Mike Hopkins’ hiring at Washington is another reason why ‘coach-in-waiting’ is meaningless

Mike Hopkins was supposed to be Jim Boeheim’s successor. The Syracuse graduate had put in 20 years with the Orange coaching staff, filling in for Boeheim during the veteran leader’s suspension in 2015-16. His hard work earned him the title Head Coach-Designate that June. But once the opportunity to write his own script surfaced, Hopkins determined he wasn’t happy being someone’s plan B.

Instead, he left the only college he’s ever known for the opportunity to lead the Washington Huskies back to respectability. UW turned to the Syracuse assistant four days after firing head coach Lorenzo Romar. While Hopkins will have his hands full balancing a potential player exodus, the lure of a Power 5 position at a program proven to draw five-star talent was too much to pass up.

Losing the man pegged as the program’s next Boeheim will be a tough blow for Syracuse to swallow, but his departure followed a familiar script from another big money NCAA sport. Hopkins joins outspoken college football coaches James Franklin and Will Muschamp as proof naming someone “head coach in waiting” is a meaningless platitude.

Franklin was tabbed as Ralph Friedgen’s successor at Maryland in 2009. Instead, he jumped ship to the SEC and led Vanderbilt to back-to-back nine-win seasons for the first time in program history. Muschamp was Mack Brown’s protege at Texas, but took an opportunity to replace Urban Meyer at Florida instead. In each case, tagging rising assistants as future head coaches only served to raise their value for leadership-needy teams across the NCAA.

The programs they left behind suffered as a result. Without Franklin in tow, Maryland was forced to hire Randy Edsall after Friedgen’s firing. Edsall went 22-34 in four-plus seasons with the team. Since leaving College Park, Franklin has gone 49-30 as a head coach and won the 2016 Big Ten title with Penn State — a team the Terrapins now face annually.

Texas’ once-proud tradition has also gone off the rails, though it’s unclear if Muschamp would have been the man to keep it on track. The Longhorns went 16-21 in three years of Charlie Strong’s leadership in Austin before he was fired for the unforgivable sin of losing to Kansas. Muschamp has had his share of mistakes — he was terminated by Florida after four years and a 28-21 run — but showed promise after helping turn South Carolina around in 2016.

There’s only one recent situation where pegging a longtime assistant for the top job has worked swimmingly — when Jimbo Fisher took over for Bobby Bowden at Florida State.

That leaves Syracuse with a what-if and an even bigger question about what happens now with Boeheim. The surefire Hall of Famer will turn 73 next season and has been with the Orange in some aspect for all but three seasons since 1963. He’s told the press his plan to retire after the 2017-18 season multiple times, but Hopkins’ departure could throw a wrench in that proposal.

Like Franklin and Muschamp before him, Hopkins had a clear path to a desirable, major-conference head coaching position. And like that pair, he chose immediate gratification when a similar opportunity unveiled itself on an expedited timeline. The only loser here is Syracuse, which now has to regroup and assess its plans for 2018 and beyond. While that seems simple enough — luring a new and successful head coach to a prestigious ACC program like the Orange’s seems like an easy sell — just remember. Texas looked like it was making a can’t-miss hire when it brought Strong to town in 2014.