Which College Football Coaches Face the Toughest Offseason?
National signing day is in the books, and spring practice is just around the corner for the majority of college football teams, so that means most of the country is entering the difficult period that is the offseason. Sure there are brief spurts of activity on campus, but for the most part, it’s a time for coaches to get caught up on work and make changes to their program in order to set themselves up for a big 2016 season.
That doesn’t mean there’s any less pressure on the various head coaches in the sport, however. In fact, several are heading into the spring with plenty of question marks and a lot of work left to do when it comes to getting things turned around.
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Here are just a handful of coaches who can lay claim to facing the toughest offseason that could, in many ways, be make or break for them and their school heading into this year.
James Franklin, Penn State
Franklin is in between a rock and a hard place right now. The fanbase has been understandably unhappy the past several years with all that has gone on in State College, and there is the sense that expectations have been much higher than they should be among the Nittany Lions faithful.
After all, this is a team still sorting out the aftereffects of NCAA sanctions (even though they ended early) and stuck in the most competitive division in the Big Ten.
Add in Franklin’s bravado not being backed up by his record—14-12 over two seasons—and you can start to see why there’s some "hot seat" talk happening in Pennsylvania even though there shouldn’t be. While he is in no danger of being fired anytime soon, it’s also not inaccurate to say this is a critical offseason for Franklin and the program and one that could be make or break.
The optics of assistants like offensive line coach Herb Hand and defensive coordinator Bob Shoop leaving for what some might think were lateral moves, combined with former starting tailback Akeel Lynch transferring, doesn’t help either.
So now Franklin must re-group. He made a bold move in bringing in Joe Moorhead from the FCS ranks to install a new offense and replaced Hand with Matt Limegrover, a former offensive coordinator at Minnesota. Promoting Brent Pry to defensive coordinator was an expected move, but there are plenty of folks who think PSU won’t lose much by promoting Shoop’s top lieutenant to the bigger chair.
The next few months are key on two fronts, though. First, Franklin has to get everybody on the same page during spring practice and hopefully develop several younger players into front-line starters at the same time.
Just as important, when speaking to booster clubs and fans around the state and the region in the coming weeks and months, Franklin has to sell himself again that he is the right man for the job and another 7-6 season isn’t the expectation going forward. It won’t be easy, but neither was winning nine games at Vanderbilt.
Hugh Freeze, Ole Miss
Expectations at a school like Ole Miss can be tough because once a fanbase grows accustomed to winning, sometimes the bar is set a little too high for the program and where it’s at in the pecking order. We’ll find out soon enough if that’s the case for Freeze, who faces a tough offseason both on and off the field.
On the field, his task will become obvious as the NFL scouting combine and draft enter full bloom in the coming weeks and months and we see just how much talent is leaving Oxford.
Sure, a quality recruiting class signed earlier in the month takes some of the sting out of that, but there’s little question that there are some big shoes being left behind. Combined with some key returnees like Chad Kelly, there won’t exactly be much room for error from fans for a coach who has improved the win total each season.
Off the field, things are a little more dicey. The NCAA investigation into the program has been hovering for a while, and it appears things are starting to get quite serious.
There have been conflicting reports over the severity of the charges and possible outcomes, but the bottom line is that an NCAA infractions case is never good publicity, and it will likely be Freeze who bears the brunt of any thing negative that comes out of the end result. Dealing with it all may require more time than effort, but it is certainly a storyline to follow this offseason.
Todd Graham, Arizona State
Graham received a undeserved reputation for the way he has moved around as a head coach (and in particular for the way he left Pitt), but even he has to shake his head at the revolving door that the Sun Devils coaching office has had this year. While he has to be happy that close friend Mike Norvell got a good head coaching gig, Graham probably wasn’t super happy to see Chris Ball, Paul Randolph and Chip Long leave with him for Memphis.
Then there’s having to replace Kodi Burns before he even coached a down, after it was announced Monday that he would be returning to Auburn and old friend Gus Malzahn’s staff. Graham deserves credit for bringing in Chip Lindsey from Southern Miss, but it’s still safe to say the staff is going to be different from the past several seasons in Tempe.
That puts a lot of pressure to get on the same page during spring ball and on through summer.
Add to that the fact that the 2015 team simply fell flat. After being a trendy pick to win the Pac-12 and make the playoff (talk Graham didn’t exactly dismiss), ASU wound up 6-7 in Graham’s fourth year. That’s not where he wants the program to be, and turning that around—while dealing with big coaching changes— makes this offseason even tougher for the 51-year-old head coach who is already sporting a few grey hairs.
Bryan Harsin, Boise State
Harsin has his dream job in the city he grew up in and at the college he played and coached for before so almost every day is a good one for him. Still, this is a testing offseason at what was once the darling of the Group of Five.
To start off, there was the record, which at 9-4 was good for most programs but not at Boise State (especially the 5-3 conference record). The bar is simply higher than anywhere else in the country outside of Alabama, and it appeared Harsin would have no issues hitting that mark when he led the team to a Fiesta Bowl victory two years ago.
Now the tune has changed a bit after being on the wrong end of some crushing losses in 2015 and now having to deal with the departure of both his offensive and defensive coordinators this offseason.
