College Football's Most Predictable Coaches
It shouldn't be too hard to figure out which coaches made our list of the most predictable in college football, for obvious reasons.
Whether by design or by default, these coaches aren't fooling anyone with the way they go about their business on game days. It feels like the crowd could call plays, or in situations where one of these coaches could take a risk, he doesn't have the slightest thought of that. Instead, he makes the safe move, just as one would expect.
Considering how complex college football has become, with the hybrid offensive schemes and near-constant attempts to push the envelope, it's somewhat comforting to know there are still a few coaches out there you can rely on to be boring or unimaginative.
Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
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Iowa had arguably its best season in program history last year, starting 12-0 and winning the Big Ten's West Division. The Hawkeyes came within a hair of winning the conference title but still earned their first Rose Bowl bid in 25 years.
Despite this breakout performance, Kirk Ferentz's expression—or coaching style—didn't budge.
Ferentz just completed his 17th season in Iowa City, tied with Oklahoma's Bob Stoops for the longest-tenured coach at the FBS level. And other than the record from 2015, almost everything else was exactly the same as most previous years.
The Hawkeyes averaged 386.1 yards per game last season, which ranked 72nd in the country. In going 7-6 the year before, they averaged 400.1 yards and ranked 66th. They ranked 85th in total offense in 2013 while going 8-5.
Plain and simple, Ferentz can be counted on to go about his business without any flash or flair.
Todd Graham, Arizona State
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Todd Graham has ditched the pop-star headsets that made him look like he was ready to call plays while doing a dance number, but the Arizona State coach hasn't given up on his color-coded wristbands. Those remain a staple of his sideline wardrobe as much as his propensity to call blitzes factors into what the Sun Devils do on defense.
Arizona State had 46 sacks last season, tied for third in FBS, and in four years under Graham, it has sacked the quarterback 176 times.
"The team's defensive philosophy is to blitz like crazy and then sort out the rest," ESPN's Kevin Gemmell wrote in November.
It's an approach that can pay dividends but also has led to plenty of big plays allowed. Last year, the Sun Devils allowed 30 plays of 40 or more yards, many of which might have been prevented had they not sent the house.
"That's who we are, and what we're about is pressuring," Graham told Doug Haller of the Arizona Republic. "As long as I'm the head coach, that's the way it's going to be. They want somebody not to blitz, get somebody else. There's no doubt in my mind that what we do is the best thing we can do for our guys."
Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech
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Don't tell Paul Johnson that college football has become an uptempo game where big plays and quick scores are the answer. As long as he's at Georgia Tech—or in charge of any football team—he's going to stick with what he knows and what he likes, regardless of how it looks.
Johnson is the only coach at the power-conference level who runs the option, and his Georgia Tech teams run it quite well. Though the Yellow Jackets went 3-9 last season, their worst record in more than 20 years, they still gained more than 250 rushing yards per game.
That's actually the worst rushing offense he's had since coming to Tech in 2008, yet he still averaged more than 5.2 yards per carry and produced 30 rushing touchdowns. The problem was, in most games, Tech was trailing and didn't end up trying to throw the ball until it was too late.
The triple-option attack Johnson has used throughout his career, including at Georgia Southern and Navy, is only predictable from a general sense. There's still uncertainty in whether the quarterback will hand off to the dive man, pitch outside or keep it himself.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Mike Leach, Washington State
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For someone whose off-the-field interests range from pirates to sturgeon fishing, Mike Leach is incredibly predictable when it comes to how he calls a game. Expect a pass almost every down, even when the situation screams for a handoff.
Leach's Washington State team threw the ball 738 times in 13 games last season, 118 more than any other FBS school. That was actually down from the year before, when the Cougars slung it 771 times in 12 games and from the 756 tosses in 13 contests in 2013.
Not surprisingly, this has resulted in the national lead in passing yards per game the past two years, with Luke Falk averaging 380.1 yards per game in 2015. The year before, Connor Halliday was on pace to set the single-season passing mark (to go with the single-game records of 734 yards and 89 attempts he'd already established) before suffering a broken leg in November.
Leach did the same thing in his first coaching job, at Texas Tech, where five of his passers led the nation in yardage. That includes B.J. Symons, who holds the FBS record with 5,833 yards in one season.
Scot Loeffler, Boston College
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Predictability works for some coaches but not all of them. Scot Loeffler is an example of the latter, a career offensive assistant who is set to join his seventh different FBS program in 2016.
Maybe this time he'll produce some results.
"He is regarded as one of the best quarterbacks coaches in the country and has a tremendous insight into the passing game and the offense as a whole," Boston College head coach Steve Addazio said (h/t NBC Sports) after Loeffler was hired as offensive coordinator in January. "He is bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge to BC."
Loeffler spent the previous three years as offensive coordinator at Virginia Tech, where he oversaw offenses that ranked 74th or lower. Before that, he was at Auburn for a season, calling plays for the No. 118 offense in 2012, and in 2011, he oversaw a Temple offense that ranked 63rd.
The last time Loeffler was part of a program that gained more than 400 yards per game was in 2009, when he was Florida's quarterbacks coach. Addazio was the offensive coordinator for the Gators at that time.
Now Loeffler will take over an offense that was third-worst in the country last season. It shouldn't be too hard to predict how that goes.
Les Miles, LSU
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Predictability comes in a variety of ways, which is an appropriate tagline for the mind of LSU coach Les Miles. His "Mad Hatter" lends itself to his love of pulling out trick plays at what seems like the most inopportune time, so much that we've come to expect it and are more surprised when they don't happen.
Fake field goals, fake punts and the like have become commonplace in LSU games, yet whenever they happen, we still shake our heads at the gutsiness of such calls. We also do that when the inevitable clock-management issues come up.
Miles has won 139 games in 15 seasons, 112 at LSU, and has a national title on his resume. Who knows how many more he'd have if not for what seems like a complete inability to manage the clock in end-of-half or end-of-game situations. These slip-ups contributed to a hot coaching seat last season, with his firing seeming imminent...until suddenly it wasn't.
Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports referred to the mid-game decision by LSU officials last November to retain Miles for another season as the "craziest clock management move of the Les Miles era."
Jim Mora, UCLA
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There are two things we've come to expect from Jim Mora since he took over UCLA before the 2012 season: good teams that don't end up being as good as predicted, and complaining about random things.
This past season was no different, as the arrival of heralded freshman quarterback Josh Rosen had the Bruins looking like a contender for the Pac-12 title and possibly the playoffs. Those same predictions were made in 2014 with Brett Hundley, but UCLA kept finding ways to lose games it should win, much like it did in 2015 by falling at home to Arizona State and Washington State.
Mora only adds to the issue with some of the odd things he chooses to speak out against, such as UCLA having to play consecutive weeknight games or that it was too sunny on his team's sideline during a home win over Colorado in which the Bruins defense was on the field for 114 plays.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
