I’ve been saying for weeks that the rankings don’t matter because everything will work itself out eventually and this past Thanksgiving weekend went a long way towards proving me right. I’m going to advise all Hawkeye fans to ignore the College Football Playoff Committee rankings this week because they are completely pointless. It’s possible Michigan St. jumps Iowa for the 4th spot in the rankings because of their dismantling of the completely overrated Nittany Lions. People are overrating how good Penn St. is and by people I mean media people…okay I mostly mean ESPN. Penn St. is not very good and Michigan St. destroyed them (seriously Penn St.’s best win of the year was over San Diego St.). I get it, Michigan St. looked good but to paraphrase Kirk Ferentz this is football not gymnastics, there are no style points. On Saturday everything goes out the window and the two teams will settle it on the field.
The CFP Committee might as well not even meet this week because the teams are almost decided. Of course then what would ESPN do for that hour on Tuesday night they spend bashing Iowa and praising Alabama who, by the way, lost a game earlier this year. Clemson has to play North Carolina in the ACC Championship but the truth is unless they get blown out by the Tar Heels they are in even if they lose. Alabama only has to beat a Florida team that looks pretty bad at the moment. Oklahoma is in after they beat Oklahoma St. for the Big 12 title and Notre Dame lost to Stanford. The final spot goes to the Iowa-Michigan St. winner and Big Ten Champion. If Clemson gets blown out and Alabama loses to Florida than it’s possible Ohio St. could slip into he playoff picture or potentially Iowa even if they lose the Big Ten Title game. In other words it’s going to be Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma and Iowa.
Coaching Carousel Hott Reads
- Georgia fired Mark Richt after 15 years as their head coach. They were nice enough to offer him a chance to take a position in the athletic administration at Georgia but at 55 he still wants to coach. If the Miami Hurricanes aren’t sprinting to Georgia (or better yet flying really fast in a private jet) to offer their head coaching job to Richt they are idiots. Richt is known as a very good guy coaching in the cesspool that is the SEC and he still winning quite a bit. The Bulldogs went 9-3 this season, yep 9-3 and he got fired. Be careful what you wish for Bulldog fans look at Tennessee and Nebraska. The latest rumor is Richt is coveted by Maryland, that should scare the crap out of everyone in the Big Ten East because Maryland could actually live up to it’s potential with a coach like Richt.
- Supposedly the top choice to replace Richt is Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart. It looks smart to get Nick Saban’s right-hand man and Smart is a Georgia alum so the fan base should be happy but Georgia defense isn’t the problem so they better hope Smart can find a brilliant offensive coordinator to fix that side of the ball.
- The dumpster fire that is Rutgers athletics is in full inferno mode right now. The University finally fired head coach Kyle Flood after letting him come back from his 3 game suspension for rules violations earlier this year. The also fired AD Julie Hermann because of the disaster she has been the last few years after she was hired to come in a clean up an athletic department that was in disarray. She couldn’t pull that off because of her own problems and Rutgers decided not to compound their coaching problem by having their athletic director problem lead the search. They have hired Patrick Hobbs, who was the dean emeritus at Seton Hall University School of Law, as their new AD. I have no idea who he is but simply by the law of averages he has to be better than their last two ADs.
- Ultra hot coaching candidate Justin Fuente has left Memphis to take over Virginia Tech following Frank Beamer’s retirement. Fuente’s name was on everyone’s list and he took a pretty good job. He also did a very smart thing and kept Beamer’s long-time defensive coordinator Bud Foster and it’s very likely Fuente will stock the rest of the staff with young aggressive recruiters. Virginia Tech’s recruiting has fallen off a bit in the last few years but if they can get some talent for Fuente to use on offense and Foster to use on defense they could get Tech back on track very quickly.
