Tag: hot seat

Longhorns Wire Roundtable: Should Tom Herman get another year at Texas?

It is the $15 million dollar question on everyone’s mind, should Tom Herman return as the Texas Longhorns head coach in 2021?

Usually following a loss the kneejerk reactions are at an all-time high, when you couple that with a second loss they grow. Make it against your rival and the fanbase loses their absolute minds. However, are the Texas Longhorns fanbase on the right track? After another loss to Lincoln Riley and the Oklahoma Sooners, people are ready to run head coach Tom Herman right out of Austin.

There has been plenty said about Herman and his familiar failures over the three plus seasons on the Forty Acres. The undisciplined play from his team that has seen the penalties rise to the highest they have been through 44 games in Austin. The lack of a vertical passing attack and the defensive woes have continued. So should he get another year seeing as how he just reworked his entire staff in shorted offseason? Longhorns Wire staff weighed in.

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Gators News: September 3, 2020

As we cross over the midweek into the downslide towards the weekend, there is some big news across the border that could bode well for UF. 

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Welcome to a Thursday edition of Gators News! As we cross over the midweek into the downslide towards the weekend, there is some big news across the border that could bode well for Florida Gators football.

The top story today is Georgia quarterback Jamie Newman opting out of the college football season. Newman, considered a possible NFL first-round draft pick for 2021 entering the season, was expected to give the Bulldogs experience at the position after three-year starter Jake Fromm entered the 2020 draft.

In other news, Southern Mississippi sees hosting first the FBS game of the season as a “huge opportunity”. “It’s been a different spring,” head coach Hopson said. “It’s been a different summer. This year everything has been different.”

Dan Wolken at USA TODAY Sports thinks that there is no such thing as a coaches’ hot seat in college football this season because of the CVOID-19 pandemic. Eventually, the coaching carousel will return to normal, but for now, there’s no such thing as a hot seat.

Around the Swamp

It’s great to be a Florida Gator!

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Does Clay Helton have the hottest seat in the NCAA?

USC Trojans head coach Clay Helton is among the coaches on the hot seat heading into the 2020 season.

The uneasiness surrounding the college football season continues to dominate the news headlines, as fans, players, coaches and other team personnel worry about whether they will be suiting up in 2020 or not.

Of course, some coaches have more to worry about than others, as a potentially poor season (if it occurs) could cost them their job.

Dennis Dodd at CBS Sports has ranked which coaches have the most to worry about this season in his annual hot seat rankings, and USC Trojans head coach Clay Helton is among those listed with a five-rating, the highest mark one can obtain – which in this case is not good.

The best outcome for Helton may be football not being played. That gives him a mulligan year but would further infuriate a large portion of USC fans who demand change. When new athletic director Mike Bohn retained Helton, some loyalists threatened to withhold donations. The Trojans could easily win the Pac-12 South for the third time in five years under Helton. He has a better winning rate than Kirk Ferentz, Tom Herman and Dan Mullen. He has won the Pac-12 and a Rose Bowl. But the Trojans fans want national relevance, and they want it now. Mostly, they want Urban Meyer.

Helton is joined by UCLA coach Chip Kelly among PAC-12 coaches on the hot seat, with Arizona’s Kevin Sumlin not too far behind.

2020 will be a big year for coach Helton and the Trojans – if the season happens.

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Locked on Longhorns Podcast: Is a spring schedule coming?

The latest Locked on Longhorns discusses the upcoming season moving to the spring. Plus we discuss if Tom Herman is on the hot seat.

The latest Locked on Longhorns podcast kicks off the conversation about the upcoming season. Is the Big 12 still on course for a fall schedule? With the Ivy League expecting to go to a spring schedule, could the Big 12 or other power five conferences lean that way? With the Texas State Fair being cancelled, what impact does that have on the Red River Rivalry?

The Big 12 announced that no bands, cheerleaders or spirit squads will make road trips for the upcoming season. Will that have a major impact? ESPN ranked their top Sports Center college football moments, what were some memorable moments and where do the Longhorns rank? Plus an updated on the latest NFL mock drafts.

When it comes to coach-quarterback duos, do the Longhorns have one of the best? Who are the top duos according to ESPN? When it comes to the 2020 season, how hot is Tom Herman’s seat? CBS Sports released their latest rankings and Herman has the hottest seat in the conference. Is his job in jeopardy? Plus the latest projections from 247Sports on where the Longhorns will finish.

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Hot Seat Rankings: Is Tom Herman’s job in jeopardy?

CBS Sports writer Dennis Dodd has released his annual hot seat ranking for college football. Tom Herman was listed among the hottest seats.

