🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Now that most teams are finished with their regular season, that means teams are going to start making head coaching moves. This will keep track those moves. I'm only going to put a school here once the move is official. One job that was rumored to possibly to open up was USC after they finished 5-7, but administration is bringing Helton back next year.

As of 11/25/18, there have been 11 schools that have fired their coaches. That number will grow in the coming days and weeks though. In alphabetical order, the schools that have fired their coaches so far are:

Bowling Green

Old Coach: Mike Jenks

New Coach: Scot Loeffler

Central Michigan

Old Coach: John Bonamego

New Coach: Jim McElwain

Charlotte

Old Coach: Brad Lambert

New Coach:

Colorado

Old Coach: Mike MacIntyre

New Coach: Melvin Tucker

Georgia Tech

Old Coach: Paul Johnson

New Coach: Geoff Collins

Kansas

Old Coach: David Beaty

New Coach: Les Miles

Kansas State

Old Coach: Bill Snyder

New Coach:

Liberty

Old Coach: Turner Gill

New Coach: Hugh Freeze

Louisville

Old Coach: Bobby Petrino

New Coach:

Maryland

Old Coach: DJ Durkin

New Coach:

Massachusetts

Old Coach: Mark Whipple

New Coach:

North Carolina

Old Coach: Larry Fedora

New Coach: Mack Brown

Ohio State

Old Coach: Urban Meyer

New Coach: Ryan Day

Temple

Old Coach: Geoff Collins

New Coach:

Texas State

Old Coach: Everett Withers

New Coach: Jake Spavital

Texas Tech

Old Coach: Kliff Kingsbury

New Coach: Matt Wells

Western Kentucky

Old Coach: Mike Sanford

New Coach: Tyson Helton

Thanks for doing this! Easy to see all in one place.

Western Kentucky coach was fired today.

@Texas-Hawk-10 Yes, thanks for posting all of these buddy.

@Texas-Hawk-10 go ahead and fill in Mack Brown to UNC. Presser tomorrow.

Tyson Helton who was the OC at Tennessee this past year was hired by WKU.

FarmerJayhawk said:

@Texas-Hawk-10 go ahead and fill in Mack Brown to UNC. Presser tomorrow.

I'll add it once it becomes official. You never know if something screwy could happen last minute.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/25387531/mack-brown-accepts-north-carolina-tar-heels-job ↗

Georgia Tech’s coach is retiring.

dylans said:

Georgia Tech’s coach is retiring.

Interesting. Triple option gone from the ACC with a roster built around that system. OUCH to the new coach

@BeddieKU23

Biggest difference in an option attack is the QB. You will have to recruit new QBs to take over. However, the WR, linemen and other skill guys should be able to translate.

H-backs can move to TE or FB fairly easily. Your primary running backs should be able to transition to any offense.

But QB you need someone that can throw a bit more than what option guys are asked to do. It may take a couple of years to find that guy.

@justanotherfan

Yeah its definitely a transition. I wonder if they go after another option coach such as Army's or somewhere else.

Here is a list of 10 potential OCs ↗. Some are very unlikely but some are very possible...

BeddieKU23 said:

@justanotherfan

Yeah its definitely a transition. I wonder if they go after another option coach such as Army's or somewhere else.

Another thing to consider for an option QB that isn't a good passer is to switch positions (usually to either RB or WR). Their athleticism typically translates well to those spots, and it gives them a chance to keep their scholarship without transferring.

JayHawkFanToo said:

Here is a list of 10 potential OCs ↗. Some are very unlikely but some are very possible...

Seen these last night , been really busy today was getting ready to post -- figured someone had seen these - -some pretty interesting , can't say they are impossible - -improbable ya some are - - yet there are some I could see very easily coming here because of Les and ties - -Hugh Freeze - - --Phillip Montgomery -Dan Enos ? - - Kendal - Houston OC - - I'm not a very patient guy , let's get rolling here daylight burning - - we need all the advantage we can get against other schools.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/25412562/texas-tech-red-raiders-hiring-matt-wells-utah-state-aggies ↗

Texas Tech has hired Utah State’s Matt Wells

I read that Les Miles favored pro-style, drop back QBs. I know he lost the LSU position because of disappointment with his offenses, but do we really expect a 65 year old coach to change the type of players he has favored in the past? Option style QB? I guess we'll see what players Miles brings in.

dylans said:

http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/25412562/texas-tech-red-raiders-hiring-matt-wells-utah-state-aggies ↗

Texas Tech has hired Utah State’s Matt Wells

Home run hire. Best candidate available imo.

