful stint at LSU from 2009 to 2014. The Tigers finished no worse than third in the conference in total defense every season since 2010, and Chavis sent a medium-sized village of defensive studs to the NFL including cornerbacks Patrick Peterson and Morris Claiborne.
At LSU, where offense is more myth than reality, Chavis had to be nearly perfect every Saturday. At Texas A&M, given Sumlin's ability to produce potent offense, all he needs to be is average.
The combination of Chavis and the talent on Texas A&M's roster including defensive end Myles Garrett, linebacker Otaro Alaka and safety Armani Watts should get the Aggies into SEC West contention as early as this season.
Grade: A+
Vanderbilt Offensive Coordinator Andy Ludwig: A-
13 of 14
In December, Andy Ludwig saw Melvin Gordon, his running back, travel to New York City as a Heisman finalist.
Two months later, he's trudging through snowy Nashville as the offensive coordinator of the Vanderbilt Commodores, who started spring practice this week.
Vandy's offense was atrocious last year as head coach Derek Mason played musical quarterbacks, but running back Ralph Webb was impressive with 907 yards and four touchdowns in a woefully one-dimensional offense. Quarterback Johnny McCrary emerged as the front-runner to keep the job late in the year, so Ludwig has pieces to work with.
He is not going to transform Vandy's offense into an SEC power, but he will establish an identity, which is something that it sorely lacked last year.
Grade: A-
Vanderbilt Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator Derek Mason: B+
14 of 14
Vanderbilt finished 10th in the SEC in total defense last year (402.1 YPG) and 12th in yards per play (5.72).
Instead of hiring somebody to fix the problem, Mason is just going to do it himself.
The second-year head coach of the Commodores opted not to hire a defense coordinator and will fire up the flux capacitor and go back in time to his defensive coordinator days at Stanford, when the Cardinal finished no worse than second in the Pac-12 in defense during his three years as defensive coordinator and co-defensive coordinator.
Why doesn't he get an "A"?
Taking over play-calling responsibilities after relinquishing them is a difficult transition for a head coach who has already become accustomed to the ancillary responsibilities that go along with that title. Nevertheless, it's a step in the right direction for Vanderbilt, and if Mason can handle it, it could evolve into a giant leap.
Grade: B+
Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and college football video analyst for Bleacher Report, as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on Sirius 93, XM 208.
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of CFBStats.com unless otherwise noted, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports' composite rankings. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
.jpg?w=480 "49ers Future Football")
.jpg?w=480 "Cowboys Schottenheimer Football")
.jpg?w=600 "Grading Raw After WrestleMania 🔠")
