Tag: Coach Hire Grades
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College Football Coach Hire Grades: Indiana
Indiana Hoosiers: Curt Cignetti Why the job was open: Indiana football is such a tough job. Success here is very difficult to find for even a season, and sustaining it is even more difficult. Tom Allen found some success, he nearly got Indiana to 9 wins in 2019 but they blew a late lead against…
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College Football Coach Hire Grades: Michigan State
Michigan State Spartans: Jonathan Smith Why the job was open: The Mel Tucker era at Michigan State was a strange one. It got off to a slow start in 2020 but thanks to his portal usage they had a great 2021 season that included beating Michigan and winning the Peach Bowl. It seemed like the…
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College Football Coach Hire Grades: Duke
Duke Blue Devils: Manny Diaz Why the job was open: Football is an afterthought at Duke, and success is often hard to come by here. David Cutcliffe managed to find some success but eventually it fell apart in his latter years. What Mike Elko did here was impressive, using the roster he inherited, he got…
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College Football Coach Hire Grades: Washington
Washington Huskies: Jedd Fisch Why the job was open: Washington had absolutely nailed it by hiring Kalen DeBoer. He immediately got the Huskies back on the national stage and made a national title appearance in just his 2nd season. He had something special cooking and it was inevitable he’d win a national title for Washington…
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College Football Coach Hire Grades: New Mexico State
New Mexico State Aggies: Tony Sanchez Why the job was open: New Mexico State is a challenging job, and for a long time was known as perhaps the most challenging job in the country, especially given it’s status as a forced independent. Jerry Kill came in and changed everything almost overnight. A 17-11 record, 2…
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College Football Coach Hire Grades: Mississippi State
Mississippi State Bulldogs: Jeff Lebby Why the job was open: It’s been a tumultuous couple years for Mississippi State to say the least. Mike Leach suddenly passed away in December 2022 (RIP again to a legend.) Zach Arnett the DC at the time was promoted to head coach, a seemingly natural move to transition the…
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College Football Coach Hire Grades: UL-Monroe
UL-Monroe Warhawks: Bryant Vincent Why the job was open: UL-Monroe is such a tough job, one of the toughest in FBS. They’ve gone many routes with their coaching hires and there’s little success to show for it. ULM was once a successful FCS program but their highlights in FBS are having the rare distinction of…
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College Football Coach Hire Grades: Buffalo
Buffalo Bulls: Pete Lembo Why the job was open: Maurice Linguist came in with the challenge of being the guy who replaced “the guy” and that is always a tough role to be in. A lot of players followed Lance Leipold to Kansas which made roster construction even tougher. They came from contending to MAC…
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College Football Coach Hire Grades: San Jose State
San Jose State Spartans: Ken Niumatalolo Why the job was open: San Jose State is an interesting job. They are in a great location, but historically the program struggled. In the last couple decades coaches occasionally managed a good season here or there but struggled to sustain it. Brent Brennan helped change that a bit,…
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College Football Coach Hire Grades: New Mexico
New Mexico Lobos: Bronco Mendenhall Why the job was open: Success for New Mexico football has been fleeting. It’s difficult to break through to even have one good season here, but even once that’s accomplished, it’s even more difficult to sustain it. New Mexico alum Danny Gonzales was a rising star in the coaching ranks…
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