Bill Snyder is going to be announcing his retirement from KSU so that's another job that will be available. Money has to be on Jim Leavitt being their guy.

As of December 2, the only FBS jobs that are available are the Charlotte, KSU, Louisville, Maryland, and UMass jobs. Colorado is announcing Georgia DC Melvin Tucker as their new coach today and Central Michigan announced Jim McElwain would be taking over that job today.

I saw a report in Kansas that Seth Littrell, North Texas's coach was likely to be the next KState coach.

Guess Snyder's "retirement" is official now.

https://www.kansas.com/ ↗

I was hoping he'd stick around a few years so Miles could beat him. Hopefully they dont get Littrell, Leavitt is most likely the guy.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/25449933/ohio-state-buckeyes-head-coach-urban-meyer-retire-coaching-rose-bowl ↗

Urban Meyer is retiring. Ryan Day to replace him.

@dylans Meyer is stepping down from Ohio St to get his foot in the door at KU

@nuleafjhawk O coordinator? Lol

In addition to Urban Meyer, Turner Gill also announced his retirement due to his wife's health issues.

Walt Bell jumps from Florida St's Offensive Coordinator spot to UMass Head Coach. Look for Hugh Freeze to become FSU's new O-Coordinator in the next day or two. Seems like that is a good possibility.

To bad for Coach Gill, I had a chance to met him a number of years ago in Lawrence thought he was a pretty cool dude. He was a solid recruiter as well. I just think he lacked the control of his players and didn't have good coordinators to succeed here. Hopefully his wife improves health wise.

@kjayhawks I was a senior at KU when all that went down with Mangino and the transition to Gill. The reason Gill was going to have eligibility issues were from Mangino's players rebelling against the coaching change. Had Gill been allowed the time to get all of those players filtered out of the program, he would've been fine and had KU in a much better place than the program is now.

Well I could be reading way to much into the tea leaves but - - - -just found the statement kind of interesting making me think hmmmm, this would be very nice hope it turns out to be the case.

Reading the article today about the addition of our new adition ( Chip ) - while reading the article Coach made a statement that with our returners that we have coming back and the he said this " and with the pieces that we working on in recruiting " something about that just makes me wonder , hmm maybe - -just maybe Coach has some recruits already in the fold and just not announcing any commitments toil the signing date. Might have a few already in line that's coming. - -Cause he said with our returners plus what we have or working on he said the thought we had a chance to be ALOT better. - -would be sweet for sure. - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY

Anyone else thing its funny how when Urban Meyer's character and judgement is in question, he retire's and blames his health. What a chicken

Hugh Freeze to replace Turner Gill at Liberty. http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/25476184/former-ole-miss-coach-hugh-freeze-agrees-deal-liberty-head-coach ↗

@dylans

I guess the baggage he carries trumps his coaching talent.

Just read we have our 3rd assistant. -- Les has hired Offensive Line Coach - -Luke Meadows , OC coach from Eastern Michigan - - him and Lindsey worked together at Southern Miss. - -Welcome aboard. - - ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY

Georgia Tech hired Temple HC Geoff Collins to fill their opening.

@Texas-Hawk-10 I think you're incorrect on Gill. Meaning I don't think he would "have been fine." I had a very reliable connection that reported a number of issues. Biggest thing was conditioning and lifting. Gill didn't control that. He put players in charge of their own conditioning, and had very loose standards in the weight room. It was very lax and undisciplined atmosphere. Some players rarely participated. Team rules were a joke and regularly bent and ignored.

Where it's hard to argue with you, and I probably agree, is whether we'd be in a better place -- because I can't argue in favor of Weiss or Beatty. Not defaming Weiss, but Gill and Beatty were both good men and guys you know had their hearts in the right place. Gill was probably the best of the bunch.

I'm a Mangino fan. I like styles that win. Gill, Weiss, and Beatty were not able to win here when winning here is quite achievable.

@HighEliteMajor Those issues you mention about conditioning was Mangino's players rebelling against Gill which I've said countless times was the core of every issue Gill was facing while coach. That was what Gill needed the most was time to get Mangino's players out of the program to establish his culture the way it's supposed to work.

What screwed Gill the most was losing to North Dakota St. in his first game. Hindsight says that wasn't a bad loss given the run the Bison have been on since 2010. People also forget Gill knocked off a top 15 Georgia Tech team the week after NDSU.

A lot of people also forget that 2011 class Gill put together was a great class by KU standards (34th nationally) and had his QB of the future in Michael Cummings. That class had a lot other players who would become big players for KU including Ben Heeney and Tony Pierson. There were also 7 Olinemen in that class.

