And Let the Coaching Carousel Begin!
Who else is on the hot seat?
Sunday morning was the first execution of the 2023 college football coaching ranks and it was a big one. Texas A&M fired coach Jimbo Fisher and will pay him a whopping $76 million dollar buyout to do it. The writing was on the wall for Fisher. He’s lost 4+ games every year he’s been there except the Covid season of 2020. He had every resource and (if you ask Nick Saban) could buy what ever player he wanted. And he still couldn’t win. Personally I was never a fan of Fishers, he was overrated as a coach and made a name off of Jameis Winston at FSU. Take away the three seasons of Winston he was 44-20 at FSU in a weak at the time ACC. But now that Fisher is the first domino to fall, who’s next?
James Franklin at Penn State should be right at the top of the list. Penn State fans aren’t stupid. They booed a home team who was for the most part in a game against a #3 ranked team because they the same basic offensive play calls for four quarters. He’s a good coach but against the teams he has to beat he is awful. 1-12 against top 5 teams and 4-16 against Ohio State and Michigan is t good enough. He recruits well and they win 10 games a year but can’t win a conference championship because he can’t beat either of the only other two competitive teams in said conference. Now he has more challengers coming to the conference in Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA. Penn State may have been ok winning 10 games a year but there are new losses to add next year. Are they ok being 8-4 or worse?
Speaking of USC….. Lincoln Riley has his own issues. He finally pulled a trigger and got rid of defensive coordinator Alex Grinch last week but ultimately he’s responsible. He’s a very good offensive coach but as the head coach you can’t live on those laurels and USC is notorious for not putting up losing no matter how many points you score. Riley has never fielded a defense, ask Oklahoma. And he’s not good about taking criticism. Not a good mix with the boosters at USC.
Finally for this piece, we’ve gotta talk about Jim Harbaugh. For the past three seasons he’s finally beaten back the boo birds from never being able to beat Ohio State and looked like he had finally advanced Michigan back to college football royalty. But he’s been acccused of recruiting violations and served a suspension to start the season because of it. Now the he’s suspended again because of the ongoing sign stealing accusations saga. At what point does the University of Michigan say they’ve has enough. It may be the biggest coincidence in the world but his most productive three seasons at Michigan are all mired and tarnished because of the scandals that continue to crop up. Everyone outside of Ann Arbor sees evidence come out every day. Whether it’s a ridiculous sign stealing endeavor or not it’s still a written rule and they violated it. If Ohio State was facing these accusations Ann Arbor would be leading the charge to punish them. So again, the University is going to have to make a call sooner than later.
There are more names out there and more axes waiting to fall. And the game will change because of it. Buckle up folks were just getting started.