New head coach Bill O'Brien has some things working against him in Happy Valley as he takes over for Joe Paterno.

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. After publishing Nos. 21-27 and Nos. 16-20, we’re starting to get into the more recognizable names among the hiring roster.

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 start with the what I’ll call the third tier, Nos. 11-15.

Continue Reading…

Yes, the SEC has won the past six national championships, including last month’s all-SEC title game between Alabama and LSU. If you’re keeping score, Alabama has two titles, Florida has two titles, LSU has one and Auburn has one. And don’t forget – before this run began, LSU won the title in 2003 and Tennessee won the first BCS title in 1998.

The SEC doesn’t just win titles in January. They win recruiting titles too. Sure, sometimes texas will edge out the SEC for the No. 1 recruiting class, depending upon whose rankings you subscribe to. But every year at least one of the recruiting rankings has a SEC team at the top. This year was no different. Alabama was at the top of Rivals.com’s team rankings, with texas at No. 2. Scout.com flipped them.

Scout’s conference rankings, naturally, had the SEC at the top. In fact, Scout ranked nine of the SEC’s 14 teams in its Top 25. Only one team – Mississippi – was outside the Top 50. Rivals had eight teams in the Top 25.

You get the idea. The SEC is the best in the land. So it’s little wonder that when the SEC invited texas A&M and Missouri to join both schools happily accepted, even though it’s entirely possible both programs will need a few years to acquire enough talent to play at the SEC’s level.

So in a league where the competition is fierce, which team was the big winner and which team was the big loser in the SEC recruiting battle? Let’s find out.

Continue Reading…

With only Army and Navy playing this week, the FBS coaching carousel is in full spin.

Monday kicked off with Arkansas State’s Hugh Freeze accepting the Ole Miss job. Freeze, as you’ll remember, was Michael Oher’s coach in high school (the kid from “The Blind Side”). Freeze’s rise is rather meteoric to an SEC job, frankly, given that he was a high school coach less than a decade ago.

Today Southern Miss boss Larry Fedora (no word if he actually wears a fedora) reportedly accepted the North Carolina job, a move that would end the short tenure of interim head coach Everett Withers. Fedora’s acceptance is still pending approval by UNC’s trustees, according to news reports.

Arkansas offensive coordinator Garrick McGee moved into the head coaching ranks by accepting the Alabama-Birmingham job on Tuesday. McGee met the press and boosters in Birmingham at a press conference. McGee’s body of work as Arkansas’ OC the past two seasons is pretty obvious to anyone. But he’s also a trailblazer of sorts, the first African-American head coach at a FBS program in Alabama.

Then there’s Tulane, which hired Curtis Johnson to replace Bob Toledo. As recently as last week Johnson coached wide receivers for the New Orleans Saints. Johnson is a New Orleans native, so if he’s able to turn around Tulane’s fortunes, he’ll basically be crowned King of the next Mardi Gras parade.

Finally, Carl Pelini, the Nebraska defensive coordinator and the brother of Cornhuskers head coach Bo Pelini, will replace Howard Schnellenberger at Florida Atlantic. Pelini takes over the program that Schnellenberger started from scratch more than a decade ago. The Owls need some help.

Then there’s the strange move. Arizona State had all but gotten SMU coach June Jones to sign a contract to take over the Sun Devils before it announced on Wednesday that Jones was no longer a candidate. There was a wave of local dissatisfaction with the potential hire, and Jones’ agent reported that the deal was just pulled away at the last minute. No explanation. Bizzare.

And, in the past few days, Fresno State dismissed Pat Hill, Hawaii, Greg McMackin retired and Colorado State dismissed Steve Fairchild, bringing the coaching turnover to 22 FBS jobs for the upcoming season. And we haven’t even played a bowl game yet.

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

Arkansas State: Out: Hugh Freeze.

Akron: Out: Rob Ianello.

Arizona: Out: Bob Stoops; In: Tim Kish (interim); Rich Rodriguez (2012).

