College Football Coaching Changes: What are the Grades?
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by The Beast
While the college football season is not officially over just yet, plenty of schools nationwide are already firing their head coaches. In some cases, I praise athletic directors for getting rid of a coach that has overstayed his welcome. On the other hand, some coaches should still be leading their football teams. Here are my grades on the coaches firing.
Washington State: Bill Doba; Grade B+
It's always sad to see a class act guy like Doba step down as head coach but over the past few seasons it has been increasingly clear that his time has passed. Washington State has failed to reach a bowl game since 2003. Pullman has always been a tough place to win but winning six or seven games over a four to five period run is not too much to ask for. This is a good move for both Doba and Washington State as it will allow the Cougars to return back to respectability.
Texas A&M: Dennis Franchione; Grade A-
Whatever happened to the dominant Texas A&M football teams that we used to see decades ago? Year in and year out, Coach Fran has been coaching mediocre Aggie football teams. As the A&M head coach, Frenchoine has failed to adapt to the modern world of college football. His teams typically run a conservative and unimaginative offense that centers around a classic running attack. Sorry, but the forward pass was legalized a century ago. It had become clear that if A&M was to get back to being a top twenty-five college football than it had to get rid of Fran.
Georgia Tech: Chan Gailey; Grade A+
Gailey was the typical NFL coach turned college coach: ultra conservative. He had plenty of talent while at Georgia Tech, Reggie Ball, Taylor Bennett, Tashard Choice, and most of all Calvin Johnson. It always seemed that the Yellow Jackets were making a run at the Meinke Car Bowl instead of the Orange Bowl. Georgia Tech has long been one of the more prestigious coaching jobs in America and they deserve better than the conservative Gailey. Talent wise Georgia Tech should be atop the ACC year in and year out, and Gailey simply, wasn't getting the job done.
Ole Miss: Ed Orgeron; Grade D-
This one makes absolutely no sense to me. Ole Miss fired David Cutcliffe three years due to his inability to recruit four and five start prospects. As a result they hired Orgeron who is known as one of the country's top recruiters. In just two full offseasons, Orgeron gathered two top twenty recruiting classes. Now he is out of a job before a chance to coach half of his recruits. Clearly, the Rebels have had some recent struggles but becoming an SEC powerhouse overnight is no small task, just as Nick Saban. Orgeron may or may not have been the next great SEC head coach but he deserved some more time in Oxford.
Nebraska: Bill Callahan; Grade B+
Everybody knew this one was coming, especially since AD Steve Pederson was canned over a month. ago. This was simply the best move for Nebraska. The Huskers are use to winning the Big XII and Callahan's team were typically average at best. The west coast offense was never a great for Lincoln and Callahan had trouble getting everybody on the same page.
When you win just one game in a season and lose nineteen consecutive games, your job will always been on the line, and such was the case for Roof. However, you gotta give Roof a break here. Duke is one of the most difficult schools to coach at in America. Not just anybody can walk in Durham and build a winner. However, there was nothing special about Roof. He didn't recruit particularly well and he wasn't a great coach in general. Nothing about him was special enough to keep around at Duke.
