It’s Thanksgiving Week Johnny Cash….So Why Don’t You Take It Easy On These Hot Seat Coaches in the Spirit of the Holiday? On Second Thought…Give These Millionaire Hot Seat Coaches Hell Mr. Cash and Everyone Have A Great Thanksgiving!
Post Week 12 Coaches Hot Seat Rankings
1. Les Miles, LSU – Football is the ultimate game of “What Ifs” and the Biggest “What If” in the room regarding embattled LSU head coach Les Miles is this…
“What if the Miami Dolphins had made the Playoffs in 2006 and Nick Saban had stayed in south Florida and missed out on taking the Alabama job?”
“What If” indeed because the TRUTH is when Nick Saban returned to the SEC in 2007 after two years in Miami to coach a down-and-out Alabama football program LSU was riding high with Les Miles at the helm which saw Miles finish with the following after the 2007 season after THREE years in Baton Rouge:
Overall Record: 34 – 6
SEC Record: 19 – 5
1 SEC Title
1 Bogus BCS National Championship
Since Nick Saban returned to Alabama in 2007 Les Miles’ record against Saban now stands at…
3 – 7
…including the 2011 Bogus BCS National Championship Game loss and in the last THREE seasons Les Miles has posted the following very AVERAGE record in SEC play at LSU….
13 – 10
So why would a school be ready to jettison a coach that has a $15 Million Dollar buyout to hire a new coach that will no doubt command $6 to $7 Million Dollars a year for a 6 to 7 year contract?
Because LSU has lost FIVE straight games to Alabama under Les Miles
AND
Les Miles has a 3 – 7 record against Alabama and Nick Saban in the last 10 Games
AND
The LSU football program EASILY has more talent than EVER team it faces in the SEC each season except for Alabama and over the past THREE seasons Miles has posted a record in SEC play of…
13 – 10
It’s our firm opinion here at Coaches Hot Seat that managers should move to fire underperforming people in whatever industry or line of work they are in BEFORE the crack-up happens because it causes less damage to the entire organization when a leadership problem is nipped in the bud which can lead to Long-Term damage to something like a college football program and we don’t need to tell anyone at LSU what being off in the wilderness feels like as in the years before Nick Saban arrived in Baton Rouge in 2000 which in 11 seasons between 1989 and 1999 saw the following happen:
8 Losing Seasons
No SEC Championships
….and a Total Freaking Disaster albeit a football program in LSU that has…
Everything and Anything ANY Head Coach would need to win SEC and National Championships on a Regular Basis
A great question for any manager to ask himself or herself when considering firing someone is the following:
“Would the competition be happy or sad if I fired this person?”
And if the above question was answered SAD meaning the competition loved that person staying in their position the next question a manager must ask himself or herself is:
“What person could I hire that the competition would say….”Son-of-a-Bitch…they hired that Bastard….Hell, we will really have to go to work now!”
In our opinion….
Nick Saban would LOVE to see Les Miles stay at LSU and Mark Richt stay at Georgia because that is TWO potentially POWERHOUSE SEC football programs he want have to worry about as long as those two head coaches are in place and we can think of….
A Handful of Head Coaches that Nick Saban would HATE to see at LSU and Georgia
….and if Les Miles is indeed on his way out it’s the job of the folks at LSU to hire someone that is going to make Nick Saban’s life difficult which right now…
ZERO Head Coaches in the SEC are doing!
Only a Very Average Texas A&M team remains on LSU’s schedule and what SHOULD be a great game to help decide the SEC West Champion is instead…
Who really gives a Damn Game
….and that in a nutshell is the problem at LSU….AND……Texas A&M right now.
2. Darrell Hazell, Purdue – The “word” is that Purdue head coach Darrell Hazell will get a FOURTH season as the head coach of the Boilermakers after posting the following records in THREE seasons on the job with only the Indiana game left to be played in 2015….
Overall: 6 – 29
Big Ten: 2 – 21
Those SIX wins by Darrell Hazell in THREE seasons at Purdue were against….
Indiana State – FCS
Western Michigan – MAC
Southern Illinois – FCS
Illinois
Indiana State – FCS
Nebraska
….and let’s not forget that Darrell Hazell was hired after the last Purdue head coach Danny Hope was fired after two-straight .500 or better seasons and two bowl game trips so PLEASE save us the Bullshit that Darrell Hazell took over a Complete Disaster at Purdue because the TRUTH is Hazell took over a Purdue Football program that had gone to a bowl game in….
