Ranking Debut Games for Every New Power 5 Conference College Football Coach
Barring any unforeseen craziness in the next few months, all of the biggest college football job openings have been filled for the 2016 season. Three of the 14 power-conference spots involved interim coaches landing the full-time gig, while the other 11 either promoted an assistant or went outside the program for their leaders.
Those 11 coaches have been hard at work getting started on their first season on the job, though most of their attention to this point has been focused on recruiting and establishing connections with boosters and fans. Their first time on the sideline is still a long ways away.
But not so long that we can't take an early look at what each power-conference first-year coach will be facing when he makes his debut in September. Six open the 2016 season with home games, five of which are against FCS teams, while three start on the road, and two will kick off for the first time in high-profile neutral-site games.
We've ranked these 11 debuts based on their difficulty, from cakewalk to buzz saw.
11. D.J. Durkin, Maryland
1 of 11
2016 opener: Sep. 3 vs. Howard
D.J. Durkin has assembled a heck of a coaching staff for his first season in charge of a program, his assistants including three men (Pete Lembo, Mike London and Scott Shafer) who were FBS head coaches in 2015. That should help him navigate a 2016 schedule that features games against most of the Big Ten's heavies.
He might be able to do it all alone in his debut, though, since Howard might have been the worst team at the Division I level this past season.
The Bison were 243rd out of 253 schools, per USA Today's Jeff Sagarin, going 1-10. That included a pair of shutout losses to FBS teams, 49-0 at Appalachian State and 76-0 against a Boston College team that finished third-to-last in the FBS in total offense.
This will be Durkin's second game as a head coach, having served as Florida's interim coach for its win over East Carolina in the Birmingham Bowl after the 2014 season.
10. Justin Fuente, Virginia Tech
2 of 11
2016 opener: Sept. 3 vs. Liberty
Justin Fuente is replacing a legend in Blacksburg, the school's first new coach since 1987, when Frank Beamer began his 29-year run. Though he worked wonders at Memphis, at Virginia Tech, he's taking over a program that has been stuck in the mud the last few seasons.
Liberty provides the perfect opening opponent for Fuente's team, an FCS team that went 6-5 a year ago, with a loss at West Virginia included. The Flames aspire to move to the FBS ranks at some point and will be hungry, which makes them dangerous than most lower-division opponents.
Fuente will want to build some momentum during this game, which is essentially a soft opening for Virginia Tech before its big unveiling a week later. That's when the Hokies meet up with Tennessee in a game set to be played on the infield of Bristol Motor Speedway along the Virginia-Tennessee border.
9. Dino Babers, Syracuse
3 of 11
2016 opener: Sept. 3 vs. Colgate
Dino Babers promised big things for Syracuse at his introductory press conference last month, according to Matt Schneidman of the Daily Orange.
"A packed Carrier Dome. Deafening noise. A no-huddle offense. Electric feeling," Schneidman wrote.
Other than the dome, that's very much the same thing Babers had going in his two years at Bowling Green. The test drive for this high-octane attack will be against an FCS opponent, but it is one that is coming off a playoff run.
Colgate was 9-4 last season, losing to Sam Houston State in the FCS quarterfinals. Along the way, it fell to Navy but beat two teams (Fordham and James Madison) that beat FBS teams in 2015. The Raiders will bring back a talented dual-threat quarterback in Jake Melville, who as a sophomore had more than 3,600 yards of total offense, including 1,073 rushing yards, and 22 total touchdowns.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
8. Matt Campbell, Iowa State
4 of 11
2016 opener: Sept. 3 vs. Northern Iowa
Matt Campbell inherits a strong crop of rising talent on both sides of the ball at Iowa State, some of whom he's familiar with from his former Toledo team's win over the Cyclones in September. His new team also has some history with the team Campbell will be making his ISU debut against, as Northern Iowa also opened the 2015 season in Ames.
The Cyclones easily won that game, 31-7, holding the Panthers to 302 yards of total offense. Northern Iowa went on to reach the FCS semifinals, guided by dual-threat quarterback Aaron Bailey.
Things get much tougher for Campbell after the opener, as Iowa State visits rival Iowa and then begins Big 12 play at TCU.
7. Bronco Mendenhall, Virginia
5 of 11
2016 opener: Sept. 3 vs. Richmond
Bronco Mendenhall's move from BYU to the ACC was arguably the most surprising of the coaching carousel, though a quick look at BYU's ambitious 2016 schedule could have influenced this decision.
He won't have an easy go of it with Virginia, with nine of the Cavaliers' 12 opponents having made bowl games, but at least he gets a winnable opener.
Richmond went 10-4 last season, losing to North Dakota State in the FCS semifinals. The Spiders opened the year with a 29-point loss at Maryland, which only won twice more in 2015, but they do bring back a promising quarterback in redshirt sophomore Kyle Lauletta. His 3,598 passing yards were second-most at the FCS level.
