Never before have we written a Doing Good Things™ Report this late in the football season. Technically, there is still post-season football to attend to although for the most part the stories have been written for the vast majority of the programs and coaches across the country.
First, let’s take a look at the teams who have already pulled the plug or are currently experiencing a new leadership already since the season began back in September
Changes
USF – Charlie Strong
Boston College – Steve Addazio
FSU – Willie Taggart
Rutgers – Chris Ash
Old Dominion – Bobby Wilder
UTSA – Frank Wilson
New Mexico – Bob Davie
UNLV – Tony Sanchez
Washington – Chris Petersen
Arkansas – Chad Morris
Ole Miss – Matt Luke
Missouri – Barry Odom
Colorado State – Mike Bobo
Fresno State – Jeff Tedford
So far, we’ve had a couple of these positions filled starting with Greg Schiano heading back to Rutgers after an 8-year absence while inking a deal that doesn’t even seem real. According to reports, Schiano signed an 8-year contract for $32,000,000 for a cool $4 million per year, twice as much as the fired Chris Ash. While there were hangups in negotiations with Schiano wanting all of the money guaranteed he didn’t actually win that battle but still should be smiling all the same.
This past Monday, news broke that Chris Petersen had stepped down from his position at Washington and would be moving into an advisory role with the university. In his place steps Jimmy Lake, the soon to be 43-year old defensive coordinator for the Huskies with a strong recruiting background. It’s a potentially massive shake up for the Pac-12 if not the country as a whole.
USF is apparently in talks with former coach Willie Taggart who could return following short stints at Oregon and Florida State. Talk about coming back down to earth.
Florida State has been rumored to be chasing James Franklin at Penn State although a switch seems highly unlikely. Many expect Memphis coach Mike Norvell to eventually wind up in Tallahassee.
Three of the worst four or five SEC jobs are open and the market appears to be extremely suspicious of filling any of those challenging programs. Perhaps worth to mention that Chip Long’s name has been mentioned for the Ole Miss job or possibly a return to Memphis if Norvell leaves for greener pastures.
Doing Good Things
Cincinnati – Luke Fickell
SMU – Sonny Dykes
UCF – Josh Heupel
Louisville – Scott Satterfield
Memphis – Mike Norvell
Central Michigan – Jim McElwain
Oregon State – Jonathan Smith
Louisiana – Billy Napier
A reminder that we usually don’t bring up the obvious candidates here. For example, Ryan Day has yet to lose as Ohio State’s head coach and I’m sure you already knew that. He’s doing great things.
Fickell has suddenly sky-rocketed up the coaching ranks following a combined 10-14 record as interim Ohio State coach and first year at Cincinnati. Since then, he’s gone 21-4 and has a chance to win the American Conference this weekend.
Dykes spun his wheels at California but has quickly resurrected a SMU program in a way that his predecessor–who ended up getting a Power 5 job recently fired–couldn’t even do.
We probably need another year or two to flesh out if Heupel is really a top-notch coach or riding the wave left behind by Scott Frost. Still, it’s hard to argue with the same 21-4 record that is attracting attention to Luke Fickell.
Scott Satterfield should probably win National Coach of the Year. Virtually no one had the Cardinals winning more than 4 or 5 games and to have a chance to win 8 after a bowl game is a fantastic job.
Norvell is a little tricky for me. He walked into a very solid program when he was hired, kind of a light version of post-Frost UCF if you will. He ended up losing 14 games over his first three seasons but is on fire this year with a chance to win 13 games, a conference title, and a major bowl victory.
It had been a tough couple years for Jim McElwain who started a not-terrible 19-8 at Florida, lost 4 out of his first 7 against a tough opening schedule in 2017, then found himself fired and working as the receivers coach at Michigan last year. All he did in 2019 is take a 1-win team and turned them around into playing for the MAC Championship against our friend Chuck Martin.
This thing probably won’t keep improving exponentially but the job Jonathan Smith did at Oregon State was damn admirable. Oddly enough, 3 out of the Beavers’ 4 conference wins came against cross-divisional teams (all 3 on the road, too) but it was enough to finish in second place in the Pac-12 North.
Billy Napier is probably an under-the-radar name to watch as a potential surprise hire at a Power 5 program either this year or next. He comes with plenty of P5 assistant experience and has improved Louisiana quickly in his second year to where they have won 10 games and will have a chance at a conference title this weekend.
Not Doing Good Things
Houston – Dana Holgorsen
UConn – Randy Edsall
Miami – Manny Diaz
NC State – Dave Doeren
Nebraska – Scott Frost
Texas – Tom Herman
Remember when Dana Holgorsen voluntarily left West Virginia, tried some weird redshirt policy for proven starters, and lost 8 games in his first year at Houston? The Cougars hadn’t lost that many games since 2004 and this does not appear to be a positive experience for anyone thus far.
