What has been the tenure of SEC Football coaches during the expansion era?

[jbcarol]

Bama (finally updated)

After Bill Curry left Bama for Kentucky, Gene Stallings was hired. He had been fired with five games remaining in the 1989 season by the Phoenix Cardinals. NFL and their cheerleading media expect you to understand that that's okay and not the reverse.

Stallings was National Coach of the Year in 1992 when Bama claimed the National Championship and led them to victory in the first ever SEC Championship game. He resigned after losing the '96 SEC-C game to Florida.

Stallings had a 38-16 SEC record which prorates to 5.6-2.4 over an 8-game schedule.


Mike DuBose had an SEC record of 16-16 including being named the '99 SEC Coach of the Year.  After coaching the DL for Tampa Bay in the late-80s, DuBose was Stallings' DL coach for his seven seasons at Bama.  DuBose was previously DL coach for Ray Perkins.

In the spring prior to his best season, DuBose was accused of having an affair with Deborah Gibson and later settled out of court for over a quarter-of-a-million dollars. DuBose was able to stay on despite Gibson having worked in the Athletic Administration.

In 2000, Bama had a poor season despite being ranked third in the preseason. They lost  non-conference games to Southern Miss. 21-0 and to UCF at home. Bama received NCAA sanctions from DuBose's time as head coach.

For 2001, Mal Moore hired Dennis Franchione over Frank Beamer, Butch Davis, and Tommy Bowden.  Franchione led Bama to their first bowl win in five years in the Independence Bowl. Bama won the SEC-W in '02 and was not eligible for the SEC-CG or a bowl game.  Bama faced a five-year penalty including a two-year bowl ban and loss of 21 scholarships.

Franchione was reportedly offered $15 million for 10 years but left Bama for A&M to replace RC Slocum. He did bid farewell to the players via videoconference so Dani did not feel compelled to make the trip to College Station and dress him down.

Franchione was 10-6 in SEC games.


Mike Price's Washington State team had whoopped Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl 34-14 and he was hired to succeed Franchione. In Pensacola, Price wound up with private dancer Destiny Stahl and never coached a game at Bama.

There's rarely a more biting media account than from one who covers the school last spurned. "Mike Price went into hard-boozing, hard-partying Tuscaloosa after more than a decade in rural, brew-sipping Pullman and made the mistake of believing he was invited to the party as a participant rather than a myopic chaperone.

"His first mistake was to try to make football practice fun and to publicly flaunt that fact in a place where having fun at that level of college football is heresy.

"His second mistake was to get drunk and make a fool of himself before earning his stripes."

"It's bad, especially because he's married," said daughter Brooke. "Come on, use some common sense!"
She's 11.


The Miami Dolphins QB coach was hired in May 2003 and at the time was the second youngest coach in D1. After a rough start, Mike Shula led Bama to a Cotton Bowl victory over TTech 13-10 following the '05 season. He received a 6-year, $1.8 million per year extension.  After a 2006 OT loss to Arkansas in Fayetteville, things fell apart. One week after losing to Auburn, Moore paid Shula $4 million to leave.

Shula was 13-19 in SEC play. Due to victories vacated in a text book case, Shula's official SEC record is 5-19.

DC Joe Kines served as interim HC and coached Bama in the Independence Bowl.


Many including Jim Mandich were surprised to learn that Bama had hired Nick Saban from the Dolphins immediately following their 2006 NFL season. Saban is the ultimate example of an SEC maxim that has held true: "Hire a dissatisfied NFL coach who was once successful in big time college football."  Mal Moore's nephew built Saban's home in Georgia and was a go-between for the Bama program as well as his agent Jimmy Sexton.

Saban was the National Coach of the Year in 2008 and led Bama to BCS National Championships in 2009, 2011 and 2012 and CFP Championships in '15, '17 and of course '20.  He also led Bama to the SEC Championship in 2009, '12, '14, '15, '16, '18, '20, '21 and of course '23. 1 Coach has won more SEC regular-season games than Nick Saban, who had 148 conference victories at LSU and Alabama. Paul "Bear" Bryant holds the SEC record with 159 league wins at Kentucky and Alabama. Ole Ball Coach ranks third on the list with 126 conference victories at Florida and South Carolina.

0 SEC teams had a winning streak against Nick Saban at the time of his retirement. Alabama has won at least its most recent game against every other member of the conference. While at Alabama, Saban went 17-0 against Arkansas.

Kalen Douglas DeBoer, 49, had just lost the National Championship game on Monday to Michigan. He did beat Texas in the semi-finals, a team Saban was not able to beat at home. DeBoer was 25-3 in two seasons at Washington and went 16-2 in the collapsing Pac-12 with big wins in 2023 over Oregon.

[jbcarol]

Hayes: First and 10: Walking in the footsteps of a giant
Matt Hayes |

There was something eerily strange about it all. There was Nick Saban, legs crossed and arms folded, staring into his coaching mortality as Alabama announced Kalen DeBoer as its next head coach.

A front row seat to the coronation.

Or an uneasy celebration for first guy who said yes — and agreed to step into a job fraught with the immediate danger and inevitable disappointment of replacing the greatest coach of our time.

And yes, the potential of carving a successful spot of his own, too.

"It's a privilege to be chosen," DeBoer said at his introductory press conference. "To be in this role is one I don't take lightly."

It's one with a handful of critical first steps that will resonate throughout the first few months and all the way through the first game of the first season of the rest of Alabama football's life, A.S. — after Saban.

It's religion in Tuscaloosa, everyone. More so than anywhere else.

There's winning and there's upholding tradition, and they most certainly aren't the same thing. Want to know why Dan Lanning publicly stated his intentions to stay at Oregon within 24 hours of Saban's retirement?

Or why Steve Sarkisian quickly followed with his love for all things Texas, and why Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, just hours before news leaked of DeBoer's hiring, called a team meeting where he would eventually talk to his team about his commitment to the monster program he has built and worked to sustain?

Because following a legend, historically, is a dead-end job.

It doesn't mean that DeBoer can't or won't succeed. It doesn't mean that he'll be overwhelmed by the enormity of what he has walked into (probably from the moment the plane landed at Tuscaloosa Airport).

It just means that the odds are stacked against him. The guy before him was not only the greatest coach in the history of college football, but he tamed the beast that is Alabama football like no one ever did or could.

There's no denying that, or avoiding it. So you may as well embrace it.

It begins by protecting your flanks (more on that later) and going full speed ahead. There's no hesitation in this buildout —

Welcome to the Salute to Saban, beginning with the top 5 coaches with the most wins vs. Saban at Alabama, and their overall record.

1. Gus Malzahn, Auburn: 3-5 vs. Saban, 101-54 career record.

2. Les Miles, LSU: 3-7 vs. Saban, 145-73 career record.

3. Meyer, Florida and Ohio State: 2-2 vs. Saban, 187-32 career record.

4. Swinney, Clemson: 2-2 vs. Saban, 170-43 career record.

5. Hugh Freeze, Ole Miss: 2-4 vs. Saban, 89-50 career record.

1. Georgia: Kirby Smart: Saban's defensive coordinator at Alabama for 8 seasons (2008-15), and worked with Saban in 2007 (Alabama), 2006 (Miami Dolphins) and 2004 (LSU).

2. Texas: Sarkisian: Saban's offensive coordinator (2019-20).

3. Ole Miss: Kiffin: Saban's offensive coordinator (2014-16).

4. Alabama: DeBoer

6. Missouri: Drink just led the Tigers to their first 11-win season since 2014, when Gary Pinkel was coach. Drinkwitz regularly speaks (and gets counsel) from Pinkel, who was teammates with Saban at Kent State in the early 1970s.

9. Texas A&M: From 2018-21, Mike Elko was defensive coordinator at Texas A&M under Jimbo

12. Florida: Billy Napier was wide receivers coach at Alabama under Saban from 2013-16.

15. Arkansas: In 2013, Bret Bielema hired Sam Pittman as his offensive line coach at Arkansas. Weeks later, Saban tried to hire Pittman for the same job. Pittman eventually left Arkansas for Georgia in 2016 to work for Smart, DC at Alabama under Saban.

Numbers
67: The number of coaches (permanent and interim) at the other 13 SEC schools since Saban arrived at Alabama in 2007.

Arkansas has had the most (9), including Houston Nutt (1998-2007), Reggie Herring (interim, 2007), Bobby Petrino (2008-11), John L. Smith (2012), Bielema (2013-17), Paul Rhoads (interim, 2017), Chad Morris (2017-19), Barry Lunney Jr. (interim, 2019) and Pittman (2020-current).

The rest of the breakdown, by school

10. Quote to note
DeBoer, on if he'd lean on Saban for support: "100 percent access, OK? I'd be a fool if that wasn't the case. A fool."

[jbcarol]

Remember the head football coaching hires for the 2013 season

Bielema replacing John Smith at Arkansas

Gus replacing Gene Chizik at Auburn

Mark Stoops replacing The Joker at Kentucky

Butch Jones replacing Derek Dooley at Tennessee


The dean of football coaches in the SEC is Mark Stoops.

[jbcarol]

SEC Football by the Numbers: Where does Nick Saban rank among the great coaches?

By Mark Inabinett |

When Nick Saban stepped down from his Alabama post last week, he was widely hailed as the greatest coach in college football history.

But is that actually the case?

Saban doesn't have the most coaching victories in college football history – not even in major-college football history. He doesn't have the best winning percentage either.

But what Saban does have is national championships – seven of them. That's more than any other coach, even from the claimed-championship error.

Saban's national championships came in the BCS format in 2003 at LSU and 2009, 2011 and 2012 at Alabama and in the CFP format in 2015, 2017 and 2020 with the Crimson Tide.

The championship-game era began in 1998, and the coach with the second-most national titles during that time has three. Urban Meyer had title teams at Florida in 2006 and 2008 and Ohio State in 2014.

Paul "Bear" Bryant also coached six teams recognized as national champions at Alabama, but all came during the poll era (since The Associated Press launched its rankings as an ongoing feature in 1936) in 1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978 and 1979.

In 1961, while the AP, coaches and National Football Foundation voted Alabama as their national-championship team, the Football Writers Association of America picked Ohio State.

In 1964, Alabama lost to Texas 21-17 in the Orange Bowl but won the AP and coaches national titles because they were voted on before the "extracurricular" bowls.

Because that was a bad look, the AP moved its voting until after the bowls for the 1965 season, and Bryant's Tide took the poll title by upending undefeated Nebraska 39-28 in the Orange Bowl (with the coaches and NFF awarding their championships to Michigan State and the FWAA splitting its title between the Spartans and Alabama).

Still voting before the bowls, the coaches gave their title to Alabama in 1973, which then lost to Notre Dame 24-23 in the Sugar Bowl, lifting the Fighting Irish to the top of the final AP poll.

In 1978, the coaches picked Southern Cal over Alabama (possibly because the Trojans defeated the Tide 24-14 on the fourth Saturday of the season). But Alabama topped the final AP, FWAA and NFF polls after beating undefeated Penn State 14-7 in the Sugar Bowl (with the voting now permanently after the bowls).

In 1979, all parties agreed on Alabama as the national-championship team giving Bryant his only clean-sweep crown.

Saban's national title at LSU was shared because the AP voted Southern Cal as No. 1 in its final poll despite the BCS billing as the championship game. But since then, the polls and the playoffs have been in agreement annually, eliminating most of the yeah-but claims to national championships.

So Saban is No. 1 in national championships. Where does he rank among coaching luminaries in other categories?

Saban ranks fifth among major-college football coaches for victories, stopping three short of 300.

With a 297-71-1 record for a winning percentage of .806, Saban ranks 16th among major-college football coaches with at least 100 victories.

SEC began in 1933 when the Southern Conference schools west and south of the Appalachian Mountains formed their own league.

Within the SEC era, Saban moves up a spot to fourth on the victories list:

SEC era top 10 for winning percentage does include Saban:

2. Urban Meyer (Bowling Green, Utah, Florida, Ohio State 2001-2010, 2012-2018): .854 (187-32)

8. Nick Saban (Toledo, Michigan State, LSU, Alabama 1990, 1995-2004, 2007-2023): .806 (297-71-1)

In SEC history, Saban also is highly ranked in the coaching categories.

The coaches with the most victories while guiding SEC programs include:

1. Paul "Bear" Bryant (Kentucky, Alabama 1946-1953, 1958-1982): 293

2. Nick Saban (LSU, Alabama 2000-2004, 2007-2023): 254

3. Steve Spurrier (Florida, South Carolina 1990-2001, 2005-2015): 208

4. Vince Dooley (Georgia 1964-1988): 201

5. John Vaught (Ole Miss 1947-1970, 1973): 190

6. Ralph "Shug" Jordan (Auburn 1951-1975): 175

7. Phillip Fulmer (Tennessee 1992-2008): 151

8. Mark Richt (Georgia 2001-2015): 145

9. Bobby Dodd (Georgia Tech 1945-1963): 142

10. Wally Butts (Georgia 1939-1960): 140

Saban also ranks second in winning percentage in all games as a coach at an SEC program (among coaches with at least five seasons in the conference):

1. Kirby Smart (Georgia 2016-2023): .855 (94-16)

2. Nick Saban (LSU, Alabama 2000-2004, 2007-2023): .849 (254-45)

3. Urban Meyer (Florida 2005-2010): .813 (65-15)

4. Gene Stallings (Alabama 1990-1996): .810 (70-16-1)

5. Frank Thomas (Alabama 1933-1946): .805 (98-21-7)

6. Paul "Bear" Bryant (Kentucky, Alabama 1946-1953, 1958-1982): .797 (292-69-14)

7. Bob Neyland (Tennessee 1933-1934, 1936-1940, 1946-1952): .780 (112-29-7)

8. Les Miles (LSU 2005-2016): .770 (114-34)

9. Allyn McKeen (Mississippi State 1939-1948): .764 (65-19-3)

10. John Vaught (Ole Miss 1947-1970, 1973): .748 (190-60-12)

When the SEC coaches are ranked by their performance in conference regular-season games, the lists are similar to those for overall games. The top 10 coaches for victories in conference regular-season games in the SEC include:

1. Paul "Bear" Bryant (Kentucky, Alabama 1946-1953, 1958-1982): 159


2. Nick Saban (LSU, Alabama 2000-2004, 2007-2023): 145

3. Steve Spurrier (Florida, South Carolina 1990-2001, 2005-2015): 126

4. John Vaught (Ole Miss 1947-1970, 1973): 106

5. Vince Dooley (Georgia 1964-1988): 105

6. Ralph "Shug" Jordan (Auburn 1951-1975): 97

7. Phillip Fulmer (Tennessee 1992-2008): 95

8. Mark Richt (Georgia 2001-2015): 83

9. Bobby Dodd (Georgia Tech 1945-1963): 82

10. Wally Butts (Georgia 1939-1960): 67

By winning percentage in conference games, the coaches line up this way (this includes only league regular-season games):

1. Kirby Smart (Georgia 2016-2023): .862 (56-9)

2. Nick Saban (LSU, Alabama 2000-2004, 2007-2023): .829 (145-30)

3. Gene Stallings (Alabama 1990-1996): .806 (43-10-1)

4. Bob Neyland (Tennessee 1933-1934, 1936-1940, 1946-1952): .780 (62-15-5)

5. Frank Thomas (Alabama 1933-1946): .765 (59-16-6)

6. Paul "Bear" Bryant (Kentucky, Alabama 1946-1953, 1958-1982): .764 (159-46-9)

7. Urban Meyer (Florida 2005-2010): .750 (36-12)

8. Phillip Fulmer (Tennessee 1992-2008): .731 (95-35)

9. Vince Dooley (Georgia 1964-1988): .713 (105-41-4)

10. Steve Spurrier (Florida, South Carolina 1990-2001, 2005-2015): .708 (126-52)

[jbcarol]

O'Gara: A wild thought and a question about Lane Kiffin as he continues to build at Ole Miss

Here we are in 2024, and Kiffin is still in Oxford.

He's entering Year 5, and he'll so do with some well-documented buzz at the beginning of the 12-team Playoff.

What you might not realize is that in the 16-team SEC, the only coaches who have been at their respective jobs longer than Kiffin are Kirby Smart and Mark Stoops. That's right. Kiffin is the third-longest tenured coach in the SEC. By the way, Kiffin was technically hired days before Drink and the Pittboss in that post-2019 cycle.

This realization hit me after Nick Saban announced his retirement, which naturally set the wheels in motion for Kiffin to be linked to another potential opening. But again, it didn't come to fruition. It begs the question.

How many jobs are left that Kiffin would actually leave for?

Kiffin will enter Year 5 at the same place for the first time since he was at USC from 2001-06. During his first tenure at USC, Kiffin also got promoted from tight ends coach all the way up to OC/receivers coach. Technically, this is the longest that he's been at the same job.

Call me crazy, but he's a different guy than he was 2 decades ago. Shoot, he's a different guy than he was when he started at Ole Miss.

This season feels like as much of a "win-now" season as any that Ole Miss has had in the past 50 years. That's based on the returning talent, along with the splashes we've seen in the transfer portal. If this ends up being an 8-4 year in which Ole Miss is smashed by the elite competition — something I don't think will happen — that timing could be right for Kiffin to find his next opportunity.

I know, Ole Miss fans. You're sick of hearing that. I don't blame you. You watched your program beef up its collective efforts and pay a head coach $9 million per season. That's big-boy stuff.

But think about this — if Kiffin gets Ole Miss a Playoff win or 2 and it plays in a semifinal game, that could have a different impact on his future. Like, in the modern world of college football, Kiffin's combination of development/recruiting can lead to historic success and maybe a title is realistic at Ole Miss.

To be fair, Kiffin has already led Ole Miss to historic success. Eleven wins had never happened until 2023. Getting the program a seat at the 12-team Playoff table would add another historic feat to his Ole Miss résumé. If he still feels that his team isn't capable of winning a title, sure, he could seek another destination.

My guess is that the job Kiffin could be linked to most is Florida.

What if I told you that by 2024, Kiffin would be one of the SEC's elder statesmen and his team would be looking at potentially its best preseason ranking since the Richard Nixon administration? You would've called me a liar, and maybe even a crook.

[jbcarol]

12 of Nick Saban's greatest wins at Alabama

By Creg Stephenson |

Nick Saban retired earlier this month after winning 206 games (or 201 — thanks, NCAA) in 17 seasons as Alabama head football coach.

Some of them were more important than others

Here's a list of 12 of the all-timers

1. Alabama 41, Georgia 30 (Sept. 27, 2008)
There were strong hints that Saban might be cooking up something special in Tuscaloosa early in his second season, but the "Blackout Game" left no doubt. The Bulldogs, clad in black helmets and jerseys to mark what would prove to be a somber occasion, came in ranked No. 3 nationally and were the preseason SEC favorites.

2. Alabama 32, Florida 13 (Dec. 5, 2009)
Revenge and validation was on the Crimson Tide's collective mind as it met the defending SEC and national champions in Atlanta a year after the Gators have come away with a 31-20 victory in 2008. Tim Tebow and No. 1 Florida kept it close for two quarters, but No. 2 Alabama's defense shut the Gators out in the second half.

3. Alabama 37, Texas 21 (Jan. 7, 2010)
After the win over the Gators, the Crimson Tide made its triumphant return four weeks later to Pasadena, the site of so many glorious Rose Bowl victories in the program's early days. The opponent in the BCS national championship game was undefeated Texas, a team Alabama had never beaten up to that point in its history. The Crimson Tide knocked Longhorns quarterback Colt McCoy out of the game early with an injury, and streaked to a 24-6 halftime lead.

4. Alabama 21, LSU 0 (Jan. 9, 2012)
Rarely in college football does a team get a mulligan after a regular-season loss at home, but that's the position Alabama found itself in after losing 9-6 in overtime to LSU in the so-called "Game of the Century" in Tuscaloosa in November 2011.

