The Second Year Coach Re-Draft

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So these are coaches that were put into extraordinary circumstances in that they took over in a very strange twenty twenty COVID year and had to make the best of things with some unforeseen obstacles as a head coach than twenty twenty one. Obviously much more normal. And we're going to go back and forth. We have a bunch of I think, bigger names to choose from. Oh yeah, and we're going to select the coaches, but I think we have to lay out some parameters of I mean, it's personal, right,

it's why you're selecting this coaches, these coaches. We're gonna go back and forth. Of course, we are not forming squadrons of coaches. We're not forming a team, but just who we value and why because of the job they've done or the job that they appear to be doing and can do at their current place. How I'm choosing to look at this, and you can tell me if I'm wrong or whatever, but like I am looking at Okay,

I'm trying to find the most average school. By the way, I'm watching you take a water break because you can feel me talking as much as I am. I don't know, And maybe this is a point of contention, a point of debate too, but like who is the most average school in that the upside is pretty high, Like if everything breaks correctly, they could win double digit games, but they've got a clunker of a year in them if things break exceedingly poorly across the board, with coaches, with injuries,

with players not working out, with transfers, whatever. Like I looked about at twenty twenty one, and I looked for, like, okay, who are like the net like zero teams that forever point they put on the board they took off points per drive, is how I looked at it. And so

there were teams like cal and Virginia and Louisville. So that's the kind of that's the gauge I'm going with, Like, Okay, who would I want to hire at a place like this to maximize not an elite place, but a place with potential to succeed on an interesting level.

And like Florida State had an offense and defense ranked in the sixties this year. But they themselves already have one of our second year coaches that's draft eligible, so I'm not gonna consider them in that conversation. They've also won a national championship. They're a step above in terms of stealing in terms of ceiling. So that's what I'm going with. Who can transform that kind of place into a maximizing place? More often than not.

So if we're looking at Power five programs like Memphis is right there negative point one, three Texas Tech with a not so good defense, but the offense, even with injuries at quarterback, was pretty decent most of the year.

West Virginia was right around there, Mississippi State at point two, Texas at point one, certainly Texas with more advantages, Oregon State at point one, Auburn right there at sixty two net rating net points per drive, So like, there are interesting programs in there that you're like, Okay, like, how do I fancy Jeff Trailer at Auburn for Miami? That kind of thing I think is worth thinking about.

four for San Diego State. So it's not exactly comparing apples to apples when you look from twenty to twenty one. But we still have a pretty good idea based on what we saw this past season. Who truly improved versus who stayed stagged in in some cases, which schools took a step back. Yeah, why don't you make the first pick and justify my god, this entire crop coaches? Yeah, if you have your druthers, who are you taking first? Overall? Who's your guy for your team? It's a great question.

It's a great question.

Having coached what Utah State, Wisconsin, LSU. Now Baylor has the West Coast ties, made the change in offensive coordinator quickly, has the defensive background within the state of Texas. I

think he is going to continue to do well. Now, he might not compete with Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A, and M on that level for recruits, but if we're dealing with this like Central Anonymous School, I think he has enough connections and he has enough of a vision that I'm going to go with a guy who went from taking a team that was kind of bad to a conference champion, a Power five conference champion in just a season. So I think there's there's proven stuff there. I think

there is upside with recruiting. I'm going Dave Randa to spearhead my program. Of this list of coaches, we can go through the bank of available coaches as well. I don't know if people know these off the top of their head.

a system, and they stick to it. That's not always a bad thing if it works. But what I think we saw that of Dave Randa in year one is that he was always willing to crumple it up and throw it at the waste basket. Yeah right, Larry Fedora, big name hired run the offense wasn't working when a drastically different direction. Fedora tried to do a little bit of everything. Grimes said, Jeff Grimes, who came over from BYU, he was much more simplistic in his philosophy, and he said,

let's do a couple things really well. And that's what they did and it worked. David Randa caught hell for being too conservative on offense in twenty twenty, especially as it relates to things like fourth downs. He went for it a lot, a lot more this season. He read the internet in the off season. I don't know, but he took it to heart. He was a lot more concerned, a lot more aggressive, excuse me, when it came to

moments like that, And I think it paid dividends. So clearly, if flexibility, if the willingness to kind of go a different to look at the landscape, figure out what's working, figure out what's not working, not have so much of an ego about you that you're stuck in your ways. Aranda is the guy, man, He's got to be the guy. He's gonna be a name. And I hate to say this for Baylor people, but it's true. They know it.

He's going to be a name that every big job that comes open, either in college, if he continues on this trajectory, maybe even the NFL. You're gonna have to get used to hearing Randa's name in the same manner that you heard Matt Ruhle's name, because in such a short period of time, this turnaround story has been remarkable. So I'm jealous you got Randa here and pick one. There are other really good names that we can go through, but.

those are my other considerations. I think when you look at turnarounds, when you look at vision for programs, when you look at hiring, especially in the case of Sam Pittman, and the Barry otom higher Like, I just, yeah, the early returns on Arkansas and how competitive they are and what that program is looking like moving forward, and sam can be said from Mel Tucker for sure, especially on

the recruiting front. It was not an easy decision. It came down to I suppose personal preference, and that's sort of what I went with. But yeah, like Arkansas got blown out a couple of times, I believe. Obviously Michigan State did against Ohio State. I don't think that's a defining characteristic of these guys. But when I went with what Baylor looked like this year, I thought to myself, you know what, I think that the uptick and recruiting is going to keep happening and they're just going to

get better and better. We saw how we hit the portal daved Randa in year one. It was Apuika who came over from LSU to help anchor that defense up front. I don't know, I just what with my gut there.

