Thoughts on the College Football Coaching Changes

While most of us are preparing for the holiday season and enjoying some well deserved time off with family, the coaching staffs at many major universities are getting some not so welcomed vacations as the crescendo of the annual marathon of head coach firings is upon us. So far, 11 head coaching positions have opened up across the country either through firings, resignations, or actually leaving for another job.

The firings to this point have included: Mike Shula at Alabama, John L. Smith at Michigan State, Dirk Koetter at Arizona State, Larry Coker at Miami(FL), John Bunting at North Carolina, Chuck Amato at North Carolina State, Chris Scelfo at Tulane, Darrell Dickey at North Texas. Iowa State head coach Dan McCarney resigned from his position in Ames after a disappointing season, and Florida International head coach Don Strock resigned in the aftermath of the brawl with Miami(FL). Only Cincinnati head coach Mark Dantonio left his position of his own accord, and that was to take the head coaching job at Michigan State.

In my opinion, some of the firings were justified. The administrations at North Carolina, Michigan State, North Carolina State, and Arizona State all made solid decisions to replace their head coaches. Here are some of my thoughts on each of those firings and what is in store for these coaches:

At Michigan State, John L. Smith only had one winning season in his four years in East Lasing, and the Spartans still have fond memories of their program under the direction of Nick Saban, so sending Smith packing makes sense...especially when you consider the collapse the Spartans had against Notre Dame and its homecoming loss to Illinois! John L. Smith will find another head coaching position in a couple of years. He has had too much previous success to not coach again.

For North Carolina State, the post-Phillip Rivers era proved too much for Amato, and only having 1 winning season in the last three years (not to mention losing the last seven games of this season) sealed his fate. If only Amato could have gotten his Wolfpack to be a team other than Florida State, he might have kept his job. I think the next place we'll see ole Chuckie (as my co-worker and NC State alum Angela calls him) is on "What Not to Wear" so that he can get some fashion assistance for his choice in eyewear.

And poor John Bunting...he was just a bad hire from day one for the Tar Heels. I remember when he was just a linebackers coach for the New Orleans Saints, and I thought he was atrocious. Maybe North Carolina should have fired Bunting earlier in the season because the Tar Heels looked strong in its two game win streak to end the year. I'm sure that Bunting will find his way back onto a NFL staff at some point in the next couple of years.

Dirk Koetter at Arizona State? Well, he pretty much wrote his own pink slip with his botching of the quarterback situation for the Sun Devils this season, but even more damning was his 2-19 record versus ranked opponents and lack of New Years Day (or BCS) bowl appearances. 40 wins in 6 years when you have an athletic director who just arrived from a winning program at USC doesn't equate to much job security. Koetter will be coaching somewhere again after the 2007 season.

The other firings...well, I'm not sure that I'm as sold on those decisions. Of all the coaches that were unjustly unemployed this holiday season, former Iowa State head coach Dan McCarney has the biggest gripe. He honestly got a raw deal from Athletic Director Jamie Pollard. Pollard is obviously trigger happy when it comes to head coaches as three Iowa State head coaches have been replaced since Pollard took over in late 2005. I wrote about McCarney and what he has accomplished in Ames, Iowa in a previous blog, so I won't go through all of his accomplishments again, but to fire a man that doubled the number of the school's bowl appearances in 12 years is beyond absured. I think Gene Chizik is going to make a great head coach for the Cyclones, but Chizik should be getting his first head coaching job somewhere over than Ames, Iowa.

Right beyond Dan McCarney in the ridiculous coaching firing rankings is Tulane's Chris Scelfo. Sure, Scelfo had not had a winning season since 2002 and only went 37-57 in his 8 years in New Orleans, but this is a program that is having to start from scratch after the effects of Hurricane Katrina. It's almost as if the Tulane program is coming off of the death penalty, and to fire the head coach after such a trying season in 2005 and a mediocre 2006 season is beyond rational thought. And again, this is Tulane football we're talking about...and other than the magical undefeated season under Tommy Bowden in 1998, Tulane has never been anything special. Mediocrity is what should be expected for the Green Wave football program.

Another coaching dismissal that truly baffles me is North Texas firing Darrell Dickey. Just two years ago, the North Texas football program was the powerhouse of the Sun Belt Conference. Under Darrell Dickey, the Mean Green won four...yes, FOUR...straight conference titles and earned the automatic bid to the New Orleans Bowl. In 2002, Dickey won 9 games at North Texas...something the school had not accomplished since 1978 when it was only a Division 1-AA program. Yes, Dickey's team went 2-9 last season and went 3-9 this season, but to fire Dickey after only two bad seasons and after he just had a heart attack last month was uncalled for.

And then, there are the firings of Mike Shula and Larry Coker. To be honest, I think both of them should have kept their jobs. Okay, one of the reasons that I believe Mike Shula should have kept his job is that he makes it easier for Auburn to continue to dominate the Crimson Tide. But seriously, Alabama is a program that needs to show some stability to its players, its potential recruits, its fanbase, and the college football world. Alabama is not going to find another "Bear" Bryant. Those glory days are over, and Alabama fans need to face that reality. Shula took a job in Tuscaloosa that no one else wanted the job in May 2003 after the Mike Price debacle. And now, Alabama is searching for its 4th head coach in six years....and their 8th head coach since Bryant left in 1982. The average tenure of Alabama head coaches in the post-Bryant era is 3 years. Shula had a 10 win season last year, but of course, his inability to beat Auburn or LSU cost him his job. I'm just in awe of what the Alabama administration and boosters really thought that a guy with no previous head coaching experience at any level was going to accomplish in 4 years by taking over a program coming off major NCAA recruiting violations. Shula, at the very least, deserved one more year to turn things around.

I truly feel bad for Larry Coker. I think the guy is a good coach and has had a tremendous amount of success. Coker took the Hurricanes to two BCS title games (winning one of them) and won at least 9 games in his other 3 seasons prior to this year's 6-6 finish. And I love this stat...Coker has won more games since 2001 than all but five Division 1 head coaches. I'm not sure if I can remember a coach with a 0.800 winning percentage having just one bad season, and Coker's 'bad' season is still going to result in a bowl appearance! He's just probably too understated for a flashy program like the University of Miami(FL). Let's be honest...this program has had big personalities like Jimmy Johnson, Howard Schellenberger, Butch Davis, and Dennis Erickson at the helm. Larry Coker just doesn't fit in with those guys. Add in the embarrassment of the brawl with Florida International that also claimed the coaching job of Don Strock, and it was easy for Donna Shalala to fire Coker after only one bad season. Of course, Don Strock may have just wanted out of the Florida International job after the stress of building the program from the ground up only to see his team go through a 0-12 season. But back to Coker...this was a mistake by the Miami administration. Much like Alabama, Miami(FL) is going to realize that the days of dominating the college football world are over. The ACC is a strong conference and is a significant upgrade over the Big East. Plus, it's not like the Hurricanes have amazing facilities with which to lure prize recruits. I just hope that another program gives Larry Coker another shot.

So what coaches are next on the chopping block this holiday season? If I was UAB's Watson Brown, Baylor's Guy Morriss, Stanford's Walt Harris, and New Mexico State's Hal Mumme, I might not be sleeping very well these days.