Coaching carousel 2025-26

[CB4]

So is anyone actually buying any of this or is it just Sexton doing “Jimmy Sexton things” to solidify CKD’s position in Tuscaloosa?

Ruhle and Elko have already gotten extensions based on their names floated as State Penn candidates.

Why not CKD?

Temperature check: Why one huge name is heating up for Penn State’s coaching search

James Franklin has found his new home, but Penn State is still searching for its long-term head coach.

www.pennlive.com

 

[Slowpoke Catracho]

If CKD goes, he goes. It’s still an attractive job. I hope we don’t give him a raise!

 

[CB4]

If CKD goes, he goes. It’s still an attractive job. I hope we don’t give him a raise!

Agreed. I hope Byrne is smarter than that.

 

[PA Tide Fan]

So is anyone actually buying any of this or is it just Sexton doing “Jimmy Sexton things” to solidify CKD’s position in Tuscaloosa?

Ruhle and Elko have already gotten extensions based on their names floated as State Penn candidates.

Why not CKD?

Temperature check: Why one huge name is heating up for Penn State’s coaching search

James Franklin has found his new home, but Penn State is still searching for its long-term head coach.

www.pennlive.com

I don't buy it. I think the chance of CKD leaving Bama for Penn State is close to zero. When I keep reading these kinds of articles I have to question if there are really any serious discussions going on with some of these candidates. I'm beginning to think it's just some sportswriter fantasizing about who they'd like to see as the next PSU coach.

 

[CB4]

I don't buy it. I think the chance of CKD leaving Bama for Penn State is close to zero. When I keep reading these kinds of articles I have to question if there are really any serious discussions going on with some of these candidates. I'm beginning to think it's just some sportswriter fantasizing about who they'd like to see as the next PSU coach.

I listen to all this stuff about the Kiffin Sweepstakes between Ole Miss, LSU and Florida. With the kind of contracts being mentioned (10 yrs and in excess of $15 million annually), you have to think these AD’s believe that Lane is “a slam dunk hire”.

But is he? He might be the closest, but still I have questions.

Sumrall, Drink, Brohm, Lea, Key among others mentioned for various jobs are good coaches for sure. But as fan for one of these teams involved with one of these openings, would you be actually “over the moon” thrilled with one of these guys? Especially at a $10 million price tag for some?

 

[JustNeedMe81]

I don't buy it. I think the chance of CKD leaving Bama for Penn State is close to zero. When I keep reading these kinds of articles I have to question if there are really any serious discussions going on with some of these candidates. I'm beginning to think it's just some sportswriter fantasizing about who they'd like to see as the next PSU coach.

This rumor was started by a Penn St writer and it spread like a wildfire with nothing to back it up.

 

[RollTide-YNWA]

Prior to Nick Saban, LSU’s last national championship was won in 1958.

Always kills me when people act like LSU has always been a big rival of Alabama's. They were little more than middle-of-the-road until Saban came along.

 

[BearFoot]

Jimmy Sexton and agents like Jimmy Sexton are vultures. They are what's wrong with college football.

There’s irony to be found in the fact that someone named “Buzzard” is condescendingly referring to someone else as a “Vulture”

 

[teamplayer]

So is anyone actually buying any of this or is it just Sexton doing “Jimmy Sexton things” to solidify CKD’s position in Tuscaloosa?

Ruhle and Elko have already gotten extensions based on their names floated as State Penn candidates.

Why not CKD?

Temperature check: Why one huge name is heating up for Penn State’s coaching search

James Franklin has found his new home, but Penn State is still searching for its long-term head coach.

www.pennlive.com

This is almost as big a scam as Washington politics. The game of college football has crashed and burned, so people are trying to grab all the cash they can before this turd of a product is flushed down the tubes.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

There’s irony to be found in the fact that someone named “Buzzard” is condescendingly referring to someone else as a “Vulture”

We're "light skinned " and vultures are just plain ugly.

 

[RdunawayTX]

At least we've moved this thread away from "Saban to LSU." Now we're discussing "CKD to XXX," which is only slightly less ridiculous. First, CKD isn't going voluntarily. "You don't leave Alabama to go somewhere else." Second, he's not going to get a contract extension or raise from the PTB until he shows consistent improvement and national title hunt abilityl

 

[arthurdawg]

At least we've moved this thread away from "Saban to LSU." Now we're discussing "CKD to XXX," which is only slightly less ridiculous. First, CKD isn't going voluntarily. "You don't leave Alabama to go somewhere else." Second, he's not going to get a contract extension or raise from the PTB until he shows consistent improvement and national title hunt abilityl

Overall... CKD has done a solid job. I think we'd all like to see him finish the year strong and the FSU game was a bad loss and Okie was painful, but you are going to lose to teams in the top ten occasionally. Fact of life even under Saban.

We have the best team culture in years, bad apples are mostly gone, kids are working hard and playing hard. We are recruiting like crazy and have a solid group of younger guys coming up.

