Blog Article
Week 9 Coaches Hot Seat Rankings: Mike Norvell Takes No. 1 Without Playing a Down
Mike Norvell’s Florida State team didn’t play on Saturday, and he’s sitting on the No. 1 hottest seat in the country.
In five days, Maryland fired Michael Locksley, NC State fired Dave Doeren, and Baylor fired Dave Aranda. All three were in last week’s Top 12. Norvell sat at home and watched the line in front of him get shorter.
Here’s the Top 10, and how each coach got there.
1. Mike Norvell, Florida State (3-4) | Last week: No. 4
Florida State had a bye, and Norvell climbed three spots anyway. His fan sentiment sits at minus-92, the lowest of any coach still working. Clemson comes to Tallahassee on Halloween night, so it’s No. 1 against No. 6.
2. Greg Schiano, Rutgers (2-5) | Last week: No. 2
Rutgers trailed No. 24 Northwestern 28-6 at halftime and lost 42-14. Last Friday, I said Schiano was next in line for No. 1, and he did everything he could to get there. Norvell beat him to it from his living room.
3. Phil Longo, Sam Houston (1-6) | Last week: No. 14
Two Wednesday night losses in eight days: 16-3 to Western Kentucky, then 30-24 to New Mexico State. Against the Aggies, the Bearkats ran for 11 yards. Longo is 3-16 at Sam Houston, and the man who fired him at Wisconsin dropped 21 spots this week.
4. Lincoln Riley, USC (6-2) | Last week: No. 11
Riley had two weeks to get ready for Wisconsin. No. 16 USC lost 24-7, ran for minus-17 yards, and scored the fewest points of any team Riley has ever coached. His review: “Didn’t coach good enough.” No argument here.
5. Deion Sanders, Colorado (2-5) | Last week: No. 9
Colorado led Oklahoma State 24-23 at halftime and lost 57-24. Isaac Wilson fumbled on the first play of the second half, and it got worse from there. Coach Prime keeps telling us the record doesn’t tell the story, and 57 points tells it just fine.
6. Dabo Swinney, Clemson (4-3) | Last week: No. 35
This was the biggest jump of the week, up 29 spots. Down 10-3 to Virginia Tech, Swinney said at halftime, “That’s 100% coaching. Pitiful.” Clemson lost 20-16 to James Franklin, whom Penn State fired a year ago this month.
7. Jedd Fisch, Washington (4-3) | Last week: No. 3
He had a bye week and dropped four spots, because the coaches around him did all the climbing. That’s the nicest thing that’s happened to him in October. He’s at Nebraska on Halloween.
8. Sonny Dykes, TCU (3-4) | Last week: No. 6
A week after beating Baylor, TCU lost 24-20 to West Virginia on homecoming. Jaden Craig turned it over three times, the last one a fumble with 34 seconds left. Nobody in Fort Worth is celebrating the two-spot drop.
9. Joe Moorhead, Akron (1-7) | Last week: No. 15
Akron committed 15 penalties for 165 yards and lost to Kent State 35-20. The Golden Flashes keep the Wagon Wheel for the second straight year. This is Moorhead’s fifth season.
10. Tony Elliott, Virginia (4-4) | Last week: No. 27
Virginia lost 19-16 to Duke on a halfback pass with 1:14 left. Before halftime, Elliott kicked a field goal because he didn’t want to do “anything too risky.” Duke didn’t share the concern.
Bubbling Under
Bill O’Brien scored 49 points at Georgia Tech and slipped to No. 11. Bill Belichick jumped 19 spots to No. 12 after North Carolina lost in overtime to Syracuse as an 8.5-point favorite. Shane Beamer beat Tennessee at the gun and fell six spots to No. 13.
Then there’s Luke Fickell, who beat No. 16 USC and dropped 21 spots to No. 29.
Friday’s Diagnosis: Michigan Bought the Wrong Résumé (For subscribers only)
Kyle Whittingham beat Michigan three times while he was at Utah.
That’s how Michigan got to know him, and it’s a big part of why Michigan hired him. What Michigan didn’t look at was everything else on the schedule. In 21 seasons, Whittingham went 7-15 against AP Top 10 teams, and at Utah he saw about one a year.
In the Big Ten, he gets them in bunches.
On Friday, subscribers get the full Diagnosis:
- The number Michigan missed. His record against teams that are in the Big Ten now, and what happens to it when those teams are ranked.
- The four-year slide. What his record against ranked teams looked like on his way out of Salt Lake City.
- The comparison. Whittingham next to Kalen DeBoer and Steve Sarkisian, two coaches who changed jobs and had to beat better teams.
- The verdict. Is Whittingham underperforming at Michigan, or did Michigan get exactly what it paid for?
Michigan’s administration bought the macro résumé and never checked the micro-schematic fit. Friday, we check it for them.
The Diagnosis goes to subscribers only, and it won’t be posted here. Every coaching change looks obvious in December. We show you why it’s obvious in September.
Subscribe before Friday morning:
