As all of your tans deepen and the cold beverages flow while you dine on great summer barbecue, I'm sending all of you your first summer reading assignment for the coming football season. It's time for another trip on the Coaching Carousel. We will really miss you, Frank Deford.
Baylor
OUT: Jim Grobe
IN: Matt Rhule
Last year when the sexual misconduct and other disciplinary issues of the Baylor football program became known, then HC Art Briles was fired and Jim Grobe, the old Wake Forest HC came out of retirement to help stabilize the Baylor program. Grobe was basically a figurehead as just about all of Briles' staff was retained. Jim Grobe and everyone else on the staff were let go at the end of the 2016 season. Temple HC Matt Rhule then left Philadelphia for Waco. Rhule had just led Temple to their first conference crown since 1967. Rhule was lauded as a man who "shared our values" according to Bears AD Mark Rhoades. Rhule may have some good values, but one of the assistants he brought in didn't. Assistant strength and conditioning coach Brandon Washington was arrested for solicitation at a hotel near the BU campus last February 4th. That's not a good look for a team already suffering from sex-scandals. Rhule is a good coach he should be able to win games in Waco. However, the most important thing Rhule can do is rehab the program's image first.
California
OUT: Sonny Dykes
IN: Justin Wilcox
Back in 2012, The Golden Bears parted ways with Jeff Tedford and brought in Dykes, a Mike Leach disciple to crank up the Cal offense. That was what Dykes did with Jeff Goff throwing his arm off most of the time. After going 8-5 in 2015 with a win in the Armed Forces bowl over Air Force, Dykes let it be known that he wasn't thrilled being in Berkeley. He mainly wasn't thrilled because the AD that hired him, Sandy Barbour left for Penn State after his first year at the helm. Dykes never really got along with new AD Michael Williams. Dykes then spoke openly with other schools about their HC jobs. Baylor was the most notable on the list of teams Dykes spoke with. The friction between Dykes and the admin at Berkeley grew. One of the main reasons was Dykes' realization that Berkeley wasn't like his home state of Texas. (Ummmmmm, Duhhhhhhh!) Dykes was then fired last January 8th. Which is really not a good time to fire your HC. So, who was left out there as a candidate? None other than Justin Wilcox. The name Wilcox makes Trojan fans angry as he came to SC as part of Steve Sarkisian's staff from Washington. His porous defenses left him no supporters in the Trojan family outside of Pat Haden and when he was fired by Clay Helton, shouts of joy were heard from the Trojan faithful. Trojan fans can only hope that his defenses keep up their less than stellar efforts in Strawberry Canyon.
Cincinnati
OUT: Tommy Tuberville
IN: Luke Fickell
With his resignation at the end of last season, the four decade career of Tommy Tuberville looks to be at an end. Seeing Tommy leave so peacefully from a place makes me think of the times that he didn't. Let's look back at two of those. In his first HC gig at Ole Miss, (1995-98), he made the statement, "They'll have to carry out me of here in a pine box." when asked about leaving Ole Miss for another job. Two days later, he left the Rebels for Auburn. Then 14 years later when he was the HC of Texas Tech, he left a recruiting dinner before the entrees arrived. During this disappearance, he handed in his resignation and took off for Cincinnati. In his stint with the Bearcats, he turned in back-to-back 9-4 seasons before faltering the last two years to 7-6 and 4-8. With his resignation in hand, UC went out and grabbed one off the hottest coordinators in the game to lead them. Luke Fickell is an Ohio lifer. Outside of one year as a NG for the Saints his entire football life has been in the Buckeye state. He played NG at Ohio State for John Cooper, then was a GA for Cooper, coached DL at Akron for two seasons, then was hired on Jim Tressel's staff back at Theee OSU. He remained on staff when Urban Meyer took over for Tressel and worked his way up to CO-DC/LB coach for the Buckeyes. There is a wealth of football talent in Ohio and if Fickell can work his connections, he can build Cincy up into a winner again, then leave them for a Big Ten job.
