8 New College Football Coaches Who Face the Toughest Road to Success
College football is a tough business. The new College Football Playoff and ever-improving television contracts have significantly increased the amount of money coming into the sport, but they’ve also increased the pressure on head coaches and their staffs.
Football is the engine that fuels most FBS athletic departments, and a 5-7 record has a ripple effect on the entire department in terms of empty seats and lower donations from boosters. College athletic directors have less patience than ever, and the coaching carousel spins every winter.
This winter, only 15 programs hired new head coaches, down from 21 a year ago. While some programs, like Michigan, made hires that set themselves up for success, other programs will find the going tougher. Here are seven new head coaches who face the toughest road to success.
Gary Andersen, Oregon State
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This offseason, one of the epicenters of the coaching carousel was…Corvallis, Oregon? Mike Riley raised plenty of eyebrows when he departed a comfortable situation for Nebraska. And the Beavers raised plenty more when they hired Gary Andersen away from Wisconsin after just two seasons.
Andersen is a West Coast guy who previously coached at Utah State, but the move was still surprising. Andersen told CBSSports.com's Dennis Dodd that Wisconsin's admission standards pushed him to Oregon State:
"It's been well [documented] there were some kids I couldn't get in school," he told Dodd. "That was highly frustrating to me. I lost some guys, and I told them I wasn't going to lose them. I think they did what they were supposed to do [academically] and they still couldn't get in. That was really hard to deal with."
At Wisconsin, he’d compete for the Big Ten West title, at minimum, every year with Nebraska and Iowa as his toughest competitors. Now he steps into a Pac-12 North with Oregon, Stanford and Washington, not to mention an improving Cal program.
In 14 seasons at Oregon State, Riley had seven winning seasons, three nine-win seasons and one 10-win season. Can Andersen do any better, especially with one of the nation’s top programs just down the road? Corvallis is a fine town, but Oregon State won’t compete with Oregon for funding or facilities.
Andersen is a good coach, but this isn’t an easy job. Not at all.
David Beaty, Kansas
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When Kansas fired Charlie Weis last fall, you had to wonder if school officials bit their lip and wondered privately: “Can we get Mark Mangino back?” Mangino is the only coach in modern times to have achieved anything approximating consistent success in the college football graveyard that is Lawrence, Kansas.
After being fired for alleged misconduct toward players in 2009, his final record was 50-48. He was the first KU coach to leave the program with a winning record since 1953, which included an Orange Bowl win in 2007.
Mangino’s successors, Turner Gill and Charlie Weis, struggled mightily, putting together a combined record of 11-41. Weis had only three wins against FBS opponents, and he and Gill were a combined 2-35 in Big 12 play. Welcome to Kansas, David Beaty!
The Jayhawks will return their leading passer and rusher from 2014 in Michael Cummings and Corey Avery, but those players were part of an offense that finished 118th nationally in scoring offense. Beaty must recruit in one of the nation’s toughest leagues, with in-state rival Kansas State positioned perfectly under longtime coach Bill Snyder. If Beaty turns this program around, he’ll have earned his next contract at someplace more conducive to success.
Neal Brown, Troy
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The job that Larry Blakeney did at Troy shouldn’t be ignored. When he retired following the 2014 season, the former Auburn assistant was the second-longest tenured head coach in the FBS, behind only Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer. He guided the Trojans from the I-AA ranks into the Sun Belt and took Troy to five consecutive league titles (albeit some of them shared titles) from 2006 to 2010, including four bowl trips and two bowl wins.
But he might have stayed a little too long. In his final four seasons, Troy was 17-25 with a pair of three-win seasons.
Now, it’s Neal Brown’s job to take the Trojans back to the top of the Sun Belt.
At 34, Brown, a former Troy offensive coordinator, is the second-youngest head coach in the FBS ranks. He knows the lay of the land, and has an exciting offense which will play well in Troy. But how quickly can he get the kind of offensive talent he needs to succeed? And how will he transition into being the face of a program? That remains to be seen.
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Lance Leipold, Buffalo
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As college football outposts go, Buffalo is among the most remote. The Bulls’ program has found sporadic success in the past decade, including a Mid-American Conference title in 2008 and a bowl bid in 2013, but it hasn’t been able to sustain that success.
Former coach Jeff Quinn took over after Turner Gill left for Kansas, and he went 20-36 in four-plus seasons before being fired midway through the 2014 season with a 3-4 record. Into the breach steps Lance Leipold.
Leipold had incredible success at Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater, going 109-6 with six D-III national championships in eight seasons. He was the fastest coach in NCAA history to reach 100 wins at any level, and he runs a pro-style offense and a multiple defense. However, he has no experience as an FBS coordinator or head coach; his only FBS experience came as a Nebraska assistant from 2001 to 2003.