The head football coach at the University of Texas always seems to be in the spotlight. Whether that be for a coaching leading the charge in a certain era, much like Mack Brown’s run. Or it could be the complete other end of the spectrum like a Charlie Strong era. For Tom Herman, it has been a mixed review. Going into his third year, it seemed like the arrow was on an upward trajectory but following a 8-5 season, it moved down in a a hurry.

Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports released his hot seat rankings for the college football head coaches heading into the 2020. The rankings breakdown from 0-5. A zero ranking means that coach is untouchable and a five being a “win or be fired”. Herman comes in at a four for Dodd, which means he has to improve this upcoming season.

If speculation were tires, tread would be worn bald asking if Texas is “back.” The answer, once again, is no. After beating Oklahoma and winning the Sugar Bowl in 2018, the Longhorns slid to 8-5 in 2019 behind Baylor and OU in the Big 12. With the Sooners showing no signs of slowing down, this is a key season for Herman. He has a quarterback who has made Heisman Trophy lists in Sam Ehlinger. Recruiting continues to thrive. That’s the issue: When is all that talent going to carry the Horns to national title contention? 2019 rating: 1

I think it is a foregone conclusion that the 2020 season is a make or break year for Herman. While he is in need of a big season, much like Dodd’s thinking one shouldn’t believe that this is a win or get fired year for him. The pressure is on to close the gap between Texas and Oklahoma in 2020. Following the season, Herman will be heading into his fifth season and it will on be on him.

None of the players will be from the Charlie Strong classes. His talent and his handpicked coaches. So if you want to know when the “win or get fired” season will occur, that comes in 2021 if they don’t make a push in 2020. According to the full breakdown on CBS Sports, no coach is feeling the same level of pressure as Tom Herman.

Big 12 Hot Seat Rankings

Coach Rating
Dave Aranda, Baylor 1
Matt Campbell, Iowa State 1
Les Miles, Kansas 2
Chris Klieman, Kansas State 1
Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma 0
Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State 3
Gary Patterson, TCU 0
Matt Wells, Texas Tech 2
Neil Brown, West Virginia 2

 

Pressure is on for Some Notre Dame Rivals in 2020

Which teams have the most pressure on them entering 2020? A few Notre Dame regulars made a recent list on 247Sports that we discuss here.

Notre Dame is a place where there always has been and always will be pressure to win a lot of football games on an annual basis.  Expectations are high again for the 2020 season for Notre Dame but coming off of three-straight ten-plus win seasons at least takes away some of the pressure for the Irish as the 2020 campaign approaches.

That’s not the case for a few Notre Dame rivals however who have coaches that need to win big and soon.

247Sports recently listed their ten college football teams under the most pressure to win in 2020 and although Notre Dame was not listed, some regulars on the Fighting Irish schedule were.  The following are what 247Sports National Analyst Bud Elliot had to say about each of the schools that semi-regularly show up on Notre Dame’s schedule.

The Four Teams:

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Notre Dame Football: A Twitter Check-In at USC

Let’s take a look at how USC fans reacted to their athletic director on twitter after news came down that Clay Helton was being kept as head football coach.

Last night we got word late from Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports/The Athletic that USC appeared to be keeping head coach Clay Helton.

Helton started strong with the Trojans, winning 27 of his first 37 contests.

He’s however fallen on hard-times, winning just 13 of his last 24 and entered this season very much on the hot seat after failing to go to a bowl game a season ago.

Official word did come down Wednesday afternoon that USC wasn’t in fact making a head coaching change at all and instead, Helton would remain in charge.

As you can probably guess, plenty of USC faithful were none too pleased.

Here’s what new USC Athletic Director Mike Bohn tweeted Wednesday afternoon.  Take a look and then we’ll check in on his mentions and see how USC fans are handling the news.

This should go over well – let’s check it out…

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Garrett job security only discussion after Cowboys embarrassed by Bills

The Dallas Cowboys finally started off hot. For the first time all season, the club marched downfield on the game’s opening possession and punched it into the end zone. Ezekiel Elliott was rolling, Amari Cooper was heavily involved and Dak Prescott …

The Dallas Cowboys finally started off hot. For the first time all season, the club marched downfield on the game’s opening possession and punched it into the end zone. Ezekiel Elliott was rolling, Amari Cooper was heavily involved and Dak Prescott ended a 75-yard drive with a nice slip-out by a faux-blocking Jason Witten to take an early 7-0 lead over the Buffalo Bills.

And then the rest of the game happened.

What transpired after that was a miserable excuse for execution, coaching and a fortitude as the Bills rolled off the next 26 points en route to a 26-15 victory. The Cowboys got fooled on trick plays, turned the ball over more than they had in any game this year – including a couple that didn’t happen due to penalty or self-recovery – and generally looked disinterested in finishing the fight.  The result may be the finish of the tenure of head coach Jason Garrett.

