2013 College Football Coaching Carousel thread...

James Franklin took out a half-page ad giant picture of himself in today's Tennessean:



It's easy to tell how he's such a great recruiter after crafting such a heartfelt message.

 

Looks like Penn State took out the ad. Or at least paid for it.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20140115/SPORTS0602/140115022/James-Franklin-s-ad-paid-by-Penn-State

 

Vandy hiring Stanford's Derek Mason, chosen over Brian Schottenheimer.

 

That's a good choice. He came up with the game plans that beat Oregon, and he knows how to work with a recruiting pool of smart kids.

 

Yeah, it's a good hire. I would have gone after Chad Morris, but Vandy might not have wanted someone who would likely be gone after a year or two if he was successful.

 

Chad Morris probably cost too much.

Got a friend who works at Vandy (not athletic department). She said they got a memo right after Christmas that salaries were likely to be cut this year because the university's top expense was salary.

If you're Morris, do you feel that you have to go somewhere this year? If you don't see a gig that you really like all that much, stay put and see what's available next year.

 

Bill Clark becomes the latest to make a relatively quick transition from high school to FBS head coach. He's the new guy at UAB, six years after he was at Prattville (Ala.) HS:

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/01/new_uab_head_football_coach.html

 

If he's anything like Art Briles, he'll do fine. I suspect there are a lot of high school coaches capable of coaching at the collegiate level.

Some may be old enough to remember Gerry Faust, who went straight from a high school job to being head coach at Notre Dame in the early 1980s. He was OK, not great, and the expectations were to be top 10 every year, not 8-4. I think that experience, and how high profile it was at the time, scared some people away from hiring a high school guy.

 

Mark, you don't seriously believe salary cuts at Vanderbilt apply to the football coach, do you?

 

Clark was DC at South Alabama for the previous 5 years before
HC job at Jacksonville St so it's not like he's jumping right
from HS like Faust did.

 

I don't think cost would have prevented Morris from being hired at Vandy. I could also see some being wary of the Vandy job, because now that job comes with some level of expectations.

I just always hate when we hear how great this assistant is or that assistant is and this year, it's Kirby Smart again and Morris. I don't believe for a second that if Saban retired that Smart would get the job, but that did happen at Oregon. I'm not sure what job Morris is eyeing.

 

It stinks for Vanderbilt that this is happening so late in the year, although, it can't be any worse than when Bobby Johnson quit in the summer a few years ago so that one of his assistants would get the interim job.

I can't imagine the Vanderbilt job has a great upside. It's an SEC school but one that has probably peaked. Franklin was an ideal coach for that place at that time. Once the Vandy fans start expecting a bowl game two years out of every three -- and if the SEC East finally returns to its normal level -- the next coach will likely get booted after four years.