I took the time after the final hiring of the offseason to put together these FBS head coach hiring rankings, from No. 27 to No. 1 (yes, there were 27 job changes after the 2011 season, which eclipses the totals in both 2011 and 2010. It’s been an insane offseason, to say the least). Today, we dip into the Final Five, and my No. 1 might surprise you a bit.

First, let’s be clear – this is my opinion, and I base it on a number of factors, including the experience and reputation of the coach, the current state of the program, the perceived ability for the program to be competitive early and how the coach’s hire relates to the overall reputation of the program. In other words, did the school get it right?

Second, this is not a best to worst list of coaching hires. I would not say that hires that I have ranked toward the bottom of these rankings means they’re bad coaches. I feel like you have to show you’re a good coach to be a head coach somewhere. Rather, the coaches ranked near the bottom of this survey all have something working against them, such as taking over a bad program, their own lack of experience, issues they have no control of off the field, etc…

And, finally, this is not scientific. Much of it is how I feel about the hire in my gut. I don’t have a formula for determining if a head coach is the right head coach for that school, and neither does anyone else. At the end of the day, it comes down to your gut. And 27 athletic directors went with their guts this winter.

So who occupies the top shelf in our FBS head coach hiring rankings? Find out below.

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It took nearly two months to finish off the college football hiring season, which leads me directly to the PigskinU.com 2012 FBS head coach hiring rankings.

I took the time after the final hiring of the offseason to rank all of the new head coaching hirings in FBS, from No. 27 to No. 1 (yes, there were 27 job changes after the 2011 season, which eclipses the totals in both 2011 and 2010. It’s been an insane offseason, to say the least).

First, let’s be clear – this is my opinion, and I base it on a number of factors, including the experience and reputation of the coach, the current state of the program, the perceived ability for the program to be competitive early and how the coach’s hire relates to the overall reputation of the program. In other words, did the school get it right?

Second, this is not a best to worst list of coaching hires. I would not say that hires that I have ranked toward the bottom of these rankings means they’re bad coaches. I feel like you have to show you’re a good coach to be a head coach somewhere. Rather, the coaches ranked near the bottom of this survey all have something working against them, such as taking over a bad program, their own lack of experience, issues they have no control of off the field, etc…

And, finally, this is not scientific. Much of it is how I feel about the hire in my gut. I don’t have a formula for determining if a head coach is the right head coach for that school, and neither does anyone else. At the end of the day, it comes down to your gut. And 27 athletic directors went with their guts this winter.

But some did better than others. We’ll continue with the next tier, Nos. 16-20.

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Penn State may have a bigger problem than not having jhired a head coach.

The Nittany Lions don’t appear to have a quarterback either.

I saw Penn State play Houston in the TicketCity Bowl on Monday and found myself wondering how they won 10 games with that rag-tag group of signal-callers. Rob Bolden completed just seven passes and threw three interceptions in the 30-14 loss. Nearly half of his 137 yards passing came on his touchdown pass. Watching this team pass the ball was, at times, painful.

I know the Nittany Lions are built on defense and that will win you a lot of games. But Houston had no trouble figuring out how to beat PSU – stop the run and dare them to pass. It’s a dare that the Nittany Lions need to meet with their next coaching hire. He not only needs to be able to recruit quarterbacks but nurture them into effective players. Like Houston’s Case Keenum, who threw for an incredible 532 yards against the Nittany Lions in that same game.

Penn State’s next coach – whoever he has – should put that at the top of his list.

Other things on my mind as I wonder whether the Alamo Bowl is still going on …

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UCLA. texas A&M. Charlie Weis. Big names and big programs were the norm for FBS coaching changes this weekend.

There are now 25 openings in FBS that either have been filed or must be filled. That eclipses either of the totals for the past two offseasons. What does that mean? Well, that means that more than 60 of the head coaching jobs in major college football have turned over in the past three offseasons. Amazing.

