The big head coaching picture

[throatybeard]

Tell me if I've left anyone out. I'm going to put these in my own ballpark estimation of where we rank in football job prestige, with a healthy dose of benefit of the doubt. The vacancies are or were:

1) Michigan [hired Rich Rodriguez from WVU]
2) Nebraska [hired Bo Pelini from LSU]
3) Texas A&M [hired Mike Sherman]
4) Arkansas [hire Petrino from the DirtyBirds]
5) UCLA
6) West Virginia
7) Georgia Tech [hired Paul Johnson]
8) Ole Miss [hired Arkansas' sloppy 2nds]
9) Washington State [hired Paul Wolff]
10) Colorado State
11) Southern Miss
12) Baylor [hired Art Briles away from UH]
13) Duke [hired David Cutcliffe]
14) SMU
15) Northern Illinois [hired SIU's coach, I forget his name]

loose former head coaches include (no particular order):


Orgeron
Bower
Morriss
Callahan
Roof
Franchione
Bennett
Gailey
Dorrell

former head coaches who are done:
Carr
Lubick
Novak
Doba

Other schools that may soon be in the mix:
Texas Tech (Leach linked to like 90 jobs)

what am I missing?

[Bluedawg]

It's nice to hear someone else say this...

The point is that Duke can have -- should have -- a solid coach and do it without being forced to sacrifice its admissions standards or pay $3 million per year. The great lie in college football is that you must be allowed to recruit dumb players in order to be decent. Jim Grobe at Wake Forest and Paul Johnson at Navy are proof to the contrary.

[dukerev]

No telling what will actually happen, but the Memphis Commercial-Appeal is reporting that the Ole Miss job is Nutt's to turn down.

[dukerev]

The World-wide Leader is now reporting that Nutt is the new Ole Miss coach.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3129559

[tbyers11]

Thought that I would post a link to an ESPN page where they have made a chart like Throaty's in the first post, but with pretty graphics and stuff. This should make the coaching carousel easier to follow and save someone the task of updating the chart as events unfold.

[merry]

I thought this thread was going to be about Pete Gillen.

[allenmurray]

I thought this thread was going to be about Pete Gillen.

Great job Merry - you beat me to it! My son and I used to refer to him as the human bobble-head ball (with affection of course, I really like Gillen).

[JasonEvans]

[Mike Corey]

Look at the size of that boy's heed. It's like an orange on a toothpick. That's a huge noggin. That's a virtual planetoid. Has it's own weather system.

I crossed the line, didn't I. He's going to cry himself to sleep tonight on his gigantic pillow.

(Hat tip: Mike Myers)

[captmojo]

Boy! Heead! Neow!

[Zeke]

Duke has been a revolving door for coaches. You come in, you win a few games, you lose a lot more, you get fired after 4 yrs (or less). Does your resume' benefit by this - I think not.
What coach would want to take a bunch of bright kids with good but not great football talents and play Florida State, Miami, Va.Tech, Boston College, Clemson, N C State, UNC. Va on a regular basis. Yes, some of these teams may go up and down but you're probably not going to win many games unless the university gives you some support - read allows marginally academically acceptable players to enter on scholarships. The other alternative is to switch to another conference.
What Duke will likely get is an assistant coach from somewhere who is so dying to be a head coach that he will give it a shot. If Duke drops out of the ACC, then football could be fun again.

[hondoheel]

Great job Merry - you beat me to it! My son and I used to refer to him as the human bobble-head ball (with affection of course, I really like Gillen).

I was thinking Steve Lavin.

[rockymtn devil]

According to the Detroit Free Press, the Les Miles-Michigan talks are back on. This guy looks so slimy right now. No one would've cursed him for leaving LSU for Michigan two weeks ago given his ties to the Wolverines. But now, after the Herbstreit leak (that likely came from the Miles camp), the press conference, and the extension with LSU, it appears that Miles has been staging all of this and playing Michigan, LSU, and ESPN.

[blazindw]

According to the Detroit Free Press, the Les Miles-Michigan talks are back on. This guy looks so slimy right now. No one would've cursed him for leaving LSU for Michigan two weeks ago given his ties to the Wolverines. But now, after the Herbstreit leak (that likely came from the Miles camp), the press conference, and the extension with LSU, it appears that Miles has been staging all of this and playing Michigan, LSU, and ESPN.

