A story line segment we’re calling, “Fresh coaching faces in new pigskin places.”
Impact meter: Upgrade
1. Washington. Steve Sarkisian replaces Tyrone Willingham. Sark, moving up the coast from Pete Carroll’s staff at USC, swims violently upstream as he inherits a winless 2008 squad that opens the season at home against Louisiana State. QB Jake Locker returns after an injury-plagued 2008 and should be worth at least three victories.
2. Syracuse. Doug Marrone replaces Greg Robinson, who went 10-37 in four seasons. Opening against Minnesota, Penn State and Northwestern, however, is not the way you want to break in the new guy.
3. New Mexico State. Talented DeWayne Walker replaces Hal Mumme. Walker, the former UCLA defensive coordinator whose team upset USC 13-9 in 2006, takes on possibly the worst major college job.
Impact meter: Slight upgrade
1. Kansas State. Bill Snyder replaces Ron Prince. Snyder, in his first stint in Manhattan, led Kansas State to the most amazing turnaround in college football history. But he’s 70 and running against the game clock.
2. Mississippi State. Dan Mullen replaces Sylvester Croom. Mullen, a former offensive guru at Florida, ushers the spread offense to Starkville in an attempt to jump-start a program at a place many believe is the hardest to win at in the SEC.
3. San Diego State. Brady Hoke for Chuck Long. Unlike Long, who went 9-27 in three seasons, Hoke arrives from Ball State with head coaching experience. It’s still San Diego State, though, which continues to underperform despite great weather, a solid recruiting base and terrific fish tacos.
Successor-in- waiting transitions
1. Oregon. Chip Kelly replaces Mike Bellotti. The Ducks’ spread offense should not be hampered with the departure of Bellotti, who moved to the athletic director job after hand-plucking Kelly out of New Hampshire.
2. Purdue. Danny Hope replaces Joe Tiller. Hope inherits a 4-8 team that lost star QB Curtis Painter, so it might take time to see if this succession plan was a success.
You changed coaches … why?
1/1-A Tennessee/Auburn. Lane Kiffin replaces Phil Fulmer; Gene Chizik subs in for Tommy Tuberville.
Only in the SEC do you run off two coaches who were a combined 145 games above .500, but Fulmer hadn’t won a national title since 1998 and Tuberville hadn’t gone 13-0 since 2004.
Kiffin so far has proven to be a deft director of marketing, using the old Hollywood edict that “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” even if it costs you a few NCAA secondary violation hits.
Chizik gets a do-over after making the regrettable choice of leaving Mack Brown’s Texas staff for Iowa State.
———-
More Top Picks Shark Powerdetect Az4002