There are only six jobs left to fill, but the major job left out there is Penn State, which is taking its time with its search. Cut them a little slack. Penn State hasn’t had to go find a new head coach in 60 years.

We’ll start in Kansas, which has fallen off the map since the dismissal of Mark Mangino after the 2009 season. After pursing the “hot” coach in Turner Gill to replace Mangino, and firing Gill last month, the Jayhawks threw a wad of cash at former Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis to take over the program. This is Weis’ fourth job in four years – From Notre Dame to Kansas City offensive coordinator to University of Florida offensive coordinator to Kansas head coach. Stability would concern me. So would how the Irish tailed off in Weis’ final two years. Fortunately, the expectations aren’t off the charts in Lawrence like they are in South Bend.

In sunny Los Angeles, UCLA hired Jim Mora Jr. If you thought the Weis hiring was curious, this one is downright dumbfounding. Mora was a middling NFL head coach (career record 32-34) who has coached just one year at the college level as a graduate assistant at Washington. He has no UCLA ties. It just doesn’t make sense, at least to me.

Then at texas A&M the Aggies finally completed their contract with Houston coach Kevin Sumlin and named him the replacement for Mike Sherman. Sumlin will lead the Aggies into SEC play in 2012 and bring the wide-open offense that made Houston a BCS bowl game contender with him. One thing he can’t bring with him is QB Case Keenum. Sumlin will need time to install his system, as the Aggies ran more of a pro-set formation on offense. But Sumlin’s texas ties and ability to recruit in his own backyard made him a good choice.

Elsewhere, Tim Beckman became the second MAC coach in as many years to make the jump to the Big Ten, as Illinois hired him to replace Ron Zook. Justin Fuente, the co-offensive coordinator, took the head coaching job at Memphis. UMass dipped into the Fighting Irish coaching staff and stole offensive coordinator Charlie Molnar to take over the Minutemen as it enters MAC play in 2012. And, Larry Fedora was introduced as the head coach at North Carolina, but announced he would be helming Southern Miss in its bowl game later this month.

PigskinU.com’s chart of FBS coaching changes for 2012 is after the jump. We will update it as needed.

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Here’s a tough one. Wulff has been on the hot seat at Wazoo since the first hot seat coaching article was written, say, a week after Auburn beat Oregon in the BCS National Championship game. Outside of New Mexico’s Mike Locksley, no coach was perceived to have done a worse job with his program the past two years.

But is Wulff making progress? Well, the Cougars won four games this year, more than any other year of Wulff’s three-year tenure. Their win over Arizona State was the Cougars’ biggest of the season. But considering the Sun Devils had slipped into mediocrity by that point, “big win” means something different there. The Cougars also had the ninth-best passing offense in the nation, averaging 322 yards per game. The offense, despite the running game’s No. 104 ranking, was No. 33 overall. But I think most of that yardage came as the Cougars played from behind.

The fact is the Cougars lost every meaningful game this year, and the 9-40 record under Wulff – the worst four-year stretch in program history – will likely be too much for athletic director Bill Moos to deal with.

It would be more for me, too. If I were Moos, I’d let Wulff go. My personal rule is this – a coach should have four years to implement his program, recruit his guys and see where it goes. By the end of that fourth year, you should have a good feeling about where the program is going. I don’t think anyone at Wazoo has that feeling.

It’s time for Wulff to go.

More questions and answers on Brady Hoke, San Diego State, Matt Barkley and the Conference USA Championship Game after the jump.

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Well, it did in that the game shaped up the way most of us did – dominated by defense. These units could play, as a whole, for some teams in the NFL right now. I think these two coaches, Nick Saban and Les Miles, were heavily influenced by what that fact. Most of the time coaches will tell you that they’re not concerned with the other team and they’re out to execute their game plan. Well, I think in this case both coaches knew one bad play could undo the entire game and their play calling was influenced as a result. In this case, they might have been OVERLY concerned with what the other team was doing, and that doesn’t happen often.

