College Football Coaching Carousel 2011: Coverage Of Who’s Coming And Going

Oregon and Army, who respectively run one of the nation’s most futuristic and most throwback offenses. These things aren’t supposed to make sense.

A couple of weeks ago, I took a look at major conference coaching hires to date and graded them on a 30-point scale that included the following factors: Resume, Fit, Short Term and Long Term. Now seems like a good time to grade some more hires. The domino effect is basically done, though it could start again depending on who Penn State eventually hires (assuming they do, indeed, eventually hire somebody), so we will take a look at Arizona State’s and Pittsburgh’s hires, and we will throw in some mid-majors as well. Another update will come after Penn State.

Mike Leach, Washington State

Bowl season means many things to many people. While some people love the bowls and some very much do not, there are a couple of constants come December: the list of bowl swag is always going to be entertaining, and quite a few teams are going to be playing with interim coaches.

The coaching carousel typically begins in late-November and early-December, and it doesn’t stop for quite a while. Inevitably, before the bowls are played, some coaches are going to leave for bigger jobs, and some are going to get fired; either way, it results in a rather awkward situation for the players and administrators. Does Coach stay on to coach the bowl? Does he step aside and let an interim coach run the show?

The regular season is over. The bowl season hasn’t started yet. It’s the perfect time to clean house.

That’s what a bunch of programs are doing - 24, to be exact. Some teams need new coaches because their old ones have moved on to bigger and (presumably) better places. But most are making a change because for one reason or another, their previous regime wasn’t getting the job done.

To date, 11 major conference head coaching jobs have come open this fall; nine of them have been filled, with only Arizona State and Penn State remaining. So with no bowl games on the slate for another few days, now is a good time to reflect on and prematurely judge the hires that have been made. You know what that means: another arbitrary rating scale!

We’re going to go with four categories, worth a total of 30 points: the coach’s overall resume (as it pertains to accomplishments, failures, and applicability to the job at hand, worth up to 10 points), the general fit between coach and program (10), the short-term potential of the hire (five), and the long term potential of the hire (five). As always, scores in the arbitrary rating scale are somewhat, yes, arbitrary and subject to my own views, feelings and moods. That’s how “Hugh Freeze over Kevin Sumlin” happens.

As Christmas shoppers around the country prepared for Cyber Monday, a few football programs decided to go shopping for a new football coach. Sunday alone, Illinois, Kansas, UAB and Memphis dumped their coaches and entered what is suddenly a bustling sellers’ market. Mike Leach can only take one job, people!

Let’s take a look at the programs that are hiring (or could be soon), along with some general program strength numbers.

It’s that special time of year when college football fans learn how to operate air traffic control apps: welcome to coaching carousel season! We’ll update the list below with hirings and firings as they present themselves.

Confirmed departures and arrivals only, though rumors and reports always abound fruitfully: