2024-25 CFB coaching carousel

Arkansas is bowl-eligible - is 6-6 or 7-5 and a shitty bowl game enough to put Petrino 2.0 at Arkansas on the back burner?

 

This guy says there's no break in waiting until the start of the new calendar year.
In either case, we're not talking about great journalism here.
The true math about the Neal Brown buyout

 

Rice hires HC from Davidson. Likely will be another modern triple option team.

https://footballscoop.com/news/rice...EGXZ8dx6LbEqTNxM2g_aem_2hOdeiwS7IDFJHVl4w2jbQ

 

Scott was the coach at Amherst High School during part of my Lynchburg years, always enjoyed my dealings with him. I know Rice isn't the greatest FBS program, but to go from two Lynchburg area high schools to a middling DIII program in Washington & Lee, to a non-scholarship FCS like Davidson, then jump to FBS is quite the interesting career path.

 

OTOH, I think for G5's going into the era of having to make payments to players and other budget strains, hiring rising or winning coaches from FCS is going to happen more often. Some will still go with Power retreads, but the risk is that you hire a guy on a descending arc or an older guy who is looking for a steady paycheck but does not have the energy and focus that got him to his Power job in the first place. They cost more money and you run the risk of hiring a Tom Herman.

 

The RichRod stories desperately need copy editors. Damn.

 

I hope you're right, franticscribe (yeah, I know you and UNCGrad and Tarheel316 probably don't believe that). Mack is the epitome of class and deserves nothing but credit and our respect. Hope Bubba is smart enough not to hire another knuckle-dragging POS like Larry Fedora.

(Now having said all that, I'm not pulling for him to go out a winner. Hope you understand ... )

 

I wouldn't expect any less, Sam!

I'd much rather have a past-his-prime Mack Brown than another Larry Fedora. Bubba has done a good job with most of his hires, but Fedora was a huge mistake.

 

ESPN's speculation list for the next UNC coach has several names, the most accomplished of which is Dave Clawson. I'm curious as to how he wound up there. An agent putting a bug in the reporter's ear, perhaps? I've got to believe Clawson/UNC would be on the hook for a big buyout for that transaction. The story speculates that Carolina fans would be upset at having to stoop to hiring Wake Forest's coach. The Tar Heels should be so lucky as to get a guy like that.

 

No on Clawson. A part of me has wondered how some bigger program with a bigger budget and not a fraction of Wake Forest's academic standards hadn't come along and poached Clawson. The only couple of reasons that have come to mind is that Clawson is usually a thoughtful sort who might not want to deal with the larger cesspool and other drawbacks that come with the bigger jobs ... and maybe that those ADs realize that Clawson might not be as at-home in programs like that.

But I'll agree with you. Chapel Hill would be fortunate if Bubba were to somehow poach Clawson.

As for Sumrall, does Bubba really think he's another Drinkwitz (i.e., one year with a school and can suddenly take the helm of a Power 4 and fare well)? Not sure about that, but I'm sure Bubba can money-whip a coach in that sort of situation.

The other name I found a bit interesting was Jason Candle at Toledo. He was on similar lists at this time last year when Mike Elko left Durham to go to Texas A&M before Nina King went with Manny Diaz.

Also saw Jamey Chadwell on a list. Not sure how much more Bubba can come up with to get him to leave Lynchburg after it appeared that Chadwell picked and chose selectively before finally leaving Conway. Moreover, if Mack is getting treated like this given his recent track record in Chapel Hill, could Bubba and some of the fans there be getting a bit spoiled? And – I'm going there ... might go over poorly here – how many coaches are going to willingly go to a "basketball school"? Be honest ... the egos of some of these coaches cannot handle that.

 

I enjoyed this on Neal Brown. Not too serious, but probably about how it is.

https://www.observer-reporter.com/sports/2024/nov/26/at-wvu-should-neal-brown-stay-or-go/

This in particular:

Remember the days when you checked the police reports as often as the football scores to see how WVU had done over the weekend. Arrests were a regular occurrence, and remember when there were academic casualties?

Now, players spend more time at WVU’s Children’s Hospital visiting sick kids than they do in jail. They graduate from school. Brown brings in good kids, makes them better. They’d be creating statues and naming streets after him if he had won.

If they could get rid of Bill Stewart, who was a good man and had many of the same qualities as Brown, certainly Brown is vulnerable.

But we are at a time in college sports where the financial statement is as important as the box score … and it’s changing all the time. WVU isn’t sure it can afford to fire Brown while many of its fans are saying they may not be able to afford to keep him.

 

Lincoln Michael Riley. Throw the money at him, see if he's game.