Wow…Week 9 of the 2019 College Football Season is now in the books and it is True >
Time does go faster as you get older and Damn…Time is flying by now so enjoy each and every day because…
Every Day Is A Precious Gift!
Let’s bring out the Great Johnny Cash to show these Hot Seat Coaches what the Hot Seat is all about!
Thank You Mr. Cash!
Post Week 9 Coaches Hot Seat Rankings
1. Joe Moorhead, Mississippi State – They say that life comes at you fast and boy things are sure coming fast for Mississippi State head coach Joe Moorhead who in his second season in Starkville is now sitting on records of…
Overall: 11 – 10
SEC: 5 – 8
…after the loss to Texas A&M on Saturday and 3 – 5 on the 2019 season which adds up to >
The Hottest Seat in College Football!
With these games left on the schedule…
At Arkansas = #1 Hot Seat Coach vs. #2 Hot Seat Coach Matchup!
Alabama
Abilene Christian
Ole Miss
…could Moorhead possibly survive not taking the Bulldogs to a bowl game in Year 2 after taking over what everyone agrees was a Top 30ish football program just a year ago?
Not in our opinion but then in our opinion Moorhead was an Incredibly Risky Hire in a spot where the folks at Mississippi State DID NOT have to make an Incredibly Risky Hire!
If this 2017 Clarion-Ledger story is to be believed the candidates for the Mississippi State job in 2017 after Dan Mullen left for Florida were >
Bill Clark, UAB
Jeremy Pruitt, Alabama DC
Brent Venables, Clemson DC
Joe Moorhead, Penn State OC
Neal Brown, Troy
Mike Bobo, Colorado State
Jason Candle, Toledo
Ryan Day, Ohio State OC
Chad Morris, SMU
Now if we had been the Mississippi State AD in 2017 we would have had on our list of potential head coaches from above list these coaches…
Bill Clark, UAB
Neal Brown, Troy
….along with 3 to 5 other FBS and FCS Head Coaches and not interviewed any of the others because….
We Would Not Have Made An > Incredibly Risky Hire for the Mississippi State job because…
There was No Damn Need To!
Why was Joe Moorhead even on the interview list at Mississippi State considering where the job is located at?
We don’t have a Damn Clue!
One thing we do know…Joe Moorhead better not lose to Arkansas this coming Saturday which…wait for it…has not won even ONE SEC Conference game under Chad Morris!
Speaking of Chad Morris!
2. Chad Morris, Arkansas – In Chad Morris’ 20th game as the Head Coach at Arkansas his football team got beat 48 – 7 by Alabama in a game that could have been 70 – Zilch if Saban had wanted it to be and that now leaves Morris’ records in Fayetteville at >
Overall: 4 – 16
SEC: 0 – 13
Much like Joe Moorhead at Mississippi State we really don’t have a Damn Clue why Chad Morris was even interviewed at Arkansas which is an SEC Conference Head Coaching Job in the SEC Western Division and thus needs one Helluva Great Football Coach to lead it if it’s going to be competitive and what were Morris’ records in 3 seasons at SMU?
Overall: 14 – 22
AAC: 8 – 16
Please now…how in the Hell do you get an interview to be Head Football Coach at the University of Arkansas when you have an overall record of 14 – 22 at your current school?
Because you coached Deshaun Watson at Clemson?
A Drunken Stumblebum who showed up to practice once a week could have coached Deshaun Watson at Clemson because the kid as we can all see now with his play at the Texans…doesn’t need stinking coaches to be GREAT since he has Mediocre As Hell Coaches in Houston!
Getting back to Chad Morris at Arkansas the 2 – 6 Hogs have games left against…
Mississippi State
Western Kentucky
At LSU
Missouri
Will Arkansas win another game in 2019?
We don’t think so and if that happens that creates a Helluva Problem since we have some real concerns that the folks in Fayetteville have a Damn Clue how to hire the next Head Football Coach if they let the current Head Football Coach go!
What a Damn Mess in Fayetteville!
By the way…we know exactly Damn what we would do in this spot to get the Arkansas Football Program rolling again but does anyone in Fayetteville have such a plan?
