As we head towards the end of another college football season we are of course embroiled in another daily discussion of who’s going to get fired next and who is going to take the current jobs that opened up.\u00a0 It’s a cycle that is inevitable and continues to repeat itself each year.\u00a0 Some schools are repeat offenders when it comes to firing and hiring coaches.\u00a0 However,\u00a0 how successful are these programs when they are matched up against other programs that have made extended commitments to their coaches.<\/p>\n
First,\u00a0 let’s start with who are the repeat offenders.\u00a0 While I am not using all of the programs that have cycled out more than two coaches over a decade long period,\u00a0 I am using five of the most popular and celebrated programs in college football.\u00a0 For the purpose of this article,\u00a0 I am looking at the records for Florida St., Miami, Florida, Texas and USC.\u00a0 All five of these programs have won championships in the last 20 years and all have had three or more coaches over the last decade.\u00a0 I will match them up against five other Power 5 programs that are not quite as celebrated but have kept the same head coach over that period of time.\u00a0 Who those schools are I will discuss in a moment.\u00a0 First let’s take a look at how the celebrated programs have done over the last decade.<\/p>\n
[table id=11 \/]<\/p>\n
Note:\u00a0 Those late to the game would be surprised to see Florida St. with the best record out of all on this list given their recent struggles but believe it or not,\u00a0 FSU won a title not too long ago.\u00a0 This joyous accomplishment meant that it would soon by uncool to have Jimbo Fisher leading your football program.<\/p>\n
Keeping the above records in mind,\u00a0 let’s have a look at some far less celebrated college football programs operating in the same conferences as these giants.\u00a0 These programs have elected to weather some storms with their coaches and keep them in place during the same time the celebrated schools rinsed and repeated their fire then hire cycles.\u00a0 \u00a0The schools we’ll look at are Oklahoma St.,\u00a0 Iowa, Utah, TCU and Northwestern.\u00a0 These are all worthy programs for sure but certainly not ever mentioned in the same breath as the others I previously mentioned.<\/p>\n
[table id=12 \/]<\/p>\n
At the end of the day,\u00a0 here’s our full tally as we take a look at the celebrated schools that like to fire coaches vs. the non celebrated schools that hold onto their coaches.<\/p>\n
[table id=13 \/]<\/p>\n
Before you start thinking that those programs have kept their coaches in place for that long because they’ve been consistent winners,\u00a0 let me hit you with this.\u00a0 Oklahoma St.’s Mike Gundy has had five seasons where he had less than 9 wins and until his win last week he was on a streak of three straight seasons of 8 wins or less.\u00a0 Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz had a losing season during this time period and like Mike Gundy had five seasons of less than 9 wins.\u00a0 He also had a 12 win season which is better than all except Florida St. in our celebrated group.\u00a0 That 12 win season for Ferentz came one year after being 7-6.\u00a0 \u00a0Utah’s Kyle Whittingham opened up this 10 year period with back to back losing seasons (2012 & 2013).\u00a0 He then followed that up with 9 win and 10 win seasons.\u00a0 Utah was later rewarded for their confidence in Whittingham when he went 11-3 in 2019.\u00a0 Utah right now is headed to the Pac-12 championship game this season. TCU’s Gary Patterson,\u00a0 who recently stepped down,\u00a0 had three losing seasons before this one (2013, 2016 & 2019).\u00a0 He also produced three 10+ win seasons (2014, 2015 and 2017).\u00a0 After four straight seasons of less than double digit wins,\u00a0 Patterson himself came to the conclusion that it was time to go.\u00a0 \u00a0Finally Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald has had four losing seasons including this current one.\u00a0 However,\u00a0 he has also had two double digit win seasons (2015 & 2017).\u00a0 This is more double digit win seasons than both Miami and Texas.<\/p>\n
Another thing to take a look at is how did the career of the non-celebrated group begin.\u00a0 Mike Gundy started his Oklahoma St. coaching career by going 18-19 in his first three seasons.\u00a0 Pat Fitzgerald started off by going 19-18 in his first three years.\u00a0 Kirk Ferentz was 11-24 at the end of year 3.\u00a0 Gary Patterson took over a very successful Dennis Franchione when he took the TCU job.\u00a0 I am sure that played a big part in him opening up his TCU career with a 27-10 record over the first three years.\u00a0 Kyle Whittingam inherited a program that was previously run by Urban Meyer.\u00a0 He parlayed that into a 24-14 record after his first three years at Utah.\u00a0 All five of these coaches were first time head coaches when they started.\u00a0 Gundy, Fitzgerald and Ferentz were allowed to “figure it out” and their programs got rewarded with many solid years of performance and stability at the head of their program.<\/p>\n
Here’s another tally.\u00a0 The five celebrated programs have had an absurd 16 different coaches lead their program.\u00a0 What is happening here is a chasing of the wind it seems by these programs that had success pre the social media era.\u00a0 While it is constantly preached that social media is not real life,\u00a0 it seems athletic directors and decision makers have not received the memo.\u00a0 The fanbases,\u00a0 media and leaders of the celebrated programs can’t seem to handle adversity.\u00a0 Everyone of these programs has either fired a coach who had a winning record at the time,\u00a0 had at least once had a double digit win season,\u00a0 in the middle of the season or did all three of those things.\u00a0 \u00a0All the while,\u00a0 the non celebrated programs have had coaches with seasons that would be fire worthy at the big time programs and have waited to allow the coach to battle back from the adversity with great results.<\/p>\n
With the recent signing of 10 year contracts by Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M,\u00a0 James Franklin at Penn St. and Mel Tucker at Michigan St.,\u00a0 it seems these universities have done the same research I have.\u00a0 Cycling out your coaches in search of the magic formula that will catapult you to top of the hill is not the way to go.\u00a0 Making a commitment to your head coach through thick and thin while providing him with the resources to go into battle is the true way to obtain consistent success.<\/p>\n
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