UConn–who are leaving the AAC and becoming independent for 2020–feel like they are on the verge of dropping football altogether at some point in the near future. The return of Randy Edsall certainly hasn’t helped matters as the Huskies once again went win-less in conference (19 straight league losses overall) and dropped to 6-30 since 2017 with only 3 FBS wins over that time frame.
been a long season for manny diaz pic.twitter.com/c4oQU6twyi
— Chris B. Brown (@smartfootball) December 1, 2019
I thought it was a bit strange how much applause the boomerang hiring of Manny Diaz received at Miami yet when they opened with a close loss to Florida it seemed like it could be an okay debut season and an opportunity to make some noise in the ACC. Instead, the Hurricanes lost 6 games including closing with losses to FIU and Duke. It should be a long off-season for Diaz in Coral Gables.
Once upon time, even stretching back to as early as November 2018, Dave Doeren was thought of as one of the hot coaches in the ACC, or even nationally. Then, NC State got obliterated by 39 points in last year’s bowl game and proceeded to go 1-7 in league play this year. The arrow is not pointing up.
To be fair, Scott Frost was a victim of too much pre-season hype at a Nebraska program still stuck with a relatively modest recruiting base and overall talent level. Still, no one expected only a one game improvement and the same record in the Big Ten as last year. There should be tons of patience in Lincoln but at the same time molding a divisional winner could be a long ways away.
One team was ranked in the top 10 during the pre-season and may finish unranked. It’s Texas, everybody! Tom Herman followed up a promising 2018 with a 7-5 stink bomb including several close wins that could’ve turned the season even worse. The recruiting pipeline is looking good so things aren’t too dark in Austin–plus they might have the honor of being matched up with Notre Dame in a bowl game because #BrandPower–yet the Horns are turning over a ton of their coaching assistant staff and will go through a difficult off-season.
I’m happy for Luke fickle to have bounced back from having the only unsuccessful Ohio state season of my life but please keep him away from ND. I have seen some message boards clamor for him and please no
I agree, that OSU season was a such a huge red flag that a couple really nice seasons at Cincinnati aren’t enough for me to think he’s worth of a top 12-ish Power 5 job.
Fickell feels like a pretty lazy guy to put on the short-list….Catholic + Midwest = potential ND coach. He definitely needs to prove more at Cincy or if he jumps to a P5 before I’d really look at him as a serious ND candidate
As touched on, it seems like Norvell is a guy to watch right now if he jumps that could open up dominoes for Chip Long, especially if Norvell goes to FSU (or basically anywhere but Ole Miss) since that could open up Ole Miss and naturally Memphis as possibilities for Long.
Surprised to see neither of the Big 12 Matt’s on the list. Matt Rhule is on the realm of the obvious and doing great things, but to me still in the classic DGT category, since it’s Baylor and I expect them to revert to being Baylor at some point. This answer he gave earlier in the week about recruiting/development was really awesome. Link below if anyone hasn’t heard it yet. Could EASILY see him changing a few terms and variables and making that a Notre Dame pitch….
https://twitter.com/Colt_Barber/status/1201601206424162304
DGT: Mike Bohn – for keeping Clay Helton for another season.
Not only will Helton keep everything nicely mediocre over on the west coast, but the uncertainty surrounding him will make recruits continue to second guess USC as a destination. Currently USC is ranked 71st! in 247 Composite 2020 rankings, behind teams like Troy and North Texas! They only have one commit that is above a 3 star currently. No doubt they’ll pick up some more decent recruits before it’s all over (anyone know who they are legitimately in play for?), but this year is going to make Reggie Bush scholarship restricted recruiting look good!
Also related to recruiting uncertainty, what are people hearing about Jalen McMillian?
USC’s schedule is brutal next year too. neutral site Alabama week 1, @Oregon, @Utah, @Stanford, Notre Dame late. Looks like they’re 8-4 again in absolute best case. I know some here worry about Slovis with another year experience, but he was already pretty good vs ND this year and his team ought to be lesser next year than it was this year, based on surface level look at it, anyways with Pittman gone and I assume Vaughns declares too.
Hopefully the weak recruiting class has a trickle effect like 2-3-4 years down the line even when Helton is gone that might be tough for the next coach to overcome, unless they do end up with Urban or something. Even if they get the talent up by then, it’ll be green, so maybe this decision will haunt them for several years.
It’s tough and I think they will potentially be right back here in a year – they are loaded with sophomores and guys returning and think they should be good. But if you’re an SC fan given recruiting and the feeling Helton is dragging down your ceiling with poor program management, do you even want them to go 9-3?
The only explanations I can come up with are that (1) they are not happy with the coaches available this year, (2) there is a directive from up high to save money (they don’t want to pay Helton to go away), or (3) Helton has incriminating photos of someone.
Even last year’s class wasn’t great for them. Ranked 20th (which isn’t anything to sneeze at, but is certainly sub-par for USC): zero 5*s and seven 4*s, though they picked up both a 5* and 4* for that class by transfer already putting it at one and eight. What’s driving the ship right now is the 2018 and 2017 classes which were both ranked 4th nationally, and the 2018 class in particular was stacked with top shelf talent. I think they’ll be “fine” next year, but it definitely doesn’t bode well down the line. The effects of a clunker recruiting class can’t be wished away. Only 4 years of time can get rid of it.
