Coaching carousel 2025-26

[mdb-tpet]

There are way too many big buyouts with lateral or backward moves ultimately made on the hire.

It always amazes me when a program fires a head coach, and then they say, who do we want to replace the head coach with? If I'm a college president, and my Athletic Director fires a head coach without already being 90% sure who the next coach will be (at least from a 3 person list), then I'm ejecting the Athletic Director as well. Seriously, these guys have to be far more sure of who they are going to hire than they usually are.

 

[bamajas]

Interesting that Wisconsin announced that Fickel will be retained as Head Coach for next season. Probably a pretty wise move. I think they looked at the landscape and said “If we get rid of Fickel, who can we realistically get?”

I think it was Pate who mentioned UW was thinking about taking what WOULD BE Fickel's buyout money and investing it in the program through more NIL and structural support

Can see the wisdom in that at some places

 

[graydogg85]

I think it was Pate who mentioned UW was thinking about taking what WOULD BE Fickel's buyout money and investing it in the program through more NIL and structural support

Can see the wisdom in that at some places

It’s interesting to me how patient UW has been with Fickell in the current landscape. As others suggest, it could be simply a matter of “who else can we hire in this market?”

Wisconsin isn’t a blue blood program at the moment, but it wasn’t that long ago they were a 9-10 win team annually that managed to land in the Rose Bowl every 3-4 seasons.

I don’t think Fickell is a bad coach - he obviously had a good bit of success both as a DC and at Cincinnati. He’s had horrible injury luck at UW, like disproportionately bad, and it’s hindered their ability to put even a semblance of a competent offense on the field. That, and their schedule has been absolutely brutal.

Maybe dumping more money into NIL to get some dynamic guys on offense (and some quality depth) is the right move for them.

 

[mdb-tpet]

It’s interesting to me how patient UW has been with Fickell in the current landscape. As others suggest, it could be simply a matter of “who else can we hire in this market?”

Wisconsin isn’t a blue blood program at the moment, but it wasn’t that long ago they were a 9-10 win team annually that managed to land in the Rose Bowl every 3-4 seasons.

I don’t think Fickell is a bad coach - he obviously had a good bit of success both as a DC and at Cincinnati. He’s had horrible injury luck at UW, like disproportionately bad, and it’s hindered their ability to put even a semblance of a competent offense on the field. That, and their schedule has been absolutely brutal.

Maybe dumping more money into NIL to get some dynamic guys on offense (and some quality depth) is the right move for them.

That actually sounds like a good business plan. Instead of throwing a bunch of money to make a person leave, double down on their resources and see if it makes a significant difference. By then, you'll have reduced the coach's buyout money anyway, what's to lose?

 

[bamajas]

That actually sounds like a good business plan. Instead of throwing a bunch of money to make a person leave, double down on their resources and see if it makes a significant difference. By then, you'll have reduced the coach's buyout money anyway, what's to lose?

And it makes the program more attractive to the next HC if it ends up not working out. It's a wise idea, but it also depends on having the right people making the decisions on how to build it

 

[arthurdawg]

It’s interesting to me how patient UW has been with Fickell in the current landscape. As others suggest, it could be simply a matter of “who else can we hire in this market?”

Wisconsin isn’t a blue blood program at the moment, but it wasn’t that long ago they were a 9-10 win team annually that managed to land in the Rose Bowl every 3-4 seasons.

I don’t think Fickell is a bad coach - he obviously had a good bit of success both as a DC and at Cincinnati. He’s had horrible injury luck at UW, like disproportionately bad, and it’s hindered their ability to put even a semblance of a competent offense on the field. That, and their schedule has been absolutely brutal.

Maybe dumping more money into NIL to get some dynamic guys on offense (and some quality depth) is the right move for them.

Well... If you look at a bunch of the longer term tenure coaches not named Saban, or at a major school like say Spurrier, you see that they often have spells where there records aren't as great due to injury and natural lulls in talent. But overall they do better with less cost to the school and more wins than if they fire a guy every 4 years seeking some imaginary place they are never going to make.

Frank Beamer is a good example. Va Tech is never going to be a perennial play off contender, but he had them doing well for a number of years. But these days he never would have made it to year 7 when they finally won 9 games. And they bounced around between 7-11 win seasons before going on the impressive 8 year run of double seasons. Sometimes you know a guy is just not going to work out like Shula or Kelly, but if all things are going well, why fire someone who has done well? Ole Miss firing Cutcliffe for example, he was building and then had a rebuilding year and they then followed him with a disastrous run by Orgeron.

 

[Bodhisattva]

Lurking on barn boards, I see a lot of love for Dillingham and Golesh. Not sure why a coach who is already making millions with a program near the top of their current conference wants to jump in with a program in the bottom third of the brutal SEC. Maybe they just want to retire early with eight-figures of Auburn money in three years.

 

[SeventhHeavenRanch7777@gm]

Back to Pittman.

With our OL struggles and him being a former HC, I sure wish we could hire him.

It's probably a problem that I don't even know who our OL coach is. Maybe the unit is improving, but for years now it seems we recruit well but the unit is problematic.

Absolutely

 

[Joefus]

I love the yearly coaching carousel but selfishly I wish they’d wait till December to fire them. Now we gotta sit around and wait for months to see who upgraded and who fantastically face planted.

 

[JustNeedMe81]

I love the yearly coaching carousel but selfishly I wish they’d wait till December to fire them. Now we gotta sit around and wait for months to see who upgraded and who fantastically face planted.

I love it. I know VT will make a hire this weekend... Sunday or Monday... if all goes well.

 

[Elefantman]

I wish someone would make a TV show like The Bachelor where all the schools looking for a coach try to catch a hot prospect's eye. The show could go on for eight weeks. Each episode would have the eligible coach interacting with the hopeful ADs in various contests.

 

[DzynKingRTR]

I wish someone would make a TV show like The Bachelor where all the schools looking for a coach try to catch a hot prospect's eye. The show could go on for eight weeks. Each episode would have the eligible coach interacting with the hopeful ADs in various contests.

God no. They would put Jesse Palmer as the host

 

[arthurdawg]

Lurking on barn boards, I see a lot of love for Dillingham and Golesh. Not sure why a coach who is already making millions with a program near the top of their current conference wants to jump in with a program in the bottom third of the brutal SEC. Maybe they just want to retire early with eight-figures of Auburn money in three years.

Exactly... Get a contract that guarantees twenty million smackeroos and who cares!

 

[Crimson1967]

Florida is at Ole Miss next week. Hmmm…..