12 of the previous 16 seasons
….AND had posted a record in Big Ten play in those previous 16 seasons of…
66 – 62
Only Indiana remains on Purdue’s schedule which is sitting on a record of 2 – 9 right now which looks to be 2 – 10 once Saturday comes and goes and then it’s on to 2016 for Purdue Football and no doubt fans of the Boilermakers are chomping at the bits to get their hands on some season tickets for next year’s team!
HA!
3. Mike MacIntyre, Colorado – Much like Darrell Hazell at Purdue the Colorado Buffs head coach is also in his THIRD season on the job in Boulder and has posted a Pac-12 Conference record in those THREE seasons of…
2 – 24
….but in the SEVEN seasons before MacIntyre took over at CU the Buffs has been to…
1 Bowl Game
….and had won….
13 Big 12 and Pac-12 Conference Games
….so no doubt in our minds not only was Colorado in much worse shape than Purdue THREE years ago but Colorado also plays in a much tougher conference overall in the Pac-12….in our humble opinion of course!
Still…in our humble opinion…Colorado today almost THREE seasons after Mike MacIntyre took over the Buffs is only SLIGHTLY better than they were in 2012 at least on the field of play but we will say from what we have observed first hand on the University of Colorado campus the football program is in better shape overall BUT what feeds the bulldog is WINS and Mike MacIntyre is just flat-out not winning enough and that why he is on a Roaring Hot Seat right now.
The 4 – 8 overall and 1 – 7 in Pac-12 play Buffs have only left a road game at Utah which will be a next to impossible game for Colorado to win so with a loss that will leave Mike MacIntyre’s records in THREE seasons at Colorado at….
Overall: 10 – 27
Pac-12: 2 – 24
Uhhhh….Not So Damn Good Mike MacIntyre because we are still talking about Colorado Football where for Damn sure in our opinion a coach should be able to post a .500-plus record by his THIRD season on the job…in our humble opinion of course!
4. Scott Shafer, Syracuse – Scott Shafer was the defensive coordinator in Jim Harbaugh’s first year at Stanford before moving on to Michigan to join Rich Rodriguez’s staff and there are a number of people here at Coaches Hot Seat that have…
Very Damn Definitive Opinions on Scott Shafer
…..and his ability to coach defense and lead young men BUT after much discussion we are going to leave those…
Very Damn Definitive Opinions on Scott Shafer
….out of this blog and focus on what Scott Shafer has done at Syracuse in THREE years on the job after taking over a pretty good program from the last Orange head coach Doug Marrone:
Overall: 13 – 23
ACC: 6 – 17
By contrast in FOUR seasons at Syracuse Doug Marrone posted records of…
Overall: 25 – 25
ACC: 11 – 17
Our opinion on Syracuse football having watched them play under both Marrone and Shafer…the Orange football program is clearly going backwards and with only a game left against woeful Boston College who has a head coach also sitting on the Hot Seat in Steve Addazio it’s hard to know what to make of Syracuse football right now except that it’s NOT VERY DAMN GOOD!
5. Charlie Strong, Texas – One of the more interesting things we have going here at Coaches Hot Seat is that we have a few folks that were trained by YOUR Government to watch people in either in person or on video and by watching their face, arm and body movements AND also listening very closely to what they are saying come up with amazingly accurate analysis of what the person is thinking, or worrying about, or considering when they are being watched either in person or on video. While it’s not always easy to watch a foreign leader and ever fully determine what he or she is really thinking it has been very easy for one of those Coaches Hot Seat members to watch someone here at Coaches Hot Seat on video and then come up with an analysis and then check that against what the Coaches Hot Seat member was actually thinking and guess what….
Our talented and well-trained Coaches Hot Seat members have an almost 100% accuracy on their analysis
….which has given us lots of insight into what head coaches and athletic directors have REALLY been thinking over the last NINE football seasons which brings us to…
Texas Head Coach Charlie Strong
….who a couple of Coaches Hot Seat members have been watching very closely this season and their analysis of Charlie Strong is as of November 23, 2015….at least the part of the analysis we are willing to put into this blog is:
“Charlie Strong knows he has gotten himself into a Helluva spot where the expectations are HIGH and his ability to dramatically impact the Texas Football program in a meaningful way anytime soon are LOW especially in a Big 12 Conference that is unrelenting in the pressure applied by the offenses of other Big 12 schools which leaves Texas Football with the following conundrum…either the Texas offense starts scoring a Helluva lot of points and quick or Texas Football will a middle-of-the-pack Big 12 football program for years into the future and Charlie Strong knows it.”
