Power Ranking the Best New Coaching Vacancies in College Football

The ever-turning carousel of coaching has clicked along at a pace of approximately 20 jobs turned over in the last two offseasons.

Yes, 22 programs welcomed new head coaches before the 2010 season, while 21 repainted the offices coming into this season.

Coaching turnover is a fluid situation, and just in the last several days openings at New Mexico and Arizona were filled by Bob Davie and Rich Rodriguez, respectively.

The following slideshow first pinpoints a combination of 18 known and potential coaching vacancies that will be need to be filled after the dust settles on the 2011 season, and then power ranks the job postings in terms of attractiveness.

Just as in every other aspect of college football, the unbelievable sub plot in the current production of college football touches the job market, altering to some degree the appeal of certain suddenly-open positions.

18. UAB

Status: Not currently open, but likely to be.

UAB’s head coaching position is not officially up for grabs, and after the Blazers thrilling 34-31 upset win over then-No. 20 Southern Miss last Thursday night, Neil Callaway might get a sixth season at the helm in Birmingham.

But, regardless of the brief era of good feelings, UAB is 3-8 in 2011 and Callaway is 18-41 in five seasons, which hardly screams job stability.

The problem with getting rid of Callaway is: who do you get to replace him at a program that has only been to a single bowl game in its short 20-year history?

The short shelf life of the Blazer gridiron squad means tradition is scant, and how difficult is it to recruit in an area (um, Alabama) that is saturated by the SEC?

17. FAU

Status: Open at the end of this season.

FAU has only been lacing it up since 2001, and Howard Schnellenberger has been the coach for each of its 11 gridiron seasons.

The legendary Schnelleberger announced his retirement earlier this season, so we know that the Owls will welcome their second-ever head coach during the upcoming offseason.

The benefits of the FAU job are at least three prong, and include location, the rich Florida recruiting bed (yes, there is competition but you don’t have to travel far) and the Sun Belt conference, which actually offers a good launching ground for a career in coaching.

The Sun Belt is competitive, but not ensconced with traditional leaders (other than Troy) that make winning in short order impossible, a fact that is illustrated by the sudden rise of teams like WKU, Arkansas State and Louisiana-Lafayette this season.

16. New Mexico State

Status: Not currently open.

It’s a stretch to say that New Mexico State will part ways with DeWayne Walker after only three brief years on the sidelines but still, this is a program that has won only nine games under his tutelage.

No matter how you slice it, NMSU is one of the most difficult coaching jobs in the entire nation.

The Aggies haven’t been to a bowl game since 1960, and have only won eight or more games twice in the 118-year history of the program.

This job may not come open this offseason, but the potential for turnover is very high in Las Cruces because nobody (and I mean nobody) has managed to get things going at New Mexico State in, well, over 40 years.

15. Tulane

Status: Open.

Tulane opened its 2011 campaign with coach Bob Toledo on the sidelines, but after his resignation in mid-October, the Green Wave are currently searching for a new gridiron leader.

Rumors of Rich Rodriguez (who was an assistant at Tulane, but just took the Arizona job) and Mike Leach have surfaced but, other than these two names, the rest of the list is unknown.

Tulane enjoyed short-term success under Tommy Bowden in the late 1990’s but since then, wins have been difficult to find in the “Big Easy.”

It’s not impossible to win in the C-USA West division, but it will take some real doing to get the Green Wave back to crashing form.

14. Army

Status: Not currently open.

It’s a stretch to say Army will want to part ways with third-year coach Rich Ellerson who, despite posting only three wins thus far in 2011, is the guy who led Army to its first bowl win in 25 seasons last year.

But really, Army needs to break its nine-game losing streak to Navy and continue to show improvement if Ellerson is to be a long-term proposition at West Point.

The Black Knights have had five coaches since 2000, and the guy that lasted the longest (Todd Berry) coached for four seasons and went 5-35.

Though Ellerson’s numbers are by far the best in the string of recent leaders, another sub-five win season or two and Army will no doubt be looking again.

West Point has proven the most difficult of the three service academies' coaching posts but, given the tradition and historical significance of the program and the school itself, if the right guy were to come along potential stability and accolades make this job wildly attractive.

13. Colorado State

Status:  Not open, but current coach on the hot seat.

Steve Fairchild’s seat at Colorado State is among the hottest in the country, and the Rams three-win offering thus far in 2011 certainly hasn’t cooled things off.

Fairchild has been in Fort Collins for four seasons—which includes a 7-6 season in 2008 that resulted in a bowl win—but since then, it’s been three wins per year like clockwork…

With the right guy on board, the Colorado State job could be a golden opportunity even given the unstable conditions from a conference standpoint.

12. Washington State

Status: Not open, but current coach on the hot seat.

The Cougars launched out of the gates in 2011 with the type of offensive explosion that had some people thinking that this could be the season to save Paul Wulff’s job.