5. Alabama 32, Georgia 28 (Dec. 1, 2012)
The first of four classic SEC championship games between Alabama and Georgia during the Saban era nearly got away from the Crimson Tide when the Bulldogs returned a blocked field goal for a touchdown to take a 21-10 lead in the third quarter. But Alabama stormed back

6. Alabama 55, Auburn 44 (Nov. 29, 2014)
The highest scoring Iron Bowl in history was a true shootout, with the two teams combining for nearly 100 points and more than 1,000 yards of total offense at Bryant-Denny

7. Alabama 45, Clemson 40 (Jan. 11, 2016)
The first of three national championship game matchups between the Crimson Tide and Tigers was the only one that went Alabama's way

8. Alabama 26, Georgia 23 (Jan. 8, 2018)
The only walk-off national championship win of the modern era moved Saban into a tie with Bryant for most national championships of any coach in history (6).

9. Alabama 35, Georgia 28 (Dec. 1, 2018)
For the second time in less than a calendar year, Alabama ripped out Georgia's collective heart with a comeback win led by a backup quarterback in Mercedes Benz

10. Alabama 52, Florida 46 (Dec. 19, 2020)
Alabama was essentially unchallenged in the pandemic-marred season until it faced Florida in Atlanta on the weekend before Christmas

11. Alabama 24, Auburn 22 (Nov. 27, 2021)
Of all the games the Crimson Tide has pulled out of the fire in the program's history, few were as unlikely as the four-overtime duel with Bryan Harsin's Tigers at Jordan-Hare

12. Alabama 27, Georgia 24 (Dec. 2, 2023)
What wound up being Saban's final victory as Alabama coach ended Georgia's 29-game winning streak and served as a reminder that the Crimson Tide was still the program to beat in the SEC.

Honorable mention
Here are six other games that very nearly made our list:

Alabama 26, Auburn 21 (2009)

Alabama 21, LSU 17 (2012)

Alabama 42, Notre Dame 14 (2013)

Alabama 49, Texas A&M 42 (2013)

Alabama 52, Ohio State 24 (2021)

Alabama 27, Auburn 24 (2023)

---

So that's our list. Which of your favorites did we leave off?

[jbcarol]

Sen. Tuberville claims he helped bring Nick Saban to Alabama: 'I got the rest of them fired'

By William Thornton |

Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville said he anticipated Nick Saban's retirement earlier this month.

Tuberville said he and Saban have been friends for 25 years.

Tuberville is one of (a handful of) head coaches with a winning record against the former Alabama coach, going 4-3 against Saban in matchups while Tuberville coached Auburn. Saban went 2-3 against Tuberville while he was coached LSU, and 1-1 at Alabama.

"Don't think I don't tell him that quite often," Tuberville said. "We had some great games."

Saban abruptly retired Jan. 10 after 17 years as Alabama's coach.

"I kinda saw it coming," Tuberville said.

"He never mentioned it, but he and I have been working on an NIL bill, along with a lot of other coaches, ADs, for the last couple of years. And he just got tired of it. It wasn't just NIL. I think he got to a point where, you know, he wanted to do maybe something else. He had accomplished so much. And I hate to see him go from college sports. I think he will stay active in some way, I don't know what it is. The success he had...it will never be duplicated, in our lifetime, anyway."

Tuberville famously - or infamously - won six straight against the Crimson Tide, going through five head coaches before Saban delivered a 36-0 win.

"I told them, 'First of all, you wouldn't have Nick Saban, because I got the rest of them fired,'" he said. "When Nick came in, he changed the, I guess, the atmosphere in what Alabama had their possibilities of doing. He was the best guy for the job."

Tuberville said perhaps Saban's biggest accomplishment was consistently winning championships despite yearly turnover in his coaching staff.

"That's probably the best feat of coaching in my lifetime, that I've ever seen in terms of consistency. And again, it won't be replicated any time in the near future," Tuberville said.

"You can't say enough of about what he's done and meant to football over the last 25 years, and what he's brought to college football, in terms of notoriety, more television sets watching college football," he said. "He'll be missed."

[jbcarol]

Presenting the 'All-Saban dream team' of Alabama football

By Creg Stephenson |

Quarterback
First team: Bryce Young (2020-22)


Running backs
First team: Mark Ingram (2008-10) and Derrick Henry (2013-15)

Wide receivers
First team: Amari Cooper (2012-14) and DeVonta Smith (2017-20)

Tight end
First team: O.J. Howard (2013-16)

Offensive tackle
First team: Andre Smith (2007-08) and Cam Robinson (2014-16)

Offensive guard
First team: Barrett Jones (2009-12) and Chance Warmack (2009-12)

Center
First team: Landon Dickerson (2019-20)

DEFENSE


Alabama. (AL.com file photos)Alabama Media Group

Interior linemen
First team: Mt. Cody (2008-09), Jonathan Allen (2013-16), Quinnen Williams (2017-18)

Outside linebackers
First team: C.J. Mosley (2010-13) and Will Anderson (2020-22)

Inside linebackers
First team: Rolando McClain (2007-09) and Dont'a Hightower (2008-11)

Cornerbacks
First team: D Milliner (2010-12) and Patrick Surtain (2018-20)

Safeties
First team: Mark Barron (2008-11) and Minkah Fitzpatrick (2015-17)

SPECIAL TEAMS
Kicker
First team: Will Reichard (2019-23)

Second team: Leigh Tiffin (2007-09)

Punter
First team: JK Scott (2014-17)

Return specialist
First team: Javier Arenas (2007-09)

Special teams utility
First team: Reuben Foster (2013-16)

COACHING STAFF
First team
Offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach: Lane Kiffin (2014-16)

Defensive coordinator/defensive backs coach: Kirby Smart (2007-15)

Strength & conditioning coach: Scott Cochran (2007-19)

A few notes here ... Kiffin gets the nod among a very distinguished OC group for the way he pulled Saban's offense into the 21st century by embracing and installing no-huddle and run/pass option concepts. ...

[jbcarol]

O'Gara: A post-Nick Saban retirement ranking of SEC coaches heading into 2024

16. Jeff Lebby, Mississippi State
One thing I like — In the past 6 years, Lebby has been part of 4 top-15 offenses and all of his offenses ranked in the top 1/4 in FBS.

One thing I don't like — This feels like I'm being a hater to have Lebby in this spot, but he's a first-time head coach who's entering a conference with 15 coaches who have multiple years of head coaching experience at the Power-5

15. Clark Lea, Vanderbilt
One thing I like — In 2021, Lea inherited a program that had exactly 1 SEC win in the previous 2 seasons, and by Year 2, he had the Dores in a bowl-or-bust game to close the regular season.

One thing I don't like — It's not fair to take away a coach's best season, so I won't mention that Lea is 4-20 and 0-16 in SEC play outside of 2022.

14. Billy Napier, Florida
One thing I like — Hmmmmm. This is tough. He's 9-4 in The Swamp? Nah, that's weak. OK, what about this. By landing DJ Lagway, Napier signed Florida's highest-rated quarterback recruit since Brock Berlin in 2000. Better?

One thing I don't like — In 2 years at Florida, Napier is 2-10 games that have come after Oct. 14.

13. Sam Pittman, Arkansas
One thing I like — He inherited a program that hadn't won an SEC game in over 1,000 days and he got the Hogs a Florida bowl victory to clinch win No. 9 in his second season on the job.

One thing I don't like — Since that impressive Year 2, Arkansas is 4-12 vs. SEC competition and 3-9 overall in 1-score games.

12. Shane Beamer, South Carolina
One thing I like — In 3 seasons as a head coach, Beamer has 7 outright wins as an underdog, and 4 of those wins were as double-digit dogs.

One thing I don't like — I'll excuse the fact that Beamer has yet to have a winning season in SEC play and instead point to the alarming trend of not having a run offense/defense that has ranked in the top half of FBS

11. Brent Venables, Oklahoma
One thing I like — If we're excluding Saban, for my money, it's hard to argue against a defensive résumé that includes 10 top-30 scoring defenses from 2013-23 with the lone miss being Year 1 at Oklahoma.

One thing I don't like — In Venables' 2 years as a head coach, Oklahoma is currently in its worst 2-year stretch (in the current century).

10. Mike Elko, Texas A&M
One thing I like — In the history of Duke football, no coach had ever recorded more than 13 wins in their first 2 seasons.

One thing I don't like — The Clemson win was an unbelievable moment for Elko. It's also his only win vs. an AP Top 25 team

9. Drink, Mizzou
One thing I like — Drinkwitz owns the only BCS/New Year's 6 bowl victory in program history.

One thing I don't like — He's still in search of consecutive winning seasons

8. Hugh Freeze, Auburn
One thing I like — He has taken 4 different FBS programs to a bowl game, and he improved each program's win total in Year 1.

One thing I don't like — As much as Freeze gets credit for beating Nick Saban in consecutive years in 2014-15, his record vs. AP Top 25 opponents after 2015 is 3-13. Those wins came against Year 1 Kirby Smart at Georgia, a 2016 A&M team that finished 8-5 and 2020 Coastal Carolina.

7. Josh Heupel, Tennessee
One thing I like — Tennessee is in the midst of its best 2-year stretch since ... 1997-98.

One thing I don't like — He's 2-7 against the Vols' 3 biggest rivals. The 2 wins were by a combined 8 points, and all 7 of those losses were by double digits.

6. Mark Stoops, Kentucky
One thing I like — Since 1978, UK has 2 seasons with a winning record in SEC play, both of which were earned by Stoops in the past 6 years (2018 and 2021).

One thing I don't like — Only 2 of Stoops' 35 SEC victories came against teams that finished with a winning record in conference play

5. Steve Sarkisian, Texas
One thing I like — It isn't just enough to say that he resurrected a traditional power by lifting it to its best season in 14 years and that he's a top-3 offensive mind in the sport, so I'll add that Sarkisian has 17 career wins vs. AP Top 25 teams, which is No. 3 among active SEC coaches behind only Brian Kelly and Kirby Smart.

One thing I don't like — The 2023 season was the first time in Sarkisian's career as a head coach in which he had fewer than 4 regular-season losses.

4. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss
One thing I like — In 2021, he led Ole Miss to its first 10-win regular season, and then one-upped that 2 years later by leading the program to its first 11-win season.

One thing I don't like — Kiffin is 3-21 lifetime vs. Power 5 teams that finished with at least 9 regular-season wins.

3. Kalen DeBoer, Alabama
One thing I like — In 4 seasons as a head coach, he's 12-2 vs. AP Top 25 competition. That's 2 more wins against ranked foes than Lane Kiffin (10), who has been a head coach for 12 seasons.

One thing I don't like — He only has 3 years of experience at the Power 5

2. Brian Kelly, LSU
One thing I like — Who now owns the nation's longest active streak of 10-win seasons? It's Kelly, who kept that streak alive after taking over a 6-win LSU team that had 39 scholarship players

One thing I don't like — Here's the list of Kelly's career wins vs. AP Top 5 teams:

2020 Notre Dame: W, 47-40 (2OT) vs. No. 1 Clemson (without Trevor Lawrence)

1. Kirby Smart, Georgia
One thing I like — The only active coaches who can say "I beat Kirby Smart" are Gus and Tom Herman

One thing I don't like — The man widely considered the best coach in the sport — that includes people like me — has 1 conference title in the past 6 seasons.

[jbcarol]

First and 10: Power ranking the SEC head coaches in 2024 ... and more
Matt Hayes | 22 minutes ago

Kirby Smart escaped Nick Saban's shadow in 2021 — right after the first national title at Georgia in four decades — and now he's alone at the top of the annual ranking of the SEC coaches.

Saban's retirement earlier this month ends one of the most fascinating arguments: Who's the best coach in the SEC, and by proxy, college football?

It was "the now" vs. "the resume." And the resume just headed to Lake Burton.

SEC coaches should be given an award for simply being part of this meatgrinder league, an elite group not unlike the NFL. It's always "1 of 32" when speaking of NFL coaching jobs and their premium value.

Now it's 1 of 16 in the SEC, and while it's not the same as an NFL gig at the highest level of football, the pay is comparable (for most) and the stress and pressure to win — in this age of uncertain roster management — is significantly more difficult.

Don't feel sorry for these guys, they know what they've signed up for

A ranking of the SEC's 16 head coaches, moving into the highly-anticipated 2024 season:

2. Championship elite
1. Kirby Smart, Georgia

The now: I'm still not convinced Georgia wasn't 1 of the 4 best teams in 2023, and wouldn't have beaten Michigan (or anyone else) in the Playoff.

At the very least, Saban cost Smart 1 national title (2017) and a shot at winning another (2023). No one recruits better than Smart, no one develops players better. No one is a better big game coach.

The future: The new schedule — no matter how it shakes out down the road — will be more challenging for Georgia than the previous stroll through the East Division.


The only remaining question: how long can Smart grind, season after season

2. Brian Kelly, LSU

The now: Kelly knew he had a special offense before the 2023 season, when he proclaimed QB Jayden Daniels could be the best player in college football.

The problem: He (and his defensive staff) still haven't figured out how to get key stops in big games. That stalled a championship run in Year 2, which ended with another 10-win season.

Good at most places, but not why Kelly left Notre Dame.

The future: Those rare quarterbacks don't come around often (and Kelly deserves huge credit for Daniels' development). Now what?

The defense must be rebuilt, QB Garrett Nussmeier has potential and this team looks a lot like Kelly's Notre Dame teams: Playoff worthy, but 1 or 2 pieces short

3. One step away
3. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss

The now: The lack of appreciation of what Kiffin has accomplished at Ole Miss is stunning. Double-digit wins in 2 of the past 3 seasons — including a program-best 11 wins in 2023 — is remarkable.

It's Ole Miss, people; not an SEC blue-blood. No one recruits and reaches transfer portal players like Kiffin.

The future: 2 questions linger: How far can Kiffin take Ole Miss by turning over the roster every season, and how long can Ole Miss keep him in Oxford?

Stop thinking of Kiffin as the 1-and-done Tennessee coach, or the guy who followed The Guy at USC, or Saban's offensive coordinator and play-caller. He's so much more than that.

He's not the same coach, not the same man. He has become a CEO coach — he doesn't run the offense, Charlie Weis Jr., does — and he's now the best parts of mentors Pete Carroll and Saban.

4. Steve Sarkisian, Texas

The now: Sark went and did it: He officially has Texas "back." This, of course, can mean only one thing: national championship or bust.

And what exactly is wrong with that? Especially with all the inherent advantages at Texas.

The future: He's building a monster at a program framed to support it.

High school recruiting is as good now as the Golden Age of Mack Brown, and Sarkisian is also landing key impact players from the transfer portal.

Stop thinking of him as the guy who flamed out at USC, and look more at the guy who has Texas primed for something big. He's set up to win a national title with the Longhorns —

5. Kalen DeBoer, Alabama

The now: What else could Alabama have asked for in replacing Saban?

When you land a guy who is 104-12 — including 25-3 as a Power 5 coach —

The future: It's all about player procurement. Saban was a terrific coach; the greatest of all time at any level of football.

But he'd be the first to say players win games. It's just that simple.

If DeBoer can recruit near the same level of Saban (and his ever-changing staffs) over the past 17 years, he has a chance to win big, too.

We've already seen what DeBoer he can do at Washington — with recruiting classes ranked in the mid-20s. What happens when he starts landing Top 5 recruiting classes?

4. Maintaining
6. Hugh Freeze, Auburn

The now: It's not that he has won everywhere (he has), or that he does his best work in big games.

He consistently, year after year, does the most important thing in the game: develops high-level quarterbacks. Which is what made 2023 all the more perplexing.

He has won big with ("Good") Bo Wallace, Chad Kelly and Malik Willis. All castoffs from other programs, all played at a high level under Freeze. He'll figure it out at Auburn, too.

The future: It typically takes a year for Freeze to develop his structure offensively, and for a quarterback to emerge.

Maybe there's one on the roster now (Hank Brown?)

7. Josh Heupel, Tennessee

The now: The regression this season was as much about the quarterback as it was the lack of elite talent on the perimeter.

Not everyone is Hendon Hooker. But Heupel's Blur Ball offense is no gimmick, and it will give SEC defenses problems for as long as he's in Knoxville.

The future: The sport revolves around the quarterback, and Heupel has quickly made Tennessee the place for the position.

It started with 5-star Nico.

8. Brent Venables, Oklahoma

The now: After a disastrous first season in 2022, OU wasn't wasn't that far from the Playoff in 2023. The Sooners lost 2 games (both on the road) in the regular season by a combined 8 points, and lost the bowl game after star QB Dillon Gabriel opted out.

Venables didn't panic after Year 1 (when he easily could have) and stayed true to his buildout. Get 1 of those 2 late road losses, and you're playing Texas again in the Big 12 Championship Game with a spot in the Playoff on the line.

9. Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri

The now: This is what happens when you're not bigger than the game, and not consumed with who you are and what you're about: a rare season unfolds.

Drinkwitz gave up control of the offense and focused on team — and suddenly, everything changed at Missouri. A brilliant move of self-reflection and growth.

The future: He's likable and gregarious and he has a little riverboat gambler to him. Players love him.

His aw shucks personality fits perfectly at Missouri, but belies a smart football mind. The heavy lift is far from over. Now it's time to deal with Playoff expectations —

10. Mike Elko, Texas A&M

The now: It's hard to argue the success at Duke. Not just the wins and losses, but the recruiting and development on both sides of the ball.

The future: If Elko can do at Texas A&M what he accomplished at Duke with recruiting and development, this will quickly become a Playoff team.

He has all the advantages he didn't have at Duke (geographic recruiting footprint, financial support), but not the same patience —

11. Mark Stoops, Kentucky

The now: There's no doubt 2023 was a significant disappointment. Kentucky had its best team in years, and an experienced transfer QB (Devin Leary) — and lost 6 of 8 to finish the season.

That's back-to-back 7-6 seasons at UK, and both teams underachieved. Stoops raised the bar in Lexington, and now he has to deal with the bear he created.

The future: As strange as it sounds, this is lowest level at Kentucky since 2015 —

5. Now or never
12. Sam Pittman, Arkansas

The now: Win or walk. There's no other way to look at Pittman's 5th season in 2024.

There's too much to like about what Pittman means to the state, and how much he loves the program — and has had undeniable pockets of success — to let this thing fail.

The future: What are the Hogs closer to: the 9-4 team in 2021, or the 3-7 team in 2020?

There has been plenty of turnover in the last 2 seasons, including 52 players leaving for the transfer portal. Now Pittman is starting over with a new quarterback (Boise State transfer Taylor Green) and a short leash —

13. Shane Beamer, South Carolina

The now: Any way you look at it, there's some wobble now in Beamer's buildout.

A rash of injuries on the offensive line didn't help things, but South Carolina's regression wasn't pretty. More unsettling: the Gamecocks continue to lose impact players to the portal (see: Jaheim Bell, Jordan Burch, MarShawn Lloyd, Juice Wells).

The future: A sobering reality: the Gamecocks wasted 1 of 2 seasons with an elite quarterback (Spencer Rattler) who could win in the SEC.

14. Billy Napier, Florida

The now: Florida AD Scot Stricklin points to Napier's recruiting, but the 2024 class (ranked No. 15 by 247Sports composite) was the program's worst ranking since Napier's 1st class in 2022 (No. 18).

That 2022 Napier class, his first with the program, was Florida's worst since 2015 (No. 21) under Jim McElwain. Then there's the development and retention. In a word: woof.

The future: A win or walk season includes the most difficult schedule in the nation, and the hope that young players develop quickly and make a significant impact.

A tough ask in a brutal conference.

Napier and Stricklin point to the Arkansas and Missouri games as proof of growth, and that Florida was much closer to improvement than the record indicates. But the Gators lost both games because of coaching decisions —

15. Jeff Lebby, Mississippi State

The now: New coach, new vision, new hope. But understand this: If Zach Arnett had won 6 or 7 games in 2023, he'd still be the coach.

