Coaches on the hot seat this season

[Ego74]

BRUCE FELDMAN
WEBLOG

On The Hot Seat
This week's list isn't one I'm a big fan of doing, but it grows out of a question that I get in a lot of e-mails and on every other radio interview I do in the offseason. So, I not-so-proudly present the coaches on the hottest seats in the country.

1. Rich Brooks, Kentucky: A bad fit from day one that just doesn't seem to be making any more sense now than it did then. Brooks is 6-17 at UK, and this fall he starts the season against archrival Louisville, which is loaded again and looking for blood — and it doesn't get much better after that.

2. Gary Barnett, Colorado: I don't see how he keeps his job. Yes, Barnett's a respectable 42-33, but he's presided over a full-blown mess — and that's putting it kindly. Although a new book is coming out about the CU scandal, claiming none of this was true. Honestly, I'm pretty skeptical. I don't doubt that some of it didn't actually happen, but none? Sure, it wasn't all his fault, just like Adam Sandler didn't single-handedly wreck "The Longest Yard" remake.

3. Phil Bennett, SMU: Bennett is a good guy who has had very little to work with, but 6-29 gets you the hot seat (actually, it usually gets you canned.) On the bright side, this is the first real season he's had any depth to work with, and the Mustangs return 20 starters.

4. Rickey Bustle, Louisiana-Lafayette: The former Virginia Tech offensive coordinator has taken over a bad situation and made it, well, about the same. Nobody was expecting miracles, but being a poor man's Greg Schiano won't win you too many contract extensions. Bustle is 11-24 through three seasons with the Ragin' Cajuns, and it doesn't look like a winning season will be celebrated at ULL anytime soon.

5. Tommy Bowden, Clemson: Bowden is at one of those schools where being "pretty good" doesn't cut it. One of the more likeable guys in the business, Bowden is 44-29 at Clemson, but he needs a nine-win season to quiet the mob around Tigerland.

6. Dirk Koetter, Arizona State: The fallout from the Loren Wade incidents could cost a lesser coach his job. But ASU should be a top-20 team in 2005, and that figures to be enough to keep Koetter, who is 26-23 through four seasons with the Sun Devils, in business.

 

[AlwaysKeen]

agree w/ all of these but Barnett...If he was going to get fired, it would have been last year...but good stuff though...

 

[outhousetim]

Brooks is gone by December. Barnett can be forced out at any time. Bowden must win probably 8 to survive.

I'd add the ucla coach if he fails to go to a bowl, the Missouri coach if he doesn't win 7, Northwestern's coach if he fails to get back to a bowl, and the heat will ramain on Paterno if he starts slow in '05.

 

[WinOne]

Agree with Pags11 on Barnett. Believe it or not he's actually being applauded by how he kept the team together throughout all the adversity. They went a very respectable 8-5 with losses to OK ST, OK, TEXAS, A&M and Mizzou. Considering the scandal. The school president pretty much had the scandal dropped on her doorstep, remember, he lost his QB and probably the best college returner because of the idiots @ NCAA.
The one I am curious to see is Dirk at ASU. They will not be a top 20 team, not with the PAC10 being considerably stronger. I see wins over Temple, Northwestern and probably Oregon. They play both Oregon schools, both Washington schools, both So Cal schools and have a trip to Stanford where they never win. The NW game may even be tough because they catch NW after coming back from a trip the Baton Rouge at night which is like playing your next game with a hangover. I speak to and know a lot of the power brokers behind the athletic program and they are not very high on Dirk at this point. His best seasons were with Snyders's players. Had he not beaten Purdue in the Sun Bowl there was a better that 70% chance that he would have been fired at that time. Recruiting is down, they don't play defense and the offense only moves the ball against bad defenses. On top of that the school to the south with far less talent stuffed it in their face at the end of the season and they run a far cleaner program. They also seem to be on the rise. Also add to this that ASU has a new AD and she'll probably be given the option of picking her own football coach and have the backing of the Sun Angel Foundation if/when things don't work out. Remember, I mentioned last year that there were some serious problems within the football program. Several suspensions and dismissals later a player murders a former player. ASU has also been put on probation by the PAC10 for minor infractions recently. This will not hinder getting a new coach and they will probably look for someone like a Dennis Erickson or a defensive coach from the NFL. I have one in mind but out of respect to him I won't mention his name. But he lives down the road from me here in the Dallas Suburbs and is a former SunDevil great.

Just my 2Cents.

WinOne!!

 

[SqueezePlay]

Defending Barnett

I'm a Colorado alum that supports Gary Barnett 100%. While the small-minded media was ripping Barnett months before any relevant facts surfaced, Barnett confidently awaited his day in court, knowing full well that none of the allegations led to his door. I was impressed by the comments of Bill Curry, the former coach at Georgia Tech. He stated that coaches can only do and know so much about what their players do in their spare time. You can tell them the rules and the consequences of breaking the rules and then you hope for the best. And anyone that believes otherwise has likely never coached college kids for 5 minutes in their lifetime.

