Grading Every New College Football Head Coach Hire
Year after year, college football’s coaching carousel keeps spinning, with hirings, firings and moves across the board. 2016 was a quieter year than 2015, but it isn’t done quite yet. Tuesday afternoon, Minnesota kicked off the new year by firing Tracy Claeys after one full season as head coach, according to Joe Christensen of the Star Tribune. The Gophers are the only current FBS opening, although that could change if the NFL plucks a college head coach for one of its openings.
For now, however, 18 of 19 jobs that opened up during and following the 2016 season have been filled. Although some, like Claeys, won’t get much time to prove themselves, taking a longer view at these hirings can be smart. For now, though, we’re going to do the best we can to grade each hire, taking into consideration the fit between coach and school, his track record and the situation he inherits.
Agree? Disagree? Let us know in the comments.
Baylor Coach Matt Rhule
1 of 18
Baylor’s program was thrown into turmoil last summer when coach Art Briles, athletic director Ian McCaw and university president Kenneth Starr were all dismissed following an independent investigation into how the university handled allegations of sexual assault and violence against women. Former Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe came aboard as interim head coach, and the Bears won their first six games but collapsed down the stretch, losing six straight before whipping Boise State in the Cactus Bowl.
The Bears did well by hiring Matt Rhule away from the Owls. Temple isn’t an easy place to win, but Rhule found great success there, going 28-23 overall and winning 10 games in each of his last two seasons. He walks into a difficult situation in Waco, Texas, though. Baylor’s depth is a real issue, as 12 members of the class of 2016 were released from their national letters of intent, and before Rhule was hired, the class of 2017 had one verbal commitment.
Still, Rhule has proved he can thrive in subpar conditions, and Baylor officials should be patient, because it might get worse before it gets better.
Grade: B+
Cincinnati Coach Luke Fickell
2 of 18
When Cincinnati hired Tommy Tuberville four years ago, it seemed like a solid fit. He had a strong pedigree with stops at Ole Miss, Auburn and Texas Tech, posting only four losing seasons in 17 years and boasting an undefeated 13-0 campaign in 2004 at Auburn. He started with a pair of 9-4 seasons but slipped over the next two years, going 7-6 and then 4-8 this fall. For a program with Power Five aspirations, that wasn’t good enough.
For their opening, the Bearcats stayed in state and plucked away Ohio State defensive coordinator Luke Fickell. He spent 14 seasons with the Buckeyes, including serving as interim head coach in 2011 following Jim Tressel’s firing in the wake of NCAA issues. His defenses were consistently excellent and played a huge role in OSU’s 2014 national title campaign.
Fickell is also a solid recruiter who has an energetic personality. He should be excellent with the Bearcats, who aren’t too far removed from consistent success.
Grade: B
UConn Coach Randy Edsall
3 of 18
By the end of 2016, UConn officials had seen enough of Bob Diaco. One of the nation’s top assistants as Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator, Diaco simply didn’t work with the Huskies. In three seasons, he went 11-26, and UConn slipped from making a bowl in 2015 to going 3-9 this fall.
He made headlines for all the wrong reasons, including starting a “Civil Conflict” rivalry with Central Florida that UCF never embraced and leaving the rivalry’s trophy at UConn this season following a win. The Huskies needed a new voice. Instead, they went back to the future and hired coach Randy Edsall for his second stint with the program.
Edsall went 74-70 overall from 1999 to 2010, including winning at least eight games in each of his last four seasons. He left for Maryland but was fired midway through his fifth season with a 22-34 overall record. Edsall is not flashy or exciting—much like UConn—but he might be the right fit for the Huskies. However, this is an uninspired hire.
Grade: C
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Florida Atlantic Coach Lane Kiffin
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Wherever Lane Kiffin goes, controversy follows. He is only 41 years old, but Florida Atlantic is his fourth head coaching job. Kiffin was only 31 when Al Davis hired him to lead the Oakland Raiders as the youngest head coach in NFL history, but Davis fired him after just 20 games. He lasted just one season at Tennessee before bolting to Southern California. He went 28-15 in three-plus seasons with the Trojans before being pulled off the team bus and fired following a 62-41 loss at Arizona State.