Wulff is 9-39 in four years in Pullman, and even though the Cougars' four wins this season nearly equals his entire output at Washington State, it may not be enough for another year on the sidelines.

Regardless of the uphill battle, the Washington State job still represents a Pac-12 job, and I for one believe that the divisional setup introduced this season makes positions like this more attractive.

Sure, winning the conference is still a huge stretch, but having something more realistic to shoot for (i.e. the divisional crown) makes progress more attainable and palpable.

11. Boston College

Status: Not open, but current coach on the hot seat.

Boston College’s 3-8 record thus far in 2011 needs to be put in perspective in order to be completely understood.

The Eagles have crested the seven-win mark every season since 1998, which makes three wins unacceptable.

Frank Spaziani entered the 2011 season with a 16-11 record in two seasons in Chestnut Hill, but after this year’s debacle he sits at 19-19 and one loss to Miami (FL) away from dipping below .500 during his overall tenure.

High, yet realistic, expectations at BC may cost Spaziani his job.

This is a winning program, and despite the difficulty presented with ACC Atlantic membership, the Boston College job is a top-50 coaching position.

10. Kansas

Status: Not open, but rumored to be soon.

Mark Mangino’s 12-1 run in 2007 made the Kansas job that much harder to keep, but Turner Gill’s five wins in two season certainly has helped his quest to stay afloat in Lawrence.

It’s not just the lack of wins that’s disturbing, but it’s the way the Jayhawks have been blown out and manhandled that makes only two years of the Gill era seem like forever.

Kansas hasn’t won a conference game since upending then-Big 12 member Colorado in November of 2010, which is also the last time they beat a BCS team.

Even though Kansas is more of a basketball destination, this is still a job in a major conference with tons of potential. However, given a combination of very real factors, it is (other than Washington State) probably the most difficult BCS job on the open/potentially open list.

9. Ole Miss

Status: Open at the end of the season.

When the gun sounds this Saturday night—signaling the end of the Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State game in Starkville—it will also herald the end of the Houston Nutt era in Oxford.

Nutt leaves the people of the Grove with a dubious 24-25 record over four seasons that include two 9-4 campaigns, followed by a 4-8 finish in 2010 and this year’s 2-9 product.

With an SEC address, an enthusiastic fanbase and a fertile recruiting ground, Ole Miss is a peachy job on the surface, but the reality is that these guys are fighting an uphill battle in the nation’s toughest division.

And for 2012, you not only have to contend with the likes of LSU, Alabama, Auburn and Mississippi State, but Texas A&M is joining up to stack the deck even higher.

Ole Miss is a great job, no doubt about it, but the coach who takes on the task will have to take an “out of the box” approach—not unlike Mike Leach did at Texas Tech—to make the Rebels a legitimate contender in a scary world.

8. Oregon State

Status: Not open, but current coach on the warm seat.

The sad truth about sports is that regardless of past successes, a couple of “off” years can turn up the heat on an otherwise-esteemed and cool-as-a-cucumber coaching chair.

Mike Riley is 72-62 over 11 seasons in Corvallis, but even this might not be enough to stop people from questioning his authority after what will more than likely end up as a catastrophic three-win 2011 season (and remember the Beavers won only five games in 2010).

The truth is, the Oregon State job has always been tough but holds promise. Again, the new divisional format in the Pac-12 might actually help an otherwise-demanding job seem more doable (i.e. you can now finish No. 3 in your division as opposed to No. 7 in the conference, it just sounds better).

This job may not be posted this year, but if the Beavers win total continues to taper off, look for it to be listed in the want ads sooner rather than later.

7. Arizona State

Status: Not open, but current coach on the hot seat.

Coming into 2011, it was fairly clear that this was the season that would be pivotal in the continuation of Dennis Erickson’s tenure in Tempe.

ASU had the returning starters (and the kind of schedule) to at least make a serious run at a Pac-12 divisional crown, a Top 25 ranking and perhaps much more.

At 6-5 and out of any such race, Erickson’s strongest argument is that he’s finally got the Sun Devils bowl eligible, with the possibility of their first bowl appearance since the 2007 Holiday Bowl.

Arizona State is an attractive big-time BCS school position, and it offers a great location, great facilities, a semi-recent tradition of winning, a supportive fanbase and has been well placed in the new Pac-12 South.

6. Illinois

Status: Not open, but current coach on the hot seat.

Ron Zook is yet another guy who started 2011 with guns a blazing’, only to tank when the going got tough.

Yes, the Illini stormed to a 6-0 start, and then reeled off five close losses to reach 6-5 status with a game at Minnesota left to try to keep the job off the market.

Zook’s survival is likely dependent on a win over the Golden Gophers and then a bowl victory, which would mean back-to-back postseason wins for the first time in program history.

If the job does come open, Illinois represents a true mid-tier Big Ten position, which is hard to beat from a career exposure standpoint and competition angle.

Illinois is ideally suited from a recruiting standpoint, boasts great facilities and, if consistent winning were achieved, the Illini faithful would come out in droves.

