Who's on the coaching hot seat as of week 5?

[Across The Field]

ESPN was talking about Chip Kelly being the head coach at Jexas next year, but.... isn't he on the hot seat for essentially doing the same thing Strong did?

 

[Goldbug]

Some of the Texas fans are saying Charlie Strong is the winningest football coach they have had over the past two seasons.

 

[ckhokie]

They would be wise to begin discussing Bud Foster's succession plan before someone else gives him an offer he can't refuse.

He's already the highest paid assistant coach in the nation. Obviously we'd like to retain him, but life will go on assuming we make a good HC hire.

Not sure why any HC would come into Blacksburg and not consider trying to go after Bud.

 

[Across The Field]

He's already the highest paid assistant coach in the nation. Obviously we'd like to retain him, but life will go on assuming we make a good HC hire.

Not sure why any HC would come into Blacksburg and not consider trying to go after Bud.

It's a head-scratcher that he's still only a DC, especially given VT's recent lack of success. It's not on him, their defense is still solid. I think they would have a really hard time finding a better man for the job. The only coach that understands VT and their culture more is already the HC.

 

[ckhokie]

It's a head-scratcher that he's still only a DC, especially given VT's recent lack of success. It's not on him, their defense is still solid. I think they would have a really hard time finding a better man for the job. The only coach that understands VT and their culture more is already the HC.

Being a good coordinator and a good HC don't take the same skill set (see Will Muschamp among many others). He's not exactly the most diplomatic dude, he's not the best recruiter, he's said he's not willing to go to a non-power5 program, among other things that I won't get into. He HAS interviewed for head coaching jobs, and was always passed on.


Also, I don't think we need a guy who 'understands VT and their culture.' We need a whole new coaching culture. There is a reason why you hear about guys coming from the 'Meyer Coaching Tree,' 'Saban Coaching Tree,' Stoops, Bowden, etc. You've never heard about a guy coming from the 'Beamer Coaching Tree.'

 

[BoiseStateFan27]

Smaller program but look for Tim DeRuyter at Fresno State

he was successful there to begin with but regressed last year and now has one of the worst teams in the nation this year, they have had terrible luck with QBs going down with injuries but still.

 

[iowajerms]

Here's an ESPN Insider article on this - Hot Seat Watch sets its sights on the SEC - Travis Haney Blog - ESPN

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The season began with such promise on the campuses at Arkansas, Auburn and Tennessee. Entering October, those teams sit at a combined 5-7 and a winless 0-4 in SEC play.

Auburn has benched its ballyhooed quarterback. Arkansas lost at home to Toledo and Texas Tech. And Tennessee gave away fourth-quarter leads of 17 and 13 points in losses to Oklahoma and Florida.

It’s been ugly, and surprisingly so.

I attended Butch Jones’ weekly news conference Monday at UT, wondering to what extent the third-year coach would acknowledge the criticism currently engulfing him and his staff after a difficult-to-comprehend 2-2 start.

Jones accepted responsibility for another fourth-quarter collapse, but he never delved into regret or apologies for specific decisions. That includes the choice to kick an extra point rather than go for two early in the fourth quarter, something roundly considered a tactical error by peers and pundits.

The Vols also somehow only managed four offensive plays on their final possession despite a minute and a half and two timeouts. But Jones seemed comfortable Monday with what turned out to be a missed 54-yard field-goal try.

Jones opened by saying that the players played well enough in Gainesville to get a win. He was later asked if the coaches coached well enough to get a win, what would have been Tennessee’s first in a decade against Florida.

“I do [think so],” he said. “I thought we all did [enough]. It’s really one or two plays. We are two plays, or 10 seconds, away from being 4-0 but we’re 2-2. We can’t let two plays or 10 seconds define who we are.”

The decisions might not ultimately define Jones and his time at Tennessee, but they do currently. The talent level has undoubtedly risen after consecutive top-5 recruiting classes, but there are mounting questions about the man coaching those players.

He said he wants to be the one to “shoulder” that, though he also said he didn’t want to pay attention to the “clutter.”

“I’ve never been through anything like this and neither have our players,” Jones said of the losses. “Football rewards diligence. Football rewards those individuals who persevere. The only thing I can say is to keep working.”

To be clear, only the craziest of the crazies believe Jones should be placed legitimately on the hot seat. But losing when you’ve proven for three-plus quarters that you’re the better team? Twice in one month? And recruiting terrifically and failing to turn that into victories? That’s the express lane to the hot seat.