Now Lebby walks into a situation where it's not so much about a new frontier with the new Playoff, but 2 more fully-loaded programs to navigate in the new SEC.

The future: Can it be different? Can Lebby, whose offense developed from the uber-successful Art Briles/Baylor spread, make it fun and unique like Mike Leach did for 3 years before his passing?

16. Clark Lea, Vanderbilt

The now: You can't lose all 8 SEC games by an average of 23 points a game. You just can't — even at Vanderbilt. You can't be 2-22 in the SEC over the past 3 seasons.

The future: Bleak.

[jbcarol]

Danny Kanell
@dannykanell
·

College football is losing its best coaches because there is zero structure. It's impossible to manage rosters, keep players from bolting, or have any say in who to pay but still have to worry about NCAA?? It's a joke and if it doesn't get fixed soon more will make the same jump!
8:11 PM · Jan 24, 2024

[jbcarol]

2024 Top 10 head coach rankings: With no Nick Saban or Jim Harbaugh, it's Kirby Smart and then who?

by:
Jesse Simonton
•

It's been an offseason chalked with upheaval — I mean who foresaw three of the four teams in the 2023 College Football Playoff featuring new head coaches in 2024? —

No. 1 Kirby Smart, Georgia
Smart is the undisputed top-ranked coach in America right now. He's won at least 11 games in six of the last seven years, has a pair of national titles to his name and just inked the No. 1 recruiting class.

Georgia has sent more talent to the NFL than any program in the country in the last few seasons, and the Bulldogs are the early favorites for the national championship in 2024.

No. 2 Brian Kelly, LSU
Kelly has done everything but win a national championship at the FBS level. He's won at least 10 games in seven straight seasons, producing a Heisman Trophy winner in quarterback Jayden Daniels in Year 2 at LSU.

This offseason, he overhauled the Tigers' defensive coaching staff, poaching Blake Baker and Kevin Peoples from Missouri and Bo Davis from Texas. LSU currently has the No. 1 ranked 2025 recruiting class. With Saban gone, Kelly's chances of winning a national title in Baton Rouge just went up.

No. 3 Kalen DeBoer, Alabama
While DeBoer's resume as FBS head coach is fairly light, the man rarely loses —

No. 5 Steve Sarkisian, Texas
Sarkisian won 10 games for the first time in his career in 2023, resurrecting the Longhorns' program back to national prominence by winning the Big 12 and making the CFP. He's arguably the best play-caller

No. 10 Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss
Kiffin just led the Rebels to their first 11-win season in school history, and like Sarkisian, has overcome a rocky start to his head coaching career (be it the one-and-done season at Tennessee or the stint at USC). Before Kiffin arrived in Oxford, Ole Miss had just three 10-win seasons in 48 years. He could top that in 2024 with the Rebels pushing their chips for a potential SEC title run.

Kiffin has maximized the transfer portal and is an excellent offensive mind. Next up: leading Ole Miss to the playoff and winning more games against Top 25 foes.

Just missed: Dan Lanning, Lance Leipold, Chris Klieman and Josh Heupel.

[jbcarol]

Kentucky (Updated)

Jerry Claiborne alum had a harrowing plane ride while recruiting and resigned from coaching after the 1989 season and a 6-5 mark.

Bill Curry left Bama to become Kentucky's coach and was there from 1990 to 1996. 1993 was his most accomplished team going 6-6 and losing the Peach Bowl on a late fumble by a linebacker after an interception. In 1996, Curry put true freshman Tim Couch in his first starting role running the option against Florida. That was the final straw. Curry's SEC record was 14-40 in seven seasons. His teams were 12-12 in non-conference games. Along with some TV analyst work, Curry coached Georgia State in the early 2010s.

Hal Mumme brought his Air Raid attack from Valdosta State to start the 1997 season. He brought characters on his staff like Tony Franklin and the late Mike Leach. AD CM Newton wanted "the Pitino of football" to raise fan excitement. His unorthodox style led to kicking off out of bounds ("I've got future CPAs trying to tackle future NFL players"), frequent on-side kicks, and laying down to give up seven for a shot at getting eight. Mumme's team got UK's first win over Bama since the 1920's. In '98 with help from a UK alum being Outback's CEO, UK got their first  New Year's Day Bowl since the 50's. Couch and Co. were held down by Jerry Sandusky's defense. Penn State later vacated that bowl win. Mumme's 2000 team went 0-8 in the SEC ending his UK career along with a scandal involving his academic and recruiting coordinator. Mumme's SEC record over four seasons was 10-22. Two teams went 4-4 which was only good for 4th in the SEC east in '97 and '98.

Guy Morriss, UK's Offensive Line Coach and Associate Head Coach was named interim coach for the 2001 season (2-9) and head coach for 2002 (7-5, ineligible for post season due to sanctions from the Claude Bassett incident). Morriss was doused with Gatorade in a premature player celebration before Nick Saban's LSU team completed a 75-yard TD pass on the last play for a win. Morriss left UK for Baylor. His SEC record was 4-12. After failing at Baylor and A&M-Commerce, Morriss coached high school football in Central Kentucky. The former NFL lineman was disagnosed with Alzheimer's and died in Sept. 2002.

Rich Brooks was named the head of the UK's football coach search committee by his former Oregon Athletic Adminstrator Mitch Barnhart. Brooks recommended himself. The former coach of the Rams had a rough start going 4-20 in SEC games in his first three seasons. He was owned by Bobby Petrino and UofL who got UK to move their season opener to the third game of the season in years that UK was home team in part to get it off of national television. In 2006 after getting blown out LSU, Brooks' team turned it around to finish third in the SEC-E at 4-4. After upsetting then top ten UofL now coached by Steve Kragthorpe and number one and eventual national champ LSU in multiple overtimes, UK was briefly in the Top Ten. Brooks got UK into a school record four consecutive bowl games. He resigned after the 2009 season to turn the program over to his long time coach-in-waiting, Joker Phillips. Brooks seven season SEC record was 16-39. He could not get a win over Florida nor Tennessee. The Tennessee and Florida streaks were the longest futility streaks in the NCAA for one team against another stretching into the 80's.

Former UK WR Joker Phillips was UK's recruiting coordinator who set up their '06 and '07 teams. Phillips became the coach-in-waiting and UK's recruiting appeared to suffer. Phillips' team extended UK's bowl streak in 2010 but lost in the BBVA Compass Bowl. His 2011 team lost to UofL with good friend, doppelganger and Batesville native Charlie Strong at the helm. It was UK's first loss to UofL since Petrino left. UK won their last game over Tennessee breaking the 26-year futility streak by using WR Matt Burke in his first UK duty ever at QB. Joker Phillips was fired ten games into the 2012 season after a 1-9 start and he finished the season 0-8 in the SEC. His SEC record was 4-20. Phillips was hired by Will Muschamp to be Recruiting Coordinator and WR Coach at Florida. His "Come Play for the Joker" photoshops with a Heath Ledger motif were considered creepy. Joe Phillips is currently the Assistant Head Coach and WR Coach at NC State.

Kentucky hired Florida State Defensive Coordinator Mark Stoops, 45, to replace Phillips. Former UK QB and Fox Sports Network SEC analyst Tim Couch is reported to have been key in helping bring Stoops to UK. It was Stoops' first head coaching position. The current dean of SEC Coaches has the distinction of being the winningest and losingest coach in UK football history due to his longevity.  Mitch Barnhart was patient during the Stoops rebuild as the younger brother of Bob Stoops tapped into the Ohio recruiting footprint along with head recruiter and fellow Buckeye native Vince Marrow.

In 2018 Kentucky snapped their 31-year losing streak to Florida. Kentucky beat Penn State in the Citrus Bowl giving the Wildcats their first 10 win season since 1977. Stoops became Kentucky's first head man to win SEC Coach of the Year since the aforementioned Claiborne. In 2019, UK turned to WR Lynn Bowden, Jr. at QB and went 8-5 with a Belk Bowl win. In Covid-20 against an All-SEC schedule, Kentucky went 4-6 yet defeated #24 NC State in the Gator Bowl.  Will Levis lead the '21 team to another 10-3 record and a Citrus Bowl win, UK's fourth straight bowl win. After a couple of 7-6 seasons ending in bowl losses, a public feud with John Calipari over whether UK is a "Basketball or Football School" (actually where resources are going), and a solid report that Stoops was replacing Jimbo at A&M yet rejected by the Board, Stoops sits at 73-65 at Kentucky in 11 seasons yet 35-55 in the SEC and a future of no SEC-East.

[jbcarol]

Where do power conference teams with first-year head coaches stack up in ESPN's 2024 returning production rankings, what it means?
by:
Jesse Simonton
•

2023-24 coaching carousel has unfolded like a five-part play. Northwestern and Michigan State had surprising openings that occurred before and early in the 2023 season, and later, Texas A&M became the first marquee job on the market when the Aggies finally decided to fire Jimbo.

After a slew of other postseason openings, the dust seemed to settle until Nick Saban announced his stunning retirement, creating a ripple of available jobs at Washington, Arizona and elsewhere.

Then Jim Harbaugh predictably bolted for the NFL, and less than a week later, Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley took a DC job in the league with the Green Bay Packers.

With the Pac-12 gone, there is no more Power 5, but among the Core 4 conferences (plus Oregon State), there have been 14 coaching changes this cycle. Now is a good time to take stock of teams' current personnel in terms of returning production.

RETURNING PRODUCTION ON POWER CONFERENCE TEAMS WITH FIRST-YEAR HEAD COACHES

Mike Elko, Texas A&M — 18th nationally: 72% total production (77% Off, 67% Def)

Kalen DeBoer, Alabama — 115th nationally: 44% total production (56% Off, 33% Def)

Jeff Lebby, Mississippi State — 122nd nationally: 41% total production (54% Off, 27% Def)

And then there's the three 2023 College Football Playoff teams with new coaches, all who have seen lots of roster turnover in the last month.

Alabama routinely ranks low in returning production due to Nick Saban's propensity to send so much talent to the NFL, but now that Saban's gone, can the Tide continue to win with comparatively inexperienced rosters and a new head coach?

[jbcarol]

How Alabama's 2023 seniors felt about Nick Saban's retirement

By Matt Stahl | 

Even at age 72 and after 17 seasons in Tuscaloosa, Nick Saban's retirement came as a surprise in Tuscaloosa. According to the former Alabama football head coach, he didn't make the final choice to retire until minutes before a Jan. 10 team meeting, where he announced the move to his players.

Will Reichard and Justin Eboigbe weren't in the room when it happened. The kicker and defensive lineman were preparing for the NFL Draft when Saban dropped it

"He seemed like was all bought in, and he was," Reichard said. "I guess he made that decision after the season was over, but you couldn't tell during the season."

Saban won six national titles in Tuscaloosa, seven throughout his career. He built the Crimson Tide into an unstoppable death machine, one of the few programs always in contention.

His legacy wasn't lost on the final group of his seniors. Eboigbe said he believes in new head coach Kalen DeBoer, but thought Saban's impact will still be felt.

"I feel like the culture that coach Saban instilled in that group of guys, there's a lot of guys still there," Eboigbe said. "A lot of people talk about the guys that left, but it's a great group of guys still there that are going to instill that culture into the next group of guys that (DeBoer) brings in. There's going to be some semblance of coach Saban there. He's still gonna be around. Just because he physically isn't there on the day-to-day doesn't mean his presence isn't gonna be felt."

[jbcarol]

Georgia (Updated)

Ray Goff was a 33-year-old running backs coach when he was chosen to replace the legend,  Vince Dooley starting with the 1989 season.  In seven seasons, Goff had only one team win as many as five SEC games. The 1992 team was 6-2, finished in the top ten, and played in the Citrus Bowl. Ray Goff was 24-28-1 in SEC games.

Jim Donnan had led Marshall to five consecutive 11-plus win seasons when he was tapped to replace Goff and coach UGa for five seasons beginning in 1996. Donnan led UGa to four straight bowl wins but lost three straight against GaTech and struggled against UT and UF. Donnan is currently alleged to have been involved in a Ponzi scheme that has cost many coaches and others millions of dollars.  Donnan was 25-15 in SEC games at UGa. His last season, 2000, was his last as a head coach. He was the 1997 SEC Coach of the Year. He has apparently survived his involvement in leading other football coaches into an unsuccessful pyramid marketing scheme as he continues to do analysis on football studio shows. He was on the very first B1G Network postgame show: Appalachian State over Michigan.

Mark Richt had been the Offensive Coordinator and QB Coach at Florida State for 11 seasons when he was hired to replace Donnan for the 2001 season. In 2002 Richt's Bulldogs went 11-1 in the regular season and defeated Arkansas to win the SEC championship. Georgia's lone loss was to Florida, which kept the Bulldogs out of contention for a BCS national championship appearance. The Bulldogs defeated Florida State in the Sugar Bowl. Richt was named the SEC Coach of the Year.

In 2005 Richt became only the seventh coach in SEC history to win two SEC titles in his first five years at the helm of a program. Georgia defeated LSU to win the SEC title and made an appearance in the Sugar Bowl, losing to West Virginia. Richt was named the SEC Coach of the Year for the second time.

Georgia finished first or tied for first in the SEC-E, six times. Richt's SEC record was 83-37 or 5.5 wins per year.  Not following up with SEC Championships in spite of having the most proximate fertile recruiting ground in the nation were an annual problem. He will leave as one of the stand up coaches in SEC history.  Georgia's message track was that Richt would not take another job. He took the head coaching job at his alma mater Miami before the week was out. He currently appears on the ACC Network.

Georgia announced that assistant head coach Bryan McClendon would serve as interim head coach in the bowl game. McClendon was the team's wide receivers coach. He will become the first black head coach for a Georgia football game, even if for a single game.

On December 6, 2015, Smart was announced as the 26th head football coach for the Bulldogs. Smart signed a memorandum of understanding detailing payment of $3.75 million per year for 6 years. Smart was a four-year letterman at defensive back for Georgia and a first-team All-SEC selection as a senior. He finished his career with 13 interceptions, which ranks fourth all-time at Georgia, and led the Bulldogs with six interceptions in 1997 and five in 1998. He would have been a teammate of Brandon Burlsworth for the Colts.

Smart coached under Donnan, Bobby Bowden, and Richt before finally hitching his wagon to Nick Saban.  He was an assistant for Saban for 11 non-consecutive years including one season with the Dolphins. He won the Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant coach in 2009. In 2013 Bama made him the highest paid assistant at $1.28 million per year.

Smart did double duty coaching Bama's defense in the College Football Playoff while recruiting and assembling a staff at UGa.  He attempted to lure Dan Enos from Arkansas who was working under an SEC non-compete clause. He hired the team of Pitt OC Jim Chaney and Hog OL coach Sam Pittman. He began to install his version of "The Process".

Smart is 56-9 in SEC regular season games and 93-16 overall at UG. He has won two national championships (2021 and 2022) and just as difficult, two conference championships. He was the Media Coach of the Year in 2017 and SEC Coaches Coach of the Year in '17, '21 and '22. Smart's teams won the recently defunct SEC East six times in his eight seasons. His teams were second or tied for second the other two seasons. Kirby is married to Mary Beth. Tall and long, she played basketball for Georgia.

[jbcarol]

Auburn (Updated)

Pat Dye had coached Wyoming for one season when he interviewed for the Auburn job as AD and head football coach following the 1980 season. Dye apparently correctly answered, "sixty minutes" when asked how long it would take him to beat Bama. He replaced Doug Barfield who had followed Shug Jordan. He replaced the coach who replaced the legend.  Pat Dye is credited with getting the Iron Bowl games played home and home. Dye was 48-27-3 in SEC games with his last season being the first expansion season of '92. He was 2-5-1 and fifth in the SEC-W.

Pat Dye lost his AD position following the '91 season. NCAA sanctions were levied for payments to Eric Ramsey. Corky and Larry Blakeney were implicated via tape recordings. Auburn currently plays home games on Pat Dye Field in Jordan-Hare Stadium. A mentor and strong advocate of Gus Malzahn, Dye passed away in 2020 and Malzahn paid tribute by dressing like Dye in the opener.

Beginning with the '93 season, Terry Bowden was hired from Samford, and inherited scholarship reductions, a one-year television ban, and a two-year postseason ban. Bowden became the first coach to have an undefeated first season in D1. He was 14-1-1 in the SEC after two seasons with no post-season experience including a 20-game winning streak. He was 16-13 in conference over the next four seasons with his last Auburn team, the '98 team, finishing 6th in the SEC-W.

Bowden was replaced mid-season in '98 by DC Bill Oliver. Oliver finished 0-3 in the SEC and retired from football coaching when he did not get the Auburn job for the '99 season. Terry Bowden was hired to coach Louisiana-Monroe in December 2020.

Camden native Tommy Tuberville had gone 12-20 at Ole Miss when they "carried him out of Oxford in a pine box" and hired him at Auburn.

Tuberville was 51-29 in SEC games over his tenure from '99 thru '08. From '99 to 2002, a young Whit Babcock was a part of the Auburn athletic adminstration. Babcock is the University of Cincinnati AD who hired Tuberville from Texas Tech on December 8, 2012 as their new head coach to replace Butch Jones who was hired the day before to coach Tennessee.

Tuberville was National Coach of the Year in '04, the year his team was SEC champs. His 13-0 team was not included in the BCS era prior to the four-team play-off.

Following a 2-6 SEC record in '08, Jay Jacobs claimed that Tuberville resigned. He received a $5.1 million separation package. Tuberville won a US Senate seat in 2020.

Gene Chizik was a prominent name on hot seat lists at Iowa State following a 0-8 Big 12 North run in '08. Jacobs met some criticism when hiring the former Auburn DC.

Chizik was 15-9 in SEC games after three seasons. He was national coach of the year in 2010 when his team went 14-0 winning the BCS-NC and SEC-CG behind Cam Newton.

Chizik was fired after an 0-8 SEC finish in '12, the first school to ever finish seventh in the SEC-West (due to addition of A&M). He became the first coach to be fired after winning the National Championship within two years in at least the last fifty (FIFTY!) years. Chizik's final SEC regular season record was 15-17, 7-17 without Cam Newton.

Auburn hired Gus Malzahn in December 2012 who had just finished his first season as a head coach at Arkansas State winning the Sun Belt title. Malzahn was OC at Auburn from 2009-11 before taking a cut in pay to take the Arkansas State job. Malzahn left the Arkansas high school coaching ranks to join five of his Springdale state champion players as OC at Arkansas. He left after one season with Houston Nutt when David Lee was announced to be Co-OC. Malzahn was OC at Tulsa before taking the Auburn Offensive Coordinator position for Gene Chizik.

Malzahn's 39-27 record in SEC games over eight seasons is the highest winning percentage of any SEC Coach let go for reasons other than World War. Malzahn's first Auburn season ended in the SEC's first BCS National Championship Game loss in 2013 to Florida State. He won some National Coach of the Year awards. Wins that season included the "Prayer at Jordan-Hare" and "Kick Six".

The Malzahn family had undergone some embarrassment after his wife Kristi's appearance at the Business Summit in Rogers went viral.

In 2017, Malzahn's teams upset #1 Georgia and #1 Bama. Malzahn signed a seven-year $49 million package after receiving a strong offer that included a buyout.

Malzahn working with Pat Dye as his liaison to Auburn boosters would alternate being play caller and CEO coach from year-to-year. He brought in embattled, former Arkansas head coach Chad Morris to be his OC in the Covid-20.

It was reported that Malzahn had fallen out of favor with influential boosters who got their wish to replace Gus yet were denied by whom -- DC Kevin Steele. This was a move reminiscent of Phil Fulmer's replacement of Johnny Majors at Tennessee in 1992 only that Fulmer was able to obtain the job after Tennessee lost to Arkansas at home on a last second FG.