Not A Chance In Hell!
3. Clay Helton, USC – Clay Helton moved up a couple of spots in the Coaches Hot Seat Rankings this week even after a win because in your 57th game as the head coach of the USC Trojans you should not struggle to beat a 3 – 4 Colorado team with a first year head coach and thus Clay Helton’s dilemma >
Clay Helton is coaching at place that should be ROLLING like Alabama is now ROLLING in his 4th year on the job and yet…
USC struggles to beat even Average Football Teams and thus it’s our opinion that even the now 5 – 3 Trojans running the table against….
Oregon
At Arizona State
At California
UCLA
…it would take USC winning the Pac-12 Conference Title for Helton to hang onto his job and that leaves little margin for error…Damn Little margin for error!
4. Mike Bloomgren, Rice – We got to see a good bit of Mike Bloomgren at Stanford and we really didn’t have an opinion on whether he would be a good head coach or not since we never really gave it a thought that Mike might be a head coach or not but we were happy to see Mike get the Rice job and so far….not so good!
Mike’s records at Rice now stand at…
Overall: 2 – 11
CUSA: 1 – 11
…and 0 – 8 in 2019 with these games still left to play…
Marshall
At Middle Tennessee
North Texas
At UTEP
The UTEP Football Program is a Damn Disaster so maybe Rice can win the last game of the year but in our opinion they will be 0 – 11 heading into that game and that cannot make the folks that do the hiring and firing of football coaches at Rice happy since it means you are hoping to beat UTEP in a head coach’s 2nd year on the job at Rice…just to get ONE Damn Win on the board!
Not Good…Not Good At All!
5. Will Muschamp, South Carolina – Save the win over Georgia the 2019 football season has been nothing short of a Complete Disaster for South Carolina and Will Muschamp with wins over…
Charleston Southern = FCS
Kentucky = Average As Hell
Georgia = Maybe not so good after Notre Dame got its ass whipped by Michigan
…and with those 3 wins the Gamecocks have left games against…
Vanderbilt
Appalachian State
At Texas A&M
Clemson
….and if Muschamp lost to Vandy this coming Saturday he should be fired right after the game so we don’t see that happening but will they win another game after the Commodores?
Maybe not.
What would happen at a place like South Carolina when you win only 4 or 5 games in your 4th year on the job?
Probably nothing and that’s why South Carolina Football is South Carolina Football and why it will ALWAYS be South Carolina Football…unless they luck into hiring another legendary coach like Steve Spurrier which we don’t see happening in our lifetimes!
Don’t lose to Vandy Will or your head coaching career will be…OVER!
6. Steve Addazio, Boston College – With the Boston College loss to Clemson on Saturday Steve Addazio’s records at BC now stand at…
Overall: 42 – 42
ACC: 20 – 33
….and maybe that’s OK for the folks in Boston but to us at a place like Boston College the above records are…
Sub-Damn-Average!
Now there are reports out that Rutgers is interested in hiring Steve Addazio and let’s think about that for a second….
Rutgers wants to hire a guy in Steve Addazio who is Sub-Damn-Average in our opinion at Boston College and they really believe he would be able to do anything at all in the Big Ten East Division at Rutgers?
Got Damn Idiocy BIGGER than the Damn Idiocy of hiring Chad Morris at Arkansas?
Yep…in our humble opinion!
Oh…the 4 – 4 Eagles have left on their schedule in 2019 games with….
At Syracuse
Florida State
At Notre Dame
At Pitt
Oh…that would be just GREAT for Rutgers to hire a guy with a losing season in the same year he was hired at the school he was coming from!
What a time to be alive!
7. Barry Odom, Missouri – We were willing to forgive an opening season loss at Wyoming which is a tough place to play but with back-to-back losses at Vanderbilt and at Kentucky the Mizzou season is on the verge of falling to pieces with the now 5 – 3 Tigers left with these games on the schedule >
At Georgia
Florida
Tennessee
At Arkansas
Damn….Mizzou will more than likely be 5 – 4 when they host Florida on November 16 in a MUST WIN game that if lost would mean Mizzou would have to beat Tennessee or Arkansas just to get bowl eligible not that Mizzou is even bowl eligible being on probation!