We all knew that these two teams didn’t have stellar passing games, and that beared out. Jarrett Lee and Jordan Jefferson of LSU, and A.J. McCarron of Alabama, struggled. They were hampered by conservative game plans and NFL-caliber secondaries.

And we knew it would be a close game. Did anyone really think this contest would be a blowout?

But I don’t believe we thought it would be dominated by the kicking game, either. Remember what I wrote earlier this week? If it’s the kicking game, LSU has the edge. That was certainly true.

LSU was 3-for-3 on field goals, thanks to the steady foot of Drew Alleman. Punter Brad Wing had a heck of a game. Yes, he had the one shank. But that 72-yard punt was perfectly timed, if aided by the fact that Alabama punt returner Marquis Maze couldn’t backpedal on that ankle. But the Tide should have known Wing, backed up in his own end zone, was going to try and outkick his coverage, right?

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The topic was Boise State and whether the Broncos deserved a shot at the national championship game this year, even if all of the current undefeated teams ended up with a loss. Both Holtz and May said no.

Their reason? Boise State’s schedule isn’t good enough, and they scoffed at the notion that Boise can’t impact its own strength of schedule by scheduling Top 25 teams during the non-conference schedule. Holtz actually implied Boise State wouldn’t schedule more than one difficult opponent each season.

My issue isn’t their point, really, because I agree to some degree. My issue is this. Boise could schedule more Top 25 teams in non-conference play, and I actually think the Broncos would like to do so. The problem is this, guys – the automatic qualifying conferences are scared of the Broncos.

Yes, I said it. Scared.

Here’s the way the game is played among the six automatic qualifying conferences when it comes to non-conference action. Those schools do everything possible to make sure they win those games because they know their conferences are tough and that they’ll probably absorb a loss or two during league play. These programs value this strategy so much that they’ll actually pay lesser teams hundreds of thousands of dollars to come to their stadium so they can put a beat down on them.

The AQ teams get a win they can use to push their bowl eligibility and protect themselves from conference losses.

Sure, you have an unusual case like LSU this year, which scheduled a robust non-conference schedule to go with its SEC schedule. But most of the time you get a schedule that includes one decent AQ team and two or three non-AQ teams that will be easy to beat.

Boise State doesn’t have that luxury because it plays in the Mountain West, which is probably the best non-AQ conference going, but only has one ranked team and that’s Boise. The Broncos scheduled Georgia this year and beat the Bulldogs in the opener, but weren’t able to schedule another AQ team.

You don’t think Boise State wants to play tougher opponents? I feel certain that they do. But when you create a system where there’s no benefit for AQ teams to play a program like Boise State, then the Broncos will be lucky to get their one game against a ranked AQ opponent each year. The BCS continues to treat the Broncos as a novelty instead of as one of the nation’s top programs. This is just a case of the BCS trying to keep the non-AQ teams down. They don’t like party crashers.

Of course, Boise may finally get a chance to make its case, if the Big East’s flirtation with the program comes to fruition. Boise State moving to the Big East provides the conference with a program with a national following and helps take some of the sting out of the losses of Syracuse, Pittsburgh and West Virginia (and maybe more). The move finally provides Boise State access to the AQ world and legitimizes them, as much as TCU’s move to the Big East (and later Big 12) did for the Horned Frogs and Utah’s move to the Pac-12 did for the Utes. Yes, I know the Utes are 1-4 in the Pac-12 right now and May made that point. But the fact is Boise is a better program than Utah and I think Boise would do much better in an AQ conference.

Boise State’s move to a conference like this is well overdue. So is the respect this program deserves. Boise State no longer needs a pat on the head when they beat an AQ school.

Boise State needs a chance to play with the big boys every week. The Big East – even as decimated as they look right now – would give Boise State the chance. Sadly, it does the Broncos no good this year.

So, without further ado, My PigskinU.com Top 25 poll after Week 9:

1. Alabama (last week: 2): The biggest game in the history of college football (November 2011 edition) is just six days away. The Tide must establish the run against LSU.