Gus finished 67-35 (38-27 SEC) at Auburn and he took the job at UCF for 2021 and currently.

Bryan Harsin was hired after a national search by Auburn AD Allen Greene. Harsin went 69-19 in seven seasons at Boise State in which he actually did better in conference games (45-8) than he did overall. This will be the second time Harsin replaces Gus Malzahn. Harsin followed Malzahn at Arkansas State in 2013, the third consecutive season that A-State had utilized a one-year coach following Hugh Freeze and Malzahn. He was the 27th coach at Auburn starting with a $5.25 million salary.

Harsin's first team went 6-7 (3-5 SEC) in 2021. They lost in the Birmingham Bowl. Auburn had Bama upset in the Iron Bowl when Tank went out of bounds on a rush causing a clock stoppage and time for Tide to tie and eventually win in OT. Harsin fired OC Mike Bobo and replaced with with Austin Davis who left six weeks later during the winter. DC Derek Mason left to go to Oklahoma State where he took a leave from football earlier this week. Legacy and three-year starting QB Bo Nix left to go to Oregon. 20 players hit the portal.

Harsin told ESPN: "I'm not going anywhere." The Auburn booster machine went into action and had information leaked which may or may not be true about Harsin's personal life. Harsin and family were on vacation when this hit the Alabama press and he did not alter his time off to respond. Upon return Sankey arranged for Harsin to enter via a special entrance for SEC Media Days in May. AD Greene stood by Harsin and Harsin began a campaign to be accessible in the Auburn community including a podcast that was actually called "Hangin' With Hars". However, the week before the season, Greene's contract was not renewed and he resigned as AD. Greene landed as an assistant at Ole Miss.

Harsin's team was 3-5 (1-4 in league) when his team lost at home to Arkansas 41-27 and he was fired on Monday as Auburn hired State AD John Cohen to do the job. After going 45-8 in the MWC, Harsin's Auburn tenure ended 9-12 (4-9 SEC).

Carnell "Cadillac" Williams was on staff and appointed as the interim, the first black head coach at Auburn. Williams brought an energy that had not been seen on the sidelines since Trooper Taylor waved the towel back during Auburn's national title game days with the Big Cat weekends. Auburn finished 2-2 with a tough OT loss to the late Mike Leach and State but defeated A&M and Western. They lost the iron bowl. Williams was retained on the new staff for his efforts and energy in "keeping the Family together."

After a highly publicized search, John Cohen announced Hugh Freeze as Auburn's new coach. No stranger to the SEC, the former Ole Miss coach, now 53, had been the coach at Liberty when he was chosen to take the Auburn post. Liberty's win over Arkansas in Fayetteville may have been the final accomplishment to tip the scale in Freeze's favor.

A high school coach at Briarcrest Christian in Memphis (Blindside: Evolution of a Game), Freeze followed his transfer student Michael Oher to Ole Miss as an assistant to Ed Orgeron. Freeze would have at least two female students at the private high school accuse him of inappropriate behavior that would fall short of sexual assault years later. After Ed O was fired and replaced by Houston Nutt, Freeze got on at Lambuth at Jackson and then 2010 was hired as OC at Arkansas State. He became head coach in 2011 having a great season. He became the first of three consecutive one-year coaches at ASU. The other two: Gus Malzahn and Bryan Harsin.

December 5, 2011, Freeze was hired by Bjork to replace Houston Nutt at Ole Miss. This immediately led to a thread titled, "Ole Miss Best Recruiters Ever". In the first year, Rebels went 0-6 with an Egg Bowl win and a Compass Bowl (Birmingham) win. Ole Miss improved in 2013 and had a great season in 2014 including a College Game Day visit including Katy Perry. Ole Miss beat Bama and were in discussions for the College Football Playoff along with Dan Mullen's State team. Ole Miss would later vacate all these wins. Rebs went 10-3 (6-2 SEC) in 2015 including the infamous 4th and 25 play in which Arkansas got a first down on their last chance via the Hunter Henry Heave. On a fateful Sunday morning, Freeze laid a challenge on Twitter that anyone who had real evidence of Ole Miss cheating just send it to the Ole Miss Compliance Office. They were flooded with info. Ole Miss would later be held accountable by the NCAA for providing benefits to players. Freeze was let go in 2016 with an official record of 10-25 (6-21 SEC) and Sugar Bowl win and final Top Ten ranking.

In the Ole Miss statement concerning the NCAA penalties they minimized Freeze's involvement and put more emphasis on the Houston Nutt era. Nutt, then a Sirium XM host and studio host on CBS Sports Network sued Ole Miss. His attorney Thomas Mars obtained records including phone records and ironically discovered that Freeze had phoned an escort service. A deeper dive showed a pattern of behaviour that led to Freeze's firing. The actual customer(s) of the services was not divulged.

After a couple years away from college football, Freeze surfaced at Liberty and helped the private school build a football tradition including Top 25 rankings and bowl wins. Freeze was 34-15 in four years when his Flame defeated Arkansas in Fayetteville. Enough time had passed since Sankey had put onerous guidelines in place making it difficult to hire Freeze. A meeting had to take place though not made public and for certain, Freeze schmoozed his way through that one.

Auburn finished 6-7 in 2023 (3-5 SEC) including a 27-20 loss at home to Georgia in the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry and a 48-10 win over Arkansas capping three straight league wins (over State and Vandy as well). Auburn was blown out by Jerry Kill and New Mexico State 31-10 the next week. Auburn lost the Iron Bowl on 4th and 31, 27-24. Auburn lost their Music City Bowl game to Maryland 31-13 dropping below .500.

Freeze as CEO Coach focused on recruiting throughout 2023. Auburn finished 7th overall in Class of '24 recruiting including Walker White from Little Rock Christian. Auburn is currently 39th in the transfer portal rankings (incoming only). He seemed to throw his OC Phillip Montgomery under the bus and announced he would take over play-calling duties in 2024.  Auburn hired Derrick Nix from Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin was quick to point out that Nix would have to take a play-calling role to avoid a buyout.

[jbcarol]

FOIA: Full details of Steve Sarkisian's contract extension finally revealed
by:
Steve Samra
•

Sarkisian inked a new contract with the Texas Longhorns earlier this offseason, and the details are dropping now.

The extension was signed after Alabama's Nick Saban decided to retire, and the Longhorns chose to reaffirm their commitment to the coach.

Saban's retirement worked out pretty well for Sarkisian:

Inside Texas

@InsideTexas
Details of Steve Sarkisian's new contract, via the UT System Board of Regents meeting agenda for Feb. 21-22.




Sarkisian just finished the third year of his initial six-year, $34.2 million contract. He made $5.6 million for 2023, prior to bonuses — like for winning the league and making the College Football Playoff — kicking in.

Sarkisian just piloted Texas to its most successful season in a decade, going 12-2 and winning the Big 12 on the way to a berth in the Sugar Bowl for the CFP. It was a notable step forward from his previous two seasons, a 5-7 and then 8-5 campaign. Overall, Sarkisian has gone 25-14 during his span as the head coach in Austin.

[jbcarol]

Cadillac reportedly moving to NFL
Derek Peterson | 34 minutes ago

Former Auburn assistant coach Carnell "Cadillac" Williams is moving to the NFL.

According to a report from The War Rapport's Mike Gittens, Williams is expected to join the Las Vegas Raiders as the organization's next running backs coach. He'll step in to lead the room after DeShaun Foster, who had briefly agreed to take the job, returned to UCLA to be the program's head coach.

Williams coached Auburn tailbacks for the last five seasons — doing so under three different coaches — but resigned in January. He was also an interim head coach for four games in 2022 following the firing of Bryan Harsin.

[jbcarol]

First and 10: Dear SEC, Texas is built to take over everything. Starting now
Matt Hayes | 

The Weekly 5
The top 5 football-basketball coaching combinations in the SEC.

1. Lane Kiffin and Chris Beard, Ole Miss

2. Kalen DeBoer and Nate Oats, Alabama

3. Mark Stoops and John Calipari, Kentucky

4. Josh Heupel and Rick Barnes, Tennessee

5. Hugh Freeze and Bruce Pearl, Auburn

[jbcarol]

Vandy (Updated)

Watson Brown (Mack Brown's brother) had been 4-29 in SEC games when he was let go following the 1990 season at his alma mater to become the OC at Mississippi State. Brown is the first coach in NCAA football history to lose 200 games.

Gerry Dinardo was the offensive coordinator at Colorado in 1990, the year Bill McCartney's team won the national championship. After going 1-10 in each of Watson Brown's last two seasons, Vandy went 5-6 in three of four seasons with Dinardo. Dinardo was SEC Coach of the Year for 1991. Dinardo's SEC record was 9-22 and he was hired away by LSU. After coaching he has worked as a studio analyst for B1G Network.

Rod Dowhower had been a head coach at Stanford and for the Indianapolis Colts. He had been idle for one season after serving as an NFL assistant for seven seasons when he took the Vandy job starting with the 1995 season. Dowhower was 1-15 in SEC games in his two seasons at Vandy. He was an NFL OC in his last coaching job at the turn of the century.

The late Woody Widenhofer had been the head coach at Missouri in the 80's. He was DC at Vandy when he was promoted to replace Dowhower. His 1997 team led the SEC in total defense but went 0-8 in conference games. In his five seasons at Vandy, Woody's teams had an SEC record of 4-36. Widenhofer was working at a highway toll booth in the Florida Panhandle until moving to Dallas.

Bobby Johnson had been the head coach at Furman for eight seasons when he took the Vandy job to begin the 2002 season. In 2005 Vandy went 3-5 with Jay Cutler at QB including a highway robbery at Ben Hill Griffin. In 2008, Johnson's team went 7-6 and Vandy got their first bowl win since 1955. Johnson was Co-SEC Coach of the Year. After a 2-10 and 0-8 SEC mark in 2009, Johnson resigned on July 14, 2010. Bobby Johnson's SEC record in eight seasons was 12-52 including a 4-4 mark in 2008. His resignation came as a surprise: "Football is not life, but it's a way of life and it consumes your life. You only have so many years to live, and you want to see a different way." He was on the 2015 CFP Selection Committee.

Robbie Caldwell, the offensive line coach, claimed he was lining the practice field when he was informed of a meeting naming him head coach. He killed at SEC Media Days and the interim tag was removed from his title. With a 28-14 over Houston Nutt's Ole Miss Rebels in Oxford, Caldwell became Vandy's first coach to win his road debut since 1975. Vandy went 1-7 in the SEC and Caldwell announced his resignation just before Vandy's last game against Wake Forest. This touched off a three-week coaching search. Now 70, Caldwell coached the Offensive Line for Clemson until 2021.

James Franklin, the offensive coordinator at Maryland, became the first black head coach of a major sport at Vanderbilt. Franklin's 2011 team earned a bowl bid, Vandy's fourth ever, and finished 6-7 with a Liberty Bowl loss. His first team was 2-6 in the SEC. He once claimed that he only hires an assistant coach after he sees his wife to test his recruiting potential.

Franklin's next two teams went 9-4 overall including bowl wins at the end of the season. This set several school records for bowl participation, most wins in consecutive seasons, and more. Vandy recorded 2013 wins over Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee with the latter two on the road.

Franklin, a Pennsylvania native, was hired by Penn State to replace Bill O'Brien. He left a campus rape case involving now former Vandy players and some convicted. He became the first black football coach in Penn State history. His three year SEC record was 11-13. He is the greatest Vandy football coach of the modern era. He is 56-32 in B1G games at Penn State.

Phoeniz native Derek Mason was hired in January 2014 to replace Franklin. Vandy went 6-6 (3-5 SEC) in Mason's third season with a win over Georgia and a moral victory over Auburn. Vandy closed the season with wins over a Hugh Freeze Ole Miss team and state rival Tennessee to secure the bowl win. Mason's post-game celebration dance went viral. Mason would become the first Vandy coach to beat Tennessee three years in a row since the great Dan McGugin during the '24-26 campaigns. Mason introduced goalie Sarah Fuller in her kicking role as his depleted team wrapped up the season.

Derek Mason went 10-46 in SEC games with six of those wins coming in '16 and '18. After a stint as Auburn's DC and analyst with Dave Neal on SEC Network games, Mason was hired as head coach at MTSU in December, 2023.

Clark Lea, a Nashville native and the then Defensive Coordinator for College Football Playoff participant Notre Dame, became the first former Vandy player to be named Head Football Coach. The former walk-on and fullback was offered a scholarship by then Coach Bobby Johnson. Lea was also inspired by Vandy's long-time baseball coach Tim Corbin and he made out-of-the-box hires including an on-line recruiting services analyst and one of the baseball assistants.

Vandy defeated Kentucky and Florida in 2022 yet to-date those are the Commodores two SEC wins. Lea's three teams are 9-27 overall and 2-22 in the SEC. It will not get easier as the SEC divisions disband at the end of 2023. Vanderbilt AD Candice Lee: 'Clark Lea is our football coach until I say otherwise'.

[jbcarol]

Florida (updated)

Steve Spurrier won the Heisman while a UF QB/PK in 1966 only one year after Stokely-Van Camp had begun selling Gatorade. As a head coach, he led the '89 Duke team to their first bowl game since the Blue Devils defeated Lance Alworth and Arkansas in the '61 Cotton Bowl.

Spurrier returned to Florida to replace Waldon-native Gary Darnell. Darnell coached UF for seven games as a mid-season replacement for Galen Hall. His first Gator squad was ineligible for post-season play.

The Head Ball Coach was 87-12 in SEC games for the Gators. Florida was conference champions in '91, '93, '94, '95, '96, and 2000.  The Gators were National Champs in '96.

Spurrier left Florida following the 2001 season. He received a five-year, $25 million contract with the Redskins. He is currently a Florida ambassador during hard times.

Ron Zook was a DB at Miami (O.), "The Cradle of Coaches". Zook became an assistant for Spurrier in '91 leaving Ohio State and Zook replaced him as Head Coach beginning with the '02 season. Zook's hiring generated a lot of energy among the fan base, not all positive. Three five-loss seasons ended Zook's career at UF. The practice of flying a banner over a game requesting a coach's firing became known as the "Zookification" of said coach.

Zook did not win a home game over a ranked foe and was criticized for puckering up at home. He coached consecutive road wins over LSU, Arkansas, and UGa in '03.

Ron Zook's SEC record was 16-8.  He coached at Illinois until 2011 and was most recently the Defensive Coordinator and Assistant Heac Coach at Maryland.

Batesville-native Charlie Strong coached Florida's Peach Bowl loss after Zook's last season.

Florida hired Utah head coach Urban Meyer who complimented Zook on the players he had left behind. Meyer's Utah team went undefeated winning the Fiesta Bowl over Pitt.

Urban Meyer had a 36-12 SEC record in six seasons at UF. His teams won the BCS-NC in '06 and '08 as well as the SEC-CG both seasons.  Controversy surrounded Meyer's season ends in '09 and '10 regarding whether he would return. Meyer left UF after an 8-5 '10 season to spend "more time with family". He was named Ohio State's coach for the '12 season, one year after Jim Tressel's dismissal over the game uniform auction racket (which now is just fine, but that was then). Meyer is the fastest coach to 100 wins since Bud Wilkinson.

In 2008, Tejas hired Will Muschamp away from Auburn to be DC. Following the '08 season, Muschamp was named coach-in-waiting to eventually succeed Mack Brown. He could not wait long enough.

Florida hired Muschamp and he completed his first season in '11. His SEC record in '11 was 3-5 and UF finished 7-6 overall after winning the Gator Bowl. 2012 was a top ten season capped with an appearance in a BCS Bowl, a Sugar Bowl loss. In 2013, UF fell to 4-8 with an FCS loss to Georgia Southern. Muschamp started 2014 on the hot seat and despite a surprise win over Georgia in Jacksonville, a loss to South Carolina including two fourth quarter blocked kicks, led to AD Jeremy Foley announcing he would not coach beyond the end of the regular season. Muschamp's SEC record was 17-15 over four seasons. Failing to get the offense on track despite their wealth of talent proved to be his undoing though he was credited with helping to improve the academic and disciplinary environment. Muschamp was hired by Auburn to be their defensive coordinator in 2015. After a stint as head coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks, he took over as Special Teams Coach at Georgia in 2021 when Scott Cochran had health issues.

Jim McElwain was an assistant coach for 25 years with a notable stop at Bama as OC and QB coach from 2008 to 2011.  He was head coach at Colorado State from '12 to '14 with a 10-2 record in 2014. Florida was able to make arrangements to meet his then large buyout and McElwain was named Florida's head coach. McElwain joined Spurrier as the only rookie coaches at Florida to get SEC Coach of the Year. Florida won the SEC-E during a spell of weak division contenders in 2015 and 2016. McElwain was 16-8 in SEC regular season games when he was fired on Sunday, Oct. 29 following a five-touchdown loss to Georgia. Earlier in the week McElwain mentioned receiving death threats and he was not backed up by the University in any way. There was never any reconciliation.

Earlier in the week the justice system recommended diversion for seven Florida players who were charged with felony accounts of charge card theft. One player, Antonio Callaway, a 2017 Preseason All-SEC WR, has had multiple separate felony charges from sexual assault to the charge card scandal and has been given relief by the Florida system each time. This prevalent Florida issue was glossed over during the week as the weight shifted to McElwain's firing and UF attempting to let him go with cause. School officials interviewed by ESPN said that McElwain had been "an odd fit" for Florida from the start, and claimed that his comments about the supposed threats made it apparent that "this was not going to work."

Defensive coordinator and former Miami head coach and Arkansas Razorback assistant coach, Randy Shannon served as interim coach as the Gators entered the final month of the 2017 regular season. Gators went 1-3 (0-2 in the SEC) and failed to qualify for a bowl game.

In late Nov. 2017, Florida announced that former Gators OC and current State head coach Dan Mullen, 45, would be their new head coach. Mullen's 69-46 record for the Bulldogs makes him the second-winningest coach in school history, behind only Jackie Sherrill. Along with coaching quarterback Tim Tebow at Florida, Mullen also coached Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith at Utah and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott at Mississippi State. Mullen also worked with current Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin when the AD was leading the athletic department in Starkville, Mississippi. Mullen signed a six-year, $36.6 million contract.

Mullen was also considered for the Tennessee job. Florida had previously considered UCF's Scott Frost, who landed the Nebraska head coaching job after leading the Knights to an undefeated season. Gators also targeted former Oregon coach Chip Kelly, whom UCLA hired.

After 4–7 the previous year under coach McElwain, Mullen's first Gator squad went 10–3 and finished ranked No. 7 in the AP Poll after a 41–15 victory over then-No. 8 Michigan and SEC antagonist Jim Harbaugh in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl. Gators achieved an 11–2 record the following year including a 36–28 win over Virginia in the Orange Bowl. In his third season, Mullen's 22 began the season 8-1 and were ranked as high as #4 they lost their last three games while giving up 144 points, including a 55-20 loss to Oklahoma in their first-ever trip to the Cotton Bowl.

The turning point for Mullen's Florida career was the unprecedented 2020 all-SEC season. After losing only the shoot out at Kyle Field, they appeared to be in good shape facing another program with cultural issues, LSU at Ben Hill Griffin. Florida was #6 and had clinched the SEC-E looking at a game with Bama. After a late game stop, CB Marco Wilson, the son of one of those handler type guys removed the shoe of a Florida receiver and tossed it in the air. The personal foul allowed LSU to extend the possession and Cade York hit a 57-yard FG into the dense fog. The Handler Guy, Mr. Wilson, assured us all that Marco was doing just fine though we had not asked. Florida actually gave Bama their closest game of their undefeated season losing 52-46 in the SEC Championship game but they were a poor representative of the league taking a 55-20 beating from Lincoln Riley and his OU squad in the Cotton game. A literal dumpster fire sighted in Ben Hill Griffin was a figurative symbol of what was going on.

