100% agree. Muschamp won't do nearly as well as Spurrier and will be gone in 2-3 years max IMO. Spurrier will be the gold standard for USC coaches probably forever.
Pruitt hired as DC for Bama. http://www.al.com/alabamafootball/index.ssf/2015/12/alabama_officially_hires_jerem.html#incart_2box
Ken Niumatalolo showed a lot of emotion after Navy's win over Army. It's been reported that he's going to meet with BYU about their opening. Certainly the emotion could just be coming from a hard-fought win over Army, but I had to wonder if maybe he knew that there is a good chance that this will be his last Army/Navy game. If he were going to move on, now might be the time, what with Keenan Reynolds finishing his career.
Former SHSU coach Willie Fritz is the new head coach at Tulane. He obviously did really well at SHSU, and he led Georgia Southern to back-to-back 9-3 and 8-4 seasons, so there's plenty of evidence that he'll do good work in New Orleans as well. In particular, his offensive philosophy should serve him well. His offshoot of the triple option tends to level the playing field if his teams are under-talented. Outside of K-State transfer Timothy Flanders at running back, it's not like Fritz's teams at SHSU were just flat out more talented and athletic than their opponents. And while I'm no expert on GSU recruiting, I imagine that's the case there as well. Honestly, and perhaps I'm just biased because of what he accomplished in Huntsville, I've been surprised that he hasn't been more of a candidate for other openings this offseason. As it is, with 13 seasons at Division II Central Missouri, 4 seasons at SHSU, 2 seasons at GSU, and now a tenure beginning at Tulane, Fritz is making what seems like the slowest climb up the coaching ladder in the country.
The 2015-16 head coaching portion of the coaching carousel has come to an end. Spoiler Bowling Green In: Mike Jinks(Texas Tech RB) Out: Dino Babers BYU In: Kalani Sitake(Oregon State DC) Out: Bronco Mendenhall ECU In: Scottie Montgomery(Duke OC) Out: Ruffin McNeill Georgia In: Kirby Smart(Alabama DC) Out: Mark Richt Georgia Southern In: Tyson Summers(Colorado State DC) Out: Willie Fritz Hawaii In: Nick Rolovich(Nevada OC) Out: Norm Chow Illinois In: Bill Cubit(Illinois OC) Out: Tim Beckman Iowa State In: Matt Campbell(Toledo HC) Out: Paul Rhoads Maryland In: DJ Durkin(Michigan DC) Out: Randy Edsall Memphis In: Mike Norvell(Arizona State OC) Out: Justin Fuente Miami In: Mark Richt(Georgia HC) Out: Al Golden Minnesota In: Tracy Claeys(Minnesota DC) Out: Jerry Kill Missouri In: Barry Odom(Missouri DC) Out: Gary Pinkel North Texas In: Seth Littrell(North Carolina Assistant HC for offense/TE) Out: Dan McCarney Rutgers In: Chris Ash(Ohio State co-DC) Out: Kyle Flood South Carolina In: Will Muschamp(Auburn DC) Out: Steve Spurrier Syracuse In: Dino Babers(Bowling Green HC) Out: Scott Shafer Toledo In: Jason Candle(Toledo OC) Out: Matt Campbell Tulane In: Willie Fritz(Georgia Southern HC) Out: Curtis Johnson UCF In: Scott Frost(Oregon OC) Out: George O'Leary UL-Monroe In: Matt Viator(McNeese State HC) Out: Todd Berry USC In: Clay Helton(USC OC) Out: Steve Sarkisian Virginia In: Bronco Mendenhall(BYU HC) Out: Mike London Virginia Tech In: Justin Fuente(Memphis HC) Out: Frank Beamer
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dennis Franchione is expected to step down at <a href="https://twitter.com/TexasState">@TexasState</a> this week, source tells <a href="https://twitter.com/FOXSports">@FoxSports</a>.</p>— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) <a href="https://twitter.com/BruceFeldmanCFB/status/679338562928508928">December 22, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BREAKING <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BallState?src=hash">#BallState</a> head coach Pete Lembo is resigning to become an assistant on DJ Durkin’s new <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Maryland?src=hash">#Maryland</a> staff: <a href="https://t.co/hpVFUlP7ep">https://t.co/hpVFUlP7ep</a></p>— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) <a href="https://twitter.com/BruceFeldmanCFB/status/679361150782312448">December 22, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Just when we all thought the carousel had stopped spinning. The Lembo move reeks of him beating the posse out of town. After a really good start to his tenure at Ball State (and after being a candidate for a number of P5 jobs as a result), things have kind of flatlined. The heat might have gotten turned up on him in Muncie if the team wasn't any better next season, and if he does well under Durkin and the Terrapins win, given his head coaching experience, he'll set himself up to be a head coach again at some point. The Coach Fran news is interesting, considering the timing, if nothing else. What changed between the end of the season three weeks ago and now that moved him to step down. It could be something personal, of course, and that's understandable, but if it's for a program-related reason, it strikes as a bit odd.
Georgia Southern has plenty of talent compared to the other members of the conference. Should they have been able to beat Florida last year or nearly beat UGA this season? No, but my alma mater has had some very good players, including Matt Breida right now who would start at a lot of more notable schools.
Not only did he end up choosing to stay at Navy, but they just signed him to an extension. To me, that makes it a near-certainty that he's going to stick around Navy until he's finished coaching (or until a catastrophic downturn in the program occurs and he is let go). Few programs are going to be willing to bring him in because they're unwilling to run the option like he does. You'd think with the success that he has had at Navy and that Paul Johnson has had at Georgia Tech, more teams would want to give it a try, but that just doesn't seem to be the case.
Fair enough, and certainly they looked the part in their bowl game win. I guess my larger point was that his system works well for teams looking to punch above their weight, as he did at SHSU (particularly in his first couple of years) and as he will be trying to do at Tulane.
Reports are that Texas State is going to hire Everett Withers as their next head coach. He's been an assistant all over the place both in college (Austin Peay, Tulane, Southern Miss, Louisville, Texas, Minnesota, UNC, Ohio State) and the NFL (Saints, Titans), and he served as the interim head coach at UNC in 2011, so even if it was a limited trial, he does have some head coaching experience. Considering how late in the game it is, that's a pretty good hire, in my mind.
Should clarify here...he only has the small bit of head coaching experience at the FBS level. For the last couple of years, of course, he has been the head coach at James Madison.
Take two: Now it appears the (HC) carousel is over. Ball State hired Mike Neu(Saints QB coach) Texas State hired Everett Withers(James Madison) and tonight, UTSA hired LSU RB coach Frank Wilson.
Gotta feel for USM on this one. Monken had been doing a fantastic job there. They went 0-12 the season before he got there and 1-11 in his first season, and they just went 9-5 (9-3 regular season) this past season. On top of that, he bailed less than two weeks before national signing day, so obviously the timing is also less than ideal.
