The 20 Worst College Football Coaching Hires of the Last 20 Years

Twenty years is a long time, especially in college football.

But with 120 teams in D1 football, there are a lot of opportunities for bad coaching hires to be made.

From Weis to Willingham, most schools have had their share of bad choices.

And in most cases, a bad hire doesn't just mean a bad season or two or three. It can also set the program back several years as well.

With that said, here are the 20 worst coaching hires in order of the last 20 years in college football.

20. Ted Roof - Duke

Duke has never been as much a football powerhouse as their basketball team has been for a long time.

But the Blue Devils program bottomed out in the Ted Roof era from 2003-2007. In those years, Roof went 6-45 and never won more than two games in a season.

The Blue Devils have improved since, as they were one win from bowling for the first time since 1994.

19. Greg McMackin - Hawaii

For the better part of the last decade, the Hawaii Warriors became an offensive powerhouse.

But when June Jones left the islands for SMU, DC Greg McMackin was hired and tried to bring a defensive mindset to the Warriors.

So far, the transition hasn't gone as well as planned, as the Warriors are 13-14 in the past two seasons after a pair of 10-win seasons.

And the defense still needs some work, as the Warriors gave up over 30 points in seven games in 2009.

18. Paul Wulff -Washington State

Cougars fans must feel that the glory days of Ryan Leaf are so much longer ago than a decade.

But Wulff, who coached at Eastern Washington and had a good resume in doing so, seemed like he could turn things around.

The result has been a dismal 3-22 in two seasons, with only one Pac-10 win in the past two years, and that was against winless Washington in 2008.

17. Terry Shea - Rutgers

Before Greg Schiano arrived in Piscataway, Rutgers was in the middle of a rough patch since joining the Big East in 1991.

But the man that Schiano replaced, Terry Shea, put the Scarlet Knights program through a long, tough five years.

Shea went 11-44 in five seasons, never finishing at .500 including an 0-11 season in his second year.

It's safe to say Rutgers got it right replacing Shea, an NFL QB consultant, with Schiano.

16. Tommy Bowden - Clemson

While Bowden's resume at Clemson might be the best of the men on this list, it was his lack of poise as a leader that nets him a spot on the list.

Bowden was 72-45 in 10 seasons at Clemson, but never had a 10-win season for the Tigers.

He has been best known for having underperforming teams, especially in 2008, where Bowden's team was considered a preseason national title contender.

But after a collapse against Alabama and two straight ACC losses, Bowden resigned and his players were mostly relieved at the decision.

QB Cullen Harper's quote tells the whole story, "It's what he deserved."

15. Karl Dorrell - UCLA

Dorrell had never been a head coach before coming to Los Angeles in 2003 and his inexperienced showed.

Despite a 10-win season in 2005, Dorrell and the Bruins never lost less than six games in his other four seasons.

As the losses started to pile up, Dorrell was criticized for an inability to motivate his players and losing games he should win.

Not even a shocking upset of #2 USC in 2006 could save his job, as Dorrell was fired in 2007.

14. John L. Smith - Michigan State

Smith came into East Lansing after a solid resume at Louisville, but ultimately coaching in the Big Ten is not as easy as some think.

Smith was a winner in his first season, going 8-5, but the Spartans never sniffed a bowl in his final three seasons at Michigan State.

For the last two seasons, Smith and the Spartans started strong, only to falter down the stretch, and a memorable meltdown after giving up a blocked field goal for a touchdown against Ohio State in 2005.

The score was 17-7 Spartans with time running out in the first half. OSU then would block the field goal and score a touchdown. The Spartans would lose 35-24 to the Buckeyes, signaling the beginning of Smith's end in East Lansing.

13. Paul Hackett - USC

After USC legend John Robinson retired a second time in 1998, the Trojans turned to former Pitt headman Paul Hackett to bring glory back to USC.

But it did not turn out so well, as USC went 19-18 in his three seasons at the helm, and many felt that USC would never return to the glory days of McKay and Robinson.

This story does have a happy ending, as Hackett was replaced by a former NFL coach named Pete Carroll.

And from there, the rest is history.

12. Greg Robinson - Syracuse

Syracuse football has produced some of the most talented players in memory, from Jim Brown to Donovan McNabb, and John Mackey to Art Monk.

But the school that produced the first African-American Heisman Trophy winner in the late Ernie Davis never saw anything close to the glory days in Greg Robinson's tenure.

In a depleted Big East conference, Robinson's Orange were a dismal 10-37 in four seasons, and never won more than one conference game in a season.

Robinson is now the defensive coordinator at Michigan, and his replacement, Doug Marrone, already has tied Robinson's best record at 4-8.

11. Tyrone Willingham - Notre Dame

The mastermind behind a Stanford team that went to the Rose Bowl in 1999, Willingham's first year in South Bend was a boom, going 10-3 and getting the Irish to the Gator Bowl.

But it was not a sign of things to come, as the Irish went 12-12 in his final two seasons, including a blowout loss at home, 41-16, against Purdue.

Willingham was fired in 2004, and never beat the archrival Trojans, something that will get any headman in South Bend fired.

10. Lane Kiffin - Tennessee

No coach has had quite an interesting single season as Lane Kiffin did at Tennessee in 2009.

From his promise of beating Florida to hiring a $5 million staff including NFL defensive mastermind Monte Kiffin, there was never a dull moment in Kiffin's short reign.

