College Football 2011: 9 Coaches with the Most to Prove in 2011
Coaching is among the most precarious careers in the world: Do well and they want more; do poorly, and you’re thrown out the door.
You are over credited for what went right, over blamed for what went wrong and regardless of how successful you have been in the past, you are always living on the literal edge.
Teetering between employment and unemployment, you are always one big loss or one bad season away from packing it up and moving on.
Coming into the 2011 season of college football, 20 new coaches will grace the sidelines of FBS schools, down two from 22 new head men in 2010.
Either way you slice it, that equals a turnover rate of approximately 17 percent over the past two seasons, hardly a comfortable and stable way to live.
So how do coaches keep the jobs they want for the long term? Well, they must prove themselves (every season) to the university administration, fanbase, alumni and unfortunately, the media.
Prove themselves how?
Prove that they really were the right man to hire for the job.
Prove that their systems will now begin to take hold and flourish.
Prove that this season is “the” season they promised could happen when they took the job.
Prove that they still got what it takes to win.
Prove that last season was simply an anomaly.
And ultimately, proving to everyone involved that letting them go could and would be the biggest mistake of in the history of a given institution’s football program.
Though all coaches must provide evidence that they’re worth another season of paychecks the following slideshow identifies the nine coaches with the most to prove in 2011.
The burden of proof is squarely on these guys' shoulders, and their jobs just might depend on it.
Houston Nutt
1 of 9
There may be few more dangerous things in college football than taking a team that went 10-25 over the prior three seasons to two consecutive 9-4 finishes.
This is exactly what Houston Nutt did when he took over at Ole Miss in 2008, when the Rebels hadn’t won more than four games since going 10-3 in 2003 under David Cutcliffe, which is also the last season they were bowl bound.
Nutt’s first two seasons both resulted in 9-4 finishes and Cotton Bowl victories, which seemed to indicate Ole Miss was a team that could begin to become a real part of the tough SEC West conversation.
But then 2010 happened, and the Rebels went 4-8. Their only wins last season were over Tulane, Fresno State, Kentucky and Louisiana-Lafayette. They were outscored 422-367 and had the No. 107 ranked defense in college football.
The most disturbing bit of all was a shocking 49-48 defeat to FCS Jacksonville State in the opener.
Though the SEC West is arguably the toughest division in college football, it seems realistic to think Ole Miss fans can expect more than four wins on a regular basis (and unfortunately, it was Houston Nutt that set that expectation).
The 2011 schedule provides Nutt at least a little breathing room; non-conference games are against BYU, FCS Southern Illinois, Fresno State and Louisiana Tech; LSU and Alabama are both home games in Oxford and eastern foes South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee aren’t on the schedule at all.
Houston Nutt’s got to prove that his first two seasons (18-8) on the job are more indicative of what to expect than that of the 2010 4-8 debacle; realistically, this means at the very least six wins in 2011.
Mack Brown
2 of 9
No matter what kind of spin you put on the facts, it is amazing how quickly Mack Brown went from being the crowned prince of Austin to a guy with his leg halfway out the door leading to banishment and exile.
Brown is 133-34 through 13 seasons at Texas, which equals a winning ratio of 79.6 percent; he has captured five divisional titles, two Big 12 conference crowns and one BCS National Championship.
Up until last season, the Longhorns had been to bowl games every season of Brown’s tenure, including five BCS appearances (which included two national championship games).
Again, until last year, Mack Brown’s Texas teams had nine or more win seasons every single year under his tutelage.
And all of this is exactly what makes 2010’s 5-7 finish so unthinkable and repulsive.
With only two conference wins Texas finished last in the Big 12 South and second to last overall in the conference (behind only Kansas) and ugly losses to Iowa State, Baylor and Kansas State were hard to stomach and are impossible to forget.
What was even more disheartening than the stats was how bad the Longhorns looked on the field; where was the leadership, the talent, the speed and the swagger of the past decade?
Brown publicly put at least some of the blame for the disaster on his assistant coaches, many who have gotten out from under the bus and gone on to other jobs in 2011, which puts the ball plainly in Brown’s court to improve Texas’ football fortunes next season.
Who will he blame if 2011 if is a repeat of 2010, and will Longhorn fans accept another sub-par performance before they demand Brown’s head on a Texas shaped platter?
Yep, he’s got to prove it was just blip on the successful burnt orange radar, and to do so, he’s got to win seven or eight games and finish in the Top 25.
Tommy Tuberville
3 of 9
Texas Tech just doesn’t garner the media attention to have properly conveyed the absolute hysteria that occurred among Red Raider fans when Mike Leach was suddenly removed from his position as head coach at the end of the 2009 season.
Furthermore, and again at least on a national level, the intensity of angst amid Tech fans regarding Tommy Tuberville’s first season at Texas Tech has not been fully disclosed to a wider audience.