Arizona State: Out: Dennis Erickson (after bowl game).

Colorado State: Out: Steve Fairchild.

Florida Atlantic: Out: Howard Schnellenberger; In; Carl Pelini.

Fresno State: Out: Pat Hill.

Hawaii: Out: Greg McMackin.

Illinois: Out: Ron Zook.

Kansas: Out: Turner Gill.

Massachusetts: Out: Kevin Morris.

Memphis: Out: Larry Porter.

Mississippi: Out: Houston Nutt; In: Hugh Freeze.

New Mexico: Out: Mike Locksley; In: George Barlow (interim), Bob Davie.

North Carolina: Out: Butch Davis; In: Everett Withers (interim).

Ohio State: Out: Jim Tressel; In: Luke Fickell (Interim), Urban Meyer.

Penn State: Out: Joe Paterno; In: Tom Bradley (interim)

texas A&M: Out: Mike Sherman.

Tulane: Out: Bob Toledo; In: Mark Hutson (interim); Curtis Johnson.

UAB: Out: Neil Callaway; In: Garrick McGee.

UCLA: Out: Rick Neuheisel.

Washington State: Out: Paul Wulff. In: Mike Leach.

Let’s put it this way – I don’t think Mike Sherman did a bad job in College Station. But he’s a victim of circumstance here, that circumstance being the move to the Southeastern Conference.

If the Aggies were going to be in the Big 12 next year, Sherman would likely still be employed. But the move to the SEC forced athletic director Bill Byrne and the Aggie administration to make a move.

The SEC is an ultra-competitive conference that requires stellar coaches who can manage X’s and O’s, recruiting and all of the pressure that comes with that. As good as the Big 12 is, the SEC is on another planet, and the Aggies must have thought that Sherman didn’t have the goods to make it work.

Sherman was always a curious hire, even though he was twice an Aggie assistant in the 1990s. He’s best known as a NFL coach in Green Bay and, at the time of his hiring, he was a coordinator with the Houston Texans. When A&M hired him, he hadn’t coached in college football in nearly 15 years. He had one winning season, which came last year when the Aggies caught fire at midseason. But that momentum didn’t translate to another good year, and Sherman’s tenure ends with three out of four losing seasons. The record didn’t spell progress.

The timing is curious, though. The Aggies have been done for a week. As Byrne patiently waited to make a decision, both Urban Meyer and Mike Leach were snapped up, and they were the best free agents on the market. Not that either would have come to Aggieland, honestly. But by dragging his feet, he missed his chance to court either one of them. True, A&M is an above-average job, but the program has been relatively average since it fired R.C. Slocum and it can’t afford to get left behind this time. The stakes in the SEC are too high.

So who fits the bill? The Aggies will likely look for someone who has coached in the conference before, whether as a head coach or an assistant coach, and understands how to recruit SEC players and how to game plan for SEC teams. Some names come immediately to mind. Who are they? Find out after the jump, along with more questions and answers heading into conference championship weekend.

Continue Reading…

Massachusetts fired Kevin Morris as head coach on Monday. When does a coaching change at Massachusetts merit news?

Because UMass is getting ready to move into the Mid-American Conference as a full football member next season. So technically, this is the eighth coaching move in FBS.

His record wasn’t horrible – he was 16-17 in three seasons as coach. But the Minutemen are getting ready to move into Gillette Stadium for home games and they need to fill that baby up. Under .500 won’t get it done for a new FBS program.

There are already rumblings about Dennis Erickson’s job in Arizona and plenty more changes to come. And just a few minutes ago CBSSports.com’s Bruce Feldman reported that multiple sources are saying that former Michigan coach Rick Rodriguez will take over in Arizona. But no official announcement yet.

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

Continue Reading…

What it does signal is, most likely, a barrage of FBS head coaching changes during the next two months.  The successful programs are preparing for bowl games. The unsuccessful programs are plotting their next steps.

