Who are the worst college football hires of the last 30 years?

[jrw]

Dennis Franchione at Texas A&M. Still have nightmares about his tenure...

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Dennis Franchione at Texas A&M. Still have nightmares about his tenure...

They're probably still paying him.

 

[Bob Cook]

Any hire in which a former coach at a big-time program is coming back in faint hopes of resurrecting his career is the worst kind of hire.

Fred Akers at Purdue. Ray Perkins at Arkansas State. Those tend not to end well for anybody.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Any hire in which a former coach at a big-time program is coming back in faint hopes of resurrecting his career is the worst kind of hire.

Fred Akers at Purdue. Ray Perkins at Arkansas State. Those tend not to end well for anybody.

Spurrier at South Carolina seems to be working out OK.

 

[Brian]

My field of knowledge is in the Mid-American Conference and the worst three of the last decade or so in the MAC are:

- Brian Knorr replacing Jim Grobe at Ohio
- Tom Amstutz replacing Gary Pinkel at Toledo
- Stan Parrish replacing Brady Hoke at Ball State

In all three instances there were obvious reasons not to hire any of the three. Knorr was a great guy but completely overwhelmed by a DI job. Amstutz was coasting off Pinkel's recruits and lacked ambition (I wouldn't hire a coach at a mid-major unless I believed he wanted to win quickly and move up) and Parrish was okay at Marshall when they were I-AA, but awful at K-State. He can sure coach up a quarterback, but he's just not a head coach, in my opinion.

 

[Bob Cook]

Any hire in which a former coach at a big-time program is coming back in faint hopes of resurrecting his career is the worst kind of hire.

Fred Akers at Purdue. Ray Perkins at Arkansas State. Those tend not to end well for anybody.

Spurrier at South Carolina seems to be working out OK.

He's not a disaster, but he's been mostly a .500-level coach. Not what South Carolina hoped for, I'm sure.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Any hire in which a former coach at a big-time program is coming back in faint hopes of resurrecting his career is the worst kind of hire.

Fred Akers at Purdue. Ray Perkins at Arkansas State. Those tend not to end well for anybody.

Spurrier at South Carolina seems to be working out OK.

He's not a disaster, but he's been mostly a .500-level coach. Not what South Carolina hoped for, I'm sure.

If South Carolina wants better than what it has right now, it's being extremely unrealistic.

 

[Armchair_QB]

Any hire in which a former coach at a big-time program is coming back in faint hopes of resurrecting his career is the worst kind of hire.

Fred Akers at Purdue. Ray Perkins at Arkansas State. Those tend not to end well for anybody.

Spurrier at South Carolina seems to be working out OK.

He's not a disaster, but he's been mostly a .500-level coach. Not what South Carolina hoped for, I'm sure.

If South Carolina wants better than what it has right now, it's being extremely unrealistic.

Yep. You need to realize who you are.

 

[WolvEagle]

Taking the -- decision to hire and not results - approach, which is the correct one --

Greg Robinson was a disaster in just about every job he held - yet Syracuse turns to him to ressurct that program? Horrible, horrible decision.

Ditto with Ray Sherman at Texas A&M

And then there is Bill Callahan, who might have been the worst since Gerry Faust.

One guy who appeared to be a horrible hire but has actually worked out to some degree is Bill Stewart at WVU. The university regents hired the guy when they were drunk (true story) and celebrating a Feista Bowl win over Oklahoma. He was a terrible coach at VMI or wherever and was destined to retire as a non-descript assistant somewhere.

And I'll say this -- I thought Michigan hiring Rich Rodriguez was a horrible decision because he is just not the right fit in the Big Ten or at Michigan. I think he is an excellent coach - for an SEC school, given the kind of football he wants to play and his willingness to, um, overlook some rules and character flaws in players in order to win.

Along those lines - if Penn State hires Greg Schiano, as has often been rumored, they should just burn down the place because that has disaster written all over it.