Connecticut
OUT: Bob Diaco
IN: Randy Edsall
Bob Diaco's Husky squads underachieved to the tune of an 11-26 record in his three years. The final four games of 2016 were especially bad with the Huskies going 0-4 and being outscored 130-16. he was let go and the UCONN admin turned to a familiar face in their coaching search. Thomas Wolfe discussed how one can't go home again a century for so ago. Now Randy Edsall will test out that theory this season. Edsall left the Huskies after the 2010 season to pursue the greener pastures of a power five conference HC gig at Maryland. His teams did not do well, with a couple of 7-6 records and a pair of bowl losses as the highlight of his time with the Terps. He was fired six games into the 2015 campaign after a 49-28 loss at Theee Ohio State. Edsall spent 2016 as a special projects research assistant for the Detroit Lions. Now, that he has been brought back to active coaching, he needs to make UCONN competitive quickly in the AAC in order to have a happy homecoming.
Florida Atlantic
OUT: Charlie Partridge
IN: Lane Kiffin
Insert assorted bird references here. Partridge was booted from the nest by the Owls administration after his teams failed to take wing. In three seasons his squads posted a 9-27 record and went 3-9 in each of those seasons. So who did the Admin hire to take his place? A man who has received his share of birds across the nation, Lane Kiffin. It seems like Kiffin has been around forever, which is a pretty big accomplishment in coaching circles for a for a guy that's just 42 years old. Remember this is already his third HC gig. He's been the HC of the Oakland Raiders, USC, and Tennessee. After Lane wore out his welcome as the OC at Alabama, Nick Saban was happy to send him off to the Sunshine State. Can Kiffin turn around the fortunes of the Owls? Can he stay out of his own way?
Only time will, but history isn't on his side. Maybe he'll lead FAU to the Sun Bowl and will get to wear a cool sombrero again.
Fresno State
OUT: Tim DeRuyter
IN: Jeff Tedford
Nobody rooted for DeRuyter as the Bulldogs went downhill the last few seasons. When FSU hit the 1-7 mark last year, DeRuyter was shown the door. Fresno AD Jim Bartko summed up what fans want in the central valley when he told the Fresno Bee of DeRyuter's firing, "Not an easy day. Football fever runs deep in the Valley. David Carr, Derek Carr, Trent Dilfer, many others. Jim Sweeney. Pat Hill. We expect great things out of it." So, who did Bartko turn to after the season ended under interim HC Eric Kiesau? They turned to former Cal HC Jeff Tedford. Tedford served as the QB coach in 1992 then as the QB coach/OC for the Bulldogs from 1993-97 under HC Jim Sweeney. Tedford's staff hires look to be solid as his OC will be Kalen DeBoer who helped turn Eastern Michigan from an also ran in the MAC into a bowl team and his DC is Orlando Steinauer who went from a fine player in the CFL to one of the leagues better DCs. He comes to FSU from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the northern league where he held the same position. This rebuild won't happen fast as Tedford will have to dig his way out of some pretty bad recruiting classes the last few seasons.
Georgia State
OUT: Trent Miles
IN: Shawn Elliott
GSU is one of the newborns of college football. A 2006 study sanctioned by the school told the admin that a football program could be started and that they would field a competitive team at the FBS level in a few years. So, the green light was given to starting a team. GSU started playing games in 2010 and for three seasons toiled in the FCS under the guidance of Bill Curry. Curry then handed the program off to Trent Miles who would lead the team into the FBS. Miles came from Indiana State where he had some success. He never found that success at GSU. He was fired near the end of the 2016 season with an overall record of 9-38, with six of those wins coming in his first season. Into the breach steps Shawn Elliott. Elliott's ties to GSU AD Charlie Cobb were a factor in him getting the job. He and Cobb worked together at Appalachian State where Elliott also played his college ball. However, when it came time for App State to select a new HC in 2012, Cobb selected Scott Satterfield over Elliott. So what makes him a good pick now? He's been on the South Carolina staff since 2010 serving a variety of positions under both Steve Spurrier and Will Muschamp. Did that additional experience help or did Cobb need a guy he was familiar with who would work cheap? I think both. How cheap is cheap? pretty cheap by FBS standards. $515,000 is near the bottom of the ladder in the FBS. 515K isn nothing to sneeze at, but when Michigan's Jim Harbaugh is getting nine million a year, it ain't much.
