Franklin is more likely to not coach next year than go to VT. Even deep down Hokie fans know that theyāre at best leverage for his agent for other jobs.
Personally, I think Franklin wants FSU.
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I am skeptical that any P4 is going to hire a sitting head coach with a losing record unless he ends up making the ACCCG
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I was going to say this. If FSU opens, Franklin will be the favorite there and VT is back to Chesney.
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I am too. I donāt think heās done enough at UVA, but I was responding to some of the speculation here.
Sorry, my Agent is calling again. I keep telling him that I donāt like crawdads and am not taking the LSU job no matter how much they offer me.
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Iām sure I have left many jobs and candidates out, but this is my rough accounting of the landscape right now. It honestly might have been easier to just list the teams I donāt think will be affected by the carousel this year.
I used a wide brush on the sitting power conference coaches linked to other jobs. I know many of those arenāt leaving, but I do think most of them will get calls and probably new contracts. That makes it 36 teams out of 69 (68+ND) that will likely be affected, in some way or another, by this cycle at the HC level.
Honestly though my prediction is that a lot of the ones that arenāt open yet will hold on for another year to avoid going up against all the rest of the people in the market for talent. I got to 21 non-power conference coaching candidates I could see taking a power conference job this year, but several of those are school specific, and you could be looking at as many as 20 openings (my guess is it ends up being ~15 before any hires of sitting coaches like Lane).
Power conference job openings (not a rank order just counting):
- LSU
- Florida
- PSU
- Ok State
- VPI
- Arkansas
- Stanford
- UCLA
- Oregon State (not sure they count)
Potential Power conference openings:
- Auburn
- Oklahoma
- Michigan State
- Florida State
- Kentucky
- NC State
- Wisconsin
- Iowa (retirement watch)
- Baylor
- Texas (NFL watch)
- UNC (who knows)
Power conference coaches at power conference schools credibly linked to open/potentially open jobs:
- Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss
- Rhett Lashlee, SMU (only Arkansas)
- Jeff Brohm, Louisville (donāt think heād leave)
- Manny Diaz, Duke
- Willie Fritz, Houston
- Matt Rhule, Nebraska (only PSU)
- Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri
- Clark Lea, Vandy (donāt think heāll leave)
- Brent Key, GT
- Lance Leipold, Kansas (only Wisconsin)
- Shane Beamer, South Carolina (only VT)
- Matt Rhule, ISU
- Fran Brown, Syracuse
- Jed Fisch, Washington (probably only Florida)
- Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame (donāt think heās leaving for this crop of jobs)
- Josh Heupel, Tennessee (only Oklahoma)
Other coaching candidates of note that are potential power conference hires:
- James Franklin, unemployed
- Brian Kelly, unemployed
- Pat Fitzgerald, unemployed
- Jimbo Fisher, unemployed
- Dan Mullen, UNLV
- Eric Morris, UNT
- Jon Sumrall, Tulane
- Ryan Silverfield, Memphis
- G.J. Kinne, Texas State
- Bob Chesney, JMU
- Alex Golesh, USF
- K.C. Keeler, Temple
- Jason Eck, New Mexico
- Glenn Schumann, Georgia DC
- Joe Brady, Buffalo Bills OC
- Jeff Traylor, UTSA
- Collin Klein, aTm OC
- Zac Robinson, Atlanta Falcons OC (Oklahoma State only)
- Will Stein, Oregon OC
- Bobby Petrino, interim Arkansas HC (Arkansas only)
- Tim Skipper, interim UCLA HC (UCLA only)
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A few other thoughts on jobs because I may update that post with the lists periodically:
- From my time in the commonwealth of Kentucky last week I think UK is leaning towards parting ways with Stoops and that Will Stein is the top realistic candidate. Theyāll of course make a run at Sumrall, but I expect him to land at Auburn, Florida, or LSU depending on how the Lane sweepstakes plays out and if LSU and Florida have hang-ups about hiring a Go5 coach from Louisiana (again in Floridaās case, ever in LSUās)
- K.C. Keeler is a perfect Chesney replacement at JMU
- If Brian Kelly works next year I think it will be at either MSU or UCLA
- If UCLA doesnāt hire Brian Kelly I think they just retain this interim staff
- Someone should hire Glenn Schumann
- I donāt think NC State will fire Doeren
- Lashlee wonāt leave SMU for Arkansas
- Someone should hire Willie Fritz
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Well done compiling the list. Thereās enough names locations and scenarios to know that none of us have a clue how this will all break but I do know itās going to be damn fun to watch.
Joe Brady is a name, that I keep forgetting and I have heard him associated with two of the biggest openings out there.Crazy
You may be right but thereās a lot of smoke from their 247 board right now that indicate theyāre at least negotiating with him
Iād be shocked if he actually took one because I think he will get an NFL job eventually (that panthers stint kind of screwed him on his career progression through no fault of his own imo), but the PSU money guy has links and obviously LSU has their ties with him.
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They need to spend money on an OL. If Sellers returns (unlikely), they need a different OC who can take advantage of his skillset. Sellers is still raw with his decision making and his reads but the talent is obvious. Maybe Shula needs to go anyway. If Sellers is gone, Beamer will need a QB to be immediately effective. He canāt afford another losing season with blowout home losses. Weāll see if Beamer takes this on again or calls it and heads for an easier gig.
The PSU money guy is the one that sticks out for me. Sounded like a pretty well baked in deal there. The LSU opening obviously Iād think they should throw more effort at Brady over Lane. Potentially equal upside at a cheaper price point by avoiding a bidding war with Fl and Ole Miss.
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Great list.
I know Charles Huff has some red flags, but all he has done is win at his level. Iād expect him to get some interest from schools lower in the pecking order.
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Nice post. I wrote this a little bit ago. Also thereās 67 P4s + ND. I donāt count Oregon State and Washington State.
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Keelerās 66 and a native of eastern PA and went to Delaware. I doubt heās leaving Temple after 1 year, or ever really, not for another job.
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Kinda morbidly curious how he managed this part of the interview process.
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Ha, this was so long ago (he may have still been at Vandy) I donāt remember the exact details. But I did smirk when Dex was hired up there. I overlapped with Dex at UVA and had friends on the football team and the stories aboutā¦umā¦Dexās āmanhoodā were pretty wild.
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That was my question. I know PR and have done loads of interviews. I cannot imagine any situation where that would come up for a question or in conversation. Especially as a head coach
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Dexās wife used to play tennis at the Boars Head, I always thought she was pretty attractive.
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Considering he intimidated a r-pe victim and had numerous of his players accused of r-pe at multiple institutions, thatās probably an easier question to answer than some other onesā¦
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