For the right guy, this job might be the biggest sleeper in the Big Ten.

5. North Carolina

Status: Interim Head Coach

Everett Withers took over at North Carolina just before the 2011 season started, when the university fired fifth-year head coach Butch Davis amid a rash of NCAA sanctions.

Withers' status in what will presumably be a coaching search is unknown, but UNC’s 6-5 record with a chance to pick up win number seven this Saturday against Duke, means the Tar Heels will go bowling.

UNC is a basketball school, but is still one of the top institutions in the nation and, regardless of actual recent results, the ACC Coastal represents a place where a good team can win football games, which is exactly what Butch Davis looked as if he was going to do en mass.

This is a great school and a great job.

4. Texas A&M

Status: Not open, but current coach is on the hot seat.

The coaching situation at Texas A&M is complex.

The first layer is that you’ve got a guy who has had four years to turn the ship and, after a 9-4 record in 2010, all the pieces were in place for a historic run, making a 6-5 record with one game to go seem catastrophic.

This was no ordinary 6-5 that signaled only an overall disappointment in a team that was overrated. No, this is a five-loss string that includes five big leads lost in five second-half disasters.

This is the story of a good football team gone wrong.

The second layer is the move to the SEC for 2012, which complicates matters from a leadership standpoint.

The bottom line is that the Aggies might be due for yet another head coaching change, but do they want to sacrifice stability as they make the biggest transition in the history of their program?

Texas A&M is still a prime coaching job (facilities, rabid fans, national name recognition), but concerns about recruiting (even with  the new membership card) and the move to the SEC West (and the competition that could slay a dragon) downgrade the posting a bit, due to sheer difficulty.

3. Penn State

Status: Interim Head Coach

There is no doubt that the Penn State opening is the most difficult one to power rank on this list.

Penn State University, despite the unprecedented and unthinkable scandal, is still a great institution, but it’s impossible to gauge the hit it will take from a prestige standpoint until all the facts are on the table.

But still, won’t Penn State always be considered a “destination” position?

Who knows…which is exactly why it’s placed out of the top two potential openings on our list; you simply can’t deny that nothing has happened and give the position the same lofty place it would have had before all hell broke loose in State College.

Interim head coach Tom Bradley has done an admirable job keeping the fire burning at Penn State, but it’s a very strong possibility that what’s left of the athletic administration will want to totally wipe the slate clean for the 2012 season and start over from a coaching standpoint.

Penn State will need to hire a unique guy to lead the Nittany Lions into a brand new era of unknowns. Yes, the guy needs to be strong in X’s and O’s, but more than anything, he needs to be a tremendous leader.

Strong character, determined and tough as nails.

Paterno would have been a hard act to follow under normal circumstances, but now this job looks plain scary.

But, despite all the logic, this is a great program at a huge university with one of the biggest alumni groups and rabid fanbases in the nation…it’s still a top-tier job, but now it’s got a lot of “what if’s” attached to it and an unfortunate (but very real history) of shame.

2. UCLA

Status: Not open, but current coach is on the hot seat.

So, the million dollar question is will six or seven wins and a bowl bid be enough to keep Rick Neuheisel afloat at UCLA?

Neuheisel is 21-27 over almost four seasons at his alma mater, and my guess is that either a win over USC in the finale and/or an appearance in the first-ever Pac-12 title game will buy him another season in Westwood.

But if Neuheisel is gone, the UCLA job (despite neighboring USC) is still a sweet little number.

Yes, if it opens up, this is a prime coaching position with the location, facilities, placement in the Pac-12 and fan base necessary to provide the right guy with a long-term place to win titles…lots of them.

The Bruins head job is not a sleeper like, say, Illinois. It is awake, and just waiting for somebody to lead it back to the glory days that stretched from the 1950’s to the 1980’s.

1. Ohio State

Status: Current head coach unofficially considered interim (i.e. they’re looking for another coach)

Poor Luke Fickell finally got a shot at his dream job, only to be used as a short-term solution to a long-term proposition.

It’s hard to imagine that anything short of a Big Ten title and a continuance of the Buckeyes’ formidable BCS streak would have saved Fickell and friends, but a 6-6 or 7-5 finish certainly won’t do it—especially if OSU falls to Michigan this Saturday.

The only openings that could realistically trump the Ohio State job are potential turnover at Texas, USC, Florida, Alabama or perhaps LSU and Oklahoma.

What hurts Ohio State’s stock in its current search for a coach is its unresolved NCAA sanctions (that could slap the program with competitive disadvantages), and the obvious compliance problems that caused the mess.

Really, the question is to hire now or hire later or, in the case of a perspective super coach, should he sign on now or wait for the dust to settle so he knows what he’s dealing with?

Either way, at least the next Buckeye coach won’t be blindsided like Miami’s Al Golden, whose good intentions were wrecked by a known, yet undisclosed, entity.