College Football: 10 Most Pressure-Packed Coaching Positions in College Football
Thank heavens this isn't the NFL.
In college, the coaches actually run the team. Of course, when the coach has near total control, he's the only one who is left to blame when things go south.
Some programs are used to up and down seasons. Others find more than a handful of losses unpalatable.
But which programs place the highest amount of pressure on their coach to win?
10. Nebraska
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With Nebraska's move to the Big Ten, there may be even more pressure in the football offices for the Cornhuskers.
Nebraska has won the last two Big 12-North titles, only to lose both Big 12 Championship games.
Bo Pelini knows how to win, as his 30-12 record at Nebraska proves. But will Nebraska be as successful in the Big Ten-Legends division?
Nebraska is matched up with Minnesota, Michigan, Northwestern, Iowa and Michigan State in the Legends division, and will also face Penn State every year from the Leaders division, along with two other Leaders division schools on a rotating basis.
So every couple of years (as in 2011), Nebraska will face Michigan, Iowa, Michigan State, Penn State and Ohio State, all in-conference.
That's clearly going to be one of the more difficult conference schedules in the nation.
While it remains to be seen if Nebraska will follow Big 12 success with Big Ten success, Pelini's recent successes have given him a little leeway with fans. How much leeway will depend heavily on Nebraska's first two years in the Big Ten.
9. Texas
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There's only one way to put it: 2010 was a mess.
Over the past decade, Texas has been one of the elite teams in the nation. Never mind the fact that Texas has won only two Big 12 titles over Mack Brown's tenure in Austin, they have a BCS title (2005), four BCS selections (including 2009's BCS title game) and three Cotton Bowl selections.
But Brown's Longhorns served up a Texas-sized heap of mediocrity in 2010.
Texas finished a shocking 5-7 overall, and an even more jaw-dropping 2-6 in the Big 12, good enough for dead last in the South.
While Mack Brown's amazing success over the past 13 years certainly has earned him a bit of credit, much of that had to have been used up in 2010, especially considering Texas was coming off a BCS title game loss.
Second-best team in the nation to worst in the Big 12-South?
Let's hope Mack Brown gets the Longhorns back on track in the new-look Big 12 soon. Every game is important when dealing with a championship game-less conference. And it's likely that even one and definitely two losses will keep Texas Big 12 championship-free.
It's doubtful even Longhorn fans would put up with Mack Brown for long if there are too many more 2010-like years in the future.
8. Oklahoma
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When it comes to head coaching gigs, Bob Stoops has only ever had one job: Oklahoma.
And he's been a resounding success.
Since taking over in 1999, Bob Stoops has guided the Sooners to an overall record of 129-31 and seven Big 12 titles.
Perhaps no other team in the nation has been more dominant in-conference than Oklahoma has been in the Big 12.
Oklahoma has also never missed a bowl game over Stoops' tenure, but his bowl record leaves a little to be desired. A 6-6 record is on the south end of good, but when you consider that Oklahoma is 3-4 in BCS bowls, things look even a little worse.
Of course, Oklahoma does have the 2000 title under their belts, but it's been tough sledding in the post-season since the early part of the last decade. OU is just 3-5 in all bowl games since the 2003 season.
Hope spring eternal in Norman, and 2011 is no different. Many early preseason polls place Oklahoma at or near the top of the nation heading into next season, and OU is poised to make another run at the BCS title.
The pressure is on for Stoops and company. Winning is at a premium, and Stoops knows that winning is great, but winning the big game is what everyone in Norman is counting on.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
7. Michigan
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The Maize and Blue are the winningest college football program in history.
Rich Rodriguez found out the hard way that while folksy mannerisms might be (barely) tolerated in Ann Arbor, losing isn't.
Rich Rod led U-M to its worst season ever, 3-9, in his first year. His second season was marginally better, but Michigan still missed a bowl game. Prior to Rodriguez's tenure, it was more than 30 decades since Michigan wasn't bowling.
That's even more impressive considering the first 15 of those years were before the current bowl philosophy of "everybody gets a ribbon."
In his third year, Rodriguez at least got the Wolverines back to a bowl game. But the utter thrashing at the hands of Mississippi State was the last straw. Rich Rod was out. Enter Brady Hoke.
At least Brady Hoke has a Michigan football pedigree. Hopefully, this latest Michigan Man will be able to return glory to Ann Arbor. If not, he'll be searching for a new job soon as well.
6. Florida
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Will Muschamp is about to discover just how difficult coaching in the SEC can be.
This Georgia native and former Bulldogs safety will take over the reins of the Gators in 2011. Muschamp's first head coaching job will be on the biggest of stages: Gainesville, Florida.
Muschamp, known as a defensive guru, will take over one of the nation's top programs, and like Brady Hoke at Michigan, early success will be key.
Florida is coming off of a disappointing 2010. An 8-5 record was clearly not what the Gator nation was hoping for, and losses to Florida State, LSU, Alabama, Mississippi State and South Carolina deflated what were early high hopes.
Muschamp was to be Mack Brown's successor in Austin. Apparently, he had had enough of waiting around. Texas, in an effort to keep Muschamp in Austin, had named him "head coach-in-waiting" after rumors surfaced that he was being pursued for head coach positions at Auburn, Tennessee, Clemson and others.
Apparently, the guaranteed five-year head coaching contract wasn't enough to keep Muschamp in Austin.
But if he can't deliver early success in Gainesville, he may find his tenure there abbreviated.