At least part of the issue is that Tech fans (unfairly) seem to have transferred their un-ending rage over the Leach dismissal to Tuberville, who is indeed the “anti-Leach.”
Additionally, Red Raider fans (at least the very vocal ones) have expressed anger over Tuberville’s promises of “keeping Leach’s offense intact under new OC Neal Brown” which was a vow obviously not carried out on the field.
Texas Tech enthusiasts had completely identified with and embraced their role as swashbuckling, black wearing, non-conforming football fans who lived and died by Leach’s full throttle offense; the Pirate’s dismissal instantly changed all this for a people who had finally began to taste success in a world dominated by Texas and Oklahoma.
This all adds up to Tuberville being under the gun in Lubbock until he can surpass Leach’s successes, which means 10 or more wins, a conference title and a BCS bid.
With huge personnel turnover and a new defensive coordinator, 2011 might be very difficult to achieve even last year’s eight win total, but if Red Raider fans can hold on and give Tuberville a fair shake (which he deserves), 2012 and 2013 might usher in the new golden era of Texas Tech football.
Though Tuberville might seem like a reach to be on this list, you simply can’t underestimate the passion of the Red Raider nation which was awoken and then riled in the final days of 2009; none of this is Tuberville’s doing, but he is certainly living with the consequences.
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Mike Stoops
4 of 9
Mike Stoops took over as the head coach at Arizona in 2004, replacing John Mackovic, whose three year campaign with the Wildcats ended with an ugly 2-10 thud.
After two 3-8 finishes in 2004-05 Stoops led the ‘06 Arizona squad to .500 for the first time since 1999, and then after a small dip in 2007, the Wildcats finally enjoyed eight win seasons in both 2008 and 2009.
The 2008 bid to the Las Vegas Bowl represented the first postseason appearance by an Arizona team since a 1998 Holiday Bowl victory over Nebraska.
After going 8-5 again in 2009 expectations, were high that 2010 would be the year the Wildcats would finally vie for the first piece of any championship since the 1993 team went 10-2 and captured part of a Pac-10 title.
The Wildcats indeed looked stellar through the first half of last season and were a lofty 7-1 going into a November 6 game at Stanford, which is exactly when things began to go badly, very badly.
Arizona was thumped by a great Cardinal team by a 42-17 margin, which signaled the beginning of five game losing streak that only ended when the season did (in San Antonio with a 36-10 spanking by Oklahoma State in the Alamo Bowl).
All hope is suddenly slashed, and with attrition (the Wildcats return only 13 starters in 2011) and zero momentum, it’s hard to guess what lies ahead for Stoops and Arizona.
The bottom line is that Mike Stoops needs to prove that the Wildcats are still moving forward and that the finish in 2010 was just a bump on the road to success; he’s got to do this to keep his job.
The new format of the Pac-12 actually provides a clear opportunity for Stoops in 2011. With Arizona State as the clear (yet unproven) frontrunner in the new South, the Wildcats have a perfect opening to leap up and capture an unanticipated division title, which, at the very least, buys Stoops one more season in Tucson.
Will Muschamp
5 of 9
When coaches take over the head job at say, Indiana, Maryland or even Pittsburgh, they don’t have near the pressure to succeed immediately as does the leader who has risen to a “destination” position such as Michigan or Florida.
And this weight is dramatically increased when you are a guy who has been heralded as the great young coaching genius, trumpeted as the “catch” and proclaimed a future Hall of Famer like, say, Will Muschamp has been.
He was the coach-in-waiting at Texas and turned more than a few heads in Austin when he pooh-poohed on the great honor of killing time until Mack Brown called it quits and instead took the coveted Florida job.
But at the end of the day, this is the guy who has zero head coaching experience (at any level) and is walking straight into one of the most talented and successful programs in modern college football.
Yes, Florida went only 8-5 last season, but the previous five seasons, they won 13 games three times, including two national titles.
The Gators expectations are at an all-time high, and they will expect Muschamp to come in and continue not just winning but consistently produce championship caliber success.
Will Muschamp has got to prove that he is every bit of the golden boy he was advertised as, and he’s got a shorter time table than many of the other head coaches starting a new job.
Brian Kelly
6 of 9
Brian Kelly went 118-35-2 and won two national titles at Grand Valley State. He went 19-16 and won the MAC at Central Michigan and then he took Cincinnati to new heights with a 34-6 run in four seasons that included two Big East crowns and two BCS bids.
The next step in Kelly’s long quest to be successful at every level of college football coaching is to bring Notre Dame consistently back into national title contention.
Though it seems Kelly has all the necessary tools to work with in South Bend, let’s not allow the rich history and mystique of the “Irish” to blind us to the cold hard fact that Notre Dame hasn’t won it all since 1988.
