Tag: head coaching job

15 years ago today, Nick Saban was not accepting the Alabama job

On this day 15 years ago, Nick Saban told a massive lie.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban has cemented quite a legacy for himself in the college football realm, especially within the city limits of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. However, at one point, Saban completely denied any interest in the head coaching position for the Crimson Tide, claiming to be content in his role coaching the Miami Dolphins.

After Mike Shula’s firing, and Joe Kines’ brief stint as the interim head coach, eyes began to turn to different coaching candidates for the once-mighty SEC team.

Then-West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez was offered the job, but turned it down to accept the same position over at Michigan. Rodriguez now coaches in the state of Alabama for the Jacksonville State Gamecocks.

Saban won a national championship at LSU and had been a hot name on the coaching circuit for quite a few years. His time in Miami in 2005, 2006 wasn’t going as planned. Through two seasons, he held a record of 15-17 and missed an opportunity to bring aboard future Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees.

With plenty of chatter connecting his name to the Crimson Tide head coaching job, members of the media began to ask if he’s considering it.

On Dec. 21, 2006, Nick Saban, sporting a Dolphins vest, stood in front of a banner donning the franchise’s unmistakeable logo and uttered a lie: “I’m not going to be the Alabama coach.”

Roughly two weeks later, Saban and the Miami Dolphins parted ways so that Ā the coach could return to the college ranks.

He would then go on to establish one of the strongest dynasties in American sports, consisting of six National Championships, eight conference championships, enough NFL Draft picks to start a new franchise and hardware earned through winning plenty of individual coaching awards.

The scary part of it all? He’s not done yet.

Alabama will take on Cincinnati in the 2021 College Football Playoff semifinal in Arlington, Texas at the Cotton Bowl.

The Miami Dolphins have yet to find their footing and the fans still do not like Saban.

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Lincoln Riley Postgame: ‘I’m not going to be the next coach at LSU’

After weeks of rampant rumor and innuendo connecting Lincoln Riley to LSU, the Sooners head coach was emphatic about his intentions.

After weeks of rampant speculation, even after Lincoln Riley addressed it, the Oklahoma Sooners head coach continued to be the target of rumor and innuendo in connection to the LSU Tigers’ head coaching job.

Well, if his comments a couple of weeks ago weren’t strong enough, Lincoln Riley was emphatic in his post-game press conference, saying “I’m not going to be the next coach at LSU. Next question.”

Anytime a top head coaching job comes available, whether it’s in the NFL or the pros, Lincoln Riley’s name has been mentioned as a possible option. And each year he’s turned down the opportunity to leave Norman for what some outside of OU circles believe to be greener pastures.

Things haven’t gone great for the Sooners this year. It’s the first time in Riley’s tenure as head coach that they didn’t win the Big 12 title. So it’s certainly a disappointment relative to preseason expectations. At the same time, this season has been anything but typical as he endured a quarterback change.

Now, Lincoln Riley and the Oklahoma Sooners begin looking to the future after their 37-33 loss to the Oklahoma State Cowboys. With early signing period and bowl season on the horizon, Riley and the coaching staff can get a jump start on the getting commitments signed on the dotted line.

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The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman connect 2 coaches with OU ties to Washington State vacancy

The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman connect 2 coaches with OU ties to the Washington State head coaching vacancy.

There’s been quite a shakeup in the coaching landscape in college football over the last week. First was the news that LSU and Ed Orgeron would part ways following a poor start for the Tigers and some controversial happenings inside the program. Then yesterday, Washington State made a move to fire head coach Nick Rolovich and several assistants after they refused to take the COVID-19 vaccination, which had been mandated for all state employees in Washington.

All of a sudden, there are two head coaching jobs available in the Power Five.

As media members begin to speculate about who could fill these openings, Oklahoma assistants will inevitably be in the crosshairs. Bruce Feldman of The Athletic listed two coaches to fill Washington State’s job. That is former co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Jay Norvell and current defensive coordinator Alex Grinch.