The MAC is an extremely competitive league, and while Buffalo is just one season removed from a bowl appearance, winning consistently there won’t be easy. Leipold will need a fast learning curve.
Jim McElwain, Florida
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Make no mistake. What Jim McElwain accomplished at Colorado State in 2014 was impressive. McElwain led the Rams to a 10-3 record and a Las Vegas Bowl berth, and it was no surprise that Florida courted him as Will Muschamp’s replacement. He was smart to accept, as well. After all, opportunities at a program of Florida’s caliber don’t come along very often. USA Today's Dan Wolken says McElwain is built to win at Florida.
That said, the task ahead of him is not easy. This isn’t to say that Florida is a massive rebuilding job in an out-of-the-way hamlet. Clearly, it isn’t. But Florida fans have high expectations, which is understandable given the team's three national titles over the last two decades.
Will Muschamp was shown the door just two seasons removed from an 11-win season and a Sugar Bowl appearance, although that was followed by a 4-8 season capped by a home loss to Georgia Southern.
Muschamp didn’t leave the talent cupboard totally bare, though.
Florida went 7-5 in 2014 and won the Birmingham Bowl. However, the Gators are behind the curve in facilities, although that is being rectified with the construction of a new practice facility, among other things.
But Florida is still in the same division as Georgia, Missouri and an improving Tennessee team, and it also plays LSU every season. Win the East, and the SEC West winner stands between you and a major bowl bid. We’re not suggesting that McElwain won’t succeed, only that success at the level Florida fans demand will be difficult.
Philip Montgomery, Tulsa
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Tulsa has had its share of football success over the past 15 years. The problem has been maintaining it.
Steve Kragthorpe went 29-22 with a Conference USA title from 2003 to 2006, but he bolted for Louisville. His successor, Todd Graham, went 35-17 from 2007 to 2010, then left for Pittsburgh. Graham’s successor, former high school coach Bill Blankenship, actually won a C-USA title in 2012, but he was fired after four seasons and a 24-27 record (5-19 in 2013-14).
This time around, Tulsa chose a more experienced coach in Baylor offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery. The Bears' offense was consistently one of the nation’s best under Montgomery’s watch, averaging 48.2 points per game in 2014 (No. 1 nationally). Montgomery won’t have the same kind of talent at Tulsa, but he’ll bring along the same offense.
With Chad Morris at SMU, Tom Herman at Houston, George O’Leary at Central Florida and Tommy Tuberville at Cincinnati, not to mention Justin Fuente at Memphis, moving up in the American Athletic Conference won’t be easy. Montgomery has the offensive acumen, but can he elevate a program at the smallest school in the FBS? We’ll see.
Chad Morris, SMU
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When SMU hired Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris as its next head coach, the move was hailed as a coup.
With good reason.
Morris established himself as one of the nation’s hottest assistants at Clemson, turning a moribund offense into one of college football’s top uptempo attacks with energetic coaching and great recruiting.
SMU seems like a natural fit for the Texas native, who was looking for the right job before he’d even think about leaving Clemson. Texas has an excellent recruiting base for him to draw from, and the program is perfectly located in the Dallas Metroplex.
However, this program has never really recovered from receiving the NCAA death penalty in 1987. June Jones brought the Mustangs back to respectability with four consecutive bowl trips from 2009 to 2012, winning three of those trips.
But the program sunk back to 1-11 last fall, avoiding a winless season with a victory in the regular-season finale at UConn. The Mustangs must compete with the likes of Cincinnati, Central Florida, East Carolina and Memphis at the top of the league, and even Texas rival Houston appears better positioned for success, with new coach Tom Herman getting a one-year-old stadium and a team that went 8-5 last fall.
There is little doubt that Morris will eventually experience success at SMU. But he’ll have to roll up his sleeves, pound a few Red Bulls and work for it.
Tony Sanchez, UNLV
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There are many, many things to do in Las Vegas on any given night. You have gambling. Shopping. Nightlife. Broadway revues and top-level musicals. Comedy. Music. Did we mention gambling?
Far down the list? UNLV football.
While Las Vegas is a thriving metropolis, Rebel football has long been one of the most forlorn outposts in the FBS. UNLV has made just three bowl games since 1987.
In five seasons at UNLV, Bobby Hauck went 15-49, winning just two games in four of his five seasons and making a bowl appearance in 2013.
So why not think outside the box? That’s exactly what the Rebels did with Tony Sanchez.
UNLV didn’t have to look far to find Sanchez. He was at Las Vegas’ Bishop Gorman Catholic, where he piloted a national power. In six seasons at Bishop Gorman, he went 85-5 with six Nevada Class 4A state championships.
The Rebels are in the weaker of the two Mountain West divisions, avoiding Boise State, Colorado State and Utah State. Fresno State and San Diego State are the best teams in the West Division, but getting UNLV back to respectability, much less Mountain West contention, will be a Herculean task.
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