The Vols performed decently, falling just short against Florida and Alabama on the road, but were blown out by Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

But Kiffin is at USC, in a firestorm that created riots in Knoxville the night the announcement was made.

Kiffin's career began and ended with a bang at Tennessee, but it did not merit tremendous success.

9. Ron Zook - Florida

Replacing the legendary Steve Spurrier in Gainesville would prove to be a tough mission for Ron Zook.

But the man many felt was a tireless recruiter never met the enormous expectations, as he brought in the talent to help the Gators win a national title in 2007, but never successfully harnessed it.

Florida was 23-14 in three seasons under Zook, and was let go for Urban Meyer.

Zook is now at Illinois, and led that team to the 2007 Rose Bowl.

But the same failing that chased Zook out of Florida are causing problems at Illinois, except he doesn't have the top talent to win in the Big Ten.

8. Bill Callahan - Nebraska

Nebraska in the mid-90s under Tom Osborne was what Florida and USC are today, utterly dominant.

Callahan, the former Oakland Raiders coach in the NFL, was hired to return the Cornhuskers to their glory days.

But the offensive-minded coach was a poor fit in Lincoln, as the Huskers went 27-22 in his four seasons.

Defense was the issue, as in Callahan's tenure, the defense formerly known as the Blackshirts gave up point totals of 76, 70, and 65, scores seen in college basketball games.

The offense was good in itself, but the porous defense is what punched the man that SI.com called the worst coaching hire of the decade a ticket out of Lincoln.

7. Steve Kragthorpe - Louisville

Bobby Petrino's bolt to the NFL after Louisville cracked the BCS opened the door for Tulsa's Steve Kragthorpe to continue the great success.

But the Cardinals never played in a bowl during Kragthorpe's three seasons, and collapsed under his reign.

The Cardinals were responsible for being Greg Robinson's one Big East win in his final season in 2008.

Kragthorpe is gone, replaced by Charlie Strong of Florida, and still in the unemployment line.

6. Rich Rodriguez - MIchigan

It might be too early to call the Rich Rodriguez era in Ann Arbor a bust, but the Wolverines have never been the same since Rodriguez came in 2008.

In his first year, the Wolverines had their worst season at 3-9, and missed a bowl game for the first time in 33 years.

His second season saw an improved team, but at 5-7, the again missed a bowl, faltering down the stretch.

Most Wolverine fans feel that 2010 is Rich Rod's final shot to be a winner, and to beat Ohio State, something Michigan has not done since 2003.

5. Mike Price - Alabama

Mike Price might be the most interesting person on this list because he is the only one to never coach a game for the team he was hired for.

The Tide hired Price in 2003 to replace Dennis Franchione, and coached the team in spring practices.

But he was shortly thereafter fired after Sports Illustrated reported Price had been seen at a strip club in Pensacola, Florida.

Price never signed a written contract with the Tide, and is now coaching at UTEP.

4. Bill Lewis - Georgia Tech

The school of Johnny Heisman, and Bobby Dodd, the man for whom the coach of the year trophy is named after, went into a sudden fall from grace in the early 1990s.

Bill Lewis from East Carolina was brought in to continue the winning tradition of GT, including a split 1990 national title.

The aftermath could not be any worse for the Yellow Jackets.

Lewis went 11-19 in three seasons, and had inept offenses.

Lewis was let go during the 1994 season, after his time trying to turn around the mess in Atlanta had run out.

His poor tenure almost destroyed the legacy of a program with so much prior success.

3. Charlie Weis - Notre Dame

Charlie Weis could not have had a better start to his Notre Dame coaching career, making two straight BCS bowl appearances.

But once Brady Quinn left to go to the NFL, Weis became ineffective as a coach.

He went 16-21 in the final three seasons in South Bend and only went to one more bowl game in that tenure.

Weis endured massive criticism, including health problems, and the ongoing criticism of not being able to get the most of his players.

After two losses in three years to Navy, something the Irish had not done since the Roger Staubach era, Weis' fate was sealed.

Weis is back in the NFL, and it is up to Brian Kelly to pick up the pieces on a whirlwind in South Bend.

2. Larry Coker - Miami

For two full years, Larry Coker and Miami never knew losing, as they blew through the Big East in 2001 and 2002, winning a national title and a shot at another.

But as the calendar flipped to 2003, Coker's 'Canes lost to Ohio State in one of the biggest upset in college football history.

Since then, Miami went on a steady decline, as they fell out of the national title picture in 2003.

When the Canes came to the ACC, they never contended again, and ultimately fell out of the AP Top 25 in 2006.

Coker was fired for Randy Shannon, but not after the slow, lengthy decline from glory in Coral Gables.

1. Tyrone Willingham - Washington

Willingham is the only coach on this list twice, and for good reason as well.

The Huskies who had won the 2001 Rose Bowl and two national titles in the 1990s felt that Willingham would have success in the Pac-10 after his tenure at Stanford.

It was not meant to be in Seattle, as Willingham and the Huskies went 11-37 in four seasons, never finishing better than ninth in the conference.

2008 was the end for Willingham, as he was never popular with the fans but he was given a vote of confidence by administration.

Washington would not win a single game in 2008, and Willingham was fired shortly after, with the worst winning percentage in school history.

Ironically, the man who replaced Willingham, Steve Sarkisian, who had never been a head coach, has already matched Willingham's best season in his only year in 2009.