).1. Matt Rhule -> Baylor: Mistake (for Rhule). Rhule could have held out for a better job. Decent coach who might keep the program afloat, but he will not maintain success. Baylor, TCU, and A&M all took advantage of Texas being down, but that era is coming to an end and Baylor will feel the biggest brunt of that. I guess people forgot that Baylor wasn't even a good job before Briles got there and it will slide back to where it used to be eventually.
2. Luke Fickell -> Cincinnati: Good hire. Fickell will make the cut at Cincy and keep them in the AAC mix. Can coach defense and recruit.
3. Randy Edsall -> UConn: Good hire. Edsall should get UConn back to respectability. His offenses are vanilla but effective when they have a good RB like Donald Brown or Jordan Todman.
4. Lane Kiffin -> Florida Atlantic: Good hire (yuck). I'm pained to admit it but I think Kiffin can hire the right staff and FAU seems very committed to fielding a winner. The Kendall Briles hire is interesting since Kiffin does like to experiment on offense, but he isn't a big-time spread offense guy. Briles is all about the Baylor-type spread. FAU will be turned around in no-time, and he'll parlay this job into another high-profile coaching gig where he will once again flame out. FAU is good for him though since he's a big fish in a little pond.
5. Butch Davis -> Florida International: Mistake. Davis will just go through the motions until it's time to retire. I guess FIU can't expect much better though. I'd rather re-hire Mario Cristobal and make things right with him.
6. Jeff Tedford -> Fresno State: Mistake. Again, another has-been going through the motions. Probably doesn't even want to be there. I imagine he's just bored and took the job at his alma mater because he doesn't have anything better to do.
7. Shawn Elliot -> Georgia State: Mistake. Trent Miles should have never been fired.
8. Major Applewhite -> Houston: Good hire. He will keep the ship righted at Houston and he's ready to finally lead a program.
9. Tom Allen -> Indiana: Mistake. Indiana will slide into irrelevancy soon (next year?).
10. Ed Orgeron -> LSU: Mistake. This is the guy you want to go toe-to-toe with Nick Saban? I'll pass. He'll probably screw up like he did at Ole Miss with terrible offenses. Matt Canada has a mixed record, but his offense at Pitt this year was incredible. If Orgeron just lets him run the offense then I might have to backtrack on that assumption of mine. Either way, this is not a national championship-caliber situation we have going on at LSU.
11. Jay Norvell -> Nevada: Mistake. Doesn't move the needle.
12. Willie Taggart -> Oregon: Meh. I'm not committed either way on this. This is a risky move by Oregon by going outside of the tree that they had established over the last decade, but Taggart does have a record of success. This feels like an odd fit though.
13. Jeff Brohm -> Purdue: Home run. Purdue will be back to doing what they do best: Slinging the ball around. Although Western Kentucky has been sneaky good at running the football too. Say hello to the Big 10's most explosive offense in the future (outside of Ohio State). I actually expect Purdue to win 8 games and challenge Wisconsin for the Big 10 West next year, contingent on whether or not he can find some WRs.
14. Brent Brennan -> San Jose State: Mistake. Who? He was Oregon State's WR coach. Really good qualifications there. This was literally the best guy they could find? I'm floored.
15. Charlie Strong -> USF: Good hire. He'll probably feel more relaxed at least with less pressure. If he can handle the defense and let the offense continue to do its thing, I could see USF building into a program similar to Strong's teams at Louisville. That's a bit on the high end, I don't think he will do quite that well, but I expect this to be a consistent winning program.
16. Goeff Collins -> Temple: Good hire. I'm not too familiar with Collins but it is hard not to field good defenses at Temple. The Owls have turned into a good program and he brings a winning pedigree. Not a home run, but one where they still win games.
17. Tom Herman -> Texas: Home run. He has the QB. He has the prestigious program. He has the offense. Now just get to work. Texas will be playoff-ready in 2 years. He's going to absolutely kill it.
18. Mike Sanford -> Western Kentucky: Meh. Hopefully better than this dad. If he doesn't change too much around WKU, he'll be a winner, but for me he's a total wildcard.
. The reason that job was open was that Tom Herman hired Beck away from OSU to run Texas' offense. Indiana, who fired Wilson in what will go down in college football history as a hilarious mistake, hired.....Mike DeBord to be their OC. If you're not familiar, Mike DeBord was offensive coordinator with Lloyd Carr and called plays for Tennessee. You can expect Indiana to see a slide on the offensive side of the football. Mark Helfrich is on Tennessee's short list for offensive coordinator. If they can land Helfrich, I think we have to watch out for Tennessee to win the SEC East next year.
