Pack Your Bags:
Will Muschamp, Florida- Other than Brady Hoke, is there a more dead in the water coach than Muschamp? His only saving grace was going to be Treon Harris and the ability to still win a very watered down SEC East. Now that Harris is suspended indefinitely, the Gators are once again the team that couldn’t do anything against Tennessee’s defense, and the team that will struggle to make a bowl game. Add to that, a second backup quarterback is getting in fights with freshmen defensive linemen, and the Gators program is one giant mess. Being Florida, the list of potential replacement will be long, and full of top flight coaching talent. Personally, I think Doc Holiday is who they should go after. Either way, unless Florida wins the division, which with Driskel at the helm simply won’t happen, Muschamp is gone. He might be gone regardless. The program is in flux, and it’s not winning. That’s a bad thing if you’re a head coach.
Brady Hoke, Michigan- As mentioned, he’s the only one on Muschamp’s level right now. Like Muschamp, Hoke went 11-2 in his first year, and like Muschamp has overseen a steady nosedive ever since. Their yardage differential in conference play has gotten worse by about 55 yards per game in each of the last two seasons, and one can only shudder to think what it will be in 2014. Getting dominated by Minnesota was bad, being Rutgers first conference win, even worse. On top of that there is the bizarre handling of Shane Morris’ injury. Hoke won’t be back. Muschamp at least has ways he can save his job, potentially. Hoke? He’ll be lucky if Michigan doesn’t lose 10 games this year.
Bobby Hauck, UNLV- You would think taking a program to just their second bowl in two decades, and first in 13 years, as Hauck did a year ago, you’d reap some rewards. And Hauck did. He’s still there. Hauck went 6-32 in his first three years years at UNLV, a mark that gets you fired just about anywhere, but he was retained for a fourth year and the program was rewarded with a trip to the Heart of Dallas Bowl. Unfortunately, that was a mirage. They’re winless to begin 2014, and the most competitive they’ve been was a 14 point loss to Northern Illinois. They’ve scored more than 17 points just once in five games, while allowing 33 or more every single time on the field. They’re not just losing, they’re completely uncompetitive. Losing 33-10 to San Jose State alone should be considered fireable, but when that’s the second most competitive you’ve been in a game all season long………
Have a Good Real Estate Agent On Speed Dial:
Kevin Wilson, Indiana- It’s put up or shut up time in Bloomington, and to date, it’s still hard to tell which Indiana is going to do. There was the terrible loss to Bowling Green in week three that was followed by the huge win in Columbia against a ranked Missouri team. Do the two cancel each other out? Probably, and the win might even carry more weight. But that win only carries weight if Indiana, in the very, very least, makes a bowl game this season. At 3-2, with Iowa, Michigan, Penn State, Rutgers and Purdue among those on the remaining schedule, if Indiana can’t get the necessary six wins to be in the post season, there’s no way Wilson is brought back for a fifth year. Seventeen starters returned from last year year’s team, if he can’t get it done in 2014, he’s not going to get it done.
Tim Beckman, Illinois- Illinois has faced two quality opponents (Washington and Nebraska) this year, and allowed 44 plus points to both of them in games they were never even remotely competitive in. They’ve also allowed 34 to Western Kentucky, 35 to Texas State and 38 to Purdue. There’s not an FBS team they’ve played that hasn’t put at least 34 points on the board against them. The Purdue game is the most damning, as the Boilermakers are just plain bad this year. Losing by 11 at home to Purdue is not something you can afford to do when trying to convince people that in your third year you have the program moving in the right direction. A 5-7 season likely grants Beckman another year, but if finish the year losing 8 in a row, or 9 of 10, I’m not sure he gets that fourth season.
Larry Fedora, North Carolina- This was supposed to be the year the Tar Heels took the proverbial next step and became legitimate ACC contenders, or at least, champions of the Coastal division. Instead, they’re a punch line. The Tar Heel basketball team would likely yield fewer points to East Carolina and Clemson than did the football team, and in a year of heightened expectations, that isn’t acceptable. To be fired, Carolina would have to go in to full on implosion mode, but with Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, Virginia, and Miami as their next four opponents, and only the Yellow Jackets being in Chapel Hill, full on implosion isn’t too far-fetched. If North Carolina is 2-7 when they begin their final three games of the season, all games they could potentially lose as well, the cries for Fedora’s job will ring louder than the victory bell Duke will be ringing for a third straight season.
Al Golden, Miami- It’s too early in the year to throw dirt on his grave, but he’s a lot closer to packing his bags than he is renewing that country club membership. Miami hasn’t won double-digit games in over a decade, Golden was supposed to fix that. Instead he’s lost two of his first three ACC games, in the process getting clubbed for a second straight year by Louisville, and losing to Georgia Tech for the first since 2008. They still have to play both Virginia schools on the road, and Florida State still comes Sun Life Stadium. At this point, Miami will be clawing to finish .500. Of course, it’s still possible they win this division. Possible though, doesn’t mean likely.
Dana Holgorsen, West Virginia- At 3-2, the Mountaineers are one win away from equaling last year’s total, so they’re showing a great deal of progress, especially when you consider their losses were respectable showings against Alabama and Oklahoma. But when you consider the program hadn’t lost more than 4 games in a season for seven consecutive season before Holgorsen’s taking over as head coach, “improvement” may not be enough. West Virginia fans are mad they ever fell far enough that finishing .500 was indicative of improvement. Obviously the change in conference had a lot to do with that, but TCU seems to have adapted quite nicely in this, their third season in the Big 12. Unfortunately for West Virginia, their home conference schedule drew Oklahoma, Baylor, TCU, and Kansas State, the toughest teams in the league. So the road schedule is where the majority of their winnable games lie. Finding three more wins on this schedule is tough, and without them, finding Holgorsen here in 2015 seems equally as tough.
Paul Rhoads, Iowa State- I’ve been championing Iowa State as a team that’s better than their record indicates, but at 1-4, at the end of the day, you are what your record says you are. Rhoads won seven games his first year in Ames, and then proceeded to lose seven in each of the next three seasons before slipping to 3-9 last year. As they enter the second half of the season, 3-9 seems a lot more likely than 6-7. Having Kansas, Texas Tech, West Virginia, Texas and Toledo left on the schedule though does leave hope that they can find six wins, but it’s a flickering hope that’s fading fast. Winning all five of those is beyond daunting, but not as daunting as beating Oklahoma or TCU seems at this point. Rhoads isn’t packing his bags yet though because there is still hope. Lose at home to Toledo on homecoming though, and the hope is gone.
Bill Blankenship, Tulsa- The only reason I don’t have him as effectively gone is that I don’t have as much access to people in the know with the Tulsa program to know exactly what the mindset is over there. What I do know is he’s taken a team that was 11-3 two years into his reign, and just two years ago, and turned them overnight into a 3-9 squad. He’s turned that 3-9 squad into a team who has started this season 1-4, the only victory coming over a Tulane team who has only managed to beat SE Louisiana to this point. Tulsa lost by 29 to Florida Atlantic, and by 25 to Colorado State. They’re not even competitive with the solid mid major programs anymore. It’s becoming more and more apparent that the success achieved in 2012 was due far more to Todd Graham than it was Bill Blankenship. Memphis, Central Florida, and East Carolina still remain on this year’s schedule, making returning to a bowl less and less likely. What is likely is a return to 3-9, or worse. If that happens, the Golden Hurricane will be searching for a new coach. If they don’t win at Temple, and at home against South Florida in the next two weeks to get back to 3-4, I’d wager Blankenship is as good as gone.
Norm Chow, Hawaii- Does this need explanation? 3-9, 1-11, and now, 1-4. Yes, they were competitive against Washington, Oregon State and Colorado. But Northern Iowa was competitive against them, and they lost by two touchdowns to Rice. Chow was brought in because of his offensive prowess. His offenses have averaged 21.2, and 27.4 points per game. This season, they’ve scored 16 or less in three of their five games. They play three of their next four at home. If they don’t go at least split their next four, the writing will be on the wall. Really however, they need to take three of the next four.
Renew the Country Club Membership One More Year:
Randy Edsall, Maryland- If the Terps really wanted to make a change, it would have been done prior to moving into the Big Ten, so for Edsall to be fired, Maryland would have had to absolutely fall apart this year. That hasn’t happened. But Ohio State’s dominating victory at Byrd Stadium showed just how far Maryland is from really being competitive in the conference. With Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan State still on the schedule, getting more than 7 wins this year seems a very tall task, so Edsall will enter next year with a warm seat and expectations of improvement.
Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech- The way things look, not only can Johnson renew that membership for another year, he can go ahead and put himself down for several. Much to the chagrin of many Tech fans, myself included, it appears Paul Johnson is safe, and getting safer. Suddenly, this team who struggled with Wofford and needed a miracle to beat Georgia Southern (a far better team than initially credited for) is in complete control of the ACC Coastal division. At 5-0, barring a complete collapse, Johnson has assured himself of returning for at least one more year. If he wins the division, he probably buys three more.
Mike London, Virginia- No coach needed a fast start more than Mike London. At 4-2, with narrow losses to two ranked teams (at the time BYU was ranked, and with an all stars candidate quarterback) Virginia has shown the marked improvement that they had to show to give London any chance at keeping his job. However, he’s not out of the woods yet. The schedule does him no favors. Four of the next six are on the road, and all but one are divisional foes that were picked ahead of them in the pre-season. The only non divisional opponent is Florida State. In other words, even a bowl isn’t a guarantee at this point. While I don’t foresee them collapsing to that degree, finishing around 6-6, or 7-5 is still very, very possible, and that’s only going to buy London one more year. On the flip side, it’s also almost equally as likely they finish 8-4 or 9-3, and that, that would buy him a good deal of rope.
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