Signs of problems had surfaced earlier. In a 41-17 home win over Mizzou on Halloween night, Mullen practically incited a half time riot before entering the tunnel. Perhaps due to the time of the season, Mullen chose not to call an audible and conducted his post-game presser in a Darth Vader get-up.

The wheels came off in 2021 as events that perhaps call for investigation unfolded. Florida played Bama within two points in Gainesville though the Tide would lose subsequently to A&M taking a little luster off the "morale victory". Mullen's defense gave Josh Heupel's upstart hurry-up offense a goodly beating, also at home, 38-14. Then Florida lost to Kentucky, a program they have owned in the last 40 years or so, at Kroger. After their Vandy gift, Florida lost a shoot-out at LSU and were squashed by Georgia in Jacksonville. There was a QB controversy of controversies and the alumni favorite back-up was thrown to the Bulldogs.

We do not always get the inside scoop on the inner workings of NIL agreements, what's left of the existing bag man structure, or to what extent the representative "Uncle Bucks" of certain players play the First Half spread of games, yet here things got dicey. Florida was killed 40-17 by Shane Beamer's USC team in Columbia. Mullen was forced to fire Todd Grantham and the O-line coach. Then in a buy game against Samford, Samford led 42-35 at the half was within 56-52 with under 12:00 in the game. The game was not broadcast on any of the ESPN platforms.  Upon review, Florida was letting Samford players pass by on kick returns and offensive plays without a serious attempt at tackling.

Against Missouri at Faurot, Florida lost 24-23 in OT and Eliah Drinkwitz ended his post-game presser pulling up his hoodie in a Vader-like posture and intoning, "May the force be with you." Mullen was fired after the game.

Interim coach Greg Knox led the Gators to a home win over FSU 24-21 in a chippy game in which the game officials were in way over their head.

Dan Mullen's Florida tenure ends 34-15 and 21-14 in SEC regular season games, perhaps the best win percentage of any SEC coach who has been fired in the last 30 seasons (along with Ron Zook of all people). He was 19-8 in league games before 2021 playing in the SEC-East.

Florida AD Scott Stricklin claims his first target that was delivered and he is Billy Napier, the Louisiana coach. A former Furman QB at the turn of the century, Napier coached WRs at Bama from '13-16 when they started to be incorporated in the offense. Napier was 22-2 in his last 3 of 4 seasons in the Sun Belt getting to coach in bowls like First Responder, Lending Tree and The Cure.

Public perception was that Florida's hire had pulled one over on rival LSU who watched a strong candidate plucked from their back bayou. Then Brian Kelly left Notre Dame for LSU.

Napier's tied for 4th in the now defunct SEC-East in both his seasons going 6-10 in league and 11-14 overall in two seasons.

Napier won his debut in a home game over then #7 Utah with Anthony Richardson at QB. Gators lost his second game to Kentucky in Ben Hill Griffin. Florida won over A&M at Kyle Field yet lost to Vandy in Nashville. Florida lost the rival game to FSU yet qualified at 6-6 for the Las Vegas Bowl and lost to Oregon State 30-3.

QB prospect Jaden Rashada flipped his high profile commitment from Miami to Florida. Shortly before enrolling for the spring semester, Rashada requested a release from his NLI. A reported $13.85 million NIL deal with the Gator Collective fell through. Rashada landed at ASU where his father played.

In 2023 Florida lost the return game in the opener at Utah. They won a big home game over then No. 11 Tennessee. Florida lost again at Kentucky and the week after the Georgia game lost to Arkansas 39-39 in OT at home. Florida lost their last five games and finished 5-7, failing to qualify for a bowl.

Florida enters 2024 in a newly configured SEC and arguably the toughest schedule in the SEC. Napier hired recently former Arkansas OC Dan Enos in an off-field role.

[jbcarol]

LSU (Updated)

Curley Hallman, a former A&M DB and assistant to Bear Bryant, Danny Ford, and Jackie Sherrill, coached Southern Miss. to road wins over Bama, Auburn, and Florida State.  LSU hired Hallman to replace Mike Archer following the 1990 season. Hallman had the lowest winning percentage in LSU history. His record in SEC games over four seasons was 10-21 (7-17 during the expansion era).

In '91, Gerry DiNardo had inherited a Vandy program with back-to-back 1-10 records and took them to an average of 5-6 over the next four seasons (though no bowl game). LSU had endured six consecutive losing seasons when DiNardo became coach.

After leading LSU to two Independence and one Peach Bowl bid in his first three seasons, Dinardo's program began to decline. After an 0-7 SEC start, Mark Emmert fired Dinardo. Interim Hal Hunter was coach when LSU defeated Arkansas 35-10 to end LSU's decade of the 90s.

DiNardo's SEC record was 18-20-1.

After four seasons of just above .500 ball, Nick Saban coached Michigan State to a Top 10 finish and New Year's Day Bowl bid in 1999. He was hired by LSU for the 2000 season.

Saban's teams finished with 5-3 conference records his first three seasons. In 2003, LSU won the BCS National Championship and Saban was National Coach of the Year. After a 6-2 SEC run in '04, Saban left to coach the Dolphins.

Saban's overall SEC record at LSU was 28-12.

Les Miles had led Oklahoma State to 5th in the Big 12 South and an Alamo Bowl loss when he was hired by LSU to replace Saban starting with the 2005 season.

Miles' teams have won the SEC twice and in 2007 won the BCS NCG despite multi-OT losses to both Kentucky and Arkansas. LSU became the first SEC school to lose a BCS-NC game when a then 13-0 team lost to Bama in New Orleans. Les was the national coach of the year for 2011.

Coach Miles was nearly let go at the end of the 2015 season and then was let go after the fourth game of the 2016 season and replaced by then Defensive Line Coach Ed Orgeron, first on an interim basis.

Les Miles' SEC conference record is 62-28 or just under .700 after eleven and a third seasons as coach. Jeff Long hired Miles to coach Kansas and it turns out that Miles was not just creepy about chewing grass. Perhaps the toxic culture at LSU towards women actually started before Miles was replaced.

Larose native Ed Orgeron led LSU to a 6-2 record (4-2 SEC) including a 10-0 loss to Bama as interim in 2016. After the season, he was named head coach. He had led USC to a 6-2 (6-1 Pac 12) record as an interim in 2013 but was not retained. Orgeron was 3-21 in SEC games as head coach at Ole Miss ending in 2007, but left the cupboard full for his successor. 

After three seasons eating Bama's dust but going to the Citrus Bowl twice and then the Fiesta Bowl, Orgeron got Joe Burrow to transfer from The Ohio State and Joe Brady to come in as his offensive coordinator. This led to a real-life scenario captured in those inane thread starts "Would you trade a season of probation and no post-season, the eventual firing of the head coach, and a perceived toxic culture if you could go 15-0, win the National Championship, and destroy Bama in Bryant Denny Stadium?" It happened. After the final whistle in the National Championship OBJ started handing out $100 bills. Former RB Derrius Guice was found to be an entitled sexual terror including propositioning a 70-year-old security guard at the Superdome. The security guard had representation who called Orgeron on a taped call willing "to make a deal". Orgeron also had issues at home and lost the boys at the start of Covid with top five draft pick JaMarr Chase choosing to opt out. The Title IX investigation continues although a report has been released. Orgeron goes out with a win over A&M getting the team to 6-6 and bowl eligible after being fired weeks earlier. His final SEC record at LSU is 31-17 but ten of those losses were in the last two seasons of his stint. His next steps are not known.

LSU AD Scott Woodward despite having a bit of a mess on his hands was known for swinging for the fences instead of settling for the first "Billy Napier" who comes along. Bearing a striking resemblance to Jimmy Sexton (has anyone ever seen those two together), Woodward had hired Jimbo away from FSU to A&M years earlier.

Brian Kelly led the 2009 Cincinnati Bearcats to a 12-0 season and during the BCS Error (sic) did not get a crack at the national championship like the 2021 team did. Kelly was hired by Notre Dame to replace Charlie Weis. 

By 2012 Kelly had Notre Dame #1 in the last BCS before they got whipped by his now future coaching foe, Nick Saban and Bama. What you might not remember is that Notre Dame vacated the entire 2012 and 2013 season wins due to impermissible benefits. In their "official" record Notre Dame also vacates that loss to Bama, but I don't think it works that way. Also in 2012, Notre Dame facilitated the Manti T'eo catfish hoax in hopes of getting another Heisman. Notre Dame continues their tradition of sandwiching a few marquee games around buy wins to take their best shot at the playoffs off their brand name. They've been doing it for about 100 years or so. They did not use to play in bowl games to take a near 50-50 shot at getting a loss and losing that mythical national championship.

The worst thing happened in Kelly's first season:

Indiana probe finds Notre Dame was at fault in a student videographer's death when the hydraulic lift he was standing on fell.

His last words via text: "I'm scared to death."  Lake effect winds were strong.

Notre Dame took care of that.

In 2020, for the first time, Notre Dame temporarily joined the ACC so they could have a guaranteed schedule, as much as possible, due to prevailing world conditions.

Kelly finished his tenure at Notre Dame with a 92–39 record. His daughter, Grace Kelly has jokingly said that she is being left behind at Notre Dame to endure the harassment of the Irish culture.

He at least temporarily became the highest paid coach in college football history (until Saban exercises his highest paid coach clause -- well deserved). Kelly already sounds like he belongs on the bayou and has been shown to be a dancing machine. He has early signing day tomorrow, some bowl practices earned with that A&M win and his top two quarterbacks have hit the portal (Max Johnson and Myles Brennan) leaving Nussmeier.

LS lost Kelly's opener in NOLA to FSU. The Tigers beat Ole Miss and an OT victory over Bama when Kelly went for two and his offense converted. LS won the SEC West, lost the SEC Championship Game to eventual National Champion Georgia, 50-30. Tigers beat Purdue 63-7 in the Citrus Bowl to finish 10-4 and #16 in the final poll, perhaps underrated.

LS went 10-3 in 2023 after losing to Bama in their last game v. Saban. They won the ReliaQuest over Wisconsin. Transfer QB Jayden Daniels won the Heisman, the Tiger's first since Burrow though their defense was debited with letting the team down. Kelly is 20-7 (12-4 SEC regular season) after two seasons in Baton Rouge.

[jbcarol]

First and 10: If the Head Ball Coach is concerned about Billy Napier, you probably should be, too
Matt Hayes | 21 minutes ago

This week's Power Poll: Ranking the best coaching values, with 2023 salaries.

1. Alabama: Kalen DeBoer ($4.2 milion). Won 14 games, and lost the national championship game. The best bargain in college football. Will make $10 million in 2024.

2. Texas: Steve Sarkisian ($5.6 million). A bargain at top 3 job: 12 wins, Big 12 Championship, Playoff appearance. He's now at $10 million annually.

3. Ole Miss: Lane Kiffin ($9 million). A school-record 11 wins is well worth the raise to $9 million to keep him from Auburn.

4. Missouri: Eli Drinkwitz ($6 million). From the hot seat to a top bargain in the SEC: 11 wins for the first time since 2014.

7. Texas A&M: Mike Elko ($3.5 million). Duke will trade $3.5 million for 8 wins every day of the week. He'll make $7 million annually with the Aggies.

9. Tennessee: Josh Heupel ($9 million): There was regression to 9 wins, no question. But you're paying for long haul, and 20 wins in 2 seasons is a solid start.

10. Auburn: Hugh Freeze ($6.5 million). Took over a mess, but he didn't help himself by failing to develop consistent play at quarterback.

11. Mississippi State: Jeff Lebby ($1.9 million). Only 4 coordinators made more money in 2023, and Oklahoma was No. 4 in the nation in scoring offense (41.7 ppg.). Will make $4.51 million annually in his first head coaching job.

13. Florida: Billy Napier ($7.27 million). Gators have paid $14.5 million over the past 2 seasons for 11 wins ($1.31 million per), and 6 SEC wins ($2.41 million per).

14. South Carolina: Shane Beamer ($6.12 million). There's no getting around this: That's a lot of money for wins over Furman, Jacksonville State, the 2 worst teams in the SEC (Vanderbilt, Mississippi State) and Kentucky.

15. Arkansas: Sam Pittman ($6.35 million). Two ways to look at this: Pittman gives Arkansas the best chance at turning it around. And Arkansas paid $6.35 million for 1 SEC (1 Power 5) win.


The total amount of money that will be earned by SEC coaches in 2024: $123.425 million.

Before bonuses, of course.

At the top of the list is Georgia's Kirby Smart ($11.25 million), just ahead of Alabama's Kalen DeBoer (estimated $10 million) and LSU's Brian Kelly ($9.975 million).

There are 7 SEC coaches who will make at least $9 million in 2024: Smart, DeBoer, Kelly, Mark Stoops of Kentucky ($9.013 million), and Lane Kiffin of Ole Miss, Eli Drinkwitz of Missouri, Josh Heupel of Tennessee all at $9 million.

The lowest-paid coaches in the league are Clark Lea of Vanderbilt ($3.05 million), and Jeff Lebby of Mississippi State ($4.5 million).

[jbcarol]

Bruce Feldman explains placing Lane Kiffin at No. 21 in his ranking of CFB's Top 25 head coaches

by:
Dan Morrison
•

Bruce Feldman of The Athletic has recently released his list of the Top 25 coaches in our nation:

While making an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show, Feldman explained his decision to rank Kiffin at 21st, comparing him to Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian.

"I think he's done a really good job and, like Sark, I think he's grown quite a bit from earlier in his career," Bruce Feldman said. "I think after this year, that team is loaded. They've got a really strong NIL operation there around Ole Miss, and I think they have a chance to make a run at, and making the 12-team Playoff isn't as meaningful as making a four-team Playoff, but I think they have a chance to make a run at being a legit national title contender."

Essentially, Feldman made the argument that Kiffin has been good, but not good enough against the best competition in the country. That put him lower on the list than most people would have expected.

"But, big picture wise, he's 7-8 against top-25 teams since taking over in Oxford. That's not terrible, but that's not great. I think he is a guy who if you look at his record against top-10 teams, he's 3-15. So, again, he's grown and gotten better and I think Ole Miss has gotten the best version of where he's been, but just taking the whole picture in opposed to maybe the last couple of years, that's why I didn't have him higher than where I had him," Feldman said.


1. Kirby Smart, Georgia (2023: No. 2)
The easiest one to ID on this list. Smart is 94-16 with two national titles, and he's 86-11 since that 8-5 debut season.

4. Kalen DeBoer, Bama

[jbcarol]

Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss hire former Mississippi State coach Zach Arnett as analyst

by:
Nick Kosko

Ole Miss hired former Mississippi State head coach Zach Arnett to the staff, according to OM Spirit's Zach Berry.

According to Berry, Arnett will serve as analyst on the Ole Miss staff. He was with Mississippi State since 2020 and coached at San Diego State prior to coming to the SEC.

Arnett took over as Bulldogs head coach after the passing of Mike Leach. He went 5-6 overall before the school elected to make a change.

Now, he'll work under Lane Kiffin and remain in the SEC.

This story will be updated

[jbcarol]

Scarblog: More on Saban's retirement decision

What do Nick Saban and Shakespeare have in common? The Bard wrote the following words, and the more we hear from the GOAT, the more he brings them to life:

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

Saban has insisted that the state of the game in this new NIL and transfer portal world had nothing to do with his January retirement after 17 years as the Alabama football coach.

Right. Pull this leg and it plays Jingle Bells.

In the latest insightful story produced by ESPN.com's Chris Low, a detailed look at Saban's retirement decision, Greg Byrne's pursuit of Kalen DeBoer and the week that rocked the college football world, Saban says the quiet part out loud. He describes returning from the overtime loss to Michigan in the Rose Bowl semifinal to face individual meetings with players that were, shall we say, not exactly team-oriented.

We had heard from sources close to the program that certain players treated those conversations like contract negotiations. Saban confirmed it to Low ...

[jbcarol]

Chris Low: How Alabama moved from Nick Saban to Kalen DeBoer in 49 hours

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The text messages on Greg Byrne's cellphone were pouring in, more than 1,000 and counting.

Like most around the college football world, Alabama's athletic director was still processing what had transpired about 2½ hours earlier that afternoon.

Nick Saban had walked into the team meeting room at the Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility and told his players he was retiring. After 17 seasons, 206 wins, nine SEC championships and six national titles at Alabama, one of the greatest coaching runs in American sports history was over.

And Byrne was on the clock.

...

Saban spoke with his players for six minutes before leaving the room. Byrne then told the team he would have a new coach in place within 72 hours.

"It ended up being 49. I thought I would beat the 72-hour window but wanted to give myself some padding," Byrne said.

...

BYRNE'S TWO-DAY WHIRLWIND was actually a year in the making. After the 2022 season, Saban informed Byrne he was nearing the end of his Hall of Fame coaching career.

"Greg, this is getting more and more difficult on me," Saban told Byrne. "I'm not ready to do it now, but we're going to have to start evaluating this more on a year-to-year basis."

While hopeful Saban would keep coaching, Byrne knew deep down that the 72-year-old legend was giving him notice, so he quickly went to work. Byrne had his staff research the college head-coaching hires over the past 25 years from the winningest 25 programs during that span.

"Part of what I was trying to understand is what were the analytics, and our studies showed that 75% of the time you're basically hiring a Group of 5 head coach, Power 5 coordinator or NFL coordinator," Byrne said. "That's not necessarily a negative, but when it comes to the theory that you're going to hire just whoever you want, the percentages don't support that."

Then again, this was Alabama, so the Tide could set their sights higher than most any other school.

...

Alabama's 27-20 overtime loss to Michigan in the CFP semifinal at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1 was a hard one for Saban to digest. Not only was Saban upset about the way his team played, he was especially disheartened about some of the things that happened afterward -- in the Rose Bowl locker room and back on campus, when he met with some of the players.

"I want to be clear that wasn't the reason, but some of those events certainly contributed," Saban said of his decision to retire. "I was really disappointed in the way that the players acted after the game. You gotta win with class. You gotta lose with class. We had our opportunities to win the game and we didn't do it, and then showing your ass and being frustrated and throwing helmets and doing that stuff ... that's not who we are and what we've promoted in our program."

Once back in Tuscaloosa, as Saban began meeting with players, it became even more apparent to him that his message wasn't resonating like it once did.

"I thought we could have a hell of a team next year, and then maybe 70 or 80 percent of the players you talk to, all they want to know is two things: What assurances do I have that I'm going to play because they're thinking about transferring, and how much are you going to pay me?" Saban recounted. "Our program here was always built on how much value can we create for your future and your personal development, academic success in graduating and developing an NFL career on the field.

"So I'm saying to myself, 'Maybe this doesn't work anymore, that the goals and aspirations are just different and that it's all about how much money can I make as a college player?' I'm not saying that's bad. I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just saying that's never been what we were all about, and it's not why we had success through the years."

Saban had also grown weary of churning through assistant coaches every year.

[jbcarol]

Kiffin addresses the hiring of Zach Arnett

by:
Dan Morrison
•

After less than a season as the head coach at Mississippi State, the Bulldogs fired Zach Arnett. Now, in-state rival Ole Miss and its head coach Lane Kiffin made the decision to bring Arnett in as a staffer on the team.

The decision to hire Arnett is one that Kiffin has since addressed while speaking to media members.

"I've had a lot of respect for Zach and thought they did a great job over there in Starkville during his time on defense and caused people problems," Lane Kiffin said. "And, so, had been in discussions. Actually, today I think is his first day."

Zach Arnett's role with Ole Miss's football staff is set to be as an analyst. That's an off-field coaching role.

