Tag: head coaching jobs

Ranking the top head coaching jobs in college football

Here is how we view the top coaching jobs in FBS

With so much conversation surrounding the current head coach situation on the Bayou, we revisit the conversation of head coaching gigs in college football.

Is the gig at Baton Rouge a top 10 job in college football? We will get to the full breakdown shortly. I find it interesting in Pete Thamel’s recent article regarding the future vacancy for the Tigers that he mentioned two high-profile coaches. James Franklin of Penn State and Lane Kiffin of Ole Miss.

Would either coach work on the Bayou? If Franklin can breathe life into a Vanderbilt program, he would absolutely work in Death Valley. With each top job, he appears to be mentioned. Shows the level of respect he has across the league. Lane Kiffin would be an entertaining hire for athletic director Scott Woodward, who is not afraid to throw money at a problem.

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Kiffin took over Ole Miss in 2020 and produced a 5-5 record, this year through four games the Rebels are 3-1 and among the top 25 in both polls. He is a character and many fans would probably love him. Not to mention he would be able to recruit and the offense wouldn’t suffer in the way it has as of late. A conversation for another day.

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When looking at the top coaching jobs in FBS, there are three jobs that don’t quite make the top 10.

  • Michigan Wolverines
  • Auburn Tigers
  • Texas A&M Aggies

Here is how I break down my top 10 coaching jobs in college football.

Are we on the verge of life beyond Ed Orgeron at LSU?

Time to buckle up, it might be getting bumpy soon.

While many analysts and fans believe that Ed Orgeron has his back against the wall, one believes it is time to think about life in Death Valley beyond the head coach.

Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports recently published an article stating “it’s time for LSU to think about life after Ed Orgeron.” Thamel is one of the industry leaders in chasing down the leads for the coaching carousel. There is already one premier opening with the recent firing of Clay Helton at USC. The Trojans have started the groundwork already as they chase their next head coach in Southern Cal.

Could it be time for the Tigers to start trending in that direction? LSU athletic director Steve Woodward is no stranger to making changes at head coach.

  • Steve Sarkisian, USC assistant to Washington head coach (football)
  • Chris Petersen, Boise St to Washington (football)
  • Jimbo Fisher, Florida St to Texas A&M (football)
  • Buzz Williams, Virginia Tech to Texas A&M (men’s basketball)
  • Jay Johnson, Arizona to LSU (baseball)
  • Kim Mulkey, Baylor to LSU (women’s basketball)

As Thamel points out, Steve Woodward isn’t afraid to throw money at a problem. I wouldn’t expect a move as of this moment, but at 3-2 after five games and an absolutely torrid stretch of games coming, we could be close.

The next five games all feature opponents ranked inside the top 20 of the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll.

For Orgeron to save his job, they need a 3-2 stretch at minimum. Anything more than that is icing on the cake. Anything less than that is the straw that broke the camel’s back.

There are few signs the Tigers can turn things around, as they rank No. 128 in rushing offense, No. 93 in passing yards allowed and have one of the SEC’s worst offensive lines. If Orgeron survives and keeps his job for 2022, it’d be one of the best comebacks in a career hallmarked by them.

The boos reverberating through Tiger Stadium on Saturday night portend another sound throughout the sport — the ringing of cash registers. If there’s one thing that an opening at LSU signifies, it’s an economic stimulus to the sport. (And a competitor in the job market for USC, as there’s an argument both are top 5 jobs.)

A 6-4 record after 10 games isn’t ideal for a program that competed for a national championship just two years ago. However, if they are 6-4 the team has two very winnable games to close out the season to get to 8-4. I think eight wins would give Orgeron just one more year, with the caveat that poor showings could force Woodward to put it in motion earlier.

If LSU loses the next two games against Kentucky and Florida and is 3-4 before Ole Miss and Alabama, that might be all they need to make a change. At this point, there aren’t any signs among this team to lead me to believe that they can turn it around.

Ed Orgeron looks like a head coach that has no clue how he won a national championship and he has no clue how to get back to that point.

Top five jobs: LSU head football coach is among the best in the nation

Where do you rank the head coaching job at LSU among the nation’s top jobs?

Where would you rank the LSU Tigers head coaching job? Top 10? Top five?

According to The Athletic (subscription required), they polled current coaches and staffers to find out what is the best job in the nation. To no one’s surprise, the LSU Tigers head coaching job is right up there with the best of them. But how high on the list is the job in Baton Rouge?

Among the votes for No. 1-5, LSU received the second-most first-place votes with 14. The Alabama job came in at No. 1 with 55 first-place votes. Overall, they received 49 total votes among the top five and land at No. 5.

