Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Coaches on the Hot Seat: 11/10/15

With ten current FBS jobs open and one current FCS job open, I am sure that we have not seen the last of the axe falling this season. Here is a look at who is under some pressure, but may have a shot at another season currently:

Scot Shafer, Syracuse
The season started strongly enough, but injuries have finally caught up with the Orange, and it looks likely that they will miss the postseason. I am guessing that the injuries buy him a pass, but the grumbling is getting loud.

Steve Addazio, Boston College
This season could not have been more ugly if they tried at BC, and Addazio is likely going to be given some guidelines as to how to get this fixed next season. If the offense continues to be as abysmal as it is, Addazio will be running out of time.

Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech
There is no excuse for what happened to this football team this season, but the wheels came off the track early, and the Jackets continued to look more like a rambling wreck than a top 25 football team. Johnson had better figure out what happened, because another season like this won't likely be tolerated after 2016.

Tommy Tubberville, Cincinnati
This was supposed to be a clear title contender in the AAC, and instead, the Bearcats looked lost all season. The problem is on defense, as in they don't have one. Tubberville's name is already coming up on lists for other jobs, but he hasn't exactly knocked it out of the park with this one.

Charlie Strong, Texas
Strong will be back in 2016, if he wants the job. The issues in this program are deep running, and it will take Strong at least two more seasons to get it fixed. Mack Brown left this thing a mess.

Kliff Kingsbury, Texas Tech
Honestly, I'd fire him after this season. The Red Raiders started out strongly enough, but have been a mess ever since. They play no defense, and turnovers are a serious issue, and that loss to previously winless in Big 12 play West Virginia was just awful, even if it was on the road.

Dana Holgorson, West Virginia
I have never bought in on this guy, and even against my better judgment, I'd have to say that WVU sticks with him one more year. The Mountaineers are not a title contender in the Big 12, and I am not sure when they will be. They've largely just been a doormat that plays no defense and serves as a punching bag for the league elite.

Mike Riley, Nebraska
So the Huskers beat Michigan State at home last weekend, and that will take some heat down for certain, but wasn't Sparty on the verge of getting beaten by someone? It certainly seemed so, and Nebraska is one loss away from missing a bowl. This is not a good situation.

Rick Stockstill, Middle Tennessee
He has been here forever now, but he has never turned the corner. Stockstill has certainly put this program on a map of sorts, when it never was before, but the program has gotten stale. Time for a change, but I am guessing it won't come until next year.

David Bailiff, Rice
Our annual whipping boy is back on the list again, as Rice is now just 4-5. I know expectations are not high, or barely exist here, but how long must you go on the up and down roller coaster ride?

Sean Kugler, UTEP
Kugler was moving the needle in the right direction last fall, but the needle is turning back again, and next year will be a huge indicator on what will happen.

Larry Coker, UTSA
The delusional fan base has gone nuts this last weekend, and have started calling for a coaching change after the one win Roadrunners (remember my prediction last August???) lost another close game to Old Dominion. They don't think they are any different than Texas or Texas A&M according to one tweet I received when I called for cooler heads. Here's the deal. You are not Texas. You are not Texas A&M. You will never be either. You cannot, nor will you ever, recruit with the big boys for the kids in your own state. You are a less than a decade old football program, and by putting yourselves on that shelf, you are simply setting yourselves up to fail. Larry Coker is a damned good football coach, and this crazy talk is chasing him away, and who do you think you'll get to replace him? This is a program still in its infancy that graduated over 30 seniors off of last season's roster. It's called a building process, and that is who and where you are. If you think any differently than that, than you don't understand the process, and you damned well don't deserve a solid coach and decent man like Coker running your program. This program is being built the right way, despite your nagging and impatience, and even selling your soul for better weekly results won't change that. You people basically called me an idiot for saying that there have been some improvements overall, and it's because you are a young football team. I was told that teams don't stay young all season. Actually, they do, and they can for sometimes 2 or 3 seasons depending on roster fluctuation. That's what 35 years of honing my understanding of the game has taught me.  Are we clear now?

Jeff Monken, Army
Monken is not getting it done at Army. To his credit, the Cadets are young this season. Very young. That's why he's a hot seat guy, not a dead pooler. Next season will indicate where this program is going, and it will be interesting to see if Monken can do what his predecessors could not.

Pete Lembo, Ball State
The Cardinals are now ineligible for bowl contention as they have 7 losses this season. Anything could happen now, but I see Lembo coming back for one more shot to fix this mess. 2016 will be all or nothing.

Tim DeRuyter, Fresno State
After being nationally ranked, and almost busting the last BCS bowls, the Bulldogs are now on a 2 year run of not being worth a damn. A third year of this will get DeRuyter shown the door. It's all on the line now.

Todd Graham, Arizona State
All Graham the mercenary has done since jilting Pitt for ASU has been to keep the program where it has been for years, average or not great. This football team started the year ranked #16. Now they are 4-5. Graham is as overrated as they come, and this program isn't showing signs of ever dominating the PAC-12 South.

Rich Rodriguez, Arizona
Again, Rich Rod took a team with top 10 talent, and now has them at 5-5. Scooby Wright's injury (and absolute horrid physical conditioning during the injury) was not to blame, and if it was, than Rodriguez should be fired now. The team, which had enough talent on paper to be one of the best Arizona teams ever, never lived up to their billing, and Rodriguez is seeing his name linked to several other jobs, which means he is getting ready to hold Arizona hostage for an extension. I'd let him leave before I'd have a gun held to my head by a coach who couldn't do anything with this much talent.

Mike McIntyre, Colorado
It would be crazy to let him go, as some have speculated, as Colorado is on the verge of turning a corner. They certainly are not an auto win anymore in the PAC-12 South, and good things could be coming if they show some patience in Boulder.

Sonny Dykes, California
He's up for an extension to his current deal, but I am hearing all over the place, that he's planning on leaving on his own, and does not want the extension. He is rumored to leave for any job in Texas that he can get his hands on. This bears watching.

Others to Watch
Bret Bielema, Arkansas
Gus Malzahn, Auburn
Mark Richt, Georgia
Butch Jones, Tennessee
Mark Stoops, Kentucky




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