"Always liked what you learned from Coach [Nick] Saban, and it's a two-way street. Both ways. You give people opportunities and they get to come learn from you and it's exciting that we kind of have another what you would call a big name probably happening soon, also to add to our staff. So, I think that shows people wanting to come here and be a part of it, but it also, you know, we don't just hire anybody because they were coaches," Kiffin said.

"It's people that we think are really knowledgeable in the conference and as coaches in general, to add to our staff. So, this was a really good fit that way. He came down, met with myself, met with Coach [Pete] Golding. Excited to put him in the defensive room, especially with conference knowledge, and so it should be really good."

Arnett took over at Mississippi State following the untimely passing of Mike Leach.

[jbcarol]

Tennessee (updated)

Johnny Majors was the '56 Heisman runner-up running the WildVol. Many Tennessee fans considered him the nation's best player on a winning team. He coached a national championship team at Pitt and returned to his alma mater, a hero. Majors' last season as the Vol HC was the expansion year of '92. Poised to move to #1 in the polls, Tennessee saw a last second FG by visiting Arkansas send the capacity crowd into a tizzy.  After Majors misses early season games recovering from heart surgery, it is believed that long-time OL coach Phil Fulmer worked the administration and eased Majors out of the HC job. Majors' official SEC record during the expansion era was 3-3 (57-40-3 overall).

It was the self-deprecating sense of humor that sustained Vol fans during this timeframe. In '86, a hireling was hawking Barry Manilow music on a Memphis street corner. When informed that those aren't very good records, the waif replied, "Sir, you don't need a good record to get to the Liberty Bowl."

This was helpful as they watched Peyton Manning lose early season match ups to Florida in each of his four years in that era prior to the four-team playoff. In 1998, current USC assistant T Martin led Fulmer's team to his BCS national championship and national coach of the year honors.

Fulmer's SEC record, including a forfeit courtesy of Bama, was 98-34 which prorates to about 6-2. Fulmer had seven seasons with 7-1 or 8-0 conference records. He was 81-19 in SEC play prior to the '05 season. He was let go after needing a win over Kentucky to finish 5th in the SEC East in 2008.

Lane Kiffin was fired four games into the 2008 season by Al Davis and the Raiders. In the NFL that's okay, just don't voluntarily leave before the season ends. Mike Hamilton hired Kiffin to replace Fulmer and he brought Monte Kiffin and Ed Orgeron as top assistants.

Kiffin attempted to bring USC tradition to Knoxville while intentionally pushing Volunteer tradition into the background. He also publicly took on Urban Meyer and constantly put Mike Slive on edge. In an early season Florida game, Kiffin played a deliberate style that allowed Tennessee to cover the spread and claim a morale victory [phrase intentionally chosen as the words "moral" and "victory" together in this context would be an oxymoron].

Kiffin left for USC after posting an SEC conference record of 4-4. Students set small fires near the athletic administration building, burning mattresses and Kiffin paraphernalia.

Despite rumors ranging from Jon Gruden to Texas coach-in-waiting Will Muschamp, the Vols hired the son of former UGa coach Vince Dooley. Derek Dooley was the AD and head football coach at LaTech where he had gone 12-12 in WAC games.

At Tennessee, Dooley has an SEC conference record of 4-12 in two seasons including the Vols first back-to-back losing records since the '10-11 teams prior to WWI. In his first season, Dooley twice was heading to mid-field in celebration only to have an official's decision upon review ultimately reverse the game outcome. Dooley claimed to go "8-5 in post-game handshakes." His '11 team snapped a 26-game winning streak over Kentucky [the longest single school domination over another in the FBS]. Kentucky was forced to use a senior WR at the QB position. Tennessee failed to go to a bowl game due to the loss. Some believe the younger players didn't want to go bowling.

Dooley was let go after a 4-19 SEC record (15-21 overall). During his last season, considering the health benefit, he had elective surgery on his hip.  He was riding around in a cart and coaching on a barstool.  He became Sr. Off. Ass. for the NYG and most recently an analyst for Nick Saban prior to his retirement.

On Pearl Harbor Day, 2012, former Band Member Butch Jones was named coach replacing Barb Dooley's little boy. Jones had a couple of good seasons for the UC Bearcats but the Vols found their market assessment of their position as mid-major.

Jones was 14-24 in the SEC and 34-24 overall. His "Champions of Life" campaign was oft-mocked and after the 2017 season he was let go.  After doing time in Nick Saban rehab, Jones was named head coach at Arkansas State. 

Jeremy Pruitt was the DC at UG when he irritated the fool out of his AD Garrity into building an indoor practice facility. Mark Richt did not want that heat. Pruitt was DC for Nick Saban at Bama when he got his first opportunity to be a head coach. Local press presumed that Pruitt is probably a guy who can give you a detailed description of how to change the oil in your car after getting used to his media appearance routine.

New Wave AD John Currie wanted to bring in Greg Schiano, one of those guys who may or may not have turned his head while Jerry Sandusky had his way with ten-year-old boys. That did not go over well.  Currie got canned and Phil Fulmer emerged from down the hall to become AD.  After determining that the Head Coach job was not going his way, Fulmer hired Pruitt. It would not end well.

Jeremy Pruitt was 10-16 in the SEC (16-19 overall). He grabbed a face mask and jerked the head around on his QB Guaratano after he called an audible and fumbled at the goal. He would get fired with cause for what was revealed in 2020. An assistant was fired mid-season and as at many schools, players had opted-out.

It came to the attention of  Plowman that players were receiving "bags of cash" in fast food bags. I could buy Krystal's, Chick-Fil-A or even Hardee's on that one. Did an embittered coach stooge them out? Did an opted-out player learn that he had just opted out of the "food distribution" program?  Tennessee was confessing.  NCAA loves confessing. One reminder is that Jeremy Pruitt is a product of "The Process" branded at Bama and now employed at Georgia.

Phil Fulmer was ceremoniously relieved of his duties.  He pledged to carry on until a successor could be named.  That lasted all of two days.

Tennessee paid Kevin Steele a million dollars to be the interim for two weeks.

They announced UCF AD Danny White as their new AD replacing Fulmer. He is the brother of UF Basketball Coach Mike White and son of retiring Duke AD Kevin White (and not the former Cowboy QB/Punter). Good call because the Whites are tending to walk wrapped in Teflon in NCAA circles.

After the customary time of waiting and $100,000 to Parker Executive Search Firm, White announced that his head coach at UCF, Josh Heupel would be the head coach at UT. The players and fans were underwhelmed -- at first. 

Plowman did do Heupel one solid. She waited until after Early Signing Day before trash canning Pruitt with allegations floating for several weeks prior.

Josh Heupel was a Heisman runner-up (just like Peyton) at OU.  He cut his teeth in coaching mainly at his alma mater and was the Offensive Coordinator at Mizzou in 2016-17.  He was named head coach at UCF spanning 2018-20 replacing Scott Frost who had an undefeated season and self-declared yet enabled "Underground National Championship". With Frost's players his squad was also undefeated until they ran into LSU in the Fiesta Bowl. His 2020 team was 6-4 overall and 5-3 in conference.

In his first season Joe Milton III won a 4-QB race through fall camp yet was replaced in season Hendon Hooker. Tennessee finished 7-6 and Heupel shared the Old Ball Coach Award for best first year head coach.

Heupel's second team became the first to beat Bama under Saban and with a smoke rising out of Neyland rivaling the blue smoke coming off the Smokies just down the road a ways. Josh led the Vols to their first #1 ranking since 1998, in the first release of the College Football Playoffs rankings. After Hooker suffered a season ending injury, Tennessee was still able to finish 11-2 and beat Clemson in the Orange Bowl. Heupel won SEC Coach of the Year as the Vols had their most wins in over 20 years and second most all-time.

Tennessee and Heupel agreed to a contract extension agreement that can keep Coach in Knoxville until 2029, with an annual salary of $9 million. With Joe Milton III at QB, Tennessee finished 9-4 in 2023 and 4-4 in league with a 35-0 mercy beating of Iowa in the Citrus Bowl and the coming out of prized freshman QB Nico.

NCAA announced another investigation of Tennessee reportedly related to a corporate jet ride to Knoxville arranged by the Vol Collective. A federal court ruling in East Tennessee ruled that the NCAA was swimming out of their lane and directed them to cease and desist NIL related investigations. The NCAA complied.

Heupel's 27-12, 14-10 SEC in three seasons with an eye toward the expanded College Football Playoff in a division-less and expanded SEC.

[jbcarol]

South Carolina (Updated)

Sparky Woods had been 25-9-1 in Southern Conference games coaching App State when he took the head coaching job for then independent South Carolina beginning with the 1989 season. Woods coaches five seasons in Columbia and was 5-11 in South Carolina's first two SEC seasons when he was let go. He was an assistant for Sherrill and Shula in the SEC before taking over at VMI ('08-14) as head coach. Last an assistant at Richmond.

Brad Scott was the OC for Bobby Bowden when he took over the SC job beginning with the 1994 season. SC was 4-4 in the SEC in '96 but lost their last ten games in 1998 finishing 1-10. Brad Scott was 12-27-1 in SEC games at SC. Scott had been a long-time assistant at Clemson moving into athletic administration in 2011.

Lou Holtz had retired and left a lifetime contract at Notre Dame and Knute Rocke's all-time win record intact. After two years in broadcasting, Holtz became South Carolina's coach beginning in 1999. Holtz earned National Coach of the Year awards in 2000. He led SC to back-to-back Outback Bowl wins over Ohio State.

Lou Holtz retired from South Carolina following the 2004 season. His SEC record was 19-29 including a winless first season. There was a big fight in his last game with Clemson and SC chose to forego a bowl game due to the fracas. Holtz noted that he and former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes both ended their careers after "getting into a fight at the Clemson game". It was not known whether Holtz landed a punch. SC lost some scholarships due to five major infractions and a lack of institutional control.

In Steve Spurrier's last three games with the Redskins his team had been outscored 85-31. Following a pattern of once hugely successful college coaches who were disgruntled in the NFL, the Head Ball Coach took the SC job starting with the 2005 season. He reportedly picked the Gamecocks over the Gators who had fired Ron Zook.

Spurrier's eleven got to face Auburn in the 2010 SEC championship game. South Carolina ran the table in the SEC-East in 2011 but finished second to UGa who did not draw Bama, LSU, nor Arkansas on their schedule. SC whooped Nebraska in the Capital One Bowl played Jan. 2, 2012.

In 2013 season, Spurrier's SC attained a third straight 11-2 record. Only Bama and Oregon had won 11 or more games in the 2011–13 period. Gamecocks defeated three teams that finished final AP Top 10 (Mizzou, UCF, and, of course, Clemson). The Gamecocks were the only team to do this. They also became the first team to defeat two teams that won BCS bowl games. Following their 34-24 win over Wisconsin in the Cap One Bowl, the Gamecocks were ranked 4th in the final AP Poll setting a record for the program.

Spurrier's recruiting coordinator during this golden era was Shane Beamer.

Spurrier resigned as Head Ball Coach on October 12, 2015. His SEC regular season record at South Carolina was 44-40. He won his last four bowl games including two Cap One Bowls, an Outback Bowl and the Independence Bowl in 2014.

Will Muschamp, 44, had spent one season as defensive coordinator at Auburn following a four season stint as Florida's head coach where he compiled a 17-14 SEC regular season record. Gamecocks signed him to a five-year deal at $3 million per year. Muschamp is the 34th head football coach in South Carolina football history.

In his third season as head coach of the Gamecocks, Muschamp led South Carolina to a 7–5 regular season record. Muschamp's 22 wins through his first three seasons at South Carolina is the most among Gamecock head football coaches. Winning the Outback Bowl on Jan. 1, 2018 was a career highlight.

His fourth season came with one of the toughest schedules in the nation. South Carolina finished the season 4–8, although they did upset #3 Georgia on the road. After that season, his record was 26–25, and his 25 losses through his first four seasons is the most among Gamecock head football coaches. He was fired during the 2020 football season from the University of South Carolina, following a disappointing outing.

Muschamp's SEC regular season record was 17-22.  His total SEC head coaching record is 34-37.

Offensive Coordinator Mike Bobo was the interim coach and he finished 0-3.

On December 6, 2020, South Carolina announced that Shane Beamer would become head coach.  He would become the SEC's second coach in the decade who had not been either a head coach nor a coordinator.

The former recruiting coordinator during USC's Golden Era has strong Columbia and SEC ties and has learned under father Frank, the Old Ball Coach and Lincoln Riley (the current USC coach), which overcomes the "never been a head coach" tag.

Beamer, who turns 47 in three weeks, has gone 20-18 overall and 10-18 in league in his three seasons playing in the SEC East division. He led USC to a bowl game his first season before getting Duke's Mayo dumped on his head and a Gator Bowl bid in 2022 after finishing 3rd in the East and finishing in the Top 25. USC finished 5-7 and 3-5 in league last season. SC lost a 10 point lead to Florida at home which led to Beamer kicking a solid object and breaking his foot as his seat warmed.

[jbcarol]

Mizzou (Updated)

Gary Pinkel won almost 66% of his total games and 69% of his conference games in 10 seasons at Toledo.  After going 10-1 in 2000 he was hired at Mizzou to replace Larry Smith who had finished 3-8 with a 2-6 Big 12 record.

Pinkel led Mizzou's 2007 team to his first winning Big 12 conference record. 7-1 was good enough to tie for first in the Big 12 North.  In his first SEC season, Mizzou was 2-6.  They came back to win the SEC-E in '13 and '14 losing to the SEC-W champ in Atlanta each season.  Mizzou was 1-5 in the SEC with losses to Vandy and Kentucky when Pinkel announced his retirement at the end of the 2015 season citing health concerns. Earlier in the week his team had announced they would no longer practice nor play in support of a campus boycott.  Pinkel publicly stood behind his team. After the resignations of Tim Wolfe and R. Bowen Loftin, the team returned to practice and defeated BYU in Kansas City.  Pinkel's four SEC seasons were 2-6, 7-1, 7-1, and 1-7 to finish 17-15.

Defensive Coordinator Barry Odom, then 39, was promoted to head coach with a five year contract. After starring at linebacker for Mizzou in the late-90s, Odom coached in high school at Ada and Rock Bridge. Odom was on the Mizzou staff from 2003 to 2011 including a stint as recruiting coordinator. He was defensive coordinator for Justin Fuentes from 2012 - 2014 before returning to Mizzou.

Odom was 25-25 overall in his four seasons as head coach (13-19 SEC, 9-19 SEC excluding the annual Battle Line Rivalry). This included a rebuild year coming off the retirement of Coach Pinkel and campus unrest. Also his 2019 team lost five straight before winning his last game against Arkansas. His teams were noted for having stellar defensive lineman. In December 2018, Odom's salary was raised to $3.05 million through 2024. That was a two-year extension and a $600,000 raise.  Tigers played 2019 under an NCAA appeal of a postseason ban due to a tutor claiming that she performed academic work for student-athletes across multiple sports.  NCAA denied the appeal on the last week of the season and though Mizzou defeated Arkansas in Little Rock to go 6-6, they would not get to play in a bowl game. Odom was let go but was hired to be the Defensive Coordinator at Arkansas. He is currently head coach at UNLV.

Eliah Drinkwitz, then 36, was hired by Missouri after leading Appalachian State to a 12-1 record and the Sun Belt Championship in his first year as head coach, the latter of which he promised for Mizzou at his introductory presser. Drinkwitz, who is part of Jimmy Sexton stable of coaches, has ties to the Alma Sonic and Springdale Bulldogs.

Drink's teams qualified for a bowl game in his first three seasons going 17-19 overall (11-15 in league). Standing on business, the 2023 team finished second in the final season of the SEC-East with a win over Tennessee and finished 11-2 (6-2, SEC) including a Cotton Bowl New Year's Six victory over The^TM Ohio State. Drink looks to compete in the expanded SEC with a 28-21 record (17-17 SEC).

[jbcarol]

2024 SEC football head coach rankings from 1 to 16: Kirby Smart is the top dog and then who?

by:
Jesse Simonton
•

No. 1 Kirby Smart, Georgia
Smart is the undisputed top-ranked coach in America right now. He's won at least 11 games in six of the last seven years, has a pair of national titles and just inked another No. 1 recruiting class.

Georgia has sent more talent to the NFL than any program in the country in the last few seasons, and the Bulldogs are the early favorites for the national championship in 2024.



No. 2 Brian Kelly, LSU
Kelly has done everything but win a national championship at the FBS level. He's won at least 10 games in seven straight seasons, producing a Heisman Trophy winner in quarterback Jayden Daniels in Year 2 at LSU.

No. 3 Kalen DeBoer, Alabama
While DeBoer's resume as FBS head coach is fairly light, the man rarely loses —

No. 4 Steve Sarkisian, Texas
Sarkisian won 10 games for the first time in his career in 2023, resurrecting the Longhorns' program back to national prominence by winning the Big 12 and making the CFP. He's arguably the best play-caller

No. 5 Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss
Kiffin just led the Rebels to their first 11-win season in school history, and like Sarkisian, has overcome a rocky start to his head coaching career (be it the one-and-done season at Tennessee or the stint at USC). Before Kiffin arrived in Oxford, Ole Miss had just three 10-win seasons in 48 years (Fifty!)

No. 6 Josh Heupel, Tennessee
A year after leading the Vols to their best season in nearly 25 years, Heupel managed to win nine games in 2023 despite erratic quarterback play. That shouldn't be an issue in the future, though, as the Nico era starts this fall

No. 7 Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri
Drinkwitz is coming off the best coaching job of his career, leading the Tigers to a surprising 11-2 season and a win over Ohio State to finish in the Top 10. Before the season, he shrewdly delegated play-calling duties to new OC hire Kirby Moore, which allowed Drinkwitz to focus on his entire team and move worked brilliantly.

No. 8 Mark Stoops, Kentucky
Stoops is the Wildcats' best football coach since Bear Bryant, elevating the program with multiple 10-win seasons for the first time in more than four decades. It's the reason he was Bjork's favored target for the A&M opening before the offer was vetoed at the 11th hour. 

No. 9 Mike Elko, Texas A&M
Elko is 16-9 in two seasons as Duke's head coach, leading the Blue Devils to one of their best seasons in school history in 2022.

No. 10 Hugh Freeze, Auburn
Freeze remains the most difficult coach to rank in the SEC. How do you weigh his accomplishments previously at Ole Miss (two wins over Nick Saban) versus his recent results at Liberty and Auburn?

No. 11 Brent Venables, Oklahoma
Venables bounced back from a tough first season as a head coach, guiding the Sooners to a 10-win season in advance of the program's move to the SEC. A bad loss to UCF squandered a chance to play for the Big 12 Championship, but Venables did beat Texas in Red River

No. 12 Shane Beamer, South Carolina
After two straight seasons of exceeding expectations under Beamer, the Gamecocks regressed to the mean in 2023 —

No. 13 Billy Napier, Florida
No head coach in the SEC faces more pressure than Billy Napier in 2024, and the stakes were raised earlier this month when Steve Spurrier openly said, "There's a feeling around the Gators of 'What the heck are we doing?'"

No. 14 Sam Pittman, Arkansas
Pittman is a beloved character in college football, but the shine has worn off the Pit Boss' star since he led the Razorbacks to a surprising 9-4 season in 2021. Like Napier, Pittman must win now or else he probably won't be on this list next spring.

Last season was disastrous for Arkansas, as the Hogs went 4-8 and saw star quarterback KJ Jefferson transfer from the program. Pittman has struggled to deal with continued roster turnover, with more than 50 players entering the portal over the last two years.

Pittman has championed the company line, but he's also dealing with a potential Littlefinger situation with the return of former Hogs head coach Bobby Petrino as his offensive coordinator.

