head coaches – Syndication Server

USA TODAY: Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell among ‘most overpaid coaches in college football’

Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell was included in USA TODAY’s Paul Myerberg’s recent list of the ‘Five most overpaid college football coaches’ on Wednesday.

Fickell, who has led the Badgers to a 12-8 overall mark since taking over in Nov. 2022, was listed alongside Florida’s Billy Napier, Auburn’s Hugh Freeze, Florida State’s Mike Norvell and UAB’s Trent Dilfer. While no ranking was assigned to each coach, Napier was listed first, followed by Freeze second, Fickell third, Norvell fourth and Dilfer at fifth.

For context, Fickell is set to reel in roughly $8 million in his second full season as head coach at UW. Only the Seminoles’ Norvell, who holds a 1-5 record with Florida State to start the 2024 season, makes more on the five-person list.

Myerberg included a brief thought explaining each coach’s inclusion. Here is what he wrote about Fickell:

“Like Napier and Freeze, Fickell was able to translate a ton of success at a lesser program – he went 57-18 at Cincinnati and coached the first Group of Five team to make the playoff – into a huge deal at Wisconsin worth $7.725 million in compensation this season. But the Badgers have been mediocre or worse since he took over in late 2022, barely sneaking into a bowl last year and potentially missing the postseason in 2024. These struggles can be attributed to a strange shift in offensive philosophy from the meat-and-potatoes style that Wisconsin used to great impact for decades.”

Myerberg isn’t wrong. While Wisconsin’s offense appears to have discovered a rhythm over its previous two wins over Purdue and Rutgers, Fickell was hired with exceptions of elevating this group into playoff territory.

Excluding the 2020 COVID season, Wisconsin had secured at least eight victories per season from 2009-2021. As of Oct. 16, the Badgers are projected to secure seven wins for the second straight season, a relative disappointment for a program investing that type of money in a coach with immense success at a Group of Five organization in the past.

Through six games, Wisconsin is projected to land in the Bad Boy Mowers’ Pinstripe Bowl in late December. A strong winning streak to close the season should warrant Fickell’s exclusion from any future iterations of this list.

The Badgers are back in action on Saturday against the 3-3 Northwestern Wildcats.

Steelers’ Mike Tomlin lands in top 3 of NFL head coach rankings

Where do you rank Mike Tomlin among the top head coaches in the NFL?

When you talk about Mike Tomlin, there are basically two camps. On one side you have those who say the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach is among the very top in the NFL. On the other side, you have his critics who call into question his postseason success.

Our friends over at Touchdown Wire ranked all 32 head coaches in the NFL and they are squarely in the camp of Tomlin being an elite coach as they ranked him third in the league behind only the Kansas City Chiefs’ Andy Reid and Los Angeles Rams’ Sean McVay.

Here’s what they had to say about Tomlin:

Now, while the Steelers have yet to have a losing record in the 17 seasons that Tomlin has been running the show, they also haven’t won a playoff game in seven years. It’s evident that Tomlin and Co. feel that pressure, as they made a lot of “non-Steeler” moves this offseason. They traded away Kenny Pickett and brought in Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. They spent big money in free agency, specifically on linebacker Patrick Queen. Pittsburgh is going to be in the AFC playoff scramble, once again. We’ll see if they can end their playoff drought in the midst of it.

There are several things I’ve come to accept during Tomlin’s tenure. First, former general manager Kevin Colbert did him no favors in his final years with the team. But second, and perhaps more important, players want to play for Tomlin. They just don’t want to play their best. Players past and present sing his praises as a motivational guy and leader of men, but it just doesn’t show it on the field on a consistent basis.

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Dennis Allen ranked 32nd among NFL’s 32 head coaches

Dennis Allen was ranked 32nd among the NFL’s 32 head coaches. New hires are unknown quantities, but Touchdown Wire argues we know what DA is:

Yikes. Dennis Allen has a lot to prove in 2024, but some observers (and some New Orleans Saints fans) are already prepared for the coach to go. Touchdown Wire’s Jarrett Bailey ranked Allen 32nd among the NFL’s 32 head coaches, arguing that while new hires are unknown quantities, we’ve seen enough to know Allen isn’t the right man for the job.