Houston
OUT: Tom Herman
IN: Major Applewhite
Houston's chances of holding on to the hot coaching property known as Tom Herman died when the Big XII decided not to expand the league last fall. So the Texas full circle occurred when Herman left for the burnt orange pastures of Austin while former Texas QB, assistant coach and and current UH OC Major Applewhite was hired to run the Cougars. Applwehite had a notable career as a QB at Texas with a great deal of headlines involving his battle for the starting job with Chris Simms. His Coaching career has been pretty much limited to the state of Texas except for one year stints at Syracuse and Alabama. From 2008-2013 He held a variety of spots at Texas ranging from Assistant HC to OC/QB coach. Applewhite must continue Herman's success to keep his job. If there is any doubt what's expected of him, UH President Renu Khator said it all when she was quoted in an SB nation article. "The winning is defined at University of Houston as 10 and 2. We'll fire coaches at 8 and 4." The quote was played off as a joke at a holiday party at Khator's home. We'll see if it was a joke soon. Good Luck, Major.
Fun Fact: The University of Houston's teams are known as the Cougars because one of their physical education instructors, John R. Bender was once the head football coach of Washington State. He loved the nickname and bestowed the name on the Houston's athletic teams.
Indiana
OUT: Kevin Wilson
IN: Tom Allen
Kevin Wilson over the course of six seasons turned Indiana from a loser into a bowl team, with two appearances in their last two years. Evidently, he also had a less modern and more Frank Kush-like way of treating his players. One of those players, Nick Carovillano told his father about Wilson's mistreatment of injured players and that started the ball roiling on investigations of Wilson when the elder Carovillano brought his son's problems to AD Fred Glass. The Chicago Tribune quoted Nick Carovillano as he described the way Wilson talked to inured players. Wilson would tell them that he's "paying $70,000 a year for you to sit on your ass." He also said that Wilson would just belittle and berate injured players until they felt guilty enough to play injured. After the initial investigations, IU put the coaching staff on notice about the treatment of injured players. Then, last November, the same type of allegations surfaced again from different players and Wilson was fired. IU then turned to DC Tom Allen to lead the team into their bowl game.. The Hoosiers lost the game, dropping a 26-24 decision to Utah in the Foster Farms Bowl. Allen was then named the HC in January. Allen did change over a good deal of the coaching staff and landed a good OC when he hired Mike DeBord. DeBord is a Big Ten veteran and could really help IU's offense. IU has enough talent in to go bowling for a third straight year in the strong Big Ten East. If Allen can accomplish that under the microscope he'll be under all year, then IU did hire the right man.
LSU
OUT: Les Miles
IN: Ed Orgeron
After many premature reports of his demise, Les Miles and LSU did really part ways after four games last season. Miles and OC Cam Cameron were dismissed after the Tigers started 2016 at 2-2 with the final game being a painful 18-13 loss to Auburn. Ed Oregon took over as the interim HC. He went 5-2 for the rest of the regular season and the admin at LSU removed the interim title. In his first game as the HC, his squad whipped Louisville, 29-9 in the Citrus Bowl. Coach O has had a long career since starting out as a GA at Northwestern State (LA) back in 1984. Most Trojan fans were happy to see Coach O get the HC job at LSU and they also wonder what would have happened had Oregon gotten the USC HC job after serving as the interim HC when Lane Kiffin was fired back in 2013. Oregon's passion for the game creates a bond with his players that is second to none. Now, if Oregon puts together a good offense to go with LSU's strong defenses, the Bayou Bengals may start truly challenging Bama's stranglehold on the SEC West.
Minnesota
OUT: Tracy Claeys
IN: P.J. Fleck
The way Tracy Claeys HC career ended at Minnesota is a story worth telling. The Golden Gophers had competed an 8-4 regular season and had accepted an invite to take on Washington State in the Holiday Bowl. Then, the Gophers hit the fan. Last December 13th, 10 players were suspended from all team activities by the UM administration for a sexual assault incident on September 2, 2016. In-between these two dates, several of the players had served suspensions due to the incident. When the Holiday Bowl suspensions came down, the rest of the team threatened to boycott the Holiday Bowl. They said they were standing up for their teammates who they feel "didn't get due process." Claeys backed his players. However, neither Claeys nor his players had really bothered to read the report on the incident. The UM administration then released their report of the assault to to the media. The players quickly withdrew their support of their teammates as the graphic details were made known. Claeys was left out to dry on the wrong side of a bad situation to face an AD who didn't hire him and a low buyout. Firing Claeys was a no-brainer for UM AD Mark Coyle. Coyle then really nabbed a great hire when he plucked P.J. Fleck from Western Michigan. All Fleck did in Kalamazoo was turn the Broncos into a team that went 13-1 last year. The one loss was a tight one to Wisconsin in the Cotton Bowl. The young, energetic Fleck is a HC on the rise and if he can do for Minnesota what he did for WMU, the Gophers will shakeup the Big Ten West. Are you listening, Badgers, Wildcats, Hawkeyes, Cornhuskers, Boilermakers and Illini?