No. 15 Clark Lea, Vanderbilt
The expectation was that Lea would receive a long leash to rebuild his alma mater in his image, but the results have been so dire (2-22 in SEC games in three seasons), that suddenly the former Vandy fullback is facing pressure

No. 16 Jeff Lebby, Mississippi State
Lebby finds himself last in the 2024 SEC head coach rankings solely because he hasn't been a head coach previously. The guy he replaced — Zach Arnett —

[jbcarol]

Things to know about Kalen DeBoer's contract with Alabama
Spenser Davis | 1 hour ago

Kalen DeBoer's contract details were announced by the university on Monday afternoon.

DeBoer was hired as the successor to legendary head coach Nick Saban back in January. DeBoer signed an 8-year deal with the Crimson Tide that's set to pay him $10 million for the 2024 season.

DeBoer will be paid $10 million in the first year of his deal, according to the announcement. DeBoer is set to receive a raise after each season in his current deal. His contract will continue to escalate until it hits $11.75 million in Year 8 of the deal.

The full contract is worth $87 million, which translates to an average of $10.875 million per season.

The $10 million salary is slightly lower than what Alabama would have been paying Saban for the 2024 season.

If DeBoer were to leave Alabama for another job, his next employer would be on the hook for a fairly insignificant buyout (relative to some other coaches in the sport).

Here are the buyout figures for if DeBoer departed Alabama for another job:

What Kalen DeBoer would owe UA if he leaves:

2024: $5 million
2025: $4 million
2026: $3 million
2027-2031: $0
5:19 PM · Mar 18, 2024

[jbcarol]

Former Alabama coach Mike Shula joins SEC staff

By Mark Heim |

Mike Shula is back in the SEC.

The former Alabama coach has joined the Shane Beamer's South Carolina program as an offensive analyst, offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains confirmed on Wednesday.

Shula was with the staff on Tuesday morning for the first day of spring practice.

"In this business, you're always looking to bring in knowledge, guys that can help you," Loggains said, per 247 Sports. "Mike is a guy I worked against a long time and coach Beamer had known as well. Got a ton of respect for him as an offensive mind and quarterback guy, so we had a chance to hire somebody and that's why we brought him (on staff). ... From a resume standpoint, character standpoint, person standpoint, he makes us better."

[jbcarol]

Ole Miss (updated)

Billy Brewer took over at Ole Miss beginning with the 1983 season, succeeding Steve Sloan. Brewer was the first Ole Miss insider hired since Coach Vaught's comeback ended in mid-70s. Brewer was 33-41 in SEC games over 11 seasons.

Brewer led Ole Miss to their first New Year's Day bowl game in over twenty years. In '91, after losing to Kentucky 35-6, a group of students, SABB or "Students Against Billy Brewer", purchased an ad calling for his firing.

Brewer's teams were banned from live television in '87. Following the '93 season another NCAA report led to a lack of institutional control. The AD and Brewer were fired in July 1994.

DC Joe Lee Dunn was named interim for the 1994 season. After going 2-6 in the SEC in '94, Dunn was named DC at Arkansas.

Tommy Tuberville coached Ole Miss from '95-98. Tuberville was SEC Coach of the Year in '97 after going 4-4 and landing in the Motor City Bowl. Tuberville was 12-20 in SEC games at Ole Miss. Two days after stating, "They'll have to carry me out of here in a pine box," Tuberville was hired at Auburn.

David Cutcliffe was the OC for Tennessee during the Peyton Manning years and the NC regular season with T Martin at QB. Cutcliffe coached Ole Miss from '98 thru '04. He had a 25-23 SEC record. He had winning records his first five years including a 10-3, '03 season with a Cotton Bowl victory and 7-1 SEC run.

After going 3-5 in the SEC in '04, AD Boone gave him an ultimatum to choose assistant coaches to fire. He refused and was fired where he landed as associate head coach and QB coach at Notre Dame. Cutcliffe coached Duke from 2008 to 2021 where the Blue Devils ended an 18-year bowl drought and Cutcliffe was named national coach of the year.

Ed Orgeron was '04 National Recruiter of the Year as Asst. Head Coach at USC. Orgeron proved to be a successful recruiter at Ole Miss but could not translate the USC system into on-the-field success. After three seasons and a 3-21 SEC record, Orgeron was let go. After a season as the Saint's DL coach, Coach "O" allied with Lane Kiffin, first at Tennessee and now at USC. He became head coach at LSU, leading them to an undefeated national championship in 2019 and has since been fired.

Around the 2007 Thanksgiving season, Houston Nutt was hired as the Ole Miss coach. Nutt coached four seasons. It is perhaps not well known that Nutt led Ole Miss to their first consecutive New Year's Day bowl games in fifty years. After Nutt's team went 1-15 in SEC play his last two seasons as Coach Orgeron failed to continue to retain the players he recruited after no longer being on the Ole Miss payroll, Nutt was let go. A 2010 season opening loss to Jack Crowe's Jacksonville State team the morning after getting Oregon transfer QB Jeremiah Masoli eligible to play caused Nutt to lose staunch supporters.

Nutt's SEC record was 10-22 in four seasons.

Hugh Freeze was a former staff member for Ed Orgeron at Ole Miss. He was briefly interim coach between the firing of Orgeron and hiring of Nutt. He was nicknamed "Snake" by his high school prodigy Michael Oher for trying to leverage his ties to land a job on Phillip Fulmer's staff at Tennessee. After Oher decided to attend his family's school, Freeze came to Ole Miss. Freeze enjoyed a heavy reliance on gadget plays. During Oher's senior season, Freeze was convinced by Leigh Ann Tuohy to utilize a running game behind Oher. Freeze was instrumental in getting Oher out of trouble when he assaulted a teammate who insulted Leigh Ann and Collins Tuohy.  During the assault in the study lounge a small child was also seriously injured.

On his own, Freeze led Arkansas State to a 10-2 regular season mark in 2011 and was hired in early December to replace Nutt.

Freeze teams went 19-21 in five seasons of SEC play including a dream run in 2015 that included Katy Perry, of all people, coming to Oxford to celebrate College Game Day. Freeze was the only coach to defeat Nick Saban twice and as recent as June 2016, was named on multiple sites as the number two coach in the SEC. Freeze recruited a cast of characters that included the Nkemdiche brothers and Laremy Tunsil.  His skills in keeping Oher out of trouble would be put to the test. His boldness in challenging anyone who had info that Ole Miss was cheating in recruiting was also put to the test. Ole Miss received an NCAA Notice of Allegations and after going 5-7, 2-6 SEC in 2016 would choose to take itself out of postseason contention in 2017.  After Ole Miss put the majority of the blame for their troubles on the Houston Nutt error [sic], Nutt threatened to sue and had his legal team conduct an FOI request on Freeze's phone records (something for which Nutt was familiar). The records ultimately revealed a pattern of conduct that Ole Miss found disturbing and after confession Freeze was forced to resign. Freeze resurrected his career at Liberty. He is currently head coach at Auburn.

Matt Luke, then 40 and an Ole Miss legacy, was named the interim coach. Luke's dream job was not a dream situation. There were post season bans and recruiting limitations.

While Luke would keep the job in 2018 and beyond, then AD Ross Bjork offered no promises other than to say Luke is "going to be a great candidate for our job. We're going to watch him up close and personal. He and I will interact on a daily basis."  Bjork was hired by A&M and was ultimately replaced by Perryville native and Ole Miss All-Time Team basketball player, Keith Carter.

Luke's SEC record was 6-18 from '17-19, finishing sixth in the SEC West each season. There was an end of game incident in the Egg Bowl in which an Ole Miss player received a celebration penalty causing an extended PAT attempt that missed and yielding a one point loss to State. Luke was fired and has since been hired as the Offensive Line Coach at Georgia replacing Sam Pittman. He is currently O-Line Coach at Clemson for Dabo.

Lane Monte Kiffin, then 44, was hired as Luke's replacement coming from FAU. Kiffin received a four-year contract totalling $16.2 million negotiated by his agent Jimmy Sexton. Kiffin is a former head coach of the Oakland Raiders, Tennessee, and USC. His Tennessee season and the transitions are documented in the Tennessee article in this thread. Kiffin was offensive coordinator at Bama when Saban opened up his offense.  Kiffin was 18-6 in Conference USA at Florida Atlantic.

Kiffin's first team during Covid-20 went 5-5 against the All-SEC regular season and won the Outback Bowl. Ole Miss finished the '21 season 10-2, only the second time in a half century ("Fifty!") they had won 10 games including an Egg Bowl win. With Matt Corral having moved on, Ole Miss slipped to 8-5 in 2022. Kiffin's 11 achieved the program's first ever 11-win season in 2023 going 11-2 and winning the Egg and Chik-fil-A Peach bowls. Kiffin has become noted for his social media presence incorporating a dog, "Juice Kiffin" and use of the transfer portal. Kiffin is 34-15 (20-13 SEC) and has the expanded non-divisional SEC to look forward to.

[jbcarol]

ex-Vandy Head Man James Franklin considers how Penn State builds championship habits in spring

by:
Dan Morrison

Ahead of the 2024 season, there are once again big expectations for head coach James Franklin and the Penn State program. Now, during spring practice, is when Franklin wants his Nittany Lions to build up their championship habits.

While speaking to members of the media, Franklin explained that developing those habits is important for everyone, regardless of what position they play, and extends to the coaching staff.

"I think, more than anything, it's a foundation of habits. It's a foundation of offense, defense, and special teams," James Franklin said. "Not just for the players, but for some of the coaches that are new, so that we can literally come into summer and feel really good about having a chance to compete legitimately for jobs."

Now in his 11th season with Penn State, James Franklin knows that there is an expectation to compete for a 12-team playoff. However, he also knows that if the Nittany Lions make a deep run then there's plenty of time for things to change within the program from spring practice to then.

[jbcarol]

Texas

On January 2, 2021, Steve Sarkisian, then 46, was named the 31st head football coach at Texas replacing Tom Herman. His initial contract at Texas was for six years and $34.2 million.

On October 11, 2015, Pat Haden announced Sarkisian would take an indefinite leave of absence. Haden contacted Sarkisian after he learned that Sarkisian had not shown up to a scheduled practice on October 11. During his conversation with Sarkisian, Haden said he became aware that Sarkisian was "not healthy" and asked Sarkisian to take an indefinite leave of absence.

As part of Saban's coaching rehab, Sarkisian was named Offensive Coordinator replacing Lane Kiffin for the National Championship game against Clemson. After a stint as the Falcons' OC, Sarkisian returned and led Bama to a big Iron Bowl win over Auburn while Saban was quarantined with Covid-19. During his second stint at Alabama, Sarkisian coached quarterbacks Mac Jones and Tua. He also won the FootballScoop Offensive Coordinator of the Year award.

After a slow the start the question was whether Sarkisian could bring Texas "back". After starting 5-7 in 2021 and 8-5 in '22 with an Alamo Bowl loss, Sarkisian landed a strong verbal from Arch Manning and beat his former head coach Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa in an early season battle. Texas lost to Oklahoma in Dallas yet went 11-1 in the regular season and were chosen to the College Football Playoff over FSU. Texas won the Big 12 championship yet lost in the Sugar Bowl, the CFP Semi-Finals to Kaleb DeBoer and Washington. Texas will begin their run in the SEC in 2024.

[jbcarol]

Can DeBoer carry the weight of expectations at Alabama

by: Andy Staples
•

So it would be pretty silly to point out that Kalen DeBoer plays music at Alabama practices — think Bonecrusher's Never Scared and other early-century bangers; not the slop of the Soundcloud era — and suggest that new sonic accompaniment will somehow allow Alabama to be a better football team than it has been. Nick Saban's practices, which were soundtracked by bird-chirping and ass-chewings, led to a special brand of symphony on Saturdays.

In fact, every law of probability suggests it will be nearly impossible for Alabama to better than it has for the past 15 years in the next 15 years. Not because of any flaw in DeBoer's organizational, recruiting or strategic capabilities, but because Saban was so damn good.

Let's agree that any statement that insinuates that anything needed changing at Alabama is utter foolishness. The change happened because Saban decided it was time.

By the same token, we shouldn't blindly assume that because DeBoer is not Nick Saban that Alabama automatically will take a step back. DeBoer has been an FBS head coach for three seasons. His record is 34-6. Include the five seasons DeBoer spent as the head coach at his alma mater the University of Sioux Falls, and his all-time record as a head coach is 104-12. There have been coaches who have lost 12 games in their first season in the big chair. DeBoer has won nearly 10 games for every one he's lost, which sounds kind of like...

[jbcarol]

Mississippi State (updated)

Jackie Sherrill had been three years removed from A&M when he was hired for the State job beginning the 1991 season. While not receiving a show cause penalty, A&M had been penalized for lack of institutional control among other violations. State had won only 14 games total since 1986. Sherrill retired after the 2003 season as Mississippi State's then winningest coach at 75-75-2. and State was put on probation for four years.

Sherrill's team won their first game over Texas. They won the SEC-W in 1998 and earned a bid in the Cotton Bowl. State was 10-2 in 1999.

Sherrill's last two teams went 1-15 in the SEC. His overall SEC record was 43-59-1.

Sylvester Croom became the first black head football coach in the SEC and took over State for the 2004 season. Croom had been a long-time NFL RB coach before coaching the linebackers at his alma mater, Bama from the mid-70s to the mid-80s.

After going 4-20 in SEC play his first three seasons, Croom's team went 8-5 in 2007 including an Egg Bowl win. His team earned a Liberty Bowl bid which led to a win over UCF 10-3 in probably the most boring show of offense in a bowl game that at least one long-time State fan had ever witnessed. Croom received some Coach of the Year recognitions. After finishing 4-8 in 2008 including a 45-0 Egg Bowl loss to Nutt, Croom resigned.

Croom's overall SEC record at State was 10-30 (21-38 overall).

Dan Mullen was the OC for Florida and in process of a second National Championship when hired by State to be head coach. Mullen's team gave Florida a tough game in 2009. In 2010, State went 9-4 with a Gator Bowl win over Michigan.

In 2014, Mullen's team got State's first ever win over a then top-10 team beating LSU in Baton Rouge. Bulldogs beat No. 6 A&M and No. 2 Auburn to be named No. 1 in the first-ever College Football Playoff Top 25. State finished 10-3, losing to Bama, Ole Miss, and GaTech in the Orange Bowl down the stretch. It was State's third ever major bowl appearance following 1937 and 1941 Orange Bowl trips.

In 2016, Mullen's team won their bowl game and finished 6-7. The 2017 team finished 8-4 and Mullen was hired by his former AD at Florida to replace Jim McElwain. Mullen's SEC record was 33-39 in nine seasons (69-46 overall). He most recently has been a studio analyst for ESPN including commentary on the Arkansas 3 OT win over Kansas in the Liberty Bowl.

Greg Knox was State's interim coach for their TaxSlayer Bowl win over Louisville.

Joe Moorhead, then 44, had been the OC for James Franklin at Penn State well after the Jerry Sandusky controversy.  He had been the head coach at his alma mater, Fordham from 2012 to 2015 reaching the FCS playoffs his last three seasons. State AD John Cohen hired Moorhead who was slated to make $2.6 million in 2018.

Known for coming to interviews with a notebook signaling preparation, Moorhead brought a notebook to his introductory presser at State in late Novemeber, 2017. Akron Coach JD Brookhart on the hire, "I knew Joe would be on the fast-track leading a big program. I give (John Cohen) a lot of credit because too often ADs try to win the press conference and don't hire the right guy. This guy didn't do that. He made a hire that is going to be right for the community and for the football field."

The school fired the 46-year old on Friday, Jan. 3, 2020, after only two seasons in which he posted a 14-12 record on the field. Moorhead's win total is the most by any MSU coach in his first two seasons since 1941. He also guided the Bulldogs to two Egg Bowl victories and was only the second coach in school history to go to a bowl in each of his first two seasons.

However, all eight of Moorhead's victories in 2018 had to be vacated after 10 football players were reprimanded by the NCAA for academic misconduct involving a former part-time tutor and an online chemistry class.

Those 10 players also served eight-game suspensions this season, one in which the Bulldogs went 6-7 and lost to Louisville 38-28 in the Music City Bowl. Starting true freshman quarterback Garrett Shrader was unavailable for the bowl game due a facial fracture sustained in a fight with teammate Willie Gay Jr. at practice on Dec. 20. Some players were reported to be skipping bowl practice.

Moorhead went 7-9 in SEC play. He was a target of SEC Network host Paul Finebaum as not being a fit at State. He coached Akron in 2022 going (2-10, 1-7 MAC).

Mike Leach, 58, was hired from Washington State. The multi-time National Coach of the Year came to prominence while serving as OC at Kentucky in 1997 and 1998. He brought in the Air Raid offense which UK still uses as their sound effect on scoring plays (though their offense is two yards and a cloud of dust). AD CM Newton wanted an exciting style of play to pair with Rick Pitino's basketball style who were having a good bit of success at the time. With homegrown QB Tim Couch and in-state WR Craig Yeast, Leach's offense helped Kentucky record their sole win over Alabama in the last 100 years or so.  Their scrappy style saw Steve Spurrier's UF team throw a bomb for a TD against the Wildcats' over matched defense out of victory formation. Ironically, Steve Spurrier, Jr. is Leach's OC at State and the Head Ball Coach was speaking to Leach's team before the 2019 Stanford game while Leach was interviewing with Hunter Yurachek. Also, Hal Mumme allowed State to score a TD late against UK to go down eight points and give Leach's offense one more shot with the ball.

The colorful, unfiltered coach even entertained an "Ask Mike" type segment in Pullman, in which viewers sent in a question selected by a TV station. Leach would free style for as long as he wanted. One of his last classic examples was his response to student loans. Leach had passed the bar exam but gave it up to become a low paid college assistant supported by his wife Sharon. Leach signed a $20 million deal for four years, the maximum allowed by state law. The incentive laden package also includes an assistant coaching pool of $4.7 million.

"Mike Leach is a proven winner who has established a culture of excellence for nearly two decades as a head coach," Mississippi State athletics director John Cohen said. "An offensive genius and two-time national coach of the year, he has a track record of building programs to national prominence with accountability and a blue-collar approach. We are thrilled to welcome him and his family to the Mississippi State family and look forward to watching our football program grow under his leadership."

In Leach's first game during Covid-2020, State upset the undefeated, defending national champion LSU in Tiger Stadium and his Pac-12 transfer QB KJ Costello threw for 623 yards out of the Air Raid for the SEC's all-time single game record which still stands. With one week of tape to prepare Arkansas won in Starkville 21-14 and Costello's passing yards were one half of the prior week along with 3 picks.

State had a rough run during the season yet finished strong beating Mizzou 51-32 and getting an invite to the Armed Forces Bowl and easing by No. 24 Tulsa 28-26. State finished 4-7 in the all-SEC season.

In 2021 State went 7-6 (4-4 SEC) yet lost the Egg Bowl and the Liberty Bowl game against Leach's long-time nemesis Texas Tech.

In 2022, State finished the regular season 8-4 (4-4 SEC) and Leach won his first Egg Bowl over Lane Kiffin. The four losses all came against ranked or to-be ranked opponents including Bama and Georgia.

In December of 2022, Mike Leach suffered a massive heart attack that led to his death the following morning. His passing led to many tributes across the college football world and a bringing together of teams who honored Leach during the bowl games. There were many previously untold stories of impact of Leach's life which centered on Leach making time to have a conversation. Perhaps none more was Leach's cash gift to save a Starkville Chicken Wing restaurant from going out of business due to impacts of Covid.



Business went on at State who were in the midst of the NCAA-constructed December crunch with early signing day recruiting, the opening of the transfer portal, managing the impact of NIL offerings, and for State and many others Bowl prep. State was entertaining visiting recruits on that day.

Zach Arnett, 36, was Leach's defensive coordinator coming from San Diego State. He was noted for doing a great job with the defense, especially in light of the Air Raid offense being executed and times when it led to frequent three-and-outs or a pick. Arnett had accepted the DC job at Syracuse in January 2020 yet switched to State and Leach eleven days later.