Firing Barnett would only drive away what little support remains from the Colorado alumni. The campus is a disaster with a faculty largely consisting of whack job educators who cannot be fired. Football is a minor problem compared to the big picture in Boulder. The new interim school president probably starts each day wondering if he is Barnum or Bailey and who is going to clean up after the elephants today.

As a reaction to media pressure, Colorado has unwisely put in place recruiting restrictions that basically tie both of Barnett's hands behind his back. Anyone would be crazy to take the C.U. job under these restrictions. And yet, the reigning Big XII Coach of the Year is, you guessed it, Gary Barnett. PTI boys and girls, the media is full of it on this subject.

Bottom line: Barnett is doing Colorado a favor by staying on and they are very fortunate to have him. P.S. That female kicker was TERRIBLE. But then, truth has become a liability in this phony PC world of ours. But don't get me started. I might become insensitive.

 

[Ego74]

nice take Squeeze Play

 

[AlwaysKeen]

very good thread here...winone, I agree with you on Keutter sp? at ASU...I remember watching him with their QB the first year, forget his name but he transfered to UMass...Dirk just seems like an a-hole, like a guy nobody really wants to play for...we'll see this year...

 

[WinOne]

Pags,

Ryan Kealy was the qb that transferred.

I hope posters don't think I'm a disgruntled Alum. While I support the Maroon and Gold, the only true color I am interested in is GREEN.

WinOne!!

 

[TUSKS]

You can add Houston Nutt at Arkansas to this list. He is the first coach to make it to his 8th year since Frank Broyles has been running the show.

Arkansas has not finished in the top 25 in seven years.

We were 5-6 last season.

For the last two years, he has not won a game in October.

Not to mention that he lifts up his skirt everytime a position comes open: Nebraska, LSU

Please, somebody take him.

 

[whormoan]

Add Karl Dorrell of UCLA and Tom Craft of San Diego State to the top of that list

 

[AlwaysKeen]

thanks for that winone...

 

[Elvin11]

Dorrell was given a contract extension through 2010, so don't see his seat very hot this season.

Elvin

 

[redpimp]

You can add Houston Nutt at Arkansas to this list. He is the first coach to make it to his 8th year since Frank Broyles has been running the show.

Arkansas has not finished in the top 25 in seven years.

We were 5-6 last season.

For the last two years, he has not won a game in October.

Not to mention that he lifts up his skirt everytime a position comes open: Nebraska, LSU

Please, somebody take him.

I dont think this post is entirely accurate.. Infact you are way off suggesting that houston Nutts job is at all in any kind of jeopardy..
that is just out and out baseless rumour mongering

 

[TUSKS]

I dont think this post is entirely accurate.. Infact you are way off suggesting that houston Nutts job is at all in any kind of jeopardy..
that is just out and out baseless rumour mongering

You are wrong.

And everything that I stated is a concrete fact, not inaccurate at all. If he has another losing season, he is gone. There is no doubt in this state about that. And he is going to have to work to make that not happen.

@ USC
@ Alabama
@ Georgia
@ LSU

There's 4 losses. Auburn could be 5, and @ Ole Miss isn't going to be easy for them. Just wait and see. The fact that Butch Davis, an Arkansas grad, just purchased a home up the road in Springdale is considered a 'good sign' down here.

 

[AlwaysKeen]

Houston Nutt is a great coach, Butch Davis would be a downgrade...

 

[TUSKS]

Houston Nutt is a great coach, Butch Davis would be a downgrade...

What has he done to make him a great coach?

Our one trip to the SEC championship under him was due to Bama not being eligible. We finished in the top 25 once, his first year, with Danny Ford's players.

He has a losing record in the SEC, and has won maybe 2 big games. If you want to settle for the Independence Bowl, Music City Bowl, and Las Vegas Bowl, then yeah, he's done a great job. But a program that used to be in the nation's elite, that is competing in the best conference in the country, deserves more than that.

If he coached your team, and had the above results, would you be happy?

 

[LSUpete]

I agree with TUSKS......about one thing.

Nutt is not the BEST that Arkansas could get.

Now, as far as the LSU interest comment......that is total B.S. NO WAY would LSU ever hire Houston Nutt......unless it was for a position coaching the cheerleaders.

 

[AlwaysKeen]

one thing Houston Nutt did was put Boise St. on the map...before he got there they were a descent I-AA program...he seems to do more with less than most coaches do...he may lack the recruiting skills to bring in the top notch athletes on a consistant basis, but playing in the SEC he holds his own...I can understand your frustration and I might feel the same way if Arkansas was my team...

 

[TUSKS]

one thing Houston Nutt did was put Boise St. on the map...before he got there they were a descent I-AA program...he seems to do more with less than most coaches do...he may lack the recruiting skills to bring in the top notch athletes on a consistant basis, but playing in the SEC he holds his own...I can understand your frustration and I might feel the same way if Arkansas was my team...

He was at Boise St. for one season, that hardly qualifies him for putting them on the map.

 

[TUSKS]

....and, he was 5-6 in that one season at Boise. The same record he had in his 7th season at Arkansas.