I really l like the Doing Good Things. Its hard to know which guys are legit and which are hype. There’s talk about Fleck, Rhule, and Campbell now, before it was Doeren, as Post-Kelly options. It seems like the general impression is no matter how his next few years are, Kelly might be looking to be done in the next three to five.
When I rhink who would be a good replacement, I’ve been looking out for who over achieves given the talent they get, but more who has won some of the big rivarly or ranked opponent games, especially away. But I don’t see any coaches like that outside the top few. Even Kelly, Harbaugh, and Franklin have serious issues even getting a few here and there. I heard despite the OU win a fews ago, Campbell hasnt beaten Iowa yet. Flick, I dont know, Penn State was a good win, but Eric called the losses to Iowa and Wisconsin. Iam not sold on Rhule.
I know he doesn’t have head coaching esperience but I like Lea. The way they say he communicates and teaches clearly seems legit, the defensive adjustments the last two years show that i think. Give him a few years as a coach in waiting building a system with kelly that transitions easy. Give the reins to a solid program to a guy like Lea who can communicate to and coach a team like that, I would be ok with that. A different guy who Did Good Things seems no better than 50/50 anyway, and they are coming in changing things, trying to get everyone to Row The Boat, etc.
And oh man does the situation at Nebraska seem dire. There was an espn article a few weeks ago on if Frost is really the guy to turn it around. He’s got some hill to run up. Made me glad ND was able to climb out of the bad times before Kelly. But they seem way more far gone.
I agree. Lea seems like a good coach. His players like and respect and play hard for him, he’s smart, he’s said to be a very good communicator, and is pretty good as a recruiter. I think the program it’s at a place of stability where we’re don’t necessarily want a new guy to come in and overhaul everything. Some consistency could be good, hopefully with just enough energy and new ideas to get us over the hump
I’m liking this idea a lot.
OT: How did the bowl game choose Iowa State as our matchup?
My understanding is that the Valermo bowl got first pick of the BIG12 leftovers – and picked Texas.
My suspicion is that since there is a tie in the conference that Texas, Okie St, K. St, and I St. were could have gone there and then camping world bowl got next pick. I would have hoped for Okie St. if only for a matchup with another ranked team. So I wonder why they chose Iowa State. Any thoughts?
This seems a bit disappointed to be ranked 15 at 10-2 and have to play an unranked team (I realize they may be a top 35 team but it’s more about perception than anything). Beating a ranked team would have looked solid, beating a 7-5 unranked team – doesn’t look like much.
Hopefully we crush Matt Campbell and nobody around the ND program ever again thinks about hiring him as the next head coach. I would be pleased with that one and only outcome.
Alamo did indeed get the first pick and wanted Texas. From all reports, it sounds like Iowa State travels far better than you’d expect for a team with its stature – they’ve reportedly already sold close to 40% of its ticket allotment – which was the main reason it got picked. (Okla St also played in this bowl last year, which I’m sure was a factor.)
This thread got me thinking about whenever the time may come that Brian Kelly is either fired or leaves Notre Dame voluntarily. Would the administration lean more toward an up-and-coming head coach such as Matt Rhule, or would the university brass take the easy way out by promoting a guy like Clark Lea? My gut tells me it would be a promotion from within, especially if Clark Lea is still around as defensive coordinator. This isn’t to say Lea isn’t capable of being a competent head coach. In my opinion, the Notre Dame head coaching job should be reserved for a proven head coach who has the experience and track record of leading a major program.
I believe it was Swarbrick who said he would only hire someone with head coaching experience.
Notre Dame requiring HC ebioxperience is something I generally agree with, and Faust and Bob Davie and Weis all show that. But I look at Smart, Swinney, Riley, and now Day and I think maybe that is just old wisdom now, maybe things are different. Is Lea something special? There’s no more pressure and responsibility at ND than there is at OSU. Lea is probably way more than Bob Davie, and that transition from Holtz was a bit of a mess (Joe Moore, etc.). I dont know, I like the winning trajectory now and I want it stay after Kelly, and I dont know if an outside DGT coach would necessarily do that. Who knows though. Maybe some guys can build at a blue blood program and some can’t. Maybe if charlie strong walks into a good thing at texas like day and riley he’s still there, so maybe any good coach coming after Kelly will be alright.
Your reference to Lincoln Riley, Ryan Day and other assistants who were promoted to head coach really is food for thought. I believe being a head coach is more about true CEO style leadership ability than actual football acumen. Does a guy like Clark Lea have the innate leadership traits common among the best head coaches across the current football landscape? Only time will tell.
I look at a guy like Ed Orgeron, who only had three years’ worth of head coaching experience (Ole Miss, 2005-07) who is now proving to be a man willing to put the right people in the right positions and let them do their jobs. I’d be willing to bet Lea would be capable of accomplishing the same feat, particularly with his experience at a unique school such as Notre Dame.