And before that it was 1977; in fact, Notre Dame has only five national titles since 1950.
Dry spells (even by storied programs) equal significant downturns in recruiting, and with that, it becomes more and more difficult to produce a championship caliber team, especially given the rise of super programs such as LSU, Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, Ohio State, etc., who are stacked with speed, girth and talent that South Bend hasn’t seen in quite some time.
Brian Kelly led the Irish to a respectable 8-5 finish in 2010, which suddenly has Golden Domers ready to proclaim 2011 as the season when the Irish victoriously re-enact the battles of the 1940’s (when the Irish won four national titles).
The pressure on second year Coach Kelly is tremendous; do what you did before, but do it at a media frenzied institution that is in reality a difficult place to win it all (at least recently).
Kelly must prove that he is indeed a coaching whiz and that he is so effective that he can do restoration projects even at the very highest level of college football.
For what it’s worth, I think this guy has already proven himself, but you have to agree that until he consistently wins big at Notre Dame, his legacy is in limbo.
Mark Richt
7 of 9
Like Mack Brown at Texas, Mark Richt has an impressive resume with his present employer, but performance fell off so sharply last season that now what was a given is suddenly in jeopardy.
Richt is 96-34 over his 10 seasons at Georgia (74 percent winning ratio) and has led the Bulldogs to eight-plus win seasons every year, with the exception of last season’s 6-7 finish.
The Bulldogs have gone to a bowl game each of Richt’s 10 seasons, have been ranked in a final poll all but the last two years and have captured three divisional and two SEC championship titles since he took over in 2001.
After earning 10 or more wins six out of the past seven seasons, the 8-5 mark set in 2009 already had Georgia enthusiasts frustrated, but the 6-7 finish in 2011 (which included a 10-6 loss to Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl) has Bulldog fans up in arms.
You have got to figure that with all the success Richt has provided thus far, Georgia fans were ultimately expecting him to be in a position to win a national title, and instead, the Bulldogs have begun to slip backwards.
Whether it’s the beginning of a downward spiral or simply the calm before the resurgence, nobody knows, but either way, there was enough chatter in Athens last season, where Mark Richt simply must prove that he is still a winner to survive past 2011.
Fair? Probably not.
True? Absolutely.
The good news for Mark Richt is that Georgia returns 17 starters in 2011 and (at least by SEC standards) has a somewhat easier schedule to work with. LSU and Alabama are completely off the schedule, South Carolina, Auburn and Mississippi State are home games and the big game against Boise State is at the “neutral” Georgia Dome in Atlanta (which purportedly still has green turf).
Brady Hoke
8 of 9
Did Michigan “settle” by bringing in Brady Hoke to replace the disgraced Rich Rodriguez?
Well, I guess nobody will know the answer to that for sure until Michigan fans wake up in mid January and roll over to see if anything more than seven wins is laying next to them in bed.
Bringing in a guy who has been successful at smaller schools versus an established, big name coach is always an interesting scenario, and whoever hired him could turn out just as easily to be labeled idiot as heralded a genius depending on how it all pans out.
Despite a 15-22 record over the past three seasons, Michigan is the sort of program that expects winning (and lots of it), which puts Hoke under a tremendous amount of pressure to win NOW.
Brady Hoke has to prove that he is up to the job and that he is far more than just a coach that somebody “settled” for, and the only way to do this is to be in the running for, at bare minimum, a Legends division title.
Unfortunately for Hoke, the past three seasons will make his high expectations seem more urgent; Michigan simply isn’t the kind of program that will sit around and accept losing as a long term proposition.
Of course, beating Ohio State for the first time since 2003 certainly won’t hurt.
Rick Neuheisel
9 of 9
Rick Neuheisel, if he can ever bring the Bruins around, is the perfect long-term coaching solution for UCLA.
Neuheisel, a UCLA grad, played quarterback for the Bruins from 1980-83 and more than likely would view the job as a destination rather than a catapult to something “better.”
But, at this juncture, he definitely has his work cut out for him to even keep the job.
After leading Colorado to a 33-14 record and then going 33-16 in four seasons at Washington, Neuheisel has gone 15-22 in three seasons at UCLA.
Only once have the Bruins posted a winning season since he took over in 2008, which came in 2009 when they blazed to a 7-6 finish.
For Neuheisel it may all come down to how high UCLA’s expectations ultimately are; this is a team that hasn’t won 10 games since 2005 under Karl Dorrell, and other than that blip, has only won more than seven games once since 2000 (they went 8-5 in 2002).
Neuheisel needs to prove that he is the answer to UCLA being at least competitive, which certainly means posting a seven game plus win season in 2011 and perhaps beating USC for the first time since 2006.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