Definitely Rich Rodriguez at Michigan. And who has been his d-coordinator the last two years? Greg Robinson.

DickRod recently said that Vince Lombardi couldn't turn this defense around. Let's see there, coach, you've been there three years, meaning that three-quarters to three-fifths of the team (at least) are your recruits. Methinks that if you're such a great coach, having well over half of the players as your recruits would be a good thing. NOT.

 

[Bob Cook]

Any hire in which a former coach at a big-time program is coming back in faint hopes of resurrecting his career is the worst kind of hire.

Fred Akers at Purdue. Ray Perkins at Arkansas State. Those tend not to end well for anybody.

Spurrier at South Carolina seems to be working out OK.

He's not a disaster, but he's been mostly a .500-level coach. Not what South Carolina hoped for, I'm sure.

If South Carolina wants better than what it has right now, it's being extremely unrealistic.

Yep. You need to realize who you are.

A quick Wikipedia search shows that South Carolina has a long history of hiring former title-winning coaches on the rebound, then watching field the same mediocre team a no-name would.

 

[WolvEagle]

Oh, and while I'm at it, DickRod posted U-M's first back-to-back losing seasons since 1966-67 and broke a bowl streak that was No. 1 in the nation. It started in the 1975 season and would have gone back to 1968 had the Big Ten not had a rule that said only its champion would go bowling (the rule was thrown out after the '74 season).

 

[Crash]

I don't think Tennessee is a top 10 job. Hell, it might be the sixth or seventh best job in the SEC.

Tier 1
Florida
Alabama
LSU
Georgia
Auburn

Tier 2
Arkansas
Tennessee
South Carolina

Tier 3
Ole Miss
MIssissippi State

Tier 4
Kentucky
Vandy

I think South Carolina is a whole lot closer to Tier 4 than it is to Tier 2. But that's just me. In fact, South Carolina is pretty comparable to Kentucky in the whole football history deal.

 

[Crash]

Any hire in which a former coach at a big-time program is coming back in faint hopes of resurrecting his career is the worst kind of hire.

Fred Akers at Purdue. Ray Perkins at Arkansas State. Those tend not to end well for anybody.

Spurrier at South Carolina seems to be working out OK.

And Rich Brooks at Kentucky worked excellently, though Brooks' tenure at Oregon was probably before the Ducks were a true "big-time" program. Still, he was brought out of the coaching graveyard and took that program from one that couldn't beat bad Ohio teams to one that has three wins over top-10 teams since 2007 (which is three more than it had in the 35 years before that).

 

[DanOregon]

To be truly bad you have to factor in who didn't get the job.

Keith Gilbertson over Steve Marriucci when Snyder left Cal.

Giving Tom Holmoe the job when Marriucci left for the 49ers.

 

[WolvEagle]

Gerry Faust was an awful hire at Akron, too. Nicest guy you could ever meet, though.

I covered his Akron first road game, at Eastern Michigan. He actually brought an Akron cop with him for protection. Seriously.

Maybe it was because EMU's AD at the time was an assistant coach under Ara at Notre Dame and the assistant AD (Gene Smith, now AD at Ohio State) played for the Irish.

 

[BYH]

Seems like this guy has to be added to the list:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/14161904/north-texas-fires-former-prep-coach-dodge

 

[Jesus_Muscatel]

How could I forget this guy?:

Glad you didn't, Steak. I read this thread in reverse and went, 'Where's OhmyGod' at Ole Miss?

Yo yo yo Brent Shay-fah!

 

[SnoopyBoy]

Dana Dimel. Houston.

 

[TigerVols]

I don't think Tennessee is a top 10 job. Hell, it might be the sixth or seventh best job in the SEC.

I guess it depends on your criteria.

I'd go by (a) salary/benefits and (b) university/alum support. In which case UT is equal to Florida and Alabama and above everyone else in the conference.

 

[derwood]

Ray Perkins at Alabama.