Nevada
OUT: Brian Polian
IN: Jay Norvell
Talk about ups and downs in college football. Polian and the rest of the Nevada football team had met last November 27th to paint the Fremont Cannon blue after reclaiming the trophy in a 45-10 whipping of rival UNLV. A short while later that day they were called to a team meeting to be told that their HC had been fired. Brian Polian posted a 23-27 record at Nevada with a pair of bowl appearances in four seasons, but it just wasn't enough to keep his job. The firing was spun as a "mutual parting" by the Nevada admin. Funny, I don't know many HC's that would have called it a "mutual parting." So, with that awkward send off, Polian is gone and the next man up is Jay Norvell. According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, Novel interviewed so well, he was offered the job before he could leave town. Norvell has a long career as an assistant with stops at Wisconsin, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. He also coached in the NFL with the Raiders and Colts. His whole career has been on the offensive side of the ball as primarily a WR and TE coach. This past season he work at ASU as the WR coach and Passing Game Coordinator. Norvell brings a lot of experience to the job and has inherited a decent team. It is hoped by Nevada's admin that his experience will produce a winner in the biggest little city.
Oregon
OUT: Mark Helfrich
IN: Willie Taggart
After Chip Kelly left sugar daddy Phil Knight and an immense wardrobe of Nike gear in Eugene for the challenge of the NFL, his OC Mark Helfrich was hired to keep Oregon's winning ways going. Helfrich was an easy choice. He grew up in Coos Bay, played and coached at Southern Oregon and had coached at Boise State, Arizona State and Colorado before coming home to the Ducks. His offenses were pretty prolific and the good play continued when he took over as the HC. Having Marcus Mariota at QB didn't hurt. The Ducks whipped Florida State in the 2015 Rose Bowl to advance to the national title game. The Ducks were manhandled by Ohio State in the NC game and some small chinks started to show in the Ducks armor. The Ducks had a "disappointing" 2015 season, (9-4), which saw them being outmuscled in a 31-28 loss to Michigan State. Then a giant red flag went up when Utah came to Eugene and did everything to the Quack Attack except pluck Puddles in a 62-20 thrashing. The Ducks would go on to lose a double OT thriller to WSU, then get crushed in one of the worst collapses in bowl game history when TCU came back from a 31-0 halftime deficit to beat UO 47-41 in triple OT. Then 2016 happened. just about everyone who had been waiting to slap the Ducks around, did just that. In a three week span, UO gave 173 points, which included a 70-21 shellacking by Washington that wasn't as close as the score indicates. With Helfrich's fate sealed, the Duck braintrust, which is really just Phil Knight and someone posing as the Oregon AD, went looking for a new leader. That's where Willie Taggart came in. While many were listed as being interested in the job, only a few were willing to put up with a booster who calls almost all of the shots and even has a set of coaches headphones in his private box so he can listen in on the play calls. Taggart came to UO from USF, but he's really a Western Kentucky man. He played QB for and spent most of his coaching career with the Hilltoppers. He did spend a couple of years at Stanford under Jim Harbaugh where he was Toby Gearhart's RB coach. When he got to Eugene his tenure did not start well when his strength and conditioning coach, Irele Oderinde, ran a workout so intense that three players were hospitalized with potential kidney damage from rhabdomyolysis. Oderinde was suspended for a month and according to Taggart the workouts were "modified." If Taggart can keep from injuring his players, the Ducks have 17 returning starters and could easily bounce back to the top of the Pac 12 North. One hurdle to that return is having to play both Washington and Stanford on the road.
