Pete Carroll was very much a retread when USC hired him and the reaction when he was announced was less than enthusiastic (and that is being kind). Not saying Jeff Fisher is a good choice, but it depends on who the "retread" is. Chris Peterson would be a good choice for them. USC did UW a huge favor when they hired Sark but snagging Peterson would be a major setback for UW. Oregon and Wazzu would be happy.
Anything is possible, but Venables is very comfortable at Clemson. I believe he is the highest paid assistant in college football. He's had multiple offers to leave Clemson and his son is a freshman LB there. I seriously doubt he would leave for a place like Texas Tech.
This one kind of surprised me a little bit. Sure, the bottom fell out a little bit this season and CMU went 1-11, but he got them to bowl games in each of the previous three seasons and his overall record will end up being far better than his predecessor, Dan Enos.
A little self-edit...the records I looked at didn't include this season's 1-11 record, so Bonamego's record will end up being worse than that of Enos. Still was a bit surprised to see them cut ties with him after one tough season, but I suppose 1-11 is 1-11.
Not sure what to think about Helton and USC now. After the game, some of the quotes Helton gave to the media seemed to strongly suggest that AD Lynn Swann had given him confirmation that he would return for 2019. But then again, Helton has been super positive all season about his relationship with Swann and the positivity and trust Swann has shown him, so maybe this is just more of that. However it ends up playing out, I have to admit that I expected this to be one of those decisions that leaked out in the immediate aftermath of the game because the decision had already effectively been made. I would be surprised if USC elected to bring back a coach after a 5-7 season, but perhaps that's the way things are going.
Welp, that would be interesting. The Fedora firing is one that was tough to see coming before the season. They had a bad 2017 season, but I don't think anyone could find fault with what he had done there prior to that, and most assumed (myself included) that they would bounce back in 2018. That didn't happen, of course, and a head coach who just a couple of years ago was talked about as someone who could potentially move up to a higher-level SEC job at some point is now out of a job completely. I guess UNC can't resist bringing back a national title-winning coach who also was very successful in his first tenure in Chapel Hill, but I would have expected any UNC search to start with Appalachian State head coach Scott Satterfield. Moving from FCS to FBS and being competitive right away isn't an easy thing to do (just ask almost any other college football program who has made that jump in the last decade or so), but they've done it at App State.
You may be right, but I read that a little differently. If he was planning to fire the coach, I think I would have expected him to give more of the typical boilerplate response like "we'll meet with Clay sometime in the coming days to discuss the season, as we do at the end of every season." Admittedly, I may be trying to read between the lines too much there, but I read that and kind of got the feeling that they're going to bring him back for one more year, but with an overhauled coaching staff.
According to reports, Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt has interest in Oregon DC Jim Leavitt and Utah State coach Matt Wells for the open head coaching position. Lubbock Avalanche-Journal's Don Williams has three sources on the report -- one from last year and two from this year -- linking Leavitt to the Texas Tech head coaching job. Hiring a defensive coordinator would be a complete 180-degree spin from the last coaching staff led by offensive master mind Kliff Kingsbury. Under Leavitt's leadership, the Oregon defense ranks 60th in points allowed per game and 29th in turnovers created. There is a $500,000 buyout should Leavitt decide leave for Oregon prior to January 31, 2018 but that will have little impact on Leavitt's decision if he is ultimately offered the job. For Wells, he has brought Utah State (10-2) into the top-25 and he has a lot of respect throughout the coaching community. The "second tier" of coaches are Clemson DC Brent Venables, Hocutt's KSU teammate, and Memphis coach Mike Norvell, according to Don Williams.
Pretty candid statement by Swann. He knows this isn’t the popular choice by far, trying to sunshine pump the fans wasn't going to help. As for Tech, not sure how Venables is “second tier.” Been one of the top DCs for a while and knows the conference.
I don't know that they have a lot of choice, honestly. I think they were at a point where they felt like they had to either double down on Lovie Smith or cut ties, and as the AD who hired him, I think Josh Whitman is going to give him every chance to succeed before giving up on the experiment. The cupboard was pretty bare when Lovie took over, and while I've always been dubious of the prevailing thought that high turnover in coaches scares off other coaches from looking at the job because I think any good coach worth his salt will always believe he can turn a program around no matter the circumstances, bringing in your fifth coach in seven years (as would be the case if they had let Lovie go) might test my hypothesis. From what I read, the extension also doesn't include any sort of raise, so I think the added financial risk for UI is relatively minimal. To be clear, I'm far from convinced next season will be any better at Illinois, but I think there is just so much risk in starting over again that they're willing to give him a mostly ceremonial extension and keep things going for at least another year.