Arnett was first named interim coach upon Leach's hospitalization and was named head coach four days later. Arnett's first game was the ReliaQuest Bowl, a New Year's Day bowl in the Bucs' Pirate-themed NFL stadium. Against Bret Bielema's venerable Illinois defense, State won 19-10 on a late FG and a pick six scoop and score off a desperate lateral attempt on the game's last play. Arnett, when asked what Mike Leach thought of his performance said, "He would have been angry at my clock management setting up that last field goal and leaving time on the clock."

He was not wrong.

On Monday, State fired Arnett becoming the first SEC coach to not be allowed to complete his first season as coach since Mike Price and Bama.

One of Arnett's first moves was to abandon the Air Raid offense while having a SEC record-setting QB returning who had worked in the system his entire career.

After a good win over Arizona, State lost three straight SEC games to LSU, USC and Bama. State won a hard fought 7-3 decision over Arkansas in Fayetteville.

State then lost on the road to Auburn and at home against Kentucky. In a rare game in which both coaches were fired after the result, State lost to A&M 51-10. Arnett was let go with two regular season games remaining including the Egg Bowl. Greg Knox served as interim coach as State lost the Egg Bowl to Ole Miss 17-7.

Zach Arnett finishes his State career with a 5-6 record yet 1-6 in the SEC with his lone win in Fayetteville over Arkansas it what felt like a loser leave town contest at the time.

As the SEC looked to expand to 16 teams, State looked to become Oklahoma East. Zac Selmon was lifted on their shoulders upon announcing that Jeff Lebby would become head coach.



It stands to reason that Selmon would dip back into the familiar waters to make his first football hire as an athletic director. It makes perfect sense that the first year Bulldog athletic director would hire someone with ties to Oklahoma and Lebby has plenty.

As a member of the 2002 signing class, Lebby inked on with the Sooners after an All-State career as an offensive lineman at Andrews High. student assistant at Oklahoma under the direction of legendary Coach Bob Stoops. That final season in Norman (2004), Lebby spent some time coaching alongside former Heisman finalist Josh Heupel.

Both Lebby and Selmon have traded in their crimson and cream for the maroon and white of Mississippi State. As Lebby stepped off the plane, he was wearing a 3/4 zip pullover with the Bulldog Initiative logo over his heart. That fashion choice was no accident. Lebby has the offensive know how to move the Bulldogs forward. He will also need the resources with which to do so. The former Oklahoma and Ole Miss offensive coordinator was officially announced as the program's 36th head football coach. Notably, Lebby told reporters that he will indeed be calling plays as head coach.

[jbcarol]

SEC lands 4 coaches on ESPN's top-10 list for 2024 season
Grant Bricker |

ESPN published a ranking of its top 10 head coaches for the 2024 season on Friday, and the SEC was very well represented.

The list was constructed by a vote from ESPN's panel of college football experts. Kirby Smart, Kalen DeBoer, Steve Sarkisian and Lane Kiffin all made the cut. All of the current SEC coaches who made the list finished with at least 10 wins or more in 2023. DeBoer is new to the conference but reached the College Football Playoff final:

Smart move putting Georgia's coach at No. 1
Smart still claimed the top spot on the list despite a somewhat disappointing season in 2023.

DeBoer entering Year 1 with high expectations
Coming in at No. 2 was DeBoer, and the expectations couldn't be higher for the 1st-year head coach (sic).

Welcome to the SEC, Steve Sarkisian
The number of former Saban assistants in the SEC is set to grow with Sarkisian and the Longhorns joining the conference this fall.

Sarkisian came in at No. 7 after the Longhorns finally got over the hump in 2023 and won the Big 12.

All aboard the Lane train
Kiffin was featured at No. 8 on ESPN's list after Ole Miss' 1st 11-win season in 2023. The question will be whether the team can finally challenge for an SEC title in 2024.

[jbcarol]

A&M (updated)

Mike Sherman was hired in November 2007 to replace Dennis Franchione. Sherman's team won the last six regular season games of the '10 season. In 2011 they made the Top 10 but lost three games in which they held double digit half time leads. End of season top five teams Oklahoma State and Arkansas were the first two teams to accomplish the come-from-behind win. Sherman was fired on Dec. 1.

DC Tim DeRuyter was the interim coach for A&M's Meineke Car Care bowl game victory. DeRuyter is most recently the defensive coordinator at Texas Tech.

Kevin Sumlin was A&M's head coach as they entered the SEC. Sumlin coached Houston for four years. In 2011, his only loss was to So. Miss. in the C-USA championship game. At one time Sumlin was the second highest paid SEC coach to Saban making over $5 million a year riding the wave of Johnny Football. Kevin Sumlin once said he had the chance to jump to the NFL following Texas A&M's 11-2 season of 2012. A year later, he had the opportunity to trade in the SEC for the Pac-12, when Southern Cal courted him in the fall of 2013.

In retrospect, perhaps Sumlin should have moved on during his extended Aggieland honeymoon. That way he'd be a mythical figure on the A&M campus, a la Paul "Bear" Bryant, and not one who in the end will be remembered mostly for persistent mediocrity.

Aggies exited the Big 12 and joined the SEC in 2012 and had lost every year to LSU since. Notably Alabama (1-5) and SEC West oft-plodders Mississippi State (3-3) and Mississippi (3-3). To his credit Sumlin owned Arkansas.

The highlight of Sumlin's six seasons occurred Nov. 10, 2012, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. That's when Manziel directed a 29-24 victory over the top-ranked Crimson Tide, the first time in A&M history the Aggies had toppled the nation's No. 1 team on the road. Later that season Manziel joined John David Crow (1957) as A&M's lone Heisman Trophy winners, and the Aggies crushed former Big 12 foe Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl to cap what was easily Sumlin's most captivating season at A&M. Aggies wound up 5th nationally in the AP.

In the offseason leading to the 2013 season, Sumlin's bravado grew by bounds. He occasionally treated media that covered his program poorly, and was boastful in his speaking engagements across the state about what A&M had accomplished the season prior - when in reality the Aggies had still finished third in the SEC West.

A year later A&M notched the first of three consecutive 8-5 finishes, and along the way Sumlin demoted an offensive coordinator, fired another one and fired a defensive coordinator in trying to recapture the Aggies' early magic.

Alas, Manziel was gone to wherever the unpredictable quarterback had wandered off to (including a brief stop in the NFL), along with Mike Evans and a remarkable offensive line that featured top-10 draft selections Luke Joeckel and Jake Matthews.

About midway through his tenure Sumlin tried toughening things up with the addition of defensive coordinator John Chavis from LSU - a move that overall failed in Chavis's three seasons -

The one consistency in all of this? Kevin Sumlin. That's why the Aggies (replaced) him in search of their first conference title in at least 20 years, and their first national title since 1939. --Brent Zwerneman

Sumlin finished 51-26, 25-23 in SEC games in his six seasons, the last five of which he finished in the lower half of the SEC-West.

Jimbo won the BCS National Championship game over Auburn with Jameis Winston at QB after the 2013 season. In 2017 FSU under Jimbo finished 5-6 and 6th in the ACC Atlantic Division. Jimbo was hired by A&M to a 10-year, $75 million contract. Like his predecessor, he would last six years.

In his first season, Jimbo coached A&M to a 9-4 record and 2nd prize in the SEC-West, A&M's best to-date. The season ended with a high scoring 74-72 7-overtime win over LSU, the program's first since joining the League. A&M had an Arkansas-lite 2019 schedule playing three distinct #1 teams and two other in the Top 10. During the Covid-shortened 2020 conference-only season, Jimbo led the Aggies to a 9-1 mark. They were first team out of the 4-team playoff and won the Orange Bowl. Prior to the 2021 season, the Board of Regents extended Jimbo's contract with the infamous 10-years and $100 million.

After losing Haynes King, the Aggies lost to the likes of Arkansas and State. Following up Jimbo became the first of a few former Saban assistants to beat the former boss and Bama. Aggies lost to Ole Miss and LS at the end and opted out of the Gator Bowl due to a Covid outbreak within the team.

Aggies would enter 2022 with great expectations and the greatest ever recruiting class on record. An off-season public feud with Saban over how the class was obtained had to be broken up by Greg Sankey. The team finished 5-7 missing out on a bowl game though they defeated #5 LSU. In the off-season, Jimbo supposedly gave up play calling to become more of a CEO coach and hired Bobby Petrino as OC and he was placed in the booth.

Jimbo Fisher was fired on November 12, 2023 with a 6-4 record. His contract was bought out with a new record $77.5 million surpassing Gus. Jimbo finished his A&M career 45-25 (27-21 SEC).  It was noted that he lost more games in six seasons in the SEC-West than he did in eight seasons in the ACC-Atlantic with FSU.

After a wild night that included insider confirmation that Kentucky's Mark Stoops was taking the job, A&M announced that former DC Mike Elko was the new head coach.

Elko's arrival was very different than Jimbo's. Elko returned quietly to an empty tarmac at 2:00 on a Sunday morning with no official announcement. Jimbo arrived back in December of 2017 with fanfare, the Aggie band, and a Maroon carpet.

"Coach Mike Elko is one of the best leaders and coaches in college football and has had high-level success at each stop of his career," Bjork said. "He is known amongst coaching circles as one of the best defensive minds in the country and has shown his ability to lead and turn around a program as a Power 5 head coach."



He received $11 million for an assistant coaches salary pool.

From Brent Zwerneman:
Two years ago, defensive coordinator Mike Elko left Texas A&M to prove himself as a head coach at the Power Five level. The native New Jerseyan is returning to A&M from Duke with two successful football seasons at a basketball school under his belt.

A&M will announce Elko, 46, as the Aggies' successor to the fired Jimbo Fisher at a press conference Monday, according to several people familiar with the move. Elko's hire wrapped up a wild weekend that included an apparent heavy flirtation with Kentucky's Mark Stoops before Stoops decided to stay in Lexington in the wee hours of Saturday night.

Elko, who was 16-9 over two seasons with Duke of the Atlantic Coast Conference, was Fisher's defensive coordinator at A&M from 2018-2021. The Aggies were 34-14 with Elko on board and 12-12 over the past two seasons without him.

Elko's final defense at A&M in 2021 allowed more than 30 points only once all season, and that was in a 41-38 victory over No. 1 Alabama. Elko typically employed a 4-2-5 defense (four defensive linemen, two linebackers and five defensive backs) while at A&M. When he left A&M in December 2021 for Duke, the Aggies ranked third nationally in scoring defense that season, allowing 16 points per game.

"(Elko) has an innovative football mind, a natural ability to connect with both players and coaches around him," Duke athletic director Nina King said at the time of Elko's hiring at Duke.

Fisher was fired after going 11-11 over the past two seasons and failing to win any SEC West titles over his six seasons at A&M.  Interim HC Elijah Robinson will still be on the sidelines for the Texas Bowl even though he accepted an offer to become an assistant at Syracuse next season.

Elko replaced David Cutcliffe at Duke and was 9-4 in 2022 and is 7-5 this season. The Blue Devils started 5-1 this year but were hampered over the second half of the season by a toe injury to star quarterback Riley Leonard. Duke was 10-25 in the three seasons prior to Elko's arrival.

A&M is paying Fisher a record $77 million buyout, nearly four times the amount paid a previous college football coach (the $21.5 million of Auburn's Gus Malzahn in 2020), and A&M athletic director Ross Bjork said A&M's next contract will be heavily incentivized.

Elko is making about $3.5 million annually at Duke according to USA Today, and A&M is expected to pay about a $5 million buyout to Duke for Elko's services.

Player reaction to Elko's return appeared mostly positive Sunday.

Elko enters what should be a favorable setting at A&M for 2024. The nation's top-rated class of 2022, which he helped recruit to College Station, will be upperclassmen as juniors, and the Aggies own perhaps their most favorable schedule since joining the SEC in 2012.

Elko's first game as A&M coach will be Aug. 31 against the Fighting Irish, from whom Fisher hired Elko in 2018.

Elko is the first defensive-minded coach A&M has hired since R.C. Slocum in 1989, and Slocum is the last A&M coach to win a league title (in 1998, when the Aggies played in the Big 12). Dennis Franchione, Mike Sherman, Kevin Sumlin and Fisher all specialized on offense.

[jbcarol]

Wiltfong: The real impact of Clemson's offseason hiring of Matt Luke

by: Kaiden Smith

For the first time since 2010, the Clemson Tigers finished a season without double-digit wins. Ending the year 9-4 following a Gator Bowl win over Kentucky to close out last season.

The standards are sky-high for the Tigers year in and year out under Dabo.

"They made one of the best offseason assistant coach hires in the country in my opinion by going out and getting Matt Luke," Wiltfong said Thursday on Andy Staples On3. "That was a tremendous hire for them, it was a position room where they have not had much success getting players drafted in spite of winning national championships and stuff, their offensive line was not full of NFL players. You bring in Matt Luke, he has a track record of NFL player development. He knows how it was done at Georgia, he was very integral in that, they are a major factor on the recruiting trail this cycle with some of the best offensive linemen in the country."

[jbcarol]

Oklahoma

In July 2021, Oklahoma and Texas announced that they would leave the Big 12 for the SEC. Oklahoma and Texas have been criticized for abandoning their historic conference roots and setting the stage for other teams to do so, thereby creating a landscape in which the SEC and Big Ten are poised to dominate the sport at the expense of others.

Prior to the end of the 2021 season, Lincoln Riley accepted the head coach position at USC, becoming the first head coach to leave Oklahoma for a different job since Chuck Fairbanks in 1973. Chuck Carlton: "blindsided most of the college football world." Riley compiled a 55–10 (.846) record and achieved the highest winning percentage of any coach in program history. Bob Stoops was remembered at the Alamo Bowl and led the Sooners to victory as interim coach.

Brent Venables, then 50, was a long-time defensive coordinator with stints at Oklahoma and Clemson. In 2006, he was one of five finalists for the Broyles Award honoring our nation's top assistant coach.

On December 5, 2021, Venables was named the 23rd head coach at the Oklahoma replacing Riley. After going 6-7 in the 2022 campaign, Venables led OU to a 10-3 mark and big win over Texas in Dallas in 2023. As the Sooners prepare to play an SEC schedule Venables is 16-10 overall and 10-8 in the Big 12 with a couple of bowl losses.

[jbcarol]

Former Alabama All-American, AD Steve Sloan passed away

By Michael Casagrande |

Steve Sloan, an All-American quarterback at Alabama who went on to a long coaching and administrative career, died Sunday in Orlando.

Sloan, 79, passed away at Dr. P. Phillips Hospital with his wife Brenda at his side, according to his obituary. He had been in memory care for the past three months. He was married 55 years and is also survived by his son, Stephen Sloan Jr., of Lima, Peru.

A long career in the spotlight began as a player on Paul "Bear" Bryant's Alabama football teams. As a sophomore, he was Joe Namath's backup at quarterback, filling in for a Sugar Bowl win over Ole Miss before winning the national title in 1964. As a senior, the consensus All-American led the Crimson Tide to the 1965 national championship with a 39-28 win over Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.

After college, Sloan was picked in the 11th round of the 1966 NFL draft to the Atlanta Falcons. He appeared in eight games over the next two seasons, starting once before returning to Bryant's staff in 1968. His college coaching career took him all over, first as an offensive coordinator at Florida State and Georgia Tech, before taking the head coaching job at Vanderbilt in 1973 at just 27.



In Year 2, the Commodores went 7-3-1 and played in the Peach Bowl -- the school's second bowl game.

Sloan went on to coach at Texas Tech (1975-77), Ole Miss (1978-82) and Duke (1983-86).

Perhaps it was the job he didn't get that will be remembered most in Tuscaloosa. It's well documented that Sloan was Bryant's choice to succeed him as Alabama's head football coach but had already accepted the job at Ole Miss before the retirement announcement. Ray Perkins eventually got the job.

In 14 seasons as a head coach, Sloan had a 68-86-3 record with three bowl-game appearances.

Sloan eventually returned to Tuscaloosa as Alabama's athletics director in 1987. In his two years in office, Sloan oversaw the expansion of Bryant-Denny Stadium with the east side upper deck that included a new press box and a new capacity of 70,123.

[jbcarol]

Most SEC conference wins '92 - present

Nick Saban          117  LSU '00-04, Bama '07-23
Steve Spurrier     113  UF '90-01, SC '05-15
Phil Fulmer           96  UT '92-08
Mark Richt            83  UG '01-15
Sen. Tuberville      62  OM '95-98, AU '99-08
Les Miles              62   LSU '05-16
Kirby Smart          56  UG  '16-
Dan Mullen           54  MS '09-17, UF '18-21
Houston Nutt        52  Ark '98-07, OM '08-11
Jackie Sherrill       39  MS '91-03
Urban Meyer         36  UF '05-10
Mark Stoops         35   UK  '13-
Ed Orgeron          34   UM '05-07, LSU '16-21
Terry Bowden       30  AU '93-98
Gene Stallings      27  Bama '90-96
Jimbo                  27  A&M '18-23
David Cutcliffe      25  OM '99-04
Jim Donnan          25  UG '96-00
Kevin Sumlin        25  A&M '12-17

[jbcarol]

Former Alabama coach Gene Stallings talks advice to Kalen DeBoer

By Matt Stahl |

Gene Stallings is still going. At 89 years old, he's moving a bit slower, but still has a crusher of a handshake, strength that betrays his time as a football player, and a rancher, north of Paris.

The man who coached Alabama from 1990-96 was in Tuscaloosa on Thursday, attending a fundraiser for children at the UA RISE Center. Stallings said he'd left his ranch behind for the evening to make the trip.

The RISE Center helps young children with disabilities. Stallings began supporting it shortly after becoming the Crimson Tide's head coach back in 1990.

The mission was personal for Stallings, who raised a special needs son of his own. These days, the RISE Center sits on Johnny Stallings Drive in Tuscaloosa, in honor of his late son.

Sitting in a chair at the NorthRiver Yacht Club, Stallings spoke of his love for the program.

"What a joy it is to be affiliated with the program," he said. "It gives them lots of opportunities for youngsters to go to school where they wouldn't have that chance ordinarily."

Stallings visited Tuscaloosa during a time of transition for the program he won a national title with in 1992. Kalen DeBoer just took over for Nick Saban, who had revived the Tide, ending a lull that followed Stallings' tenure and building one of the sport's greatest dynasties.

The main advice Stallings had for DeBoer was to avoid his start. Stallings lost his first three games at Alabama.

"I do not advise anybody go into Alabama and start out (0-3), Stallings said. "We finished pretty good, but we didn't start out that way."

Stallings said DeBoer had an excellent run at Washington. However, he cautioned that the SEC is a different animal.

The old coach also acknowledged the unique challenge UA's new leader faces.

"I think he got a good job," Stallings said. "But following coach Saban's going to be extremely tough."

[jbcarol]

Sarkisian finally reveals he considered replacing Nick Saban at Alabama

By Mark Heim |

Sarkisian admitted he considered replacing Nick Saban at Alabama after the 72-year-old coach retired in Tuscaloosa.

For the record, it wasn't very long.

"Naturally, I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about it," the Texas coach told ESPN. "But it took me all of about 60 seconds to say, 'Yeah, I'm not doing that.' I had an awesome two years at Alabama and loved my time under Coach Saban, but ultimately you want to reap what you sow."

Sarkisian spent the 2019 and 2020 seasons in Tuscaloosa as Saban's offensive coordinator.

"We've poured a ton into this program for three years, and we're on the cusp, I think, of going on a run that will be epic," Sarkisian said. "I believe that. Our staff does, and our players do, too, just the support we have and the culture we've created here. Why leave something like that?"

Sarkisian was not the first former assistant to beat Saban, but he became the first to do so at Bryant-Denny Stadium when the Longhorns beat the Tide 34-24 in Tuscaloosa.