Kiffin rehabbed his image in three seasons with Alabama as Nick Saban’s offensive coordinator, winning a national title in 2015 and helping guide the Crimson Tide to the College Football Playoff this season. But the Conference USA Owls were the highest-level program that was willing to give him the keys to the head coach’s office again.
He was expected to finish the College Football Playoff with Alabama, but Saban abruptly announced Monday that Kiffin was done as the Tide’s OC, telling reporters, including USA Today's Nicole Auerbach, that it was a mutual decision. Kiffin can coach, recruit and scheme well, but can he avoid drama on his own again? The jury is out on that count.
Grade: B
Florida International Coach Butch Davis
5 of 18
In the early part of this decade, Florida International was on the right track. Under coach Mario Cristobal, the young program made consecutive bowl games. But after going 3-9 in 2012, FIU officials fired Cristobal, and the Panthers regressed, going 10-30 in three-plus seasons under former Illinois coach Ron Turner.
Now FIU hopes another south Florida veteran can author a major turnaround. Butch Davis went 51-20 at Miami before leaving for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns and then won 28 games in four seasons at North Carolina before being fired just before the 2011 season in the midst of an NCAA investigation into agent involvement and academic impropriety. He hasn’t coached since, but FIU hopes he can resurrect his magic in familiar territory.
Davis is 65 years old but has a proven track record of success. He is the kind of coach who can use south Florida’s talent pool to make FIU competitive in Conference USA.
Grade: B-
Fresno State Coach Jeff Tedford
6 of 18
For Fresno State, it was time for a change. Under Pat Hill, the Bulldogs had been one of the nation’s top mid-major programs. After a quick start that included a pair of Mountain West titles in 2012 and 2013, coach Tim DeRuyter slipped badly, going 3-9 in 2015 and starting 1-7 in 2016 before being fired.
Fresno turned to a familiar West Coast face to replace him in former Cal coach Jeff Tedford. He went 82-57 with the Golden Bears with nine consecutive winning seasons. But near the end of his tenure, the Bears slumped, with a 3-9 mark in 2012 proving to be his undoing. He spent time on NFL and CFL sidelines, but Fresno is his chance to prove he can coach again at a high level.
Is it a good hire? We’ll see.
Grade: C
Georgia State Coach Shawn Elliott
7 of 18
Georgia State is a young program by any standards. The Panthers have played football for only seven seasons and only four in FBS.
What makes GSU an attractive job? Location, location, location. The Panthers are located in Atlanta, smack dab in the middle of a talent-rich recruiting area, and they’re getting ready to move into a renovated Turner Field following the Atlanta Braves’ move north and out of downtown Atlanta.
This can be a good job for the right coach, although that wasn’t Trent Miles, who went 9-38 (including a six-win 2015 season). South Carolina offensive line coach Shawn Elliott is an intriguing choice. He served as interim head coach after Steve Spurrier stepped away in 2015, going 1-5. He is a Camden, South Carolina, native and has the skills to succeed in the Sun Belt. With a little luck, Georgia State will be on a clear upward track.
Grade: B+
Houston Coach Major Applewhite
8 of 18
For Houston, it became clear it wasn’t a matter of whether it could keep Tom Herman. It was a matter of how long it could keep him for. A 13-1 debut that included a Peach Bowl win over Florida State made him the hottest coach in America, and even a couple of stumbles this fall en route to a 9-3 mark didn’t diminish his star. So it was no surprise that Herman bolted for Texas, one of college football’s true blue-blood programs. He’d done about as much as he could in Houston, especially without a Big 12 expansion invite coming.
Per CBSSports.com's Dennis Dodd, Houston received interest from the likes of Les Miles and Lane Kiffin, but the Cougars have a good thing going with a high-powered offense. So UH officials chose continuity by elevating offensive coordinator Major Applewhite into the head role.
Applewhite has experience as an offensive coordinator at Alabama and Texas, coming to Houston after Charlie Strong was hired as the Longhorns head coach. He provides stability, and little should change under his watch.
Grade: B+
Indiana Coach Tom Allen
9 of 18
On the surface, Indiana’s decision to part ways with coach Kevin Wilson was surprising. The Hoosiers, consistently one of the Big Ten’s gridiron dregs, became respectable in Wilson’s six-year run, making consecutive bowl appearances in 2015 and 2016. But on Dec. 1, Wilson and IU parted ways after the school investigated claims of player mistreatment on his watch.