Here’s why Bailey ranked Allen last among his peers:

Dennis Allen is the head coaching version of sitting on a whoopie cushion. The Saints have been dreadfully boring with no sense of direction ever since Sean Payton stepped away. They are 16-18 over their last two seasons and find themselves in quarterback purgatory as Derek Carr is clearly not the future. The Saints’ best option would be to finally blow everything up and begin to rebuild in 2025. It would be three years after they should have done it, but better late than never.

It’s tough to argue with that evaluation. The Saints have given Allen everything he’s asked for — his own play caller and position coaches, his $150 million quarterback, and his own draft picks and free agent signings — and he doesn’t have anything to show for it. Their playoff drought has extended under his watch, and at times visiting fans outnumbered the Who Dat Nation along the sidelines last season.

When Allen was introduced as the team’s head coach, general manager Mickey Loomis talked him up as someone who could field a competitive team. That hasn’t been the case, and Loomis has since moved the goalposts to defend his decision to hire Allen in the first place.

If there’s reason for hope in 2024, it’s that Allen has maintained a consistent defense (even if some cracks are showing on passing downs and in matchups with teams determined to run the football). That should buy them enough time for Klint Kubiak’s offense to get off the ground. Now, whether it takes off for the horizon or crashes back down to Earth is yet to be determined. And that’s going to decide whether or not Allen returns for 2025. At this point we need to see it to believe it.

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Report: Texas A&M to fire Jimbo Fisher

Who will be the Texas A&M head coach Notre Dame takes on in the 2024 season opener?

Notre Dame opens the 2024 college football season at a location they’ve only played at once before: Texas A&M.

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When the Irish do so it appears it’ll be the first game for a new head coach at Texas A&M. That’s because according to a report by ESPN’s Pete Thamel, current Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher is expected to be fired.

Fisher is 45-25 in six seasons at Texas A&M. When he was rumored to be interested in leaving for the then-open LSU job in 2021, Fisher signed a 10-year contract with $95 million guaranteed.

He is expected to be paid in full – good work if you can get it.

Visit Aggies Wire for more on this developing story.

Ranking all 14 SEC head coaches heading into 2023 season

Ranking all 14 head coaches in the SEC in 2023 from worst to first.

The SEC is host to some of the best coaches in all of college football. Each week is much more than just a physical game, the coaches are playing a chess match from the opposing sidelines. Four active coaches in the conference have competed for a national title with three of them winning it for a combined 10 rings.

Even some of the schools that have struggled in recent years such as Vanderbilt and South Carolina seem to have found their answer at head coach and are trending in the right direction. Where do first-year head coaches Zach Arnett and Hugh Freeze rank? Saban or Kirby Smart? Roll Tide Wire ranks the SEC coaches heading into the 2023 season.

PHOTOS: Tennessee football head coaches through the years

Tennessee has a storied football program that began play in 1891.

The Vols have won six national championships (1938, 1940, 1950, 1951, 1967, 1998). Robert Neyland won four national championships as Tennessee’s head coach, while Doug Dickey and Phillip Fulmer each guided the Vols to one title.

Tennessee has won 13 Southeastern Conference championships: Phillip Fulmer (2), Johnny Majors (3), Doug Dickey (2), Bowden Wyatt (1) and Robert Neyland (5).

UT won two Southern Conference championships under Neyland in 1927 and 1932.

Tennessee also won the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association title in 1914 under head coach Zora G. Clevenger.

Below are photos of Tennessee’s head coaches through the years.

USA TODAY Sports ranks SEC head coaches: Where’s Georgia’s Kirby Smart?

USA TODAY Sports ranks SEC head coaches

Blake Toppmeyer of USA TODAY Sports recently ranked the 14 head coaches in the SEC heading into the 2022 college football season.

In a conference that still has Nick Saban, there’s hardly a question who occupies the No. 1 spot on the list. Despite Georgia and Kirby Smart finally conquering Saban and the Crimson Tide, Smart is likely to remain below Saban on any list until the Alabama head coach resigns.

Related, via UGA Wire: Ranking the SEC head coaches for 2022 college football season

Is Smart the clear-cut No. 2 head coach in the SEC? Toppmeyer says yes, and really anyone else should probably say yes as well.

On Smart, USA TODAY wrote:

Smart knows recruiting. Smart knows defense. And he proved last season that still can be a winning combination, even in this quarterback-driven era. Despite Stetson Bennett IV’s improvement, Smart has not delivered an elite quarterback. And he still must prove he can avoid any major program drop-off after the loss of 15 players to the NFL Draft. Saban has separated himself from others by the way he keeps the machine rolling with no significant backsliding. The way Smart recruits, he’s positioned his program to do the same.

