With signing day now a six weeks old and most coaching staffs now fully complete, it’s time to rank the new head coaching hires for the upcoming season.
I evaluated prior head coaching experience, familiarity with the school and surrounding recruiting area while also taking into consideration the state of the program and realistically, who they could have hired in their current state of affairs.
1. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M. The Aggies certainly paid a premium to get their guy but Fisher is just one of four active coaches that has won a National Title. He was 83-23 at Florida State in eight seasons and hired a great staff led by D.C Mike Elko (Notre Dame). Fisher also signed a Top 20 recruiting class. Grade: A
2. Dan Mullen, Florida. Mullen checks all the boxes for a great hire. He has prior head coaching experience in the SEC (69-46 in 9 years at Mississippi St). He has former ties to the school (was the O.C. at Florida under Urban Meyer), signed a Top 15 recruiting class and surrounded himself with a solid staff. Grade: A
3. Chip Kelly, UCLA. Kelly was a massive success at Oregon going 46-7 in four years then was 28-35 in 4 years at the NFL (PHI/SF). Kelly knows the West coast, signed a Top 20 recruiting class and also made some solid hires. Grade: A
4. Scott Frost, Nebraska. The Cornhuskers zeroed in on Frost from the start and why not considering he was a former National Title winning QB here in 1997. Frost inherited a UCF program that went just 0-12 in 2015 and by year two had the Knights 13-0 and ranked in the Top 10 after a Peach Bowl win. Grade: A
5. Willie Taggart, Florida State. Taggart is just 47-50 in 9 years as a head coach but he inherited a losing team at WKU, USF and Oregon and turned around all 3 programs. Taggart is familiar with the Florida area (grew up in Bradenton) and signed the best class (No. 11) out of all the new head coaches. Grade: B+
6. Kevin Sumlin, Arizona. Sumlin was 86-43 in 10 years at Houston and Texas A&M leading his team to 9 bowl games. While he was let go at Texas A&M, he still had the 2nd best win % out of any A&M head coach since 1950. Grade: B+
7. Joe Moorhead, Mississippi State. Moorhead was 38-13 in four years at Fordham making the FCS playoffs three times. He then oversaw one of the most improved and best offenses in CFB the last two years at Penn State as O.C. Grade: B+
8. Steve Campbell, South Alabama. Campbell has a ton of head coaching experience. He went 27-8 at Division II Delta St with a National Title. He was 87-22 in 10 years at Miss Gulf Coast (JUCO) including a title and then went 33-15 at Central Arkansas the last four years leading them to the playoffs twice. Grade: B+
9. Chad Morris, Arkansas. Morris was a ultra-successful high school coach in Texas (169-38) before becoming a hot-shot O.C. at Tulsa and Clemson. He inherited a bad SMU team and led them to a bowl by Year 3. Having strong ties to the state of Texas should help the Hogs on the recruiting trail in the future. Grade: B
10. Sonny Dykes, SMU. While Dykes is only 41-46 in 7 years as a head coach at Louisiana Tech and California, he has long-term ties to the state and schematically it should be an easy transition from the Chad Morris offense. Grade: B
11. Billy Napier, UL-Lafayette. While Napier has no prior head coaching experience, he is one of the hot young coaches with offensive coordinator experience at two Power 5 programs plus a stint at Alabama under Nick Saban. Grade: B
12. Mario Cristobal, Oregon. Cristobal was 27-47 at FIU and led them to a pair of bowl games. He served under Nick Saban for four years before being named the O.C. here last year. We felt the Ducks could have done better but Cristobal did keep D.C. Jim Leavitt on staff and signed a Top 20 class. Grade: B-
13. Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee. Obviously, the Tennessee coaching search was a dumpster fire but the Vols eventually made a solid hire bringing in the former Alabama D.C, that has led several top-notch D’s the last 5 years at Florida St/Georgia/Bama. Pruitt does not having any prior head coaching experience. Grade: B-
14. Jonathan Smith, Oregon State. Smith was a former QB here on the famous 2000 team that won the Fiesta Bowl and has served as O.C. under Chris Petersen at Washington the last 4 years. Smith also made a wise hire bringing in former Oregon State head coach Mike Riley who can help tutor the 39-year old. Grade: B-
15. Mike Bloomgren, Rice. With the smallest enrollment, Rice is one of the toughest jobs. While Bloomgren doesn’t have any prior head coaching experience, he was a OC at another tough academic school in Stanford. Grade: B-
16. Matt Luke, Ole Miss. Luke did a solid job as the interim last year getting Ole Miss to 6-6 in a probation year. Luke has long term ties to the program and state and while he isn’t a top-notch name, who was Ole Miss going to get? Grade: C
17. Chad Lunsford, Georgia Southern. Last year Georgia Southern had arguably their worst season in school history but were much better in the second half of the season when Lunsford took over as interim. Lunsford signed the best recruiting class in the Sun Belt but has no prior head coaching experience. Grade: C
18. Josh Heupel, UCF. The long-time Oklahoma O.C. had a successful stint as the Missouri O.C. the last two years. Still, Heupel has no previous head coaching experience and also has no long-term ties to the state of Florida. Grade: C
19. Sean Lewis, Kent State. Lewis is just 31 years old and obviously has no head coaching experience. He worked under Dino Babers the last three years as Co-OC and made a splash by signing a very solid recruiting class. Grade: C
20. Dana Dimel, UTEP. Dimel was successful at Wyoming in the late 90’s but had a bad stint as the Houston head coach (just 8-26). He’s been a long-time Bill Snyder assistant including being the O.C, there for the last 8 years. Grade: C
21. Herm Edwards, Arizona State. This is one of the strangest hires in recent college football history. First, the firing of Todd Graham came as a bit of a shock considering the Sun Devils exceeded expectations in 2017. Then Edwards who hasn’t coached in college since 1989 and hasn’t coached in any capacity since 2008 was hired to be a “CEO” type. Both coordinators left. Not a good sign. Grade: D-