Yeah, a whole bunch of flags went up when the terms of his "new contract" extension came out...it's the exact same contract he had before, but just a few years longer. $2.6m/yr if he loses the BCS title game, $3.4m/yr if he wins, same $1.25m buyout for going to Michigan. It seems like the Miles-Michigan dance was just taking an intermission...get ready for Act II.

[pratt '04]

ESPN is reporting Bobby Petrino to Arkansas:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3150783

[throatybeard]

That's one smart golden-parachute-takin man right there.

[crote]

ESPN is reporting Bobby Petrino to Arkansas:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3150783

The upshot of this for Duke is that the guy who was previously considered the front runner for the job, Auburn DC Will Muschamp, is still on the table. He's so anxious for a HC job, he might bite if Duke were to offer him (I've heard him mentioned in connection with Southern Miss; surely we're more attractive than them?). As a Hog fan I was more than satisfied with the prospect of him leading Arkansas. Muschamp at Duke, though? I'd be ecstatic.

Of course, if the Dorrell rumors are true, it would seem Duke is committed to pursuing horrible, no good, very bad candidates, which would seem to rule Muschamp out.

[ArkieDukie]

The upshot of this for Duke is that the guy who was previously considered the front runner for the job, Auburn DC Will Muschamp, is still on the table. He's so anxious for a HC job, he might bite if Duke were to offer him (I've heard him mentioned in connection with Southern Miss; surely we're more attractive than them?). As a Hog fan I was more than satisfied with the prospect of him leading Arkansas. Muschamp at Duke, though? I'd be ecstatic.

Of course, if the Dorrell rumors are true, it would seem Duke is committed to pursuing horrible, no good, very bad candidates, which would seem to rule Muschamp out.

Southern Miss has reportedly decided to go with Ok State OC Larry Fedora, which means that Muschamp is still on the market. I don't know much about him, but Hog fans in the know were talking of him in reverent tones when his name was associated with our vacancy. Crote, what's the scoop?

[crote]

Southern Miss has reportedly decided to go with Ok State OC Larry Fedora, which means that Muschamp is still on the market. I don't know much about him, but Hog fans in the know were talking of him in reverent tones when his name was associated with our vacancy. Crote, what's the scoop?

You probably know as much as I do. All I know about Muschamp is:

1. He coached an Auburn D that managed to absolutely shut down the same Darren McFadden who ran for 321 against South Carolina (granted this was before HDN realized "Hey, that misdirection stuff Gus was calling last year actually worked purty good").

2. He was captured uttering a very funny, very NSFW outburst after his D forced a three and out, which would likely lend itself to a fun nickname: http://youtube.com/watch?v=yyeby6qHlDA

3. He really, really, really wants to be a HC somewhere, maybe enough to take the Duke job. Of course, at this point we seem to be more interested in inept, failed former head coaches from major programs than smart, promising coordinators, so when we're talking about Muschamp at Duke we might as well be writing fanfic.

I don't know if you read EDSBS.com (as every college football fan should), but their initial reaction to the Arkansas-Muschamp union that never was was: "this is potentially a really, really good hire." For whatever that's worth.

I would have been more than happy with him at the U of A. More so than Bowden. Or Dorrell.

[ArkieDukie]

You probably know as much as I do. All I know about Muschamp is:

1. He coached an Auburn D that managed to absolutely shut down the same Darren McFadden who ran for 321 against South Carolina (granted this was before HDN realized "Hey, that misdirection stuff Gus was calling last year actually worked purty good").

BWAHAHAHA! Good thing I wasn't drinking a cup of coffee when I read that last sentence. (As an aside, is "misdirection" in HDN's vocabulary? That's a purty big word.) And, speaking of Malzahn, I'm amazed that someone out there hasn't interviewed him for a head coaching job. OC of the Yr last year in his first year as an assistant at the collegiate level, nation-leading offense this year. He's a frakkin' genius.

Wasn't McFadden playing injured against Auburn? Somewhere in that time frame he was playing with bruised ribs because *someone* sent him up the middle every stinkin' play. It didn't take a Magic 8 Ball to see what play was coming; it's no wonder he didn't get any yardage. In fact, in the post-game presser, the person making those calls said, "You have to call that play. You just know that one of these times he's going to bust loose for a big gain." Or something to that effect. (Maybe that strategy doesn't work so well if it's the only play you call.) He then went on to say that he was going to "let" the OC open up the offense a bit more the following week (against Ole Miss, whom we slaughtered with the wide-open offense). To quote the prophet Bugs Bunny, "What a maroon." He single-handedly cost D-Mac the Heisman.