Ole Miss joins New Mexico, Tulane, Florida Atlantic (Howard Schnellenberger’s retirement) and Arizona as FBS teams that will make head coaching changes this offseason. And there will be more. Plenty more. Over the past two offseasons more than 40 FBS programs have made head coaching changes.

So how many will see the ax fall on them in the next two months. That’s hard to know. But here is a list of coaches that should be watching their backs.

Continue Reading…

The ACC sparks college football’s next great shift. Perhaps the ACC wanted to get some pub before the craziness began. But the additions of Syracuse and Pittsburgh came out of left field. Most of the word the past week had been how the ACC was seeking to up its buyout fee to keep teams, not add them.

The fact that the two teams are a charter member of the Big East (Syracuse) and a Big East member since 1982 (Pittsburgh) underscores the new philosophy of college sports – find me the best deal. While there is no better conference for basketball than the Big East, the conference is No. 6 among the BCS conferences in football. And football pays the bills.

So the Orange and Panthers will migrate south in search of a better financial deal. The ACC gets access to upstate New York and Pittsburgh media markets, which will be handy at the negotiating table with ESPN. And, they’re now the closest to being the first “super conference” of the 21^st Century.

At least for the moment.

Continue Reading…

Any attempt to write a 2011 SEC preview and to handicap the SEC race could boil down to just two words – Jordan Jefferson.

The LSU quarterback is perhaps the most enigmatic player in the college game. When he’s good, he’s good. Witness his tremendous performance in the Cotton Bowl against texas A&M, a game widely hailed as his best.

When he’s bad, he’s maddening. Jefferson’s 2010 season on paper doesn’t look particularly scintillating – just 1,411 yards passing and 7 touchdowns against 10 interceptions. He shared time at quarterback with Jared Lee, and now junior-college transfer Zach Mettenberger is breathing down both their necks. Jefferson’s spring game performance didn’t draw rave reviews.

Continue Reading…

File this under “A Sports Information Department with Too Much Time On Its Hands.”

I went over to the Mississippi State University athletics site the other day to track down some spring football information. Instead, I found “Golden Days,” a video series that the MSU media relations department appears to be putting together. The use of Golden is a nod to the Golden Egg, the trophy given to the winner of the Mississippi-Mississippi State game each year. MSU won in 2010.

I’m not sure what I expected, but it wasn’t a takeoff on those Bud Light Wheat commercials from the Super Bowl.

The video starts with MSU football player Ricco Sanders talking to the Egg Bowl trophy (yes, talking, but nothing weird). Then Sanders tells the trophy he has someone he wants it to meet – the Gator Bowl trophy the Bulldogs won on New Year’s Day.

From there it’s about a minute of the Golden Egg trophy and the Gator Bowl trophy doing everything from sharing a milkshake to attending MSU sporting events. It’s obvious the two of them are on a date, judging by the popcorn set between them at the movie theater. The best part? Well, it has to be the Golden Egg bowling. I wonder how he’s going to pick up that final pin? I mean, the lack of arms has to be a problem. And, being an trophy, movement is going to be an issue. The video ends with fireworks. You can watch the video after the jump.

Continue Reading…

 Former Florida head coach Urban Meyer made waves last week when he spoke to a radio personality in Indianapolis about the “garbage” in college football, things like player arrests, player agents and NCAA violations. Meyer’s comments quickly made their way across the Internet and made national news, especially now that he’s a commentator for ESPN. 

People were quick to point out that during Meyer’s tenure his players were arrested more than 30 times. Now, I don’t think Meyer’s totally at fault for that. You can’t control your players 24/7, but you can control who comes to your campus through the recruiting process, the process by which, in my opinion, the majority of NCAA violations come from. 

Meyer didn’t name names during his diatribe, which would have been nice for a change from a former coach. But it was a politically savvy move for a guy who will probably coach at the college level again and doesn’t want to burn bridges. But one has to wonder if he was, perhaps, alluding to a coach in his old conference? I won’t put words in Meyer’s mouth, but one SEC coach is certainly flirting with the garbage in his own way.  Continue Reading…