I do believe year 3 would've been rough under Gill (2012), but I think years 4 and beyond would've seen the upward climb up the standings for Gill because those 2011 recruits would've been in year 3 and taking over that program from a leadership role.

@Texas-Hawk-10 As much as I liked Mangino as a coach, Gill was clearly a better man, and a better role model for young men. Although I was upset when Mangino was fired, I thought Gill was an excellent hire.

The conditioning deal, too, was that Gill didn't impose his will and have a coach/trainer that dictated requirements and expectations. Things that a givens at top high school programs. All a bit puzzling.

@HighEliteMajor Gill's philosophy has always been about personal accountability which was the exact opposite of how Mangino ran the program. It went from one extreme to the other philosophy wise during that transition from Mangino to Gill and what happened wasn't unexpected. When people who are used to having a routine set for them whether it be tmgoing to HS to college, transitioning from the military or prison to civilian life, and a lot don't know how to properly adapt to that change without learning some hard lessons.

That's what was going on with Gill at that time. Players were learning life lessons about self accountability the hard way. Since most college football players will never sniff and NFL field, that's a life lesson they have to learn and so that's what Gill was preparing them for. It was always going to be a 3-4 year process for the culture change to happen and get to where KU could have been successful. Gill was letting those players learn that lesson the hard way.

Year 3 and the following offseason for Gill was going to be the most important part of his tenure had he gotten there. Those players who weren't handling their business in the classroom and were rumored to have eligibility issues included a lot of leaders on that team that had been a huge negative influence. Gill needed those younger players to see the consequences of not handling their business which was going to be year 3. That offseason between years 3 and 4 is when the negative influences were going to be gone and new leadership within the players was supposed to take over and change the toxic culture of Kansas football for the better.

I'm not going to say Gill was ever going to win B12 titles at KU, but given his full 5 years, I think he would've had KU bacj in a bowl game and in that 5-8 wins over year area that Mangino had KU in as well.

@HighEliteMajor @Texas-Hawk-10

I met Coach Gill at one of the KU football tailgate parties and had a chance to visit with him. I told him that as long a he beat MU and KSU and makes KU bowl eligible most fans would be happy. His answer was...I believe we can do better that that. He seemed like genuinely good person but you need a much more of a disciplinarian to lead a major football program; obviously his style fits better at a place like Liberty where players are students first and athletes second.

Apparently there was little control in a lot of areas where program personnel is normally involved to keep player on the straight and narrow and was left up to the individual instead and resulted in a number of them being in academic jeopardy. When Weis took over a number of players with serious academic issues were dismissed from the team. Like I mentioned, Coach Gill's approach likely works better at a place like Liberty but not necessarily at KU.

I was not happy when Coach Gill was hired since i believed his record at a mid-majot was pretty average at best and his best season was all smoke and mirrors and a number of lucky breaks as outlined in an excellent and very telling contemporary article written by Whitlock. Had Gill stayed, KU would have been in serious academic jeopardy as per NCAA standards.

@JayHawkFanToo 20-30 at Buffalo at that time was very impressive. KU was not the only school highly interested in him at the time. Both Nebraska and Auburn were legitimately interested as well. Had Nebraska's defense been in better shape, it's like Gill would've taken over there instead of Pelini. There was definitely a racial element involved in Gill not getting the Auburn job.

Those 20 wins in 5 years were double what Buffalo had done in the previous 7 years since they had joined the FBS. That's not smoke and mirrors. Winning consecutive division championships is not smoke and mirrors either.

His system would've worked at KU had he been given his 5 years to get Mangino's players out of the program because those players were the issue at the time. Gill needed those players gone, but was too nice of person to kick them off the team like they needed to be. Those 3-4 years after Mangino were never going to be easy on KU football because had they gotten another hard ass coach, most of those players would've transferred out and KU would've been fighting the depth issues sooner.

Texas Hawk 10 said:

There was definitely a racial element involved in Gill not getting the Auburn job.

Yes, there was but perhaps not in the way you see it. The NCAA had strongly "suggested" that programs needed to interview a minority candidate, much like pro teams have to, and by many accounts that was the reason he was granted an interview at Auburn but he really had no chance of getting the position; Auburn hired up and coming Gene Chizik from P5 program ISU who went be named Coach of the Year. Gill had been a legacy and position and Assistant Head Coach at Nebraska for 12 years and and the program was intimately familiar with his coaching talent and still did not get the position which is telling.

Those 20 wins in 5 years were double what Buffalo had done in the previous 7 years since they had joined the FBS. That’s not smoke and mirrors. Winning consecutive division championships is not smoke and mirrors either.

