Schools with New Coaches

[cloverleaf]

Last year there were 20 schools who brought in new coaches. Half of those twenty had .500 or better seasons during 2014. Some stood out like Boise State's Brian Harsin winning 12 games including a Fiesta Bowl win over Arizona. Others like Vanderbilt's Derek Mason didn't fare so well.

This year there are 11 schools who have introduced new head coaches. A few of the moves seemed strange to me like Oregon State's Mike Rilley leaving for Nebraska. Jim Harbaugh leaving the NFL for Michigan and UNLV hiring a local high school coach. Should be interesting watching Buffalo who is bringing in a Division III coach who won six national championships.

Here's a list of schools with new head coaches:

Michigan: Jim Harbaugh (SF 49ers)
Oregon St: Gary Anderson (Wisconsin)
Nebraska: Mike Riley (Oregon State)
Florida: Jim McElwain (Colorado State)
Pittsburgh: Pat Narduzzi (Michigan State)
Colorado St: Mike Bobo (Georgia)
Houston: Tom Herman (Ohio State)
SMU: Chad Morris (Clemson)
Buffalo: Lance Leipold (Wisc-Whitewater)
Tulsa: Phil Montgomery (Baylor)
UNLV: Tony Sanchez (High School)

Some of these guys have pretty good resumes...who do you think will have a break out year during 2015?

 

[GoSooners]

Phil Montgomery should be a good fit at Tulsa. I never thought much of Blankenship. He never even had any coordinator experience much less HC experience before taking that job. His only HC experience came from 20+ years in the Okla. HS system.... Unless SMU starts spending some money to upgrade their program, Chad Morris has an uphill battle. June Jones pretty much gave up the ship and started turning lazy after his requests for several upgrades to the football facilities were ignored. Plus he never had the resources he needed for recruiting either. It's why he basically gave up going out and recruiting and why SMU couldn't win a game this year. It all caught up with them this year. Now SMU is back to square one almost to where they were after the death penalty

 

[cloverleaf]

Got to think Montgomery will air it out at Tulsa.

Morris was making well over $1 million at Clemson...don't know what SMU is paying him but ballzy move
for a guy just wanting to be a head coach. Until SMU truly commits to the football program...will be difficult
for anyone to turn the program around.

 

[CoachCB]

CL, I agree w/ you on Morris. I figured he'd land a bigger job (much like when Kirby Smart gets a head coaching gig). SMU is paying him over $2 million (he was making $1.3 mil, I think, at Clemson).

I haven't seen the rosters/returning letterman lists yet, but gotta think a few of these guys could have similar years to Harsin at Boise.

 

[russ1945]

I am not a Mike Riley fan. I will never forget how he blew the bowl game with Texas.

 

[russ1945]

CL, I agree w/ you on Morris. I figured he'd land a bigger job (much like when Kirby Smart gets a head coaching gig). SMU is paying him over $2 million (he was making $1.3 mil, I think, at Clemson).

I haven't seen the rosters/returning letterman lists yet, but gotta think a few of these guys could have similar years to Harsin at Boise.

Coach check out philsteele.com. They have the returning startesr and early draft enrollees on there already.

 

[RunLeeRun]

I am not a Mike Riley fan. I will never forget how he blew the bowl game with Texas.

I remember that game. Was blown for sure. Im sure most coaches have blown a few, though. Interested to see where this coach goes with things. Its almost like this hire was part therapist...lot of mending fences to be done. Riley is a very calming presence. His recruiting, considering the circumstance, has been pretty good. So far kept the top commits in the fold and added a few nice commits.

 

[cloverleaf]

North Carolina has hired former Auburn head coach Gene Chizik as defensive coordinator.

Chizik won a national championship with the Tigers in 2010 and was fired after the 2012 season.

Good hire for the Tar Heels....they need all the help they can get on defense.

 

[cloverleaf]

Jim Harbaugh has hired his oldest son Jay, 25, as tight ends coach. Jay spent the past three years working for
the Baltimore Ravens.

Also, Harbaugh has hired Tim Drevno as offensive coordinator and D.J. Durkin as defensive coordinator.

With only 6 recruits committed (#101 nationally), Harbaugh and new staff have their work cut out for them.

 

[CoachCB]

Jim Harbaugh has hired his oldest son Jay, 25, as tight ends coach. Jay spent the past three years working for
the Baltimore Ravens.

Also, Harbaugh has hired Tim Drevno as offensive coordinator and D.J. Durkin as defensive coordinator.

With only 6 recruits committed (#101 nationally), Harbaugh and new staff have their work cut out for them.

So does UF w/ only 8.