The above should be scary enough to fans of Texas Football but there is something else going on as well and it’s something we have not considered very much until the last few weeks but it’s something that could dramatically impact Charlie Strong’s ability to build a championship football program again in Austin following on what Mack Brown was able to do for a decade-plus and that other thing going on is….
Will Charlie Strong and his Texas coaches be able to personally connect with the very cliquish Texas high school coaches who are very unique and very different in our opinion than the high school coaches that Charlie Strong worked with and recruited players from in Florida and elsewhere around the southeastern United States?
This is very simple to understand…..if Texas football high school coaches will not recommend and send their best players to Austin then Texas has Little Damn Chance to become a major college football power again or even to get back to the top of the Big 12 on a regular basis as we fully expect Texas Football to be at EVERY season which brings us to the…
2016 Rivals.com Team Recruiting Rankings
…which shows that as us right now Texas’ 2016 Recruiting Class is ranked…..54 th in the country? What the Hell?
Sorry…but in our opinion a head coach in his THIRD year at Texas should have a recruiting class ranking in the Top 5 and by comparison Nick Saban had the No. 1 Recruiting Class according to Rivals.com in his second season starting in 2008…followed by the No. 1 class in 2009….in his THIRD season on the job and what has been Charlie Strong’s Recruiting Class Rankings at Texas?
2014: 20
2015: 12
2016: 54 currently
Let’s go to Charlie Strong’s records at Texas in his SECOND year on the job….
Overall: 10 – 13
Big 12: 8 – 8
…and the Horns still have to play this season…
Texas Tech
At Baylor
Damn…..if Texas loses to Texas Tech at home to fall to 4 – 7 on the season and has to play at Baylor to end 2015 which looks a Helluva lot like a 4 – 8 season then more than just the folks here at Coaches Hot Seat will start wondering…
Just where in the Hell is this going for Charlie Strong at Texas?
6. Steve Addazio, Boston College – This coming Saturday Steve Addazio’s Boston College football team which is on a streak of SEVEN straight losses will play a Syracuse football team coached by Scott Shafer that is on a losing streak of EIGHT straight losses which is the ultimate…
Roaring Fire Hot Seat vs. Roaring Fire Hot Seat Coaches Match-Up
…and a loss in this spot by BC on the road at the Carrier Dome would leave the Eagles records in 2015 at…
Overall: 3 – 9
ACC: 0 – 8
…and Steve Addazio’s records in THREE seasons coaching at Boston College at…
Overall: 17 – 20
ACC: 8 – 16
Just for the Hell of it let’s look at the Winning Percentage of the last FOUR head football coaches at Boston College:
Tom O’Brien (1997 – 2006): .625
Jeff Jagodzinski (2006 – 2007): .714
Frank Spaziani (2009 – 2012): .431
Steve Addazio (2013 – 2015): .459
Got Going Straight Backwards Boston College?
Still one of the Stupidest Moves in recent college football history was former Boston College athletic director Gene DeFilippo firing BC head coach Jeff Jagodzinski after the 2007 season sitting on a winning percentage of .714 and TWO appearances in the ACC Championship Game but the issue at hand here is can Steve Addazio really survive going…
0 – 8
….in ACC play in his THIRD season on the job when is a time when head coaches should be showing improvement instead of stagnation with their football program?
Since Boston College football is an afterthought in every Damn sense of the word AFTERTHOUGHT Steve Addazio could probably go 0 – 12 and hang onto his job which is a Helluva gig if you can get it!
7. Kevin Wilson, Indiana – Kevin Wilson and his Hoosiers got their MUST WIN on Saturday against the crumbling Maryland Terrapins which gives Indiana….
5 Wins in 2015
…and with only a game left at Purdue on Saturday we are going to go out on a limb and predict…
An Indiana WIN on Saturday over Purdue
…which will get the Hoosiers to 6 wins and a postseason bowl game which will mean since we are talking about Indiana Football here that will get head coach Kevin Wilson off the Hot Seat….BUT…if Indiana should happen to lose to Purdue on Saturday …
It’s Over for Kevin Wilson at Indiana!
Coach ‘em up Kevin or….
