West Virginia's Neal Brown ranks No. 1 among college football coaching hires
Twenty-seven major college football programs changed head coaches for the 2019 season. That’s a little more than usual but not far from the standard. About 20 percent.
The changes range from Ohio State to Texas State; from Miami to Liberty.
Some of the new coaches are big names – Dana Holgorsen and Hugh Freeze. Some are old names – Mack Brown and Les Miles. Some are no names – Jamey Chadwell and Thomas Hammock.
They all are in different situations. And who knows how they will do? When Alabama hired Nick Saban, it seemed like a home run, and it was. When Clemson hired Dabo Swinney, it seemed like a strikeout, and it wasn’t. So you never know.
With that mind, let’s rank the 27 coaching hires, not on how many games they’ll win – bold prediction: Ryan Day wins more games at Ohio State than Will Healy wins at Charlotte – but on the fit and how much they can advance the program.
1. West Virginia: Neal Brown, 38, replaced Dana Holgorsen. Great fit. Brown grew up in Danville, Kentucky, in the same Appalachian region as WVU, and is offensive-minded, befitting the Mountaineers’ tradition. He was offensive coordinator at Kentucky and Texas Tech; the former is more geographic fit and the latter is more football fit, since Holgorsen was a long-time Tech Air Raid assistant. In four years as the Troy head coach, Brown went 35-16 and beat LSU and Nebraska.
2. Charlotte: Will Healy, 34, replaced Brad Lambert. The 49ers play football for reasons unknown. But Healy seems like a really good hire. Grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and graduated from Richmond, so he knows the area. Has coached at Tennessee-Chattanooga and Austin Peay, where over three as head coach he was 16-18. Doesn’t sound great, until you realize Austin Peay was 3-43 the previous four seasons.
3. East Carolina: Mike Houston, 47, replaced Scottie Montgomery. Houston should know the area – he’s a Mars Hall (North Carolina) graduate and has coached at small schools throughout the Mid-Atlantic, including head coach at Lenoir-Rhyne, The Citadel and James Madison. Houston won the 2016 Division I-AA national title at the latter, where his record was 80-25.
4. Houston: Dana Holgorsen, 47, replaced Major Applewhite. A great get for Houston. Holgorsen coached on the Houston staff in 2008-09 and loved the city. In eight years as head coach at West Virginia, the Mountaineers went 61-41. Hiring away a Power 5 coach – especially from a solid program – is not easy to do for a mid-major, and Houston did it.
5. Georgia Tech: Geoff Collins, 47, replaced Paul Johnson. Collins went 15-10 in two years as Temple’s head coach, but he’s a much better fit in the South. A Western Carolina graduate, Collins was a graduate assistant at Georgia Tech in 1999-01, then a Yellow Jacket assistant in 2006. He also was an assistant at Alabama, Mississippi State and Florida.
6. Bowling Green: Scot Loeffler, 44, replaced Mike Jinks. Loeffler, a quarterback at Michigan, has an extensive coaching background, at Central Michigan, Michigan, the Detroit Lions, Florida, Temple, Auburn, Virginia and Boston College. He ought to be ready for MAC head coaching.
7. Western Kentucky: Tyson Helton, 41, replaced Mike Sanford. Helton is the younger brother of Southern Cal head coach Clay Helton and the son of former Houston U. head coach Kim Helton. Tyson Helton went to high school in Sugar Land, Texas, and graduated from Houston U. He’s coached at Hawaii, Memphis, Alabama-Birmingham, Cincinnati, Western Kentucky, Southern Cal and Tennessee. Lots of experience there, much of it similar to Western Kentucky.
8. Temple: Rod Carey, 47, replaced Manny Diaz (who replaced Geoff Collins). Carey spent seven seasons as head coach at Northern Illinois, with a record of 52-30, so he knows what he’s doing. The only problem is he’s a Midwest man – born in Wisconsin, played at Indiana U., coached at Wisconsin-Stout, Illinois State, North Dakota and Northern Illinois. How will he adapt to the East Coast?
