College football coach recruitment scoring: USC earns Lincoln Riley an ‘A’; LSU lags behind with Brian Kelly

After an average of 10.4 coach changes at the Power 5 level over the past five years, that number has increased by nearly 40% to 14 changes during and after the 2021 season.

How do athletic directors fill those gaps, and are there lessons learned from the previous five hiring cycles?

school year Where do 52 new employees come from in the previous five years and determine which paths are most successful and which tend to have the highest failure rates. Advertising from within had the highest success rate, as Ryan Day, Lincoln Riley and Mario Cristobol were among the ‘homes’ during that five-year period, and were all elevated within the staff. their current member. Poaching another Power 5 trainer, including the one fired in the same cycle (Kevin Sumlin of Arizona) had the greatest failure rate. Willie Taggart and Dan Mullen are the other misses.

So where did the 14 new coaches of 2021 come from and how do they compare to the previous five years?

SEX: Why National Signing Day needs to be moved

* – Includes NFL assistant, non-football coach or FCS . coach

Despite the inconsistent record of hiring Power 5 coaches on the bench, there has been a huge leap in that category for the 2022 season. But all three in this cycle (Brian Kelly, Riley, Cristobol), all play for the national championship or the congress championship at their last stop. There has clearly been an upgrade in goals in this cycle.

The other category that has also skyrocketed is Power 5 coordinators. Recent performance has been pretty solid, with Jeremy Pruitt of Tennessee being a notable flame and Texas pick Steve Sarkisian looking like a badass. after an ugly season. Baylor’s Dave Aranda is still a freelance home.

A group of five coaches isn’t much of a target, and two of the standouts, Matt Campbell of Iowa State and Luke Fickell of Cincinnati, have stayed.

It’s worth noting that no one has noticed the NFL or coaches leaving football during this cycle, which has been pretty common over the past 5 years (Chip Kelly, Karl Dorrell, Herm Edwards to name a few) .

Here are SN’s scores for 14 new Power 5 recruits for the 2022 season.

Duke – Texas A&M def. cooperate. Mike Elko

Elko, 44, has been highly rated during his last two stops as defensive coordinator at Texas A&M and Notre Dame. His Aggies defense ranks third nationally in points allowed this season. Elko also has experience in the ACC as a defensive coordinator at Wake Forest. It was a matter of time before he got his shot.

CLASS: B-plus

Florida – Louisiana Coach Billy Napier

Napier, 42, took over a show in Louisiana that had three consecutive losing seasons and went on to set a 40-12 record in four years. The Ragin’ Cajuns won 10-1 last season and 12-1 this year, with their only loss coming in their opening game in Texas. Napier worked for Nick Saban from 2013-16 and was part of the legendary 2015 Alabama staff that included Kirby Smart, Lane Kiffin, Mario Cristobal and Mel Tucker (plus Dan Lanning as graduate assistant). Napier started immediately with a better-than-expected signing class in December.

CLASS: A-minus

LSU – Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly

This is a shock. There is hardly a whisper that Kelly, 60, is looking to leave Notre Dame after 12 seasons, and that his ties to Louisiana and the SEC are non-existent. Kelly has the most wins in Notre Dame history, but also the most losses, and he’s eighth at Notre Dame in win percentage out of 12 coaches who have spanned five years in the South. Bend. Kelly is the second best choice for Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher, and his failure to bring any employees with him to Baton Rouge could make his immediate transition more difficult. a lot of.

THAN: Kelly’s daughter is happy with her father’s decision

GRADE

Miami – Oregon Head Coach Mario Cristobal

The Miami alum has long been seen as a potential candidate to return home, but once he has things in place in Oregon, there are some questions about whether he’ll be ready to move back to South Florida. . A 10-year, $80 million deal left him shaken and The Hurricanes made the difficult transition after letting Manny Diaz continue as head coach while they pursued Cristobal. Known for his employability, Cristobal has finished first, second, and first in the Pac-12 North for the past three seasons, but has also struggled to get to Stanford, Cal, Oregon State and Arizona State has ruined potential breakout seasons.

CLASS: A-minus

Notre Dame – Notre Dame def. cooperate. Marcus Freeman

A whirlwind of 48 hours has landed the 35-year-old a coveted top spot in South Bend, and it appears to have won the hearts of all players, the fan base and various media. national media. Freeman, known as a tireless recruiter, spent just one season as the ND’s defensive coordinator after leaving the same position in Cincinnati and being dropped by the number 5 Irishman. 9 on the allowed number of points. Freeman managed to maintain the ND staff and the majority of the top 10 recruiting classes during his frantic first two weeks. How he will handle the CEO aspects of his job and manage the overall game are big unknowns.