Of note, Jones is 14-15. Derek Dooley’s record was also 14-15 at this point. Jones needs to start winning close games, or his pop psychology will be thrown back in his face.

This week, the Vols face Bret Bielema and 1-3 Arkansas. The Razorbacks already have an uphill climb to get to another bowl game, so this becomes necessary with the teeth of the SEC West gauntlet ahead.

Arkansas at least rediscovered its identity last week, relying on the run and playing better defense to push Texas A&M to the brink before falling in overtime.

No one is running Bielema out of town, either, but it’s uncomfortable in Fayetteville because everyone knows what’s left on the schedule.

The same extends to Auburn, where our FPI models say there’s a good chance the Tigers will not be favored in any of their remaining six SEC games.

Gus Malzahn had earned a great deal of cachet for the 2013 run to the national title game, but we saw how quickly that can turn. Gene Chizik had even won a BCS championship before he was let go two seasons later.

At minimum, we’ve lost trust that the offense will chug no matter what, just because it’s run by Malzahn. And adding Will Muschamp wasn’t a cure-all for the defense, either.

That SEC trio is not yet there, not even close, but here is a quarterly checkup of the five hottest seats in the Power 5.

1. Mike London, Virginia

London is widely respected in coaching circles, but it’s not going to work out for him at Virginia. If that weren’t already clear, it became very evident Friday against Boise State.
The visiting Broncos were up 17-0 before the Cavaliers could blink, and they put up 56 at Scott Stadium.

I had been told before the season that change was imminent, potentially paired with the retirement of AD Craig Littlepage. We’ll see about Littlepage, but someone’s going to have to make a decision about London. And soon. Friday was a death knell. There’s no support for the program in its current state. The half-empty stands indicate that.

2. Darrell Hazell, Purdue

Virginia Tech, with a limited backup QB, scored 51 on the Boilermakers. They then lost to a MAC team, albeit a decent one (Bowling Green). Both games were at home.

That doesn’t bode well for an opening Big Ten stretch of Michigan State, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Nebraska. Purdue appears destined for a two-win-type season, and that’s after Hazell went 1-11 and 3-9 in his first two years.

Three seasons isn’t a lot of time, granted, but it’s obvious that the program is not moving forward in any way. In Year 3, Bowling Green was favored in West Lafayette. Enough said.

3. Kyle Flood, Rutgers

With player arrests and academic issues, it’s been a brutal month for Flood and Rutgers. We have no idea what AD Julie Hermann is thinking about Flood and the football program, because she never speaks publicly.

She cannot be pleased with the crush of negative press regarding Flood, who is currently serving a three-game suspension for contacting a professor about a player’s grades. He was also fined $50,000.

The Knights additionally had two lousy outings in September, falling at home to a Washington State team that had just lost to an FCS opponent. Then they mustered three points at Penn State. They did beat Kansas, with Flood absent. So there’s that.

A Gannett New Jersey report this week said there’s current support for Flood among the school’s top donors. But those attitudes quickly change; let’s see how bad it gets on and off the field in the next couple of months.

Getting Michigan State and Ohio State in two of its next three games isn’t going to cure anything.

4. Al Golden, Miami

The Hurricanes are 3-0, but it wasn’t a month to inspire awe -- or confidence in Golden. Miami whipped FCS Bethune-Cookman, struggled for a half with FAU and had to beat Nebraska in overtime after seeing a 23-point fourth-quarter lead dissolve.

Golden’s recent teams have performed fairly well early in the year before collapsing after the FSU game. The Seminoles appear earlier on the schedule this season, on Oct. 10.

So look out below. Heck, look out this week. The Canes are just six-point favorites Thursday at Cincinnati, even though the Bearcats are starting a backup quarterback.

5. Paul Rhoads, Iowa State

Lose at home Saturday to Kansas, and this will jump several levels of concern. But that’s not going to happen. The Cyclones are two-TD favorites over the worst team in the league.

The problem is that the wins become extremely difficult to find on the schedule after the Jayhawks, including TCU and Baylor in consecutive weeks this month.

There’s still plenty of support for Rhoads, but he’s got to win games at some point. It’s unlikely AD Jamie Pollard makes a move in 2015, but there’s going to be some real pressure on Rhoads entering ’16.

