Man, how can you not love college football after this weekend. Rivalry Weekend DELIVERED, bringing all the drama you could ask for. Then, Sunday was filled with coaching carousel madness. And then Monday hit, and all hell broke loose.
Lincoln Riley leaving for USC absolutely shocked the college football world. After the Sooners loss Saturday night, Riley told reporters, “I am not leaving for the LSU job, next question.” Well, he wasn’t lying, he just wasn’t telling the whole truth. Less than twelve hours later the news broke that Riley would be leaving, not for LSU, but USC.
Another 24 hours or so later, LSU was filled by another huge name. Brian Kelly accepted a 10 year, $95 million contract. LSU athletic director Scott Woodward is known for making big hires, and this sure was a splash. I am genuinely shocked that Kelly is going to LSU because I really just don’t see his personality fitting in, but he has been a winner everywhere he’s gone.
With these departures, two of the best jobs in the sport are open. Some common candidates for both include UC’s Luke Fickell and Iowa State’s Matt Cambell. For Notre Dame in particular, defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman has some momentum going. My prediction would be that Notre Dame hires Luke Fickell, then Marcus Freeman gets the UC job, and Oklahoma hires Matt Cambell. However, it depends on how long Notre Dame is willing to wait to hire a coach.
With all this news going on, it’s been easy to forget that other coaching vacancies have also been filled. Florida hired Louisiana's Billy Napier, whose name has been in the mix for big jobs the last two seasons. No one knows how he will do at a power 5 school, but Napier has a good track record at Louisiana.
University of Washington hired Fresno State coach Kalen DeBoer, who is the opposite of defensive-minded past coach Jimmy Lake. DeBoer is known for his high scoring offense at Fresno State, so it is clear Washington wants to head in a different direction than it was under Lake and Peterson.
TCU hired Sonny Dykes, but this doesn't feel like big news because this hire had been rumored for the past month or two. Dykes has actually fallen off at SMU the past month, with a huge loss to UC and this weekend getting beat by Tulsa at home. Who knows how it will go at TCU.
Washington State promoted intern Jack Dicker, who stepped in during the middle of the season when Rolovich got cut due to vaccine mandates. Dicker kept the team together really well, and the players really liked him, so he got the move to head coach.
Virginia Tech has hired Penn State defensive coordinator Brent Pry as the new coach. I am a little surprised by this, as I thought they would try to get Coastal Carolina coach Jeremy Chadwell.
There are still plenty of jobs open, and as coaches leap from one job to the next, even more will open up. Here is a current list of the schools in need of a coach:
Notre Dame
Oklahoma
SMU
Duke
Fresno State
Temple
The past three days have been wild, and more bombs are expected to drop as the week goes on.
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