What a Damn Mess at Mizzou!
8. Scott Frost, Nebraska – The most disconcerting thing about watching Nebraska play football in 2019 is that they look worse in 2019 than they did in 2018 in Scott Frost’s first year on the job and now with back-to-back losses to Minnesota and Indiana and only wins on the board against…
South Alabama
Northern Illinois
Illinois
Northwestern
….who have posted a combined record of…wait for it…..
9 – 22
…it has got to be that Huskers fans are asking the same question we here at Coaches Hot Seat are >
Just what in the Hell is going on in Lincoln?
Or more to the point >
Just what in the Hell is Scott Frost and the Nebraska coaches doing because they just gave up…
38 points to Indiana
…after giving up…
34 points to Minnesota!
We are a long ways from Nebraska so we really don’t have any idea what is going on in Lincoln beyond what we see in the games but something we have noticed which is different from Scott Frost’s teams at UCF >
Scott’s Nebraska teams in 2018 and 2019 do not seem to enjoy playing football like Scott’s teams at UCF did!
Now what exactly that means or if Frost is coaching his Nebraska players differently than he did his UCF players we don’t know, but if it’s miserable to play sport that you are supposed to be playing it because you love it…as we all did in college…then you have Helluva problem on your hands and the 4 – 4 Huskers with these games left to play…
At Purdue
Wisconsin
At Maryland
Iowa
…have a Helluva problem on their hands!
A movie that is often used in the US Military to show potential leaders what it should look like to take command of a unit, division, platoon, or command is Twelve O’Clock High which stars Gregory Peck and him taking over a “hard luck” US Army Air Force bombing squadron stationed in England during World War II. Perhaps the most famous scene of that movie is Gregory Peck giving his first speech to his new command and this one scene says everything about how a leader should take command of a struggling unit, workplace, or sports team >
What is not well known by people that have not watched the entire Twelve O’Clock High movie…which we highly recommend for anyone leading anything at all…is that Peck’s character after he got the squadron turned about by “Going Back To Fundamentals” got the place back to what we would call “regular order” which means the squadron transitioned back to enjoying their jobs as best they could in the middle of a shooting war and that may be the problem at Nebraska right now.
The Nebraska players don’t seem to enjoy playing football…as Frost did playing for Tom Osborne at Nebraska…because the coaches have been so focused on Fundamentals they have never been able to get back to “regular order” and thus enjoying playing the game of football as Scott Frost did and we did in college.
There is no reason in the world for Nebraska to lose at Hapless Purdue on Saturday and lose or not they should go to West Lafayette and at least…
Play Hard and Play for the Love of Game
…because right now the current status of Nebraska Football of…
Playing Scared and Having No Damn Fun
…is adding up to a Helluva Lot of Losses and just for the record here are Scott Frost’s records now at Nebraska >
Overall: 8 – 12
Big Ten: 5 – 9
Damn…that’s Not Good…Not Good At All!
9. Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee – Winning a game in the SEC Conference used to mean something but with so many SEC Head Coaches on the Hot Seat these days fielding Average to Sub-Average Football Teams Tennessee beating a South Carolina team that is headed toward a losing season isn’t really achieving anything as much as it is…
If you had lost the game the world would have ended
…and thus that was the situation with Jeremy Pruitt and Tennessee on Saturday against South Carolina…
If the Vols had lost that game the world would have ended!
Well…not literally ended but with that win the Vols are now only 3 – 5 on the season with games left against…
UAB
At Kentucky
At Missouri
Vanderbilt
Geez….talk about a MUST WIN game…Bill Clark’s 6 – 1 UAB team comes to Neyland Stadium on Saturday and with about HALF the talent…if that…of the Vols and if Jeremy Pruitt should somehow fool around and lose this game in our opinion…
He should be fired right after the game
…because to lose to UAB in your 21st game as the Head Coach of the Vols there really is no reason for you to remain as the Head Coach of the Vols!