Purdue
OUT: Darrell Hazell
IN: Jeff Brohm
Darrell Hazell came into West Lafayette as the man who turned MAC doormat Kent State into a winner. Hazell never found that same magic with PU and he entered the 2016 season with a 6-31 record. The Boilermakers got off to a 3-2 start last season, but that wasn't enough to please new AD Mike Bobinski who fired Hazell after the fifth game. PU then lost their final six games under interim HC Gerad Parker to finish the year. Bobinski then went out and plucked Jeff Brohm away from Western Kentucky as what has been described by most of the college football world as a "homerun hire." Purdue may have stumbled into this good fortune as the only other open job in the Power Five at the time was the dumpster fire known as Baylor. Brohm comes from Western Kentucky where his teams were known for high powered offenses and swiss cheese defenses. Brohm will need to assemble a much better defensive staff than he has ever had in order to turn PU around. Brohm also has to deal with a facilities gap and a small fan base as obstacles to winning.
San Jose State
OUT: Ron Carragher
IN: Brent Brennan
After almost dropping the program 13 years ago, SJSU got up off the deck and worked their way into the Mountain West Conference. Then in 2012 , they went 11-2 under current Colorado HC Mike MacIntyre. It was thought the program was left in capable hands when Ron Carragher took over the team. Carragher's squads did not build on previous success going just 19-30 over the last four years and he was shown the door. SJSU then turned to a familiar name in Brent Brennan for the HC job. Brennan coached under both Dick Tomey and Mike MacIntyre from 2005-10 and for the last five seasons was the WR coach at Oregon State. One of the first moves Brennan made raised some eyebrows when he hired Andrew Sowder as his OC. Sowder is now the youngest OC in the FBS at 28 years old. Sowder learned some of his football from Bowling Green HC Dino Babers and was an assistant WR coach at Texas on Charlie Strong's staff. If Brennan's youth movement takes hold, the Spartans could be competitive again soon in the MWC. One side note is that Brennan is familiar wearing blue and gold. He lettered as a WR on UCLA's 1993 Rose Bowl team and his dad played at SJSU in the late 1960s.
South Florida
OUT: Willie Taggart
IN: Charlie Strong
How it came to be that Charlie Strong is the HC at USF in 2017 can only be understood if we rewind the clock back to 1995 when Jim Leavitt was tabbed to run USF's brand new program. How new? So new that Leavitt recruited a full class of kids in 1996 so they could start playing games for real in 1997. Leavitt brought the program from a then 1-AA independent to C-USA and then to the Big East. He had built up a 95-57 record over 13 seasons and led his squads to five bowl appearances. Leavitt was then fired in January of 2010 when an investigation showed that not only did Leavitt hit one of his players during the halftime of the 2009 Louisville game, he interfered with the investigation that followed. So, in came Skip Holtz who had a fine first season with Leavitt's recruits, then it all went downhill. Holtz was dismissed with a 16-21 record. Willie Taggart was then handed the reins to the program. Taggart came from Western Kentucky where he took the team from doormat to midland before accepting the USF job. USF went 2-10 in his first season and steadily went up from there with the Bulls going 10-2 in 2016. Taggart seized his chance to head to a power five school and left the rain of South Florida for the rain at Oregon. That left the job open for Charlie Strong. Strong was had only been unemployed for 19 days following his dismissal from Texas before being named the new USF HC. Strong's fire to lead another program was still burning when he was asked by CBS writer Dennis Dodd about staying off the field for awhile. Strong replied, "I'm not going to give Texas that pleasure." Strong was smart to seize this opportunity as he inherits a team that is loaded. The Bulls have 16 returning starters with nine of those on defense. Don't be surprised if this bunch crashes the New Year's Bowl party in 2017.
Temple
OUT: Matt Rhule
IN: Geoff Collins
Temple football has never been a bastion of great football. Remember this is the only school that was voted out of a power conference. That happened back in 2002 when the Owls were voted out of the Big East. So, when Matt Rhule led the Owls to a 10-3 regular season and their first conference title since 1967, it was a very big deal in Philadelphia. Rhule then decided to capitalize on that success and head to the banks of the Brazos at Baylor. The Owls then lost their bowl game with special teams coach Ed Foley at the helm, 34-26 to Wake Forest. The powers to be at Temple then went out and got a coach from the SEC to cross the Mason-Dixon line. Geoff Collins Has spent the last six season as a DC. From 2011-14 he coached at Mississippi State and the 2015-16 seasons he roamed the sidelines at Florida. Collins has inherited a pretty good team, but with only four starters returning on defense, Collins may not lead the Owls to the success they had last year, but with some breaks another bowl game could be had by the Owls,
Texas
OUT: Charlie Strong
IN: Tom Herman
To say that Charlie Strong's time as the HC of the Longhorns was a tad stormy is an understatement. Strong was not left a full cupboard by any means by Mack Brown. Strong's attempts to mold the program in his own way always seemed to have a steady stream of critics. Oh, and Strong's being the first African American HC at Texas also drew ire from a group of the Texas faithful the same way some groups of Notre Dame fans went after Ty Willingham when he was hired close to a decade ago. It is quite apparent when these things happen that winning solves everything. However Strong didn't win. The low point of the losing occurred right before Strong was fired. Texas lost to Big 12 bottom feeder Kansas, 24-21 in week 12. So, with Strong gone, the Longhorns scooped up the hottest coaching property in football when they hired Tom Herman away from Houston. All Herman did in his first HC gig was guide the Cougars to a 22-3 record with a huge 33-23 win over Oklahoma last year. Herman is known for teams with powerful offenses and highly motivated defenses that get the job done. If Herman hits it right, he could be on his way to bonafide Texas hero status.
Western Kentucky
OUT: Jeff Brohm
IN: Mike Sanford, Jr.
Jeff Brohm left the Hilltoppers for the Big Ten. WKU didn't waste time and hired a familiar name to be their next HC. If the name Mike Sanford sounds familiar to Trojan fans, it should. Mike Sanford, Sr. was a backup QB at USC from 1973-76 and was a GA at SC in 1977 and then later served as SC's WR coach from 1989-96. He's had a long career that included assistant coaching gigs at Army, Long Beach State, Notre Dame, Utah, Louisville and Stanford. He also was the HC at UNLV and Indiana State where he complied a less than stellar 34-73 record. So, why am I talking about Mike Sr., when Mike Jr. got the job? Well, because Jr. hired Sr. to be his RB and ST coach. Mike jr. worked as a GA back in 2005 for his dad then did two tours of duty with Stanford and was WKU's QB Coach in 2010. He comes to WKU from Notre Dame where he was Brian Kelly's OC.QB Coach. Jr. inherits a squad that has only 10 returning starters and just four off those on the offensive side of the ball. Several preseason publications feel that Jr. could win the C-USA East with the talent he has been left with, even if it is inexperienced talent. Oh, and I can't blame the kid for hiring his dad. If I were in his position, I'd do the same thing. Hope it works out better for him than Lane Kiffin.
Western Michigan
OUT: P.J. Fleck
IN: Tim Lester
P.J. Fleck took his gal and his family out of Kalamazoo and headed to the land of 10,000 lakes to lead the Golden Gophers. He did a great job leading the Broncos from 1-11 in 2013 to 13-1 in 2016 with a tough loss to Wisconsin in the Cotton Bowl. The WMU leadership turned to former star QB Tim Lester to fill the void. Lester was the QB for WMU from 1996-99 and just may be one of the few players to play in the XFL, Arena football league and the Arena Football League 2. He retuned as the QB Coach of the Broncos from 2005-06. He had a mildly successful run as the HC at D-II's Elmhurst college where he guided the team to its' very first playoff berth. He then spent time as the QB/RC/OC at Syracuse before spending last season at Purdue as their QB coach. Lester may have a tough go of it to start his tenure. He does have 12 returning starters, but his QB and top wideout have both graduated. Also, it doesn't help that WMU opens with road games at USC and Michigan State. The fans in Kalamazoo hope he continues what P.J. Fleck started.
Let's finish off this bit of summer reading with an installment of Three Notes About Nothing...
I've been spending time at OSH visiting the patio furniture I'd like to buy.
Trevor's at the Tracks is a great place to dine and just soak up the Los Rios district atmosphere in San Juan Capistrano.
I still love and looks forward to the MLB All-Star Game each year.
Until next time, remember that a great BBQ sauce is a key to great ribs.
-The Commissioner