Dak Prescott played his worst game of the season, Brett Maher missed multiple field goal attempts and the defense allowed Cole Beasley to live his best life, with a

ESPN’s Ed Werder reported prior to the game that the front office had decided to let Garrett finish the season. This performance is going to test the patience of owner Jerry Jones. It has to be a total sense of frustration for the team to fix one of it’s biggest ailments, starting out slow, and then not do any of the other things that had let them stay afloat.

So yes, the Cowboys are still in prime position to make the playoffs, unbelievably based on their performances since starting 3-0.

Normally, Dallas would have 10 days before their next contest; a fair amount of time to consider an interim situation, but Dallas has to play next Thursday night when they travel to Chicago to take on the Bears. The club will still be in first place, no matter what the Philadelphia Eagles (5-6) do on Sunday, when that game kicks off.

The Cowboys (6-6) have not won a game against a team with a winning record this season, but only have one more of such games on their remaining schedule.

Outsiders will likely find out sooner rather than later on if the Garrett will be the man charged with fixing that record.

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There’s someone else to blame for Cowboys coaching woes

Jerry Jones is disappointed in Jason Garrett’s coaching ability, but he knew what he had in the Cowboys coach.

Anyone who has watched the Cowboys kind of knew what was going to happen when Dallas was driving for a game-tying score with under seven minutes to go in the fourth quarter against the Patriots in Foxborough. We’ve seen it before. The Cowboys offense gets desperate, they stall and are left with a long fourth-down conversion or in this case the option to take a field goal. The failed fourth-down conversion happened in the Cowboys game against the Vikings. Dallas got conservative while Dak Prescott was absolutely cooking the Minnesota defense. The Cowboys ran the ball twice and failed to convert.

In the New England game, the Cowboys ran two desperation passes on second and third down and settled for a field goal. It makes sense when you’re down seven in a torrential downpour and heavy winds against the best defense in the league to kick the field goal to remain a score down. When you need a touchdown, always kick the field goal to still need a touchdown. Not surprisingly, Jerry Jones wasn’t exactly happy with the coaching in the game or the results.

The internet was not kind to the man at the helm of the Cowboys. Jason Garrett got absolutely roasted.

That’s fine. Many a coach has been outsmarted by Bill Belichick. The problem isn’t that Garrett was beaten by one of the best to ever coach. The problem is that he was even in this position in the first place.

See, Garrett’s coaching has been questionable for a while now. You don’t get a meme made up about you unless you’re very good or very bad. We’ll have you guess which one Garrett is.

Sure, he’s been able to coach some Cowboys teams to the playoffs, but no one would ever say Dallas had a coaching edge. He started off his career as perfectly mediocre with an 8-8 record in his first three full-time years. Since then the Cowboys have been up and down. Now they are 6-5 with one of the most talented teams in the NFL. Going into Week 12, Dallas was fourth in DVOA behind only New England, Baltimore, and Kansas City. They were ahead of San Francisco. They should be better than their record.

They aren’t because of Garrett, but maybe Garrett shouldn’t be in this situation. You can’t complain about the meal when you bought the groceries to make it. Jerry Jones knew exactly what he was getting himself into this year. He’s had a soft spot for Garrett ever since he took over as head coach and started out with that constant .500 record. Some folks say Jones liked keeping Garrett around because the head coach was never going to be a bigger star than the owner. Garrett is quiet and reserved. Jones can say and do whatever he wants and there won’t be any issues. That makes some sense. Maybe Jones has a soft spot for Garrett since he was around during the last time the Cowboys were truly Super Bowl contenders. We can guess all day as to why the Garrett-Jones relationship has worked out for so long.

It shouldn’t matter. Dallas knew it had something to build on this year, and they also knew that their window could be short with the impending contracts of Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper. This was the year. They have one of the best offenses in the NFL. They have a talented defense, yet coaching comes back to bite them at an inopportune time more often than not.

It would have been hard to move on from Garrett after Dallas won the NFC East in 2018 — over a disappointing Eagles team — and even won a playoff game. It still would have been the right move. Sometimes teams need to move on from their coach to reach the next level. We know Garrett’s ceiling. Jerry Jones knows Garrett’s ceiling as well, yet he brought him back to coach anyway. If Jones had a ton of faith that Garrett was the answer, he would have extended Garrett’s contract in the offseason. He didn’t. Garrett is a lame-duck coach.

So Jones shouldn’t be surprised when the Cowboys get outcoached week in and week out. He knew what he was getting. If only there was someone who could have made the decision to move on from Garrett in the offseason. Someone like the owner.