9. Troy: Chip Lindsey, 44, replaced Neal Brown. Lots of Alabama ties. A North Alabama alum. Coached in Alabama high schools, including the powerhouse Hoover High School. Was offensive coordinator at Southern Miss, Arizona State and Auburn.
10. Miami: Manny Diaz, 44, replaced Mark Richt. Diaz seems like the perfect fit. The son of the former Miami mayor of the same name, Diaz attended Miami Country Day High School, then played at Florida State. He has coached all over – North Carolina State, Middle Tennessee, Mississippi State, Texas and Louisiana Tech, and spent the last three seasons as Miami’s defensive coordinator. Temple hired Diaz as head coach on December 13. But 17 days later, Richt abruptly retired, and Diaz returned to Miami as head coach. It was not a good look.
11. Utah State: Gary Andersen, 54, replaced Matt Wells. A Western Mack Brown story, with a coach returning to the place where he made his name. Andersen, a Utah graduate, coached in the West, primarily at his alma mater, then was hired as head coach at Utah State in 2009. In four seasons, he went 26-24, including a 11-2 season in 2012. Wisconsin came calling, and Anderson coached the Badgers to records of 9-4 and 11-3. But Andersen was a poor fit for the Big Ten and jumped at the chance to go back West, to Oregon State, where he went 7-23 in 2-1/2 years and was fired. Now he’s back at Utah State.
12. Appalachian State: Eli Drinkwitz, 35, replaced Scott Satterfield. Drinkwitz was born in Norman but graduated high school just across the state line, in Alma, Arkansas. Drinkwitz got in with Gus Malzahn at Springdale High School and eventually coached at Arkansas State, Boise State and North Carolina State, the latter two as offensive coordinator.
13. Ohio State: Ryan Day, 39, replaced Urban Meyer. Day never has been a head coach, which is no big deal. Neither had Lincoln Riley. Day is a New Hampshire grad who has coached at his alma mater, Boston College, Florida, Temple, the NFL and finally at Ohio State the last two years. The Buckeyes are following the OU model, which has usually worked for the Sooners. But the Buckeyes never have traveled this road. They almost always hire an established head coach.
14. Kansas State: Chris Klieman, 51, replaced Bill Snyder. Replacing Snyder is a thankless task. Just ask Ron Prince, who tried it from 2006-08. Klieman has been ultra-successful at Division I-AA North Dakota State, with four national titles in his five years as head coach and a record of 69-6. Klieman runs an offense not too dissimilar from Snyder’s K-State stuff. But there’s a red flag. Klieman is a Northern Iowa grad, then aside from a single season at Kansas (1997), he’s coached only at lower-division schools – Northern Iowa, Western Illinois, Missouri State, Loras and North Dakota State. Outside of the ’97 Jayhawks, Klieman never has worked for a Division I-A school, much less a Power 5 program.
15. Louisville: Scott Satterfield, 46, replaced Bobby Petrino. Satterfield is an excellent coach; he led Appalachian State, his alma mater, to a 51-24 record. The only question is, Satterfield has no experience of any kind at the Power 5 level – his other stops have been Florida International and Toledo.
16. Colorado: Mel Tucker, 47, replaced Mike MacIntyre. Tucker has an excellent resume’, having coached extensively in the Big Ten, the SEC and NFL. He was Georgia’s defensive coordinator the last three years and was the Jacksonville Jaguars’ interim head coach in 2011, leading the Jags to a 2-3 record. But he’s never worked west of the Mississippi.
17. Texas Tech: Matt Wells, 45, replaced Kliff Kingsbury. The Sallisaw High School graduate is a Utah State alum but left his alma mater for Lubbock. Wells coached the Aggies to a 44-34 record in six seasons. He also coached at Navy, Tulsa, New Mexico and Louisville.