His record at Buffalo was 2-10, 5-7, 8-5 and 5-7 and conference was 1-7, 5-3, 5-3 and 3-5 for an overall and very pedestrian 20-30 record and if you read the Whitlock piece you will see that in 2008, his best season, he had the perfect storm of luck to get to 8-5...and i mean extreme luck when even highly improbable things break your way.

As I mentioned, I believe Coach Gill is an extremely good and well rounded individual, but as coach, his ceiling is Buffalo or Liberty.

@JayHawkFanToo Turner Gill being black definitely impacted his candidacy at Auburn. As much as we want to think race is no longer an issue, the fact that rules like having to interview a minority candidate prove race is still an issue. There's still plenty of racism going on in Alabama today along with other places in the deep south. The reason Charlie Strong didn't get the Florida job when Urban Meyer left was because his wife is white and there's a lot of people, both black and white, who have issues with mixed race marriages in the deep south. No matter how much people want to downplay it, race is still a big issue when it comes to coaching jobs in the south.

Gene Chizik went 3-9 and then 2-10 in his two years at Iowa St. before Auburn hired him. Gene Chizik didn't get that job because of his resume as a head coach. He got that job because of the good ol' boys network. He was definitely not more qualified than Gill at that time to take over Auburn. Chizik was not a good coach and got lucky that a booster paid off Cam Newton's dad to bring Cam there.

Gill getting passed over at Nebraska isn't that telling about what they thought of his coaching ability. It says their administration knew their defense was shit at the time and they hired the defensive minded coach over the offensive minded coach because their offense wasn't in bad shape at the time. They hired the guy whose strengths were where Nebraska's weakness at the time was, simple as that. Had their offense been garbage and the defense still living up to the "Blackshirts" reputation, then Gill would've been hired over Pelini instead.

20-30 in a vacuum is not impressive for a 5 year stretch. However, go look at Buffalo's previous 7 years from when they moved up to the FBS prior to Gill taking over. That 7 year stretch for them was 0-11, 2-9, 3-8, 1-11, 1-11, 2-9, 1-10. 20-30 in 5 years is much better than 10-69 over 7 years. That 7 year stretch is one of the few that can give KU's current streak of futility a run for its money and Gill is the one who made that program competitive.

Gill was never given a fair chance at KU because people were still slobbering all over Mangino's junk because Mangino had one fluke season and couldn't back it up.

@Texas-Hawk-10

Obviously I disagree with your assessment. If Gill is/was as good a you think he is/was, I am sure many other programs would have jumped at the chance of getting him but none really did and other than KU, Liberty is the only HC job he could get which again proves that Buffalo/Liberty is realistically his ceiling as HC.

I would suggest you find the Whitlock article, it is really an eye opener. Until then, we just agree to disagree.

@JayHawkFanToo I've read that article, I just don't put much stock into anything Whitlock has to say because he's been a really poor journalist for a very long time.

@JayHawkFanToo Gene Chizik won a national title and was fired 2 years later and hasn't gotten another head coaching job anywhere since then, yet Gill got another HC job after his tenure here.

@Texas-Hawk-10

Apparently you have not read the article I mentioned since it was not an opinion piece but a compilation of facts about the season. Facts are just that and don't change if you are a good or poor writer,

BTW, the HC position at Liberty is really not what a HC in demand would brag about.

Baring something unforseen expect Kendall Briles to become FSU's new OC.

BeddieKU23 said:

Baring something unforseen expect Kendall Briles to become FSU's new OC.

GROSS

BShark said:

BeddieKU23 said:

Baring something unforseen expect Kendall Briles to become FSU's new OC.

GROSS

As a strickly football hire its a homerun for FSU. He's a complete upgrade from Bell in terms of running the offense Taggart wants.

Of course there will be some PR to deal with here but he's twice removed from the Baylor situation. When your team becomes a piling steam of crap this is what you get sucked into, desperation over optics

BeddieKU23 said:

BShark said:

BeddieKU23 said:

Baring something unforseen expect Kendall Briles to become FSU's new OC.

GROSS

As a strickly football hire its a homerun for FSU. He's a complete upgrade from Bell in terms of running the offense Taggart wants.

Of course there will be some PR to deal with here but he's twice removed from the Baylor situation. When your team becomes a piling steam of crap this is what you get sucked into, desperation over optics

It’s also FSU, so the fans won’t care in the slightest about his past if they score a ton of points.

@FarmerJayhawk

I'm a FSU fan and I care about the optics but its not going to matter what I think of the matter. I have been reading of some people not on board with Briles because of the "baggage" from Baylor but your pretty much spot on that all that anyone is worried about is can this guy put points on the board and recruit.