- ISU’s Jaime Pollard proved me wrong by being extremely aggressive in his coaching search and finding his guy very quickly. Toledo’s Matt Campbell just turned 36 so he’s very young but unlike Dan McCarney, Gene Chizik and Paul Rhoads before him Campbell actually has head coaching experience. He has been Toledo’s head man for 4 years. The good news for the Cyclones is that Campbell is young and hungry, he’s an excellent coach and has the youth and exuberance to be a tireless recruiter (an absolute must in Ames). The bad news is if Campbell can get Iowa St to 7 or 8 wins in year 2 or 3 he’ll be out the door to the next big opportunity before he’s 40. We’ll call this the Chizik plan. There seems to be some consternation among Cyclones fans that Campbell is bringing in many of his Toledo staff and recruiting guys he was recruiting to come to Toledo. In case you hadn’t noticed Toledo was very good and ranked in the Top 25 for most of the year. Maybe if Paul Rhoads had had some of those Toledo guys on his team he might still have the job.
- The Fighting Illini of Illinois decided that hiring an outside coach while you’re athletic department is in complete upheaval isn’t the best idea so they gave Bill Cubit a two year contract to hold down the fort and see if he can give them a reason to give him a real contract. This is a stop-gap measure much like the one Minnesota gave Jerry Kill’s replacement Tracy Claeys to coach the Gophers. Cubit is a good man that stepped into an almost impossible situation and held his own. He has head coaching experience so he’s not going to be overwhelmed by the job. The toughest part about a short term contract for Cubit or Claeys is the fact that it will be used against them in recruiting. There is a very valid reason why coaches usually get a minimum of a four year contract because that way they can tell kids they are going to be their coach for their entire career…even though we all know it’s untrue.
- Speaking of Claeys he made some moves with the holdover staff members by firing offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover and quarterbacks coach Jim Zebrowski. It was a stunning move considering how long all of them had worked together under Kill but apparently Claeys thinks he can do better. I’m not sure about Zebrowski’s prospects but someone should snatch up Limegrover quickly, he’s an excellent offensive mind. Like I said Claeys must think he can do better but at offensive coordinator he’s going to have a tough time upgrading.
- Mike London got fired at Virginia which was basically like the sun rising in the east, very predictable. London did horribly and it was time to go.
- Penn St. head coach James Franklin fired his offensive coordinator John Donovan but throwing him under the bus isn’t going to take the pressure off of Franklin. QB Christian Hackenberg looked excellent his freshman year under former coach Bill O’Brien and he has done nothing but regress under Franklin. Penn St. expects more and if Franklin gets Hackenberg to return for his senior year and they don’t get better it could get ugly next season in Happy Valley.
- Purdue fired offensive coordinator John Shoop, defensive coordinator Greg Hudson and defensive line coach Rubin Carter but for some inexplicable reason is keeping head coach Darrell Hazell. This is basically trying to replace the deck chairs on a sinking ship except you have to find chairs that are willing to get on a ship that’s sinking. How is Hazell supposed to hire new assistants when those assistants will know full well that Hazell’s seat is molten hot. It means he’s probably only going to get coaches no one else wants.
- USC went big game hunting for a new head coach and struck out, don’t believe the “we knew we had the right man here all along” BS line they are feeding everyone. They wanted a big name but when it became apparent that Chip Kelly wasn’t coming, Bob Stoops had resurrected his legacy at Oklahoma and no other big name was dying for the Trojans job they went with Clay Helton. I know the fans and media attention have been pretty negative about Helton getting the job but the last time the fans and media were this upset over the coaching hire at USC was when they hired a failed NFL coach named Pete Carroll.
- South Carolina is in a strange position at the moment. Initially one of the big names attached to the job was Memphis’ Justin Fuente but he has taken the Virginia Tech job. Kirby Smart was a possibility but now that the Georgia job is his if he wants it it would be a major upset if he took the South Carolina job. Tom Herman looks like he is staying at Houston and isn’t interested in the Gamecocks position (we all know Herman is just waiting for the Iowa job when Kirk Ferentz retires, hey I can hope if I want to). South Carolina is going to have to go back to the drawing board.
- Central Florida hired Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost as their head coach and that should make for a nice stepping stone for the former Nebraska QB. Frost can spend a couple of seasons getting head coaching experience before he replaces Mike Riley in Lincoln. Okay maybe just a year of experience if the Huskers go 5-7 again.
- Miami has interviewed Butch Davis, Mario Cristobal and Greg Schiano that we know of, I still say offer Richt the moon and hope he takes it.
The Hott Read 