One early ray of hope: Charlie Weis was probably a good addition. He was great as an offensive coordinator. Horrible as a head coach.
5. LSU
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Les Miles definitely keeps football fans on the edges of their seats.
Whether it's squeaking out wins against UNC, Tennessee, Florida or Alabama, or the unconventional ways in which those wins came, it certainly makes for entertaining football.
Curiously enough, though, there were some who were (and possibly still are) concerned that LSU football was not up to its previous BCS title form. In fact, the 2007 season was the last major success that LSU had—for those that don't count 2010's 11-2 season capped off with a Cotton Bowl win.
LSU is perhaps just another team in the national title-hungry SEC where anything less than BCS glory just isn't "good enough."
4. Georgia
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The 2010 season for the Georgia Bulldogs was a little...odd.
Winning just one of their first five games in 2010, the Bulldog faithful began calling for the head of Mark Richt.
Those calls seemed to quiet a bit when Georgia won their next three games, but before the season was out, Georgia had added losses to Florida, Auburn and a Liberty Bowl loss to Central Florida.
The SEC has proven to be the most difficult of conferences over the past five-plus years. Not only does the SEC produce national champion after national champion, it's also a titanic struggle just to win week in and week out in the SEC.
Mark Richt has been pretty successful in the SEC over his tenure at Georgia, going 53-27 in conference games with two SEC championships. Beyond that, Georgia is 96-34 overall, with a BCS bowl win and a 7-3 overall bowl game record.
And a few losses is enough to get people to want your firing?
That's clearly enough to put Georgia high on our list of pressure-packed coaching positions.
3. Alabama
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Is there anyone in Alabama (other than Auburn fans) that thinks 2010 wasn't a disappointment?
With the talent returning to the Tide in 2010 from their BCS championship a year prior, including a Heisman Trophy winning back, many thought Alabama was a team with the best chance to repeat as BCS champions as we had ever seen.
Of course, there weren't many who saw Auburn's steamrolling run through the SEC.
But even fewer people picked Alabama to finish fourth in the SEC-West in 2010.
Nick Saban is one of the more successful coaches in college football today.
After beginning his career at Toledo, Saban led Michigan State to a Top 10 finish and an invitation to the Citrus Bowl following the 1999 season. Of course, he left for LSU before MSU played in that bowl game.
At LSU, he did nothing short of announcing to the world that LSU was a force with which everyone would need to reckon, winning two SEC titles and a BCS championship in his five-year stint.
After a couple of years in the NFL, Saban returned to the college game when he accepted the top job at Alabama. If anyone thought his mojo had been tempered by his time with the Miami Dolphins, they soon learned that Saban had one and only one goal in Tuscaloosa: return Alabama's football program to national glory.
In his second year, he led Alabama to the SEC title game. In his third, the Tide rolled through the SEC en route to the BCS championship.
Now entering his fifth season at Alabama, Saban will need to rebound after the less-than-hoped for 2010 season lest the grumbling becomes more than idle.
2. USC
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How long has USC been good?
How may Rose Bowls do the Trojans have under their belt?
How many Pac-10 titles?
How many national titles?
USC is now paying the price for massive violations of NCAA rules, but USC is still going to be USC.
The Trojans are still attracting top recruits from the West Coast and all across the nation. Eventually, their postseason suspension will end. Eventually, their full allotment of scholarships will return. Eventually, the Men of Troy will be expected to march on back to BCS glory.
Even though Pete Carroll denies it, saying he was "shocked and disappointed" with the NCAA's sanctions on USC, many people believe Carroll was like the rat escaping a sinking ship. It seems nearly impossible that Carroll didn't know what was going on in his own program, particularly because a few of the violations of NCAA rules included Carroll's own actions.
The end result is that USC's reputation was tarnished, and one of the greatest runs in college football history is clearly tainted.
Enter Lane Kiffin.
Coach Kiffin is in a position that is universally agreed upon as unenviable.
He's the coach of a team with thirty fewer scholarships that every other FBS program. He can't take the Trojans to a bowl game, no matter how well his team plays.
But as mentioned earlier, those days will come to an end.
In effect, Lane Kiffin's coaching tenure at USC begins on the day the sanctions expire. Will USC return to glory? Will BCS title runs again be the norm for the Trojans?
Right now, it seems unlikely. But, again, USC is still USC. And if Kiffin can't attain some major accomplishments with a sanction-less USC, USC will quickly find a coach that can.
1. Notre Dame
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The next two years in South Bend ought to be very interesting.
There are two possible outcomes.
First, Brian Kelly continues to build on his early successes at Notre Dame, and the Irish again become a power with which everyone in the nation must contend.
Second, he goes the route of Bob Davie, George O'Leary, Ty Willingham and Charlie Weis.
With the exception of O'Leary, who never coached even a single practice, all of those coaches began their tenure in South Bend with high hopes and on-field success only to take a nose dive in the years that followed.
Brian Kelly certainly has the coaching pedigree to be successful. He led Grand Valley State to three-consecutive Division II National Championship games (winning two). He turned Central Michigan from a horrible, bottom-feeding MAC team into perennial MAC contender. He transformed Cincinnati into a Big East powerhouse and BCS hopeful.
Can he take his fourth program and lead them to bigger and better things?
One thing is clear: if Kelly can do at Notre Dame what he has done at GVSU, CMU and Cincy, he'll go down as one of the greats in Notre Dame history.
If he can't, he'll very quickly become another coach in the recent line of abysmal and embarrassing disappointments for the Fighting Irish.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