The top five according to the poll:

  1. Alabama (486 points)
  2. Ohio State (388 points)
  3. Georgia (224 points)
  4. Texas (164 points)
  5. LSU (159 points)

What The Athletic Says…

LSU has had three head coaches over the past 20 years, and all three have won a national championship. No other program can say that. If you want to counter that by knocking Les Miles and Ed Orgeron, you’d just be strengthening the argument that this job is set up to contend at the highest level no matter who’s in charge. When it comes to talent acquisition, few programs are in a more advantageous position. LSU runs an especially talent-rich state and has no trouble recruiting at a top-five level and producing NFL Draft picks.

One Big Ten staffer stated that Georgia, LSU, and Ohio State have a stranglehold on talent. Which is very accurate when it comes to the Tigers.

  • 2022 class: No. 8
  • 2021 class: No. 3
  • 2020 class: No. 4
  • 2019 class: No. 5
  • 2018 class: No. 15

These rankings are according to 247Sports composite team rankings. They have a top 10 class over the last four recruiting cycles. Their current team ranked as the No. 5 overall team in talent. With the team being so talent-rich each and every season, it is a very attractive job.

When you look at the talent on this football team, it makes the current product on the field so maddening. Proof that coaching matters. You can have all the talent in the world, but in some games, you can’t win on talent alone.

Joel Klatt deems Texas the best job in college football

Joel Klatt believes Texas is the best job in college football.

With the recent announcement that USC has decided to fire head coach Clay Helton, the conversation of where the best places to coach in college football emerged.

It is one that happens every so often when a major program decides to part ways with their coach. Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt is the culprit this time, as he tweeted what he believes to be the top five coaching jobs in the country. It displays the usual suspects, but at the top is one that most people will likely disagree with.

Klatt has Texas ranked as the best job in college football ahead of places like Alabama, USC, Ohio State, and Georgia.

Many people may look at this from an on-the-field perspective, and if so, that’s likely not what he is referring to. Texas is in the perfect location for talent as the state is home to some of the best recruits in the nation, and is often included in the conversation for the best high school football. Ensuring that talent actually goes to Texas is a different story, but the potential to recruit the state of Texas, and have the cache within the state is huge.

The program has unlimited resources at their disposal. Take Tom Herman’s firing for example, where the program paid him $15 million on top of several million going towards his staff. They were able to follow this up with hiring Steve Sarkisian, and paid him a guaranteed $34 million. The program also has some of the best facilities and amenities there is to offer in college football.

Even with the Longhorns’ struggles over the past decade, they have still been able to recruit well, as Herman brought in multiple top-3 recruiting classes and Sarkisian currently holds the No. 3 recruiting class in 247Sports’ rankings.

Again, Klatt is not referring to results generated from these programs, otherwise it would simply just be Alabama followed by no one. Every one of these schools are able to offer so many things that programs around the nation could not even imagine, whether it be the resources, location, or simply just the brand recognition.

If Sarkisian were to lead Texas to success like he is expected to, there would likely be little to no arguments for a job much better than Texas. As of late, the program has been down on the field, but all it takes is a successful season and the program will once again be at the forefront of college football.

Andy Reid says the Eagles never even contacted the Chiefs to interview Eric Bieniemy

This is not a good look. At all.

The Eagles hired Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni as head coach after spending about two weeks on their search.

They apparently hired the 39-year-old without even bothering to take the necessary steps to speak to a candidate who, by all measures, should have been the most sought-after candidate on the market: Eric Bieniemy.

Bieniemy is the offensive coordinator for the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, who are in a position to win their second Lombardi in a row on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Beiniemy coaches the league’s best offense and has played a pivotal role in developing Patrick Mahomes, the 10th-overall pick in the 2016 draft who has emerged as one of the best to ever play his position even though he is still just 25 years old.

Mahomes has publicly advocated for Bieniemy to get a head coaching job.

Sounds like a no-brainer interview, right? Well, apparently not. At least in the case of the Eagles, anyway.

Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid told reporters on Wednesday that the Eagles, his former team, didn’t even reach out to the Chiefs to schedule a formal interview for Bieniemy, per Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

This was after it was reported that the Eagles did reach out to the Chiefs to get permission to interview their offensive coordinator a couple of weeks ago.

Apparently, that never happened! At least, according to Reid’s side of the story.

Obviously, there would’ve been a waiting period for the interview because the Chiefs were still playing in the postseason. But it’s not out of the ordinary for teams to wait to interview head-coaching candidates on playoff teams.

Beyond that, many of the supposed slights against Bieniemy — that he doesn’t call plays and works for a head coach who is an offensive mastermind — apply to Sirianni, too.

We have no idea what happened here. There seems to have been some sort of miscommunication along the way in this process.

Either way, though, it’s not a great look. Not for the Eagles nor the NFL. Bieniemy is long overdue for his shot at a head coaching gig. Things like this just shouldn’t happen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V09dfjIiM6g

Texas is college football’s most attractive job in upcoming coaching carousel

According to 247Sports potential college football coaching carousel, Urban Meyer could replace Tom Herman in Austin.

College football’s coaching carousel will be an interesting one to watch this offseason. Continue reading “Texas is college football’s most attractive job in upcoming coaching carousel”