6. Mark Richt, Miami (Florida)
6 of 11
2016 opener: TBD
The ACC is the only power conference that hasn't unveiled its full schedule for 2016, so we're not exactly sure who Mark Richt will make his Miami debut against. The Hurricanes' first locked game is Sept. 10 against Florida A&M, but they're also set to host Florida Atlantic at some point.
Or the league could opt to have the most famous of its four new coaches open with a conference game in the first week of September, possibly on Labor Day?
An ACC team has played on that holiday every year since 2009, including four league games. Miami played on Labor Day in 2014 (at Louisville), 2011 (at Maryland) and 2009 (at Florida State).
Florida State is facing Ole Miss in Orlando on Labor Day this fall, but that wouldn't preclude a second game involving ACC teams. In 2016, the Hurricanes are scheduled to host Duke and visit Georgia Tech, neither of which has a game lined up for Week 1 as of now.
5. Kalani Sitake, BYU
7 of 11
2016 opener: Sept. 3 vs. Arizona (in Glendale, Arizona)
BYU's first choice to replace Bronco Mendenhall as coach was Navy's Ken Niumatalolo, but he opted to stick with the job he's held since 2007. That left the job for Kalani Sitake, a former BYU fullback who was defensive coordinator at Oregon State in 2015.
Sitake's Beavers went 2-10 and faced an arduous schedule that featured games against nine bowl teams, including Michigan, Stanford and Oregon. That unknowingly served as preparation for his first head-coaching gig and a murderers' row of 2016 opponents.
The opener against Arizona will be played in University of Phoenix Stadium, where this season's national championship is being held in a few days. It's also one of six games the independent Cougars have against power-conference teams, all in the first seven weeks of the season.
After Arizona, BYU visits rival Utah and then hosts UCLA before playing West Virginia (in Landover, Maryland), traveling to Michigan State and hosting Mississippi State.
4. Kirby Smart, Georgia
8 of 11
2016 opener: Sept. 3 vs. North Carolina (in Atlanta)
Kirby Smart has been doing double duty since being hired by Georgia last month, going back and forth between settling in with the Bulldogs and helping Alabama win a national championship as its defensive coordinator. Once he gets around to his first season as head coach, it's going to feel like a lazy Sunday.
It helps that things will get started in a place he's become quite familiar with during his time with the Crimson Tide.
Atlanta's Georgia Dome has been witness to some of Smart's best coaching jobs, with Alabama going 8-1 there since 2008, including four SEC title game victories. Smart also put together game plans to beat West Virginia, Virginia Tech (twice) and Clemson.
North Carolina led the FBS in yards per play in 2015, making for a fun challenge for Smart to begin with.
3. Will Muschamp, South Carolina
9 of 11
2016 opener: Sept. 1 at Vanderbilt
Will Muschamp went 17-15 in SEC games in his four seasons at Florida, including 7-7 in league road games. Two of those victories came at Vanderbilt, which he'll be starting his South Carolina tenure against in Nashville.
Though it's not ideal opening with a conference game, this is nothing new in the SEC. South Carolina hosted Texas A&M to start the 2014 season, a blowout home loss that signaled the beginning of the end for Steve Spurrier, and in 2012, the Gamecocks opened with a Thursday night win at Vandy.
Three of Muschamp's first four games will be on the road and in SEC play. After the opener, South Carolina plays at Mississippi State and later Kentucky, with a visit from East Carolina wedged in between. Then it stays in Columbia for six weeks, with five home games and a bye.
2. Barry Odom, Missouri
10 of 11
2016 opener: Sept. 3 at West Virginia
Missouri was in the midst of a second consecutive SEC East Division title run in November 2014 when it set up a home-and-home series with West Virginia. It helped satisfied the conference's mandate to have all teams play at least one power-conference opponent each season, and with the way the Tigers were performing looked like a great challenge to open 2016.
Now it serves as a daunting opener for new coach Barry Odom, who was Missouri's defensive coordinator this past season, when it went 5-7 under the now-retired Gary Pinkel.
The Tigers were among the worst offensive teams in the country in 2015 but featured another strong defense. They'll need to lean on that side of the ball against a West Virginia team that scored 40 or more points five times this season, including on Jan. 2, when Skyler Howard threw for 532 yards and five touchdowns in the Mountaineers' Cactus Bowl win against Arizona State.
1. Chris Ash, Rutgers
11 of 11
2016 opener: Sept. 3 at Washington
Chris Ash's first gig as a head coach includes a five-year, $11 million contract. His 2016 salary will be $2 million, per Keith Sargeant of NJ.com, and there are plenty of potential bonuses available, though it appears no allowance was given to purchase a neck pillow and some headphones for the cross-country flight for his first game.
Rutgers has to travel more than 2,800 miles for its season opener in Seattle, its second trip to the Emerald City in three years. The Scarlet Knights opened the 2014 season against Washington State in Seattle, winning 41-38 at CenturyLink Field, but this game will be at Washington's scenic Husky Stadium.
The Huskies are coming off a 7-6 season in which they won their last three games, including against Southern Miss in the Heart of Dallas Bowl.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
