Pac-12's 4 New Head Coaches: Who Were the Good (and Bad) Hires?

As I write this, Pac-12 football fans are in full frenzy over tomorrow's recruiting National Signing Day. In addition to the excitement that each school's recruiting class will generate, there is another important factor in the 2012 season that deserves analysis.

Fully one-third of the Pac-12's head football coaches will be new to the conference in 2012. What will that mean to the outcome of conference play? Will the new coaches have an immediate impact at their respective schools? 

Who will have the best record among the newbies and who will have the worst in their debut Pac-12 campaign? 

But first, some history on how each of the four got to where they are today and some analysis on their 2012 prospects.

Arizona out of the Blocks Early with Rich Rodriguez Hire

With the midseason firing of volatile coach Mike Stoops, Arizona was first to strike. After a five-week search that reportedly included Urban Meyer and Mike Leach, Arizona Athletic Director Greg Byrne announced the hiring of Rich Rodriguez on Nov. 21, 2011.

Following a very successful stint at West Virginia, Rodriguez presided over three disappointing years at the University of Michigan. He was fired from Michigan on Jan. 5, 2011. Take your pick whether it was the embarrassing NCAA violations off the field or the lack of success, particularly against Big Ten rivals, on the field that resulted in Rodriguez's dismissal. 

Since his firing by Michigan, Rodriguez has worked as an analyst for CBS Sports. He made it clear during the 2011 college football season that he was open to a return to coaching.

Rodriguez's solid 120-84-2 career record as a head coach and his three consecutive BCS bowl appearances while at West Virginia is surely what attracted Byrne. Rodriguez's fondness for the spread offense probably helped too.

As the 2012 season gets underway, it's going to be important to watch and listen to what Byrne says about his new hire. Although young for his position, Byrne has been around collegiate athletics his entire life; his father, Bill Byrne, was formerly AD at Oregon and is currently the AD at Texas A&M. 

Greg, like his father, has an upstanding reputation, and I suspect he will not put up with any shenanigans from his head coach. He will be closely watching Rodriguez's every move to make sure that his NCAA violations behavior and potty mouth are a thing of the past. 

The big test in this hiring risk, of course, will be, can Rich Rodriguez compete and win in the Pac-12? Byrne has long-standing ties to Oregon—his wife is from Junction City, a small town outside Eugene—and he understands who the competition is.

Arizona finished dead last in the South Division of the Pac-12 in 2011, so one could make the case that Rich Rodriguez only needs to improve on that dismal record. But expectations in Tucson are high despite their difficult 2012 schedule.

The Wildcats start out with a warm-up scrimmage against Toledo at Arizona Stadium before they welcome Oklahoma State to their place in Week 2. It would be unrealistic to expect the 'Cats to compete, much less win that game, and yet...

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that Arizona beats the Cowboys on Sept. 8 (I know, it's a stretch, but OK State didn't kill Arizona last year when they played in Stillwater). The next week, they have South Carolina State coming to Tucson, a team that went 7-4 in 2011 playing such powerhouses as Delaware State

So now, Arizona is 3-0, Rodriguez is elected Governor of Arizona and they are headed to Eugene for the matchup with the Ducks on Sept. 22. Anything might happen.

As I write this on the day before national signing day, Arizona is ranked at No. 45 on Rivals list of recruiting 2012 team rankings, with two 4-star and 13 3-stars committed.

Mike Leach to Washington State

For those of you outside of Pullman who aren't all that familiar with Mike Leach, let's start with some statistics:

*  In 10 seasons at Texas Tech, Leach was 84-43 overall.

* As head coach, his Red Raiders made nine consecutive bowl appearances.

* Leach's teams had three nine-win seasons and one 11-win season (2008).

* Texas Tech led the NCAA in passing yardage four straight years.

* In four completed seasons, Texas Tech was ranked in the top 25 in the nation.

* Mike Leach is one of 16 active college football coaches who have never had a losing season. Let me repeat that: never had a losing season.

Are you scared yet? You should be. Leach is a winner. He has the full backing of an athletic director who wants to make some noise and who has put Leach in the top echelon of Pac-12 coaching salaries.