With that win over South Carolina Jeremy Pruitt’s records now stand at…
Overall: 8 – 12
SEC: 4 – 9
….and if those records don’t make you realize that this UAB is BIG, BIG, BIG then you don’t have a Damn Clue!
10. Mark Dantonio, Michigan State – We have a great contact within the University of Alabama Athletics Department who has passed on lots of great information about the Alabama Football Program and Nick Saban for a decade-plus now and 99% of that stuff we have never written about or even talked about in public but we are going to pass along a story that is directly related to why Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio is on the Hot Seat now.
A few years ago Nick Saban was publicly complaining about the hurry-up offense which was noticeably impacting his ability to slow down opposing teams which was also increasing the overall scores of games in FBS football, but behind the scenes Saban was trying to both figure out a way to slow down hurry-up + spread teams while also making the CRITICAL decision to start running a hurry-up offense himself at Alabama to try and get some more points on the scoreboard.
The hiring of Lane Kiffin and the general embrace of a hurry-up offense and trying to score a lot more points wasn’t an easy move for Saban to make since he like us grew up in the 1970s like us and learned that if you played solid on the defensive and offensive sides of the ball and had solid special teams you could win a lot of games and that’s what Saban did….he won lots of Games + Championships…but at the key moment when the game of college football was dramatically changing it was either embrace the future or run from it for Nick….and Saban decided to Hell with it…
We are going to score more points Dammit!
This is such a CRITICAL lesson not only for coaches of sports teams but leaders of all walks of life to understand and that lesson is best summed up by the Late Great Andy Grove who was a Co-Founder, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of Intel Corporation and one of the smartest people we have ever run into in our lives who said the following in his great book – Only The Paranoid Survive >
“There is at least one point in the history of any company when you have to change dramatically to rise to the next level of performance. Miss that moment – and you start to decline.”
Nick Saban decided at a CRITICAL moment for his Alabama Football Program that either he could keep complaining about the hurry-up offense or he could decide to beat them at their own game and start to score some more points himself and thus move the ball forward, and Saban took the latter path and he has kept Alabama as a Top 3 program in the country which hasn’t really missed a beat even though college football has been undergoing a revolution of sorts on the offensive of the ball.
All of the above brings us back to Mark Dantonio at Michigan State who in 2015 had the Spartans in the College Football Playoff….against Alabama…and even though Michigan State lost that game by a score of….
38 – 0
….many thought that Dantonio would keep things rolling with the Spartans BUT…Mark Dantonio missed the CRITICAL inflection point when college football was undergoing a revolution of sorts on the offensive side of the ball and since getting destroyed by Alabama in the CFB Playoff in 2015 Dantonio has posted records of…
Overall: 24 – 22
Big Ten: 15 – 17
….and the reason that the Spartans are in such disarray today is that Mark Dantonio….much like Les Miles at LSU which got him fired…is Too Damn Stubborn to understand what is going on around him and CHANGE to keep Michigan State competitive both in the Big Ten and Nationally, and that alone should lead to Dantonio’s firing…unless he is able to look at himself in the mirror and admit his mistakes and ACT immediately to fix those mistakes!
Assembly Hall at the Paulskirche (St. Paul’s Church) in Frankfurt, 25 June 1963
It’s probably too late for Dantonio to do anything about 2019 since the Spartans are now 4 – 4 with games left against…
Illinois
At Michigan
At Rutgers
Maryland
…but he can decide that if he wants to take Michigan State to a bowl game then they will need to score a Helluva Lot more than the…
5.67 Points
…they have averaged scoring in their last 3 games and the Score Target should be in this Age of Scoring in College Football…
30+ Points A Game
..or even better to insure a win 95% of the time…
40+ Points A Game
Now if Michigan State stumbles down the stretch and loses 3 of their last 4 games then there will be no point in bringing back Mark Dantonio to coach the Spartans in 2020 because that would be…
3 of the last 4 seasons with Losing Records in Big Ten Conference Play
…and that’s just Not Acceptable at a place like Michigan State…in our humble opinion!