Patch up some holes and develop OL and RB into a credible running threat and we will be very good indeed. And I do think CKD and the staff are aware of the issues and working towards solutions now and for the future.

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

At least we've moved this thread away from "Saban to LSU." Now we're discussing "CKD to XXX," which is only slightly less ridiculous. First, CKD isn't going voluntarily. "You don't leave Alabama to go somewhere else." Second, he's not going to get a contract extension or raise from the PTB until he shows consistent improvement and national title hunt abilityl

Curry and Franchione say "Hi!"...

 

[BamaSC]

Doesn't CKD have something like a $53m buyout? I don't see state penn paying that for a coach that struggles with the small games.

 

[CB4]

Almost everything about the coaching carousel is fueled by unsubstantiated rumor. Why would “Saban to LSU” or “DeBoer candidate at Penn State” surprise anyone?

Anyone with a podcast or a beat writer for some third rate online site or with ON3 can say “I was told…” and off we go.

Look at the Kiffin thing - first it was UF and $13.5 million. Then LSU had upped the ante with one talking head saying “10 years and up to $16 million per year”. Still another Ole Miss insider saying and extension is in the works but AD Carter wants decision by next Friday.
And of course, the backup candidate at Florida is John Guden…..

Then another on the Auburn search saying Sumrall has already “agreed in principle” to be the next head coach. Once again the “I was told” or “my sources”. So you still have LSU, Florida and other jobs open that may offer a greater opportunity possibly but you’ve already put your eggs in the Auburn basket?

It’s about clicks. And some coaches getting ridiculous amounts of moola or undeserved contract extensions. I mean, I understand the Elko extension at TAMU. But Ruhle at Nebraska? The guy is 19-16 at Nebraska and barely above .500 as a head coach in college football. To me, this is more Nebraska saying “we would rather give him more money to keep him because we have absolutely no idea who we could get to replace him”.

I’ll believe it when Pete Thamel attaches his name to it.

 

[bravo6]

Curry and Franchione say "Hi!"...

And Ray Perkins.

 

[graydogg85]

I get what you’re saying, but IMO, LSU and Florida are no more “blue blood” than Ole Miss is.

Prior to Nick Saban, LSU’s last national championship was won in 1958. Ole Miss was better in those days, claiming titles in 1959, 1960, and 1962.

Florida didn’t win a championship until Spurrier did it in 1996. Heck, Florida didn’t even win a SEC title that wasn’t forfeited due to sanctions until 1990.

Certainly since integration took place in the 1970s, then the explosion of Florida schools in recruiting in the 1980s, both LSU and Florida rocketed up the list of power schools. But I could not define them as “blue bloods” in the traditional sense.

But maybe I’m being pedantic.

I agree in terms of cumulative tradition. That said, LSU and Florida both have multiple national titles since the mid 1990s - in LSU’s case, they had one six years ago - so I think in terms of the “modern era”, an argument could be made.

Outside of a handful of seasons under Cutcliffe, Freeze and Kiffin, Ole Miss hasn’t sniffed anything close to national relevance in the last 60 or so years. And even the Cutcliffe / Freeze / Kiffin seasons of 10 wins or better were just “good” seasons without being realistically in the national title picture. Plus you factor in facilities, alumni and fan base, resources, etc. and it becomes hard to argue that Florida and LSU are not better jobs.

For the record, I think Kiffin should stay put - but I don’t think he will because of the ego I referenced. I expect him on the sideline in Gainesville or Baton Rouge next season. I also think he would have crawled to Tuscaloosa had there been real interest on our side after CNS retired, but from what I’ve heard that will never happen (and for good reason).

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

And Ray Perkins.

Yeah, I thought of him, but he left for the pros so that was a bit different...

 

[Bama9001]

Saw one this morning that said Dabo was in serious talks with Arkansas.

Wish I could be more positive about CKD. We had big problems on offense and little has been done to fix them. I get that we'll lose occasional games to playoff caliber teams, I even get the loss to FSU, I don't get why we did nothing to improve our ability to run the ball. Any extension we give him should be offset by a lreduction in the buyout.

 

[lowend]

I listen to all this stuff about the Kiffin Sweepstakes between Ole Miss, LSU and Florida. With the kind of contracts being mentioned (10 yrs and in excess of $15 million annually), you have to think these AD’s believe that Lane is “a slam dunk hire”.

But is he? He might be the closest, but still I have questions.

Sumrall, Drink, Brohm, Lea, Key among others mentioned for various jobs are good coaches for sure. But as fan for one of these teams involved with one of these openings, would you be actually “over the moon” thrilled with one of these guys? Especially at a $10 million price tag for some?

The media loves to pump up these guys as the next Saban or Uban Meyer, but most of them aren't even a Larry Coker. Ryan Day's not even close....he's just lucky he coaches in the Big 10. Maybe Kirby is close, but he still has the same struggles with mobile QBs he had here. It's time to stop paying these guys like they're curing cancer; unfortunately, with Sexton pulling the strings on 75% of the guys that fan bases clamor for, we'll keep seeing universities making average men multi-millionaires.