The headline name being tossed around with the KU opening is Les Miles, and I'm not sure how I'd feel about that if I were an alum. On one hand, they're not going to find another interested coach with as much experience and who has had as much success as Miles, but on the other hand, I'd always be a bit hesitant to bring in an older coach on his way back down the ranks. I suppose the best case scenario would be a smaller-scale Steve Spurrier at South Carolina situation, where Miles' experience and skill allows him to get things turned around at KU, they get to a few bowl games, before things decline again and Miles retires.
Les Miles might be the best case for KU because the very low prospect of winning makes it such an unattractive job. I seriously doubt Les Miles can lead them to a bowl game.
You very well may be right. Certainly I don't expect tons of super attractive candidates to knock their doors down to interview. I am a bit more bullish on Miles (or any decent coach, for that matter) getting the Jayhawks to a bowl game. I don't think they'd get back to the Orange Bowl or anything, at least not anytime soon, but I don't think getting to six wins is impossible. Heck, they have three this year and could have had a fourth had they won their game against their FCS opponent, and they're bad enough to get their coach fired. With some modest improvement, I don't think it's that hard to dream up a scenario where they get to six wins the classic way so many lower-tier P5 teams do: FCS win + two or three G5 wins + one or two wins against fellow lower-tier teams in conference + one legitimate upset. Right now, that's a tall order for Kansas, but even the worst major-conference programs have moments when they string together bowl appearances. Illinois had the Ron Zook era, Rutgers had the Greg Schiano era, Oregon State had the Dennis Erickson years, Duke was moribund until David Cutcliffe came along, and even Kansas had success under Mark Mangino.
I think if you can get Les Miles, you jump for joy and take it. You're not doing any better, and he seems to have worn out his welcome elsewhere for whatever reason, so he might actually stay if he does well (like Mike Leach and WSU). Bowl game seems like a reasonable and achievable goal.
As much as I'd enjoy the Mad Hatter in the Big 12, don't think it'd be a good fit for either side. Miles is a plus recruiter but not sure how much that helps at KU, don't think he is particularly good coach or motivator to have success without all the talent. Think Matt Campbell (proven mid-major HC) and Iowa State should be their blueprint. I know they probably won't, but I'd give Hugh Freeze a call.
NC State head coach Dave Doeren's name has been mentioned enough around this opening that it leads me to believe there's at least passing mutual interest, and that might not be such a bad hire for KU. He led Northern Illinois to its highest highs as a program before moving on to NC State, and with the Wolfpack, he's in the middle of arguably the best two-year run for the program since at least the period of time when Philip Rivers was on campus and their current five-year bowl streak (including a yet-to-be-determined 2018 bowl game) is the longest for the program since the early-90s. NC State is undoubtedly a better job right now, and normally I'm not sure how seriously I'd take his interest, but he does seem like a coach interested in moving on. Last offseason, you may remember, his name was among the most prominent of the second-tier candidates for the Tennessee job, and reporting from USA Today showed that Tennessee more or less ghosted Doeren and his agent during the process before moving on to trying to lure Mike Leach to Knoxville. If Tennessee hadn't cooled on him, perhaps he'd be the head coach there right now. If you wanted to make a house analogy, Tennessee has better "bones" as a program than Kansas does, but clearly Doeren isn't a guy looking to hang around Raleigh until the exact perfect fit opens up. He's not the flashiest hire, and Les Miles would certainly win the press conference in much more decisive fashion, but he's a higher-caliber coach than I would have expected Kansas to be able to fetch.
NC State to KU would be a crazy move for Doeren, even considering NC State has taken a little step back this year. Why would an accomplished coach move to a graveyard job like KU?
I honestly don't know. On paper, it doesn't make a ton of sense, but like I said, I've seen his name brought up in multiple lists naming off potential candidates. He and Miles have been two of the constants in much of what I've read. When you combine that with what we know for sure, that he was very interested in leaving for Tennessee last offseason, it just made me wonder if there was some fire to go along with all of the smoke.
What we knew was coming is now official. Bobby Petrino is out at Louisville. This coaching situation will be pretty straightforward. It would be a huge upset if anyone other than Jeff Brohm is the next head coach.
Word out of Louisville is that the AD expects to pay out the entirety of Petrino's buyout, which comes out to about $14 million. That hurts, but they truly did not have a choice. I think most expected them to take a big step back this season, but they've completely cratered. And on top of that, there's no real hope for the near future under Petrino. Currently, according to 247, Louisville is ahead of only Syracuse in the ACC recruiting rankings for 2019 and they're 74th nationally. For context, that's five spots behind Rutgers. It's kind of crazy how quickly Louisville has basically pressed the reset button on their entire athletic department in the last year or so, what with Tom Jurich, Rick Pitino, and Bobby Petrino gone, to say nothing of Papa John.
Well here's another interesting name for the Kansas search. There are plenty of valid criticisms of Todd Graham, but he's been pretty successful wherever he's gone, and the general consensus was that he got a raw deal at Arizona State. <a href="">
Lots of smoke around Colorado's Mike MacIntyre in the last 12 hours or so. Channel 7 in Denver reported that CU and MacIntyre will part ways at the end of the season. The school (somewhat meekly) disputed the report, and other journalists have come out and said that they're hearing that the report either isn't true or that at the very least, the news has not yet been communicated to the staff. So perhaps the news station jumped the gun on reporting the news, but typically, when these rumors start to fly from reputable sources, it's just a matter of time and logistics. When it comes to coaching change stuff, it seems that it's pretty rare that the initial report was just completely incorrect. If it's true that MacIntyre is out, the expected relative lack of openings this offseason will make the job a bit more attractive than it might otherwise be, but it's going to be tough for anyone to do markedly better than he has, because that's a tough job. There's a perception of the Colorado job being a pretty good or even great job (mostly stemming from the program's success in the early-90s), but I just don't think that perception matches reality at this point.
When you are up 31-3 in the 3rd quarter at home against Oregon State (yes, Oregon State!) and LOSE, it's time to go. Losing 5 in-a-row is just the cherry on top.
Les Miles agreed to a buyout with LSU on the remainder of his contract after meeting with Kansas, so it seems like that's probably a done deal.
Coming into this season, the general consensus with USC was that Clay Helton would return for 2019 barring a disaster, and after losing to now 3-8 UCLA to fall to 5-6 (with a likely loss to Notre Dame coming up next week to knock them down to 5-7), a disaster happened. They just extended him prior to the season, so I'm sure the buyout will be tough to swallow, but the next time a blue-blood school hangs on to a head football coach for an extra season because they were hesitant to pay a buyout will likely be the first time.