8. Kyle Flood, Rutgers – Kyle Flood and his Rutgers football team beat Army on Saturday which has become akin to beating NO ONE in recent years and that raises Rutgers record in 2015 to 4 – 7 with only a home game left against woeful Maryland and with a win that would leave Kyle Flood’s records in FOUR seasons at the school at….
Overall: 26 – 22
Conference: 13 – 17
…which we would call that AVERAGE at best especially considering the pretty good football program that Flood took over at Rutgers from Greg Schiano in 2011.
Can Kyle Flood survive both a suspension for an academic related issue AND a losing season in his FOURTH year on the job at Rutgers?
Not if we were the athletic director at Rutgers for Damn sure!
9. Gus Malzahn, Auburn – Since Auburn lost to FSU in the 2013 – 2014 Bogus BCS National Title Game in January 2014 Gus Malzahn has posted records at Auburn of…
Overall: 14 – 10
SEC: 6 – 9
….and with the Mighty Alabama Crimson Tide headed to Auburn on Saturday for the annual Iron Bowl we here at Coaches Hot Seat tried to put ourselves in the position of Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs who has basically been around or working at Auburn University for his entire life who lists in his bio on the Auburn Athletics website the following five strategic goals…
“Winning, graduating student-athletes, managing the department’s fiscal affairs, complying with SEC and NCAA rules and providing a positive gameday experience.”
…..keeping in mind that over the last TWO seasons Auburn has spent…
Over $80 Million Dollars on the Auburn Football program
….and Auburn has….
14 wins to show for it and a losing record in SEC play
…and ONLY 8 of those wins came over FBS teams with .500 or better records!
$80 Million for EIGHT wins over FBS teams with .500 or better records!
To get down to brass tacks….
Auburn has 14 wins the last TWO seasons…
2 of those wins are over FCS teams
6 of those wins are over FBS teams with losing records
8 of those wins are over FBS teams with .500 or better records
Oh…Auburn’s record the last two seasons against FBS teams with .500 or better records?
9 – 9
Damn….a 9 – 9 record the last two seasons against FBS teams with .500 or better records after spending…
$80 Million Dollars!
That’s $8.89 Million Dollars Per Win over FBS teams with .500 or better records at Auburn the last TWO seasons!
Does Auburn have ANY chance to beat Alabama in the Iron Bowl on Saturday?
No….NOT A Chance in Hell which brings us to this obvious question:
If Alabama beats Auburn by “X” amount of points or more in Saturday’s Iron Bowl it will lead to Gus Malzahn getting fired shortly thereafter?
28 Points
If Alabama beats Auburn by 28 or more points Gus Malzahn will no doubt in our minds be fired and Auburn AD Jay Jacobs will shortly thereafter be on the phone to Jimbo Fisher to offer him…
$1 Dollar MORE than what LSU is offering Jimbo Fisher which by our guess will be around….
$7.25 Million Dollars A Year on a Six Year Contract!
In many ways Jay Jacobs is in an impossible situation because Jacobs must know that Nick Saban would be THRILLED to keep Gus Malzahn at Auburn for as long as Damn possible because without a SUPERIOR quarterback the Auburn offense is the easiest offense to defend in the SEC…..BUT……what can Jacobs do if Alabama only beats Auburn by 10 to 14 points but keep Gus Malzahn around for another year and just hope the Hell things go better in 2016?
Not much really…which brings us to Auburn’s offensive gameplan against Alabama to which we can only say to Gus Malzahn….
Do what Nick Saban HATES the most and you might have a shot at winning which is…
Go Fast, Play Fast, and Attack the Middle of the Field
…which is the ONLY Damn thing that will get some of the Alabama defenders away from the line of scrimmage which is the ONLY way a team beats Alabama.
You give us a week and we will have an offensive gameplan to BEAT Alabama…and yet it seems head coaches in the SEC making Millions of Dollars a year….
Have No Damn Clue How To Even Challenge the Alabama Defense Forget About Beating Alabama!
Idiots…Just Way Damn Overpaid Idiots!
10. Mike London, Virginia – Mike London’s Virginia team got a nice win Saturday over a floundering and collapsing Duke team to raise the Cavs records in 2015 to…
4 – 7 overall
3 – 4 in ACC play
…with only a home game against Virginia Tech left in Frank Beamer’s last game coaching the Hokies which with these following records on the board coaching for SIX seasons at Virginia….
Overall: 27 – 45
ACC: 14 – 33
…..will no doubt be Mike London’s last game coaching at Virginia as well!
Good Luck to both Mike London and Frank Beamer in this Battle of Virginia Game!