I don't think there is any way to know precisely why Leach was fired at Texas Tech Dec. 30, 2009.  Maybe it was because he was reportedly owed an $800,000 bonus and $1.7 million in guaranteed income if he stayed until Dec. 31, 2009, the timing of which always did seem somewhat suspicious. 

Maybe Leach was fired because of ongoing acrimonious contract negotiations.

Maybe he was fired because of the Adam James contretemps. This seems like as good a place as any to insert that I always thought Craig James, Adam's father, is an arrogant twit. 

The point is, it doesn't matter why Leach and Texas Tech parted ways. He is an excellent, innovative football coach who has assembled a good staff of young winners. Wazzu will win more games in 2012 than they did in 2011, and on any given Saturday, the Cougars look to be a threat.

Is there anything else you should know about Mike Leach? He's a graduate of Pepperdine Law School, but thought he would try coaching before practicing law because he didn't want to wear a suit every day. Also, he likes pirate stuff. Arrr.

If you root for any of the other 11 teams in the Pac-12, you should be very afraid of this hire. 

UCLA Hires NFL Veteran Jim Mora

As sick as I am of looking at Rick Neuheisel's whiny puss, I'm having trouble welcoming Jim Mora to UCLA and the Pac-12 conference.

He seems like a decent sort, but for the life of me, I can't figure out why he was hired.

Mora has virtually no college football experience, unless you count one year as a University of Washington graduate assistant in 1984—and I don't.

He does have 15 years of assistant coaching experience in the NFL for various teams, followed by four years as a head NFL coach—three years at the Atlanta Falcons and one year at the Seattle Seahawks. 

His overall head coaching record is 31-33, with no Super Bowl wins, zero overall championships, no conference championships and one division championship.

Seattle signed Mora to a five-year contract in 2008, announcing him as the successor to Mike Holmgren. His first year head coaching record of 5-11 in Seattle led to his prompt firing after one season.

Mora spent two years out of coaching as an analyst at the NFL Network and as a broadcaster for Fox Sports. My advice to Mr. Mora is to keep up his networking with the TV folks. You just never know.

I won't add that he may have gotten many of his coaching jobs because of his father, as it feels like a cheap shot.

I do know that since his hiring by UCLA, Mora has brought in good recruiting assistants to provide the experience and college connections that he lacks. As a result, UCLA's 2012 recruiting class as of today is ranked a gaudy No. 14 by Rivals.com. That ranking includes 5-star DT Ellis McCarthy, and God knows the Bruins could use some defensive muscle.

Will UCLA's most excellent recruiting class result in wins on the field in 2012? 

Will Jim Mora get more than Neuweasel's six wins?

Will UCLA repeat as South Division champions? No.

For answers to the other questions, we shall see.

Todd Graham Takes over for Dennis Erickson at Arizona State

I thought June Jones got this job? Oops, that was almost; someone at ASU apparently pulled the plug on that hire, and now, the job belongs to Todd Graham.

Graham has six years of collegiate head coaching experience. Hired away from Pittsburgh after one season and a mediocre 6-6 record, Graham apparently has some work to do on his communication skills. He informed his Pitt players that he was leaving in a text message.

Prior to his oh-so-brief-stint at Pittsburgh, Graham was 36-17 in four seasons at the University of Tulsa. He led the Golden Hurricanes to three bowl wins, twice leading the nation in total offense. Graham is known for talking fast and being a proponent of an up-tempo offense—sound like anyone else in the Pac-12 you know?

Before landing the Tulsa job, Graham had a successful first year as head coach of the Rice Owls and led them to their first bowl appearance in over four decades. After that first year at Rice, Graham left after one season for Tulsa (do I detect a pattern here?).

Pitt fans were rightfully ticked off after Graham placed the university in the unenviable position of having to hire four head coaches in 13 months (it's a long story). But c'mon, if you had the choice of living in Phoenix instead of Pittsburgh, which would you choose? (I personally like Pittsburgh; I'm just putting this in to rile you up.)

One thing I didn't know until I started researching Graham for this piece is that he was a former assistant coach to Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia. That factoid should add a little more spice to the cross-Arizona rivalry of the two new head coaches.

Will Todd Graham win more games than Dennis Erickson did last year? I don't think so.  In fact, I believe that by about the middle of October, Sparky will be looking back at Erickson wistfully and June Jones will look very good.