18. Coastal Carolina: Jamey Chadwell, 42, replaced Joe Moglia. Good age, good geography, as an East Tennessee State alum who has coached in such programs as his alma mater, Charleston Southern and Delta State. He was promoted to the job and was interim coach for awhile in 2017.
19. North Carolina: Mack Brown, 67, replaced Larry Fedora. Brown has coached forever – but hasn’t coached since getting fired at Texas after the 2013 season. That’s a five-year absence from the game. But Brown was 69-46-1 in 10 years at North Carolina, 1988-97, and the Tar Heels hope to recapture some of that success, though Fedora wasn’t a failure – he went 43-34 in seven years. Still, hiring a 67-year-old seems like just postponing the decision.
20. Massachusetts: Walt Bell, 34, replaced Mark Whipple. Bell, a Middle Tennessee grad, was a quality control coach at Oklahoma State in 2009. He had a meteoric rise, coaching at Memphis, Southern Miss, North Carolina State, Arkansas State, Maryland Florida State. But UMass is a different kind of place.
21. Texas State: Jake Spavital, 33, replaced Everett Withers. The Tulsa Union graduate played at Missouri State, was a graduate assistant at OSU and followed Dana Holgorsen to West Virginia in 2011. Spavital also has had stops at Tulsa U., Houston U., Texas A&M and California. So he’s well-traveled for 33. But he’s seldom faced a challenge like he has in San Marcos.
22. Kansas: Les Miles, 65, replaced David Beaty. Miles was fired early in the 2016 season, despite a 114-34 record at LSU. You read that right, 114-34. But Miles’ only experience with rebuilding was at Oklahoma State, on Bob Simmons’ staff from 1995-97 and as Simmons’ replacement in 2001-04. Both tenures ended with success; he was 28-21 at OSU, after taking over a program with only one winning season the previous 11 years. Kansas is a tough job. But the Jayhawks have tried an up-and-coming assistant. Might as well try a seasoned veteran, even if it seems like a temporary gig.
23. Northern Illinois: Thomas Hammock, 37, replaced Rod Carey. Good ties – Hammock played at NIU and coached there in 2005-06. But he’s spent the last five seasons coaching in the NFL.
24. Central Michigan: Jim McElwain, 56, replaced John Bonamego. Strange hire. McElwain, who grew up in Montana and graduated from Eastern Washington, was a solid head coach at Colorado State, going 22-16. But in 2-1/2 years at Florida, McElwain went 22-12 and was fired for strange behavior, including claiming he and his family had received death threats that he didn’t report. Still, McElwain was Nick Saban’s offensive coordinator for four seasons at Alabama, including national titles in 2009, 2011 and 2012.
25. Akron: Tom Arth, 37, replaced Terry Bowden. Arth isn’t that experienced as a coach. He went to St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, then to John Carroll University, a Division III school. Arth then played quarterback all over – for the Packers and Colts in the NFL, in Europe, in Canada and in the Arena League. He went into coaching at his alma mater, including 2013-16 as head coach, then coached at Tennessee-Chattanooga in 2017-18.
26. Maryland: Mike Locksley, 49, replaced D.J. Durkin. Locksley is a Maryland man – born and raised in D.C. and went to school at Towson. He coached all over, with extensive experience in Maryland, with the Terrapins (including interim head coach in 2015) and Navy Prep. But as head coach at New Mexico, Locksley was involved in two scandals – a gender/age discrimination claim and a fight with an assistant coach. Now after a stint on Nick Saban’s Alabama staff that revived his career, Locksley has been hired at scandal-ridden Maryland, which can afford no more stains.
27. Liberty: Hugh Freeze, 49, replaced Turner Gill. An interesting hire. A strict fundamentalist school has hired a coach who proclaimed Christianity but was living a virtual double life as head coach at Ole Miss, both with marital infidelity and with skirting NCAA rules. Freeze was 39-25 in five Mississippi seasons but left the Rebels on probation. He’s a child of the South, which should help at Liberty – a Southern Miss graduate, coached college at Lambuth and Arkansas State.