THAN: Why Freeman is the right man at the right time for ND

CLASS: A-minus

Oklahoma – Clemson def. cooperate. Brent Venables

Venables became head coach at one of the sports teams for the first time at the age of 50 after turning down several opportunities earlier in his career. Venables was defensive coordinator at Oklahoma from 1999-2011 and then at Clemson from 2012-2021, where he helped win national titles at each show. He settled into OU after Lincoln Riley unexpectedly left for USC and was able to salvage some of his early recruiting classes. Venables will have the added challenge of navigating the OU moving to the SEC, but he brought instant credibility and his relationship with the OU is strong.

CLASS: B-plus

Oregon – Georgia against. cooperate. Dan Lanning

The head of the most successful team in college football in 2021, Lanning took over from Cristobal after four years in Georgia, the last three being defensive coordinators. Georgia was number 1 in the nation in defensive scoring for two of those three years. Lanning, 35, spent two years with Arizona State as a graduate assistant and then recruited coordinator in 2012-13, but since 2015 he has been in Memphis, Alabama and Georgia . Lanning’s is taking over a very good recruiting program under Cristobal.

GRADE

TCU – SMU Coach Sonny Dykes

Dykes has produced three straight seasons at SMU, something no other coach can claim since the Mustangs received the ‘death sentence’ from the NCAA in 1987. This is the fourth head coach’s stop. Dykes after stints at Louisiana Tech, Cal and SMU. He was an analyst for one season at TCU in 2017 after being fired by Cal and is the son of former Texas Tech coach Spike Dykes. Dykes has ties to Texas and will take over a show that has been in decline for the past four seasons after Gary Patterson led Frogs to six Top 10 spots in a 10-year span.

GRADE

Texas Tech – Joey McGuire

McGuire, 50, has only been in the college game as an assistant at Baylor since 2017, but his successful track record as a Texas high school coach has convinced Texas Tech that he’s the one. suitable to replace Matt Wells. UTSA has taken a similar path to Jeff Traylor, and he led the Roadrunners to the 12-1 mark this year in just his second season. Traylor is really TTU’s top target before signing the extension. McGuire thinks it’s possible to hire well through his connections in Texas, but he’ll learn on the job how to run a Big 12 show.

GRADE

USC – Oklahoma Coach Lincoln Riley

Riley has been one of the nation’s best coaches since taking over from Bob Stoops at Oklahoma in 2017 at the age of 33. He’s placed 55-10, made three college football finals and has a team that finished in his first top 10. 4 years (OU is 14th in the bad match this season). Riley was supposed to prevent the loss of California talent and lift USC up like when Pete Carroll won national titles.

GRADE A

Virginia – Clemson off. cooperate. Tony Elliott

Another longtime Clemson coordinator finally decided to leave Dabo Swinney’s nest. Elliott, 42, has worked at Clemson since 2011 and offensive or co-attack coordinator since 2015. From 2015-2020, Clemson had the 10 most offenses in 5/6 years, but dropped to 95th place this season. His entire playing career (Clemson) and coaching career was in the state of South Carolina. He took over a six-year stability program led by Bronco Mendenhall.

GRADE

THAN: Riley will bring elite QB play back to USC

Virginia Technology – Penn State def. cooperate. Brent Pry

Pry, 51, has been the defensive coordinator or defensive coordinator under James Franklin for the past 11 seasons at Vanderbilt at Penn State. This was his first head coach job. He did a lot of recruiting in Virginia during his time at PSU, which is a plus for a program that has failed to defend its home ground on the recruiting front over the past few years. Pry is one of the more unknown names among the hires and he is taking over a program that is being listed.

CLASS: B-minus

Washington – Fresno State Coach Kalen DeBoer

DeBoer has had 5 years of endurance, being offensive coordinator at Fresno State from 2017-18 (June 22), offensive coordinator in Indiana in 2019 (May 8), and then coaching Chief Executive Officer at Fresno State 2020-21 (June 12). The Indiana season was his only season at a Power 5 school, and IU finished that season in second place in the Big Ten in total offenses. DeBoer, 47, took over after a brief but tumultuous tenure for Jimmy Lake.

CLASS: B-plus

Washington State – Washington State def. cooperate. Jake Dickert

Dickert, 38, unexpectedly took over as caretaker coach when Nick Rolovich was fired for refusing to get vaccinated. He led the Cougars to a 3-2 record, including a 41-14 defeat to Washington. Dickert’s resume is slim in terms of experience at the FBS level. He was an assistant at Wyoming for three years before joining Rolovich’s staff as defensive coordinator in 2020. Recruiting to Washington State, a major challenge for any coach , is a big question.

CLASS: C-plus