2. LSU (2): Meanwhile the Tigers not only have to stop the run but figure out how to keep the heat that is the Crimson Tide’s pass rush off QBs Jarrett Lee and Jordan Jefferson.

3. Boise State (3): Boise’s final five games don’t look imposing. All they can do is play their games and see what happens.

4. Stanford (4): The Cardinal needed three overtimes to defeat USC. I don’t look at as a bad thing. This should toughen up the Cardinal for Oregon.

5. Oklahoma State (5): The Cowboys have had one close game this season, their one-point win over texas A&M. One other was a 12-point win. The rest have been absolute blowouts. The offense has scored at least 30 points in every game. Can anyone slow them down?

6. Oregon (6): What’s the worst thing that can happen to a Top 10 team during the season? A quarterback controversy. Watch the Darron Thomas-Bryan Bennett situation closely.

7. Oklahoma (8): I expected a bounce-back win for the Sooners. I didn’t quite expect the Sooner to blow out Kansas State, though.

8. Nebraska (9): The Cornhuskers just screwed up the Big Ten in a good way by beating Michigan State. You know, on second thought, Nebraska fits right into this league.

9. Arkansas (11): Yes, Arkansas struggled with Vandy. But that says more about the job James Franklin is doing in Nashville than the Hogs.  

10. Virginia Tech (13): You know if Duke had a kicker that could make a field goal we’d be talking about what’s wrong with the Hokies and not their escapability.

11. Penn State (14): Joe Pa is now the winningest coach in FBS/FCS. Congrats. Now enjoy the bye guys, because Nebraska, Ohio State and Wisconsin loom. Don’t get comfortable, Joe.

12. South Carolina (15): The best thing South Carolina has going for it right now is its win over resurgent Georgia. If the Gamecocks beat Florida, the SEC East is theirs.

13. Clemson (7): Remember when I said I wasn’t sure Clemson would go undefeated? Well, there you go.

14. Cincinnati (18): I wasn’t sure what to do with the Bearcats, considering they didn’t play this week. Five Big East games lie ahead for the nation’s No 2 run defense.

15. Michigan (19): The Legends Division is now a mess and the door is open for the Wolverines to take control. They still have the Cornhuskers in three weeks.

16. Houston (20): I saw QB Case Keenum in person last week. He’s definitely a quarterback worth paying attention to. Houston is on course for a Conference USA division title.

17. Kansas State (10): If I’m Bill Snyder, I’d be asking someone in the Big 12 offices why they ended up with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State on back-to-back weeks.

18. West Virginia (21): The Mountaineers are on their way to the Big 12. They still have a shot to claim their last Big East title.  

19. Arizona State (22): The Sun Devils dominated Colorado. That’s no mean feat. Losses ahead of the Sun Devils move them up three spots.

20. Wisconsin (12): Two flukish losses in a row for the Badgers put them in a precarious position. They must win out to contend for a Big Ten division title.

21. texas (23): texas ran the ball with impunity against Kansas. The longhorns are a win away from getting back to a bowl, but all five of their remaining games will be tough.

22. Georgia (NR): The Bulldogs won the Cocktail Party and it appears that Mark Richt’s job is safe. Sad that it takes that to secure a job for a great head coach like Richt.

23. Georgia Tech (NR): Food for thought – The Yellow Jackets have beaten five straight ranked opponents at home. Just sayin’.

24. Michigan State (17): I still think the Spartans are a Top 25 team. But they can’t keep laying eggs after winning big games.

25. Auburn (NR): I’m a little surprised the Tigers have been this good without Cam Newton. RB Michael Dyer is one of the best backs you’re not paying attention to.

Dropped out: texas A&M, Syracuse, USC.

The Cougars are 8-0, lead Conference USA and are ranked in the Top 20. Keenum has 32 touchdown passes and 3 interceptions.