But as for the rest of the conference, there’s plenty of debate as to who goes where.

Here’s a look at Toppmeyer’s head coaching rankings as we inch closer to September’s kickoff:

Nick Saban, Alabama
Kirby Smart, Georgia
Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M
Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss
Brian Kelly, LSU
Mark Stoops, Kentucky
Sam Pittman, Arkansas
Mike Leach, Mississippi State
Josh Heupel, Tennessee
Billy Napier, Florida
Shane Beamer, South Carolina
Bryan Harsin, Auburn
Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri
Clark Lea, Vanderbilt

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Which Husker coach is one of the worst hires of the past decade?

Who could it be?

The past decade of college football has seen some memorable hires, and several of those hires are notable for the wrong reasons. A recent list by 247Sports has taken a look at 13 of the worst head coach hires of the past decade. Yes, a Nebraska head coach also made a list, and I’m sure you could figure it out fairly quickly. However, before looking at the individual coaches on the list, let’s look at a conference breakdown.

All 13 coaches come from the Power 5, with the SEC leading the way for all conferences with five different entries on the list. The Pac 12 comes in second with three coaches, the Big 12 and Big Ten come next with two coaches apiece, and the ACC makes a single addition, but one that left a lasting impact at their respective school.

Scroll below to look at some of the past decade’s worst college football coaching hires.

CBS Sports reveals Bryan Harsin’s coaching rank ahead of 2022

Insert “this is fine” meme. A look at how CBS Sports ranked Bryan Harsin among his Power Five peers.

As we look towards the 2022 college football season, the Auburn Tigers are hoping for a better final result than last year. It won’t come easy as they have one of the toughest schedules in FBS. Fortunately, most of those games will be played at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

CBS Sports college football analyst Tom Fornelli recently revealed the Power Five head coaching rankings from 26 to 65. They weren’t too kind this year for the Auburn head football coach [autotag]Bryan Harsin[/autotag].

According to Fornelli, Harsin checks in at No. 48 dropping a total of 21 spots after a disappointing showing in the 2021 season.

What CBS Sports Says…

Look at what Auburn has done to Harsin! He came to Auburn last year with enough reputation to debut in our rankings at 27, and yet, one 6-7 season later — not to mention surviving a possible coup — has him dropping 21 spots in the rankings. The good news is hopes for Auburn aren’t high in 2022, so if Harsin exceeds them, he could fly right back up the board. The bad news is hopes aren’t high for Auburn in 2022, and Harsin’s already on the hot seat. 2021 rank: 27 (-21)

It isn’t shocking to see where Harsin fell on this list, he lands on most of the hot seat rankings heading into 2022. Most of which isn’t the fault of the head coach. Perhaps it has everything to do with Harsin being held to unrealistic expectations and a Board of Trustees that seem to want him gone after a season that fell apart in year 1.

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Alabama HC Nick Saban named the top CFB coach in 2022 by 247Sports

Nick Saban is STILL at the top!

Nick Saban is a legend in the football realm, no doubt. With all of his accolades, it is hard to dispute the argument that he is one of the greats at his craft, if not THE great.

However, when honing in on the upcoming season, does Saban still reign supreme over the rest of college football in 2022?

Yes. The answer is usually yes, so long as he’s on the sidelines.

247Sports’ Brad Crawford ranked the top-15 college football coaches for the 2022 season, and the Crimson Tide head coach took the top spot.

Crawford goes into detail as to why Saban deserves to be ranked as the nation’s best college football head coach.

“The standard for excellence in college football, Nick Saban seems to get better with age. Many questioned if he was near the end of the line a few years ago after the Crimson Tide lost to Clemson in the national championship game, but Alabama has won a title and played for another since, showing this locomotive is not slowing down as college football’s behemoth in the SEC West. Some thought last season would be a “bridge” year for Alabama after losing so many players to the NFL Draft, but the Crimson Tide overcame a midseason loss at Texas A&M to win out as SEC champs and reach the title game before losing in the fourth quarter to Georgia. With the nation’s No. 2 signing class and the two best players in America back (Bryce Young and Will Anderson Jr.), 2022’s preseason No. 1 is the team to beat again and Saban’s a big reason why.”

The 2022 offseason has just begun and Roll Tide Wire will continue to cover all things Nick Saban and Alabama football as it continues.

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