Indiana had no coaching search, instead elevating defensive coordinator Tom Allen to the head role. In two seasons under Allen, the Hoosiers defense showed significant improvement, going from one of the nation’s worst to downright respectable by allowing 27.2 points per game this season, No. 57 nationally. IU officials trust that Allen can help the program progress even further with greater responsibility.
Grade: B
LSU Coach Ed Orgeron
10 of 18
Les Miles was an engaging, eccentric, successful football coach. He brought LSU’s program plenty of success, including a national title in 2007, but the gap between the Tigers and Nick Saban’s Alabama program only grew. While the Tide won national titles, LSU slipped to the eight-to-nine-win level. And that wasn’t good enough anymore. Following a 2-2 start to 2016, Miles was gone, being replaced on an interim basis by defensive assistant Ed Orgeron.
Orgeron flamed out in three seasons as Ole Miss head coach, going 10-25. But he went 6-2 as Southern California’s interim head coach in 2013 and did the same this fall, earning the trust of Tigers players and officials. According to Glenn Guilbeau of USA Today (h/t Chris Low of ESPN.com), LSU reportedly flirted hard with candidates including Tom Herman but ultimately decided that elevating Orgeron was the smartest move for the program’s future.
Can he hire an elite staff and close the gap between LSU and the Tide? That’s no easy task.
Grade: B-
Nevada Coach Jay Norvell
11 of 18
Nevada can be a difficult place for a first-time head coach to succeed, as Brian Polian found out. He made a pair of postseason appearances in four seasons as the Wolf Pack’s head coach, but never had a winning record in Mountain West play and finished 23-27 overall. That cost him his job, and veteran assistant Jay Norvell replaced him.
Norvell has never been a head coach but has served as an offensive/passing game coordinator at Nebraska, UCLA, Oklahoma and Arizona State. He has clear offensive skills and recruiting connections, and now he’ll get a chance to put them to use in a head role. He has the resume to succeed, but it could prove difficult.
Grade: B
Oregon Coach Willie Taggart
12 of 18
At first, it looked like Oregon made a seamless transition from Chip Kelly to Mark Helfrich. The Ducks went 24-4 in Helfrich’s first two seasons, including a national runner-up finish in 2014. But after Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota left for the NFL, the bottom fell out. Oregon slipped to 9-4 in 2015 and 4-8 this fall, and a revolving door at quarterback coupled with a porous defense spelled doom for Helfrich.
The Ducks moved outside of their established circles and made a great hire in South Florida’s Willie Taggart. He rebuilt downtrodden programs at Western Kentucky and South Florida, leading the Bulls to a 10-2 record this season with quarterback Quinton Flowers accounting for 4,342 yards of total offense and 42 total touchdowns.
While Taggart doesn’t have any clear Pac-12 ties, his teams score points (USF averaged 43.8 points per game this season) and play with good energy and spirit. This is a hire that could turn around Oregon’s flagging fortunes.
Grade: A-
Purdue Coach Jeff Brohm
13 of 18
Entering 2016, Darrell Hazell had one of the hottest seats in the FBS, and for good reason. He went 6-30 in three seasons at Purdue. An early 3-3 record did nothing to convince Purdue that he was the man for the job, and the program fired him midseason.
Purdue has some advantages; the Boilermakers are in the Big Ten West, the weaker of the league’s two divisions by far without the likes of Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan State to compete with. And Purdue officials have committed to making football a priority by upgrading facilities.
That was attractive to Jeff Brohm, who enjoyed huge success after following Bobby Petrino at Western Kentucky, going 30-10 with a pair of Conference USA division titles. Western Kentucky ran an uptempo system that averaged 45.5 points per game, No. 1 nationally, also ranking No.5 nationally in passing yardage per game.
It won’t happen overnight, but Brohm’s scheme should bring life to Purdue and make the Boilers respectable in the Big Ten West again.
Grade: B+
San Jose State Coach Brent Brennan
14 of 18
San Jose State is not an easy place to coach. The Spartans have played in just three bowl games in the last 26 seasons, and those who succeed quickly find a bigger spotlight elsewhere. That happened four years ago when Mike MacIntyre led SJSU to an 11-win season but was plucked away by Colorado to lead its flagging program.