Yes, Rice’s pass defense is deplorable, ranked No. 115 in the nation going into the game. Yes, the contest was played at times in a driving rainstorm. Yes, Keenum looked a little shaky to start with. But my job – especially since I was at the game – is to take you inside the numbers and tell  you why you should pay attention to this guy. I can think of at least three:

He has one of the best deep balls I’ve ever seen. NFL scouts are going to discount Keenum as a system guy because he plays in a spread. Boise State’s Kellen Moore will have the same obstacle. But don’t buy that. Keenum is a good fit for other offenses, including one that employs a vertical passing game like the Raiders. Houston had a complete lack of respect for Rice’s pass defense and threw it downfield every opportunity, so I received a good sampling of Keenum’s deep ball. It has great velocity, it is highly accurate and Keenum seems to have the ability to bend it in a way that allows him to put the ball in the proper location for receivers. Sure, that’s all about the arc you put on it, but Keenum has that ability in spades.

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First, let me apologize for my absence. I’ve been on vacation the past two weeks, mixing sports (Stanford and California games) and leisure (four days in beautiful Cabo San Lucas). When I returned on Friday, my Top 25 – at least the Top 10 – was pretty much how I left it.

But that changed Saturday night. I’m not sure what surprised me more – how Wisconsin lost or that Oklahoma lost at all.

The Sooners have been my No. 1 team since the preseason and I’ve been steadfast in my devotion to the Crimson and Cream. But the texas Tech Red Raiders went into Norman, OK, and defeated the Sooners, 41-38. It was the Sooners’ first home loss in 39 games. And if you look at the box score, how the Sooners lost seems mysterious. I mean, QB Landry Jones had 412 yards passing and 5 touchdowns. But then you look at texas Tech QB Seth Doege’s numbers – 441 yards passing and 4 touchdowns – and you get the picture. This was Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday facing off against the Clanton Brothers at the OK Corral. Someone was going to lose. It just turned out to be Oklahoma.

Does this loss destroy Oklahoma’s BCS Championship game hopes? Not necessarily, though the Sooners can’t lose another game and must hope that both LSU and Alabama lose someone along the way, the latter of which seems unlikely.

But then I thought Oklahoma and Wisconsin both having a loss after Saturday being unlikely, too. The Badgers went down to East Lansing and played what looked to be a solid game. QB Russell Wilson wasn’t spectacular, but he and his running backs, Montee Ball and James White, had done enough to give the Badgers a shot at overtime.

Then Michigan State QB Kirk Cousins threw what may now be the most famous pass in Michigan State history, a 44-yard Hail Mary to Keith Nichol as time expired. I missed it because I was watching my texas Rangers get drilled by the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 3 of the World Series. And now that I’ve seen the replay, I’m still not quite sure Nichol got across the goal line. But that’s the call and the Badgers have to live with another season lost.

So, the losses of my Nos. 1 and 6 teams from my last poll after Week 5 necessitates some shifting around.

So, without further ado, My PigskinU.com Top 25 poll after Week 8:

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Another slow start by Dayne Crist and Notre Dame has everyone experiencing preseason hype remorse.

Matthew Postins files The Walkthrough twice a week during the season at PigskinU.com. Early in the week, it’s a wrap-up of last weekend’s action. Late in the week, it’s a preview of what’s coming up that weekend. And it call comes with news, commentary and Postins’ dry wit and opinion.

I, like most of you, are guilty of buying into the Notre Dame hype — again. The Irish won four games in a row to end last season and put us all on notice that they were on the way back under Brian Kelly. But the road to being “back” is much harder than it looks. The Irish have lost their first two games of the season by a combined seven points to a plucky South Florida outfit and a Michigan team trying to reclaim its own tradition as a legitimate national power.

One could say that “Hey, the Irish are actually pretty close. They only lost each game by a field goal.” Sure, you could say that. But these were two games the Irish legitimately had a chance to win, and two games that I felt they should have won. Certainly the South Florida game. Plus, there’s the way the Irish lost the Michigan game, up 24-7 and then squandering that lead to the Wolverines. Ugly.

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