One of the coaches Washington State might target is Norvell. The 58-year-old has done very well at one of the tougher jobs in the Mountain West. Heā€™s also spent some time in the Pac-12 at Arizona State and UCLA. He knows the terrain and is a proven leader. His program is 12-3 over the past two years and heā€™s 27-14 the past four years. – Feldman

Norvell has been the head coach at Nevada since 2017 and has amassed a 30-23 record for Wolf Pack. After starting his tenure with Nevada 3-9 in 2017, Norvell went 8-5 in 2018, and he and the Wolf Pack have earned bowl bids each of the last four seasons. In the COVID shortened 2020, Norvell and Nevada went 7-2, finishing second in the Mountain West Conference and winning the Idaho Potato Bowl.

Norvell’s offense has helped quarterback Carson Strong gain consideration as one of the top quarterback prospects in the 2022 NFL draft. Nevada is currently 26th in the nation in scoring at 36.3 points per game, and they hold wins over California and Boise State.

That would be a solid direction for Washington State to go if they didn’t pursue a coach they are familiar with. Alex Grinch. Though Feldman’s skeptical that Grinch would leave the Sooners for a job like Washington State. However, it’s a name that connects to the Cougars, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see him get an interview for the gig.

Grinch spent three seasons at Washington State as the defensive coordinator under then-head coach Mike Leach.

In his best year as defensive coordinator under Leach, the Cougars allowed just 24 points per game in 2017. An up and down season saw Washington State shut out Montana State and Colorado but allowed 40 or more points four times.

Grinch helped improve Ohio State’s defense before moving on to Oklahoma after the transition from Urban Meyer to Ryan Day. Before Grinch arrived in Norman, the Oklahoma Sooners were allowing 33.2 points per game under a combination of Mike Stoops and Ruffin McNeil. Oklahoma has improved each year under Grinch and is allowing just 24.85 points per game in 2021.

As time goes on, it becomes more and more likely that head coaching positions will begin to target Alex Grinch. He’s having success on the field despite injuries to key starters on defense, and he’s having success in recruiting as the Sooners continue to add five and four-star recruits in the 2022 recruiting cycle.

The time will come when Alex Grinch leaves for a head coaching opportunity. It’s inevitable. You can’t keep good coordinators at the coordinator level forever. However, he doesn’t have to be in any rush. Grinch can take his time and wait forĀ theĀ job that he wants.

Texas Football: Brady Quinn asks Urban Meyer about Austin

On the Fox pregame show on Saturday, Brady Quinn asked Urban Meyer about fixing Austin. It seemed like he is hinting at the Texas job rumors

Seemingly every weekend on the College Football on Fox pregame show fans and media watch former National Championship winning head coach Urban Meyer closely. With the rumors running rampant about the possibility of Meyer replacing his former offensive coordinator at Texas. It had made huge waves to the point that Tom Herman was asked to address the elephant in the room in his press conference earlier this week.

His comments made national headlines and even Joel Klatt discussed his answer with Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports Radio on Wednesday.

ā€œTom Herman came out and said itā€™s hurting us in recruiting that there are rumors about Urban Meyer in Texas. Hold on, one you donā€™t address that. Right, like I know Tom. Tom if you are listening to this, donā€™t address that. Go out there and win games, keep your job and youā€™ll be fine. I donā€™t quite understand, Texas A&M has really hit the recruiting trail hard and Lincoln Riley is an excellent recruiter.ā€

On the pregame show on Saturday morning, it appears that Meyer teased the fan base about the whole scenario. In a discussion about the best college towns, Matt Leinart brought up Austin, Texas. Brady Quinn then asked Meyer if that was the next town he was going to fix. Meaning the football team that plays in Austin, the Texas Longhorns. Meyer simply stated, “I don’t know yet.”

For a fan base that has been split by the football program, some have been looking for any sign that Urban Meyer might come to Texas. He might be teasing them here but there seems to be quite a bit of smoke. As they say, where there is smoke there is fire. The question becomes just how big is that fire?

It might not be a raging inferno yet but combine a loss to Iowa State with Quinn Ewers heading to Ohio State, it could be soon enough.