Replacement Ron Caragher struggled in his stead, going 19-30 with no winning seasons in four years. The Spartans fired him and found a familiar face in Oregon State receivers coach Brent Brennan. He spent six seasons in Corvallis, but before that, he served six years on the SJSU staff. He understands how to recruit the Bay Area and has an energetic presence. This could be a tough task, but Brennan is set up for success.
Grade: B+
Temple Coach Geoff Collins
15 of 18
Temple had something special in coach Matt Rhule, who led the Owls, a nontraditional power, to 10 wins in each of the last two seasons. It was only a matter of time before a Power Five program came calling for Rhule, and as it turned out, Baylor did this offseason.
Replacing him could be tricky, but Temple made a solid choice in Geoff Collins. Over the last six seasons at Mississippi State and Florida, Collins established himself as one of the nation’s top defensive coordinators. This season, his Florida defense was No. 6 nationally in scoring defense, allowing 16.8 points per game. If he can translate that system to Temple and keep a competent offense in place, the Owls will win plenty of games in the American Athletic Conference.
Grade: B+
Texas Coach Tom Herman
16 of 18
The ultimate outcome of Charlie Strong’s run at Texas was inevitable throughout the course of the 2016 season. Strong came to Austin to solidify the Longhorns program but also to win games. And he simply didn’t win enough of them to satisfy Texas fans. Following a successful 37-15 run at Louisville, Strong didn’t have a winning season at Texas, going 16-21 over three years.
At a college football blue blood like Texas, that isn’t good enough, and Strong paid with his job. Texas was the most attractive job on the market, and the Longhorns got the most attractive candidate in Houston coach Tom Herman. He energized a lagging program in Houston, going 22-4 with a Peach Bowl victory in two seasons and garnering plenty of national headlines.
Texas high school coach David Raffield, who nearly hired Herman as an assistant in 2004, told Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News that the coach knows how to engage with people.
"Everyone knows he's very smart," Raffield said. "But when you're in the room, talking with Tom, you feel like the expert. He has the ability to draw information out of people."
He runs a fast-paced offensive scheme, has an enthusiastic style and has Texas roots after spending 1999-2000 as a graduate assistant. Strong has left him a solid foundation, and Herman is the right guy to capitalize on it and win big in Austin.
Grade: A
South Florida Coach Charlie Strong
17 of 18
Sometimes, a job just isn’t a good fit for a coach. That was the case with Charlie Strong and Texas. He inherited a program in need of some tough love after it had slipped at the end of Mack Brown’s tenure, and he provided that. But he wasn’t successful enough on the field, cycling through coordinators on both sides of the ball and getting the boot after 16 wins and no winning seasons in three years.
He needed a soft landing spot, and South Florida provides that. Strong is familiar with the territory that the American Athletic Conference represents following a strong run at Louisville, and he is a good recruiter. He also walks into an excellent situation with a team that is coming off a 10-2 record and led by standout dual-threat quarterback Quinton Flowers.
All the pieces are in place for Strong to succeed in Tampa and keep South Florida as a force to be reckoned with in the AAC. This was a solid hire.
Grade: A-
Western Kentucky Coach Mike Sanford
18 of 18
At Western Kentucky’s level, change is inevitable. The Hilltoppers are a solid Conference USA team and two-time defending league champions, but their success tends to attract attention from larger programs. Willie Taggart, Bobby Petrino and now Jeff Brohm have used the job as a springboard (or rebound, in Petrino’s case) to bigger, better opportunities.
So WKU reached back and grabbed another bright, young assistant in Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Sanford. The 34-year-old will be the youngest head coach in the FBS, but he has a strong track record of success at Stanford, Boise State and Notre Dame, as well as a year with on the Hilltoppers staff as offensive coordinator in 2010.
He has done an excellent job of mentoring quarterbacks, including Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer, and running potent offenses (the Fighting Irish averaged 34.2 points per game in 2015). This looks like a good hire, and if Western Kentucky is fortunate, it will be searching for another leader in a few years after Sanford gets a better opportunity at a bigger level.
Grade: B+
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