Did Harbaugh's son play CFB? That's some serious nepotism there. Does his son, at 25 years old, deserve this job? You'd think he'd want him to go coach w/ a colleague and cut his teeth before hiring him to a job like this. Bad move on dad's part.

 

[rolltide]

gotta love wisconsin's recruiting materials...don't know even know where they got their new coach from

 

[GoSooners]

Jim Harbaugh has hired his oldest son Jay, 25, as tight ends coach. Jay spent the past three years working for
the Baltimore Ravens.

Also, Harbaugh has hired Tim Drevno as offensive coordinator and D.J. Durkin as defensive coordinator.

With only 6 recruits committed (#101 nationally), Harbaugh and new staff have their work cut out for them.

Last I counted Florida had only 8 commits. So both classes are hovering around 100 in team rankings. Which is unbelievable. But the fact that both of these teams fired their coaches after months of rumors probably has something to do with it. It really wouldn't surprise me if Harbaugh will close strong and then next year's class will be a top 10.

 

[cloverleaf]

The absolute "worse" thing a new coach can do is get behind on recruiting his first year.

I'm pretty sure Michigan and Florida will improve but both schools are behind the 8 ball now.

Florida ain't going to beat teams in the SEC who bring in the better players....same with Michigan.

 

[RunLeeRun]

gotta love wisconsin's recruiting materials...don't know even know where they got their new coach from

Points for getting the right state. I get that the offensive angle for Chryst, but I probably would have dropped the 3rd string QB in the forefront, blew up Russell a tad bit and slapped JJ Watt on there for good measure.

 

[GoSooners]

Utah State just hired OU offensive coordinator Josh Huepel as their new OC. Good for them, but it should have been his first job, not his second...

 

[cloverleaf]

Dan Enos, Central Michigan head coach has stepped down and headed south to Arkansas as offensive coordinator and quarterback coach. Not often you see a head coach move to a coordinators position...unless they are fired. Good hire for the Hogs.

Tennessee loses coordinator Mike Bajakian to the Tampa Bay Bucs. Not good for the Vols with some momentum going toward 2015 season.

 

[CoachCB]

Dan Enos, Central Michigan head coach has stepped down and headed south to Arkansas as offensive coordinator and quarterback coach. Not often you see a head coach move to a coordinators position...unless they are fired. Good hire for the Hogs.

Tennessee loses coordinator Mike Bajakian to the Tampa Bay Bucs. Not good for the Vols with some momentum going toward 2015 season.

Why did Enos step down? Did he get a raise? This is an odd move. I've seen 1AA coaches do this (Dave Clawson at Richmond to Tennessee as OC) but not D1 coaches. The move paid off for Clawson as he ended up at Bowling Green and now he's at Wake Forest.

The absolute "worse" thing a new coach can do is get behind on recruiting his first year.

I'm pretty sure Michigan and Florida will improve but both schools are behind the 8 ball now.

Florida ain't going to beat teams in the SEC who bring in the better players....same with Michigan.

Florida is struggling bad. I figured McElwain would do a little better than this. They have the "Big 3" that they are recruiting (three 5-Star recruits: an OT Ivey, and 2 DE's - Cowart & Jefferson). It's not looking good for any of them....when they all three looked like locks before the new coaching staff (Muschamp might pull one or more to Auburn). McElwain is going "Plan B" bigtime! Hell, he might even be on Plan D or E on some of these kids (they're going after 2 and 3 star kids that are committed to much smaller programs). Honestly, UF just needs to fill some positions of need (LB and OL specifically) and they'll be okay until the 2016 class. I imagine McElwain, with a full year, could pull in top 10 classes easily. I'm surprised there wasn't a JUCO OL in the bunch (only 8 returning scholarship OLs).

 

[CoachCB]

Dan Enos, Central Michigan head coach has stepped down and headed south to Arkansas as offensive coordinator and quarterback coach. Not often you see a head coach move to a coordinators position...unless they are fired. Good hire for the Hogs.

Tennessee loses coordinator Mike Bajakian to the Tampa Bay Bucs. Not good for the Vols with some momentum going toward 2015 season.

Arkansas: Offensive coordinator / quarterbacks coach Dan Enos will make $550,000 annually with a deal through June 30, 2018, according to the Arkansas News. He also cannot leave for another SEC assistant job, as all of Bielema’s new assistants have in their deals. Enos earned $360,000 in 2014 as Central Michigan head coach.

 

[Albatross]

gotta love wisconsin's recruiting materials...don't know even know where they got their new coach from

Well.....UGA just snagged a big guy from Wisky. Great pickup on the Oline.

Signed,

CMR

 

[Albatross]

On a side note.....Penn State would have loved to have James Conner and Tom Savage probably could have done better than the second coming of JC