The time is upon us once again when the college football season comes near, and prognosticators like myself start the coaching carousel talk as early as humanly possible. Over the weekend, I gave you my Hot Seat candidates, but now we go one step further. We now look upon who I believe will not make it out of the season alive. This is what I refer to as the Coaching Dead Pool, a swirling tide of job draining energy that consumes untold amounts of coaches every single year. Some of those coaches make it back to the ranks, but some stay permanently under the current, never to be heard from again. Coaches on this list can swim their way out of the pool by clearly bypassing any and all expectations of failure, while others stay fall into the pool once their seat becomes too hot.
Here is our first look at who I believe will be in the Dead Pool in 2016:
Darrell Hazell, Purdue
Well, it has been a long, strange ride at Purdue for Hazell. Hazell, a former receivers coach at Ohio State and head coach at Kent State, has never managed to remake the magic that he had conjured up at Kent State. Entering his fourth season, he is just 6-30 overall, while Purdue is just 19-43 overall in their last five full seasons as a program. Purdue is not exactly the marquee name in Big 10 football, but this has been a miserable experience. The only reason that Hazell still has a job is that it would have cost Purdue over $16 million to get him out after last season, which is likely why Purdue has a new AD in place for 2016. That was a horrible contract for the school, but it is likely that Hazell, short of a miracle, will not be back in 2017.
David Beaty, Kansas
I am fully aware that Beaty is only heading into his second season in Lawrence, but starting out at 0-12 was a serious indictment of how bad this program has become, and how ill equipped Beaty is to handle the situation. Beaty was hired after serving as a receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at Texas A&M, The last head coaching job that Beaty had ever had was in 2005...for a Texas High School. Rebuilding Kansas should be a job for a coach with experience in building programs, and Beaty is not that guy.
Chris Creighton, Eastern Michigan
Creighton is seriously against it. A huge portion of students and staff at the school have made it loud and clear that they don't want a football program anymore. The cost is not worth what the return has given, and they want to shut it down. That is bad news for Creighton, who is running an already bad football program with a highly negative support (or lack thereof) system. This will end badly.
While the list is short, we could have an increased membership of the Dead Pool club before too long. This list will update weekly as we progress through the 2016 season. Stay tuned, and bring your towels.
What would make you think Beaty is not the guy for Kansas and why is he not equipped? Who would be the right choice in your EXPERT opinion? Please be realistic you obviously just like to throw things out on the web just to act like you are putting in work. I challenge you to spend a week at Kansas University with Beaty and tell me you feel the same way.
ReplyDeleteMy reasoning is as follows. I have been around this game for 35 years. I know how it works both on the field and politically. Beaty was brought in as a hot shot Texas conduit for recruiting. That isn't happening yet, and likely will not. Recruiting to Texas A&M is much easier than recruiting to Kansas. Kansas falls behind Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Some PAC-12 schools and some Big 10 schools, and Houston when it comes to where those kids want to play. That is a simple fact, not conjecture. No magic wand changes that. Second issue is that when it comes to those who have been hired nationally as coaches with similar resumes over the last 35 years, most have not worked out, especially not without having gotten in work at a mid-major program before making the jump, especially if the program they just left as an assistant was not a top 10 program. That is also a statistical fact, not conjecture. The third issue is that Beaty is trying to recruit top prospects to a school that cares multitudes more about basketball than football. Having visited the Kansas campus, I know that to be true. Kansas basketball is first in line for everything, and that should be so given the program success level compared to that of football. The fourth issue is that Beaty has a history of Kansas football being mostly from bad to terrible for a huge chunk of the 35 years that I have been around the game. With a lack of winning tradition, you lose a major chip in selling the program. Kids simply do not want to go to a program where they will be second fiddle on their own campus. Again, fact, not conjecture. Beaty is trying to sell a program with little pedigree in his own background to lean on, has not coached at a program that has top 10 to 15 status consistently, and therefore is selling a dream, not a reality. He may be a great guy, but it takes more than that. If you want more to go on, I can go on all day. I don't expect you to agree with me, but before shooting your mouth off, know who you are dealing with.
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