NCAA Coaching Dominos Are Already Falling
The NCAA football season is almost over.
Yet to come are important championship and bowl games.
Unless you’re a Big 10 team.
Wisconsin or Penn State, have fun being a conference champ while Ohio State goes to the playoffs.
For a majority of teams, though, their year's done.
One team glad to see 2016 goe by the boards is the Texas Longhorns.
For a traditional powerhouse like Texas, a 5-7 campaign is beyond disappointing. Unfortunately, for Coach Charlie Strong, the blame for this disaster fell squarely on his shoulders.
In his three seasons at Texas, dude finished with a record of 16-21 and a single 2014 Texas Bowl defeat.
The firing was hardly a major surprise, as the Texas booster community had it out for him since the very beginning. Strong is known as one of the most upstanding people in the game. Still, that doesn’t absolve him from the sad fact that winning games matter über alles.
Don’t feel too badly for Strong. He’s getting $10million not to coach the Longhorns in 2017.
Replacing him is the now ex-Houston Cougars coach Tom Herman. There was momentary confusion about where Herman would land in the wake of reports that Herman was close to an agreement to become the next coach at LSU.
About this close:
According to Herman, he never spoke with LSU about a changing from a Cougar to a Tiger. That, of course, is why agents and gofers exist. Plausible deniability is an art form.
Thus, LSU opted to keep current intern coach Ed Orgeron and his heavy Cajun accent as their full time dude. Unlike USC, who kicked Orgeron to the curb after he did a decent job saving their season, LSU has opted to let him stick around.
LSU undergoing a regime change would usually be considered a good thing for Alabama. However, the move may see the Crimson Tide lose their offensive coordinator.
Reportedly, Orgeron plans to have his ol' Trojan buddy Lane Kiffin as his OC. Then again, Kiffin's hoping to land a head coaching gig first, besides sticking at Alabama at least until the playoffs are over.
If the Kiffster does go elsewhere, it's doubtful he'll agree to serve as the business end of the conditioning program again.
Don’t expect to these to be the last college coaching changes in 2016.
Brian Kelly is eyeing fields greener than Notre Dame's, and Mark Helfrich is one done dude at Oregon, turning in his keys for an $11million parting gift.
There's still an opening at Purdue, and Houston's casting an eye in Les Miles' direction.
Baylor's looking at Sonny Dykes, which could be a fit. After all, if he could put a porous defense on the field at California, he'll be a perfect fit for the Big XII.
And so it goes, just like every year. Musical chairs, with lotsa commas.