While replacing coordinators makes any offseason difficult (even if he mostly just promoted from within), Harsin also has to return things on the field to the level that is expected in Boise. A big part of that is the looming quarterback decision between Brett Rypien and Ryan Finley. Just about every decision is going to be overanalyzed, but perhaps none more than that one.
Harsin and the Broncos already are used to the limelight, but this offseason seems much tougher to sort out than in years past.
Jim Mora, UCLA
It says plenty about the job Mora has done in transforming UCLA since he’s arrived that nine Bruins were invited to the annual NFL scouting combine this year, as many players as national champion Alabama. The flip side of that statement, however, is that Mora must now go about replacing those nine talented players and then some.
The good news is the program is set at quarterback in the near future, with Josh Rosen being a huge asset to build around. Still, he’ll need half of a new offensive line and has to find a number of new targets while relying on a ground game with equally young players.
Add in a new offensive coordinator (albeit one who was already on staff) in Kennedy Polamalu, and there are a lot of moving parts on that side of the ball that the defensive-minded head coach has to sort out this spring.
Then there’s the question of where does the UCLA program go from here. These past several seasons have been somewhat of a renaissance for Bruins football, but there have still been some noticeable stumbles that have prevented bigger things. Is that just where UCLA is at? Or can it become more, especially with a remarkable talent like Rosen growing wiser and bigger?
Dealing with that question might be just as tough for Mora to sort out than the ones he’ll deal with on the field during spring practice.
Gus Malzahn, Auburn
Auburn took home the title of most disappointing team of 2015 in runaway fashion, and a somewhat fun bowl win over a team that didn’t have a coaching staff may have been the only thing that gave the Tigers any sort of momentum heading into a big offseason.
As if there weren’t pressure enough on on the head coach after a disappointing year, in-state rival Alabama winning another national title probably made the fanbase that much more feisty.
It doesn’t help that Malzahn has had to deal with all that while also trying to figure out what is almost an entirely new coaching staff. One can’t fault Will Muschamp for departing for South Carolina, but it was interesting to see the team bring in Kevin Steele over from LSU, whom many Tigers fans were happy to see depart for Auburn.
Bringing in former New Orleans Saints secondary coach Wesley McGriff and Hand were undeniable coups, but any sort of momentum from those hires was lost after Dameyune Craig—Auburn royalty as a player—left the Plains for another position coaching spot in the SEC West. Malzahn quickly reacted by bringing in Kodi Burns from Arizona State but the damage has been done from a public-perception standpoint.
Then there’s the on-the-field work that the crazy, mad-scientist persona of Malzahn has to get to work on. The quarterback position was a mess last year, and while a number of key players return, finding some dependable playmakers on the outside will be a priority this spring. Mix in some big changes on defense and there’s plenty of work left to be done at Auburn.
And that’s not even considering the fact that the team seems to look further and further away from competing with the division heavyweights like Alabama and LSU.
Charlie Strong, Texas
One of the big storylines on national signing day was the fantastic close by Texas to shoot up the team rankings and finish with a top-15 class by the end of the day, per 247Sports. There’s little question that the much-needed momentum was a nice boost for Strong, who has spent virtually every day on the hot seat since beating Oklahoma in early October.
While that was a nice win for Texas, it also helped mask just how tough this offseason is and will be for the team’s head coach. Many in Austin already consider the job to be open next year for Houston coach Tom Herman or someone similar, so there’s quite the unease hovering over the program as it enters a crucial time to fix things.
New coordinator Sterlin Gilbert was brought in to install a new offense and will go about doing that during spring ball but even that massive project has gotten off to a rough start after the departures of running backs coach Tommie Robinson and receivers coach Jay Norvell close to signing day.
Will all the moves pay off or are they simply too little, too late for Strong at Texas? We’ll find out, but no matter what, this is a critical offseason on the Forty Acres. Strong is aware of that fact.
Matt Wells, Utah State
Wells has done a fantastic job at his alma mater despite dealing with just about everything a first-time head coach doesn’t want to deal with in his first major job. Getting to 10 wins in 2014 with what seemed like a dozen different quarterbacks was one of the finest coaching jobs anybody had in the country, but all that good will seemed to come crashing down after a disappointing 2015.
To start with, there’s the on-the-field issue that will be tough to combat this offseason for Wells. The Aggies had a disastrous close to the year, going from division leader in the Mountain West to only winning a single game over the final two months of the season. Add in the disappointing losses to New Mexico and in the bowl game to Akron, and there’s an uphill climb for Wells when it comes to restarting momentum in Logan.
Now combine those issues with the one Wells faces internally with his coaching staff, which has undergone perhaps the most changes of anybody in the country.
In all, there have been seven additions or promotions for the team through the middle of February, and there are at least one coaching job and one major staff position still waiting to be filled. What will be tough to replace is that gone are both the offensive and defensive coordinators with loads of college football experience at all levels.
While there have been a number of internal staff promotions, it still almost feels like Wells is starting out fresh in 2016 with a whole new set of coaches and a new identity to forge with players like Chuckie Keeton, Jojo Natson and Darell Garretson all gone. Not an easy task this offseason, that’s for sure.
Bryan Fischer is national college football columnist at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.
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