Sounds an awful lot like another guy in the league: Texas’ Charlie Strong.​

 

[BoiseStateFan27]

Forgot about Flood at Rutgers, with an interim coach in place I'm surprised they haven't just fired him already, he's good as gone

Would think Hazell would get another year, Purdue is just bad in general

 

[nathans8823]

Brian Kelly?

 

[TexasExes98]

You'd think he should get at least one more year considering the state of the program when he took over, but hard to see the progress so far.

Strong took over an 8-5 team that almost won the Big XII. In retrospect, Harbaugh took over a 5-7 team at Michigan and is doing just fine and McElwain took over a 6-5 team and is undefeated at UF. Strong is failing at an epic level. ENOUGH of the excuses.....

 

[GoldRusher]

Holgorsen could be sitting hot if we lose Saturday. A loss saturday and we are likely 3-4 heading into November. Add in loses to tech and k-st and maybe a texas team that has had our number and we miss on a bowl. He could be gone.

Yea his situation could get ugly quick, Heckuva OC and he has hired some good recruiters but 5 years in, the feel in Morgantown is that he aint much as a HC. WVU has the new AD and when extensions were talked about for Dana he said he wanted to "feel things out first". IMO that was code for "he better get his ship together in 2015". A loss at OU was forgivable but the 20+ point beat downs have added up, the QB situation hasn't changed since Geno Smith graduated and many a WVU fan/booster ect. have seen enough. Going to be an interesting month or so in Morgantown, to be fair, he could just as easily turn things into a real good year with one upset of Baylor/TCU and running the table vs the rest of the teams left (which looks very doable right now).

With the new AD's ties to Alabama, Kirby Smart could be on the short list if things go south with Dana but.... long way to go yet.


Wouldn't be shocked to see Leach in Miami next year unless Golden turns things around REAL quick this year

As long as Babcock is AD at VT, RichRod is a strong candidate when VT starts looking for a new coach, either way they are in good hands, Babcock has made some good hires as an AD.

Schiano would make sense at Rutgers and they SHOULD fire Flood

The way Illinois has responded to him I don't know that they shouldn't just hire Cubit as their HC

Texas could make things interesting all over the place if they fire Strong this year. Kelly, Pinkel, Dantonio, Swinney, Fuente, Mora could all be names we see thrown around.

Randy Edsall will be lucky to be in Maryland next year as well.

If a SEC job opens up and they wink at Tuberville at Cincy he will be on the next thing smoking southbound. guy cant hardly get through an interview without mentioning his days in the SEC.

 

[dp_broncos]

Petrino. Not that anyone cares

 

[nddulac]

Petrino. Not that anyone cares

The name "Petrino" sounds like a sub atomic particle.

 

[GoldRusher]

The name "Petrino" sounds like a sub atomic particle.

Or an Italian sammich

 

[WPS!]

Or an Italian sammich

Or a guys that totally annihilates your team & leaves your kids crying and asking about motorcycles & blonde volley-ball players

 

[Jekku]

Washington State would be stupid to get rid of Leach. The guys prob the best they can get (and keep).

 

[7Samurai13]

Bret Belina should be but Arkansas is full of idiots and just extended his contract.

 

[WPS!]

Bret Belina should be but Arkansas is full of idiots and just extended his contract.

I resemble that remark!

You are 100% correct, however. With his buy-out he's not going anywhere for 2-3 years unless Long gets a better AD job (Hello, Texas?!?). We're just hoping he shuts his trap and quits embarrassing himself and all of us....winning and talking trash is annoying. Losing and talking trash is unbearable.

 

[7Samurai13]

I resemble that remark!

You are 100% correct, however. With his buy-out he's not going anywhere for 2-3 years unless Long gets a better AD job (Hello, Texas?!?). We're just hoping he shuts his trap and quits embarrassing himself and all of us....winning and talking trash is annoying. Losing and talking trash is unbearable.

I was meaning more the Athletic Department and not the whole state. I have about three days of cold rainy weather experience with Arkansas and it was enough not to go back.

 

[MAIZEandBLUE09]

I wonder if Tennessee fans are now understanding why hiring Mike DeBord as their OC was a bad choice.

The Vols are 108th in Bill Connelly's "explosiveness" metric. They've scored a total of 13 points in the second half of games against Oklahoma, Florida, and Arkansas.

In addition, Tennessee essentially does not have a quarterbacks coach. That task has fallen to Nick Sheridan (yes, that Nick Sheridan), who is a grad assistant.