get better. Still won eleven games. How did he do that? First off, he went out and he hit the transfer portal really hard. I mean really hard. Keep in mind, this is a guy who took over very late in the cycle after they had the retirement, right, so he comes in. He did the best he could in year one, but we always knew it was going to be slow going. With the benefit of a full offseason, he hit the portal hard. He brought in fifteen guys. He also was able to cobble together what I think is a pretty

good offense. Right the Kenneth Walker the third transfer, paid huge dividends for him, and over the course of time Peyton Thornton came or Peyton Thornton excuse me came around. They were able to find ways to make this offense really potent in clutch situations. I think back to that Michigan game, right, They needed to get an incredible effort late in order to pull off that dub. They were able to do it. What I like about this team is how they were able to play hard week in

a week out. They really played hard week in a week out. And you never expected a Michigan State team to take weeks off. They didn't. They didn't know. So I like that about him. I think it's meaningful that mel Tucker was one of the names that came up for some of the big openings came up, of course for the LSU jobs. You know, you can go around college football. Everybody was talking about Meltucker. So I also credit Michigan State for locking him up. They read the

tea leaves. They knew that this could pretend actually be a very wild coaching carousel. They locked him up, gave him a ton of money, made headlines nine and that was it. Nine and a half million yep for mel Tucker. Big old booster came in, yep, nine and a half million. What are we what are we talking about here? But they had the foresight to do that, to lock him up. Yeah, And I just feel like there's nowhere but for me.

It's hard to improve on eleven wins. But I do feel like there really truly is nowhere but up in terms of stability for this program. It was in a good place before, had maybe petered off a little bit under the previous regime, but now with this boost, I think they're going to continue to get the most out of their talent. Peyton Thorne, I think in your in year two for him as a starter coming up will be much improved. I like the direction of this program,

So for me, mel Tucker's the answer here. He's a good recruiter as well, Like there's just so much to like about what this guy brings to the table. The fact that he would move on as quickly as he did frankly from Colorado a bummer for the Buffs, but another credit to the administration at Michigan State that they were able to see what he or what they thought he brought to the table and snag him real quick. So I like Meltucker a Lot's.

to mel Tucker. There's a lot of guys on this list who would do the same thing right if they found themselves in a situation they didn't love for whatever reason, and something new appeared, as the Michigan State job did. And all credit to Meltucker because of where that Michigan State team was at the end of the marked into by the way, because by the way, not Big Dave, not yet. Anyway, Big Dave will get his name in the hat for some of those other I don't know why I'm calling him Big Dave.

win a lot of clunkers. I think you'd rather win your clunkers than lose your clunkers. I just didn't see Michigan State in control. I think the record is a little bit inflated, and that number that's associated with Meltucker and the Spartans right now is not necessarily representative of how strong that program is. On I look, the past defense was terrible. That said, this was the I looked

it up. This is the number two most improved offensive unit in the country, and it's the number one Power five one in terms of points per drive going from twenty twenty to twenty twenty one. Kenneth Walker the explosive plays downfield in the passing game. It was a joy to watch. Yeah, I'm just not sold on Michigan State as a whole. As a this is a new era. We're back to being ten plus win Michigan State more often than not just because of the results, just because

the lack of consistent strong wins. But I mean win is a win. Is a win, is a win is a win in Michigan State won for sure, and I think I am hopeful that further stability will be on the way. This is still very much a work in progress if we want to consider this truly year one from El Tucker. Yeah, it took a while to work some stuff out. We thought Anthony Russo was going to be the quarterback, remember that. Yep. No, I mean the cupboard was difficult with you know, the rocky lumbar already,

Anthony Russo, Peyton Thorne like it. It was not a team where you looked at them and said, this is a team that's going to make big plays happen. And this is like they have explosion within them. Maybe in year three or something like that with a couple of recruiting cycles, but they have a quarterback of the future coming in I think from southern California. Brandon Huffman talked

about him. Yeah, I think to look at Michigan State right now is to look at a program that is going to recruit potentially better than they ever have under Mel Tucker. I'm curious to see what those hires look like here and in year out and I'm curious to see now with an up Michigan, with Ohio State obviously going to stay where they are, Penn State, I think will

be in a really good place. It's the sort of re establishing themselves as a team that can beat any of these teams any given week, like where they were in whatever it was twenty thirteen, fourteen, somewhere in there.

not lost on me. Could you not make the same points against Sam Pittman that you could melt Tucker, Because certainly if you more difficult schedule, I think on the Arkansas side playing in the SEC, but I think if you look at their second order wins total in the same boat eight and a half nine win team, there were games throughout the course of the year, the Mississippi State one comes to mind, wins in the box score, but games where the team did not play particularly well.

What I like about Arkansas and what I like about Sam Pittman. Recall back to what he did in your money at Felipe Franks. Felipe Franks was very good for Sam Pittman and Arkansas did a good job before he got hurt. This year, what he did with kJ Jefferson is what I think I'm most excited about because as we saw in the bowl game against Penn State, when in the first there was a lot that was not working for Arkansas and they were down a couple guys,

I get it, but they relied on kJ Jefferson. They were able to rely on kJ Jefferson, and that to me is a big deal moving forward if you've got that guy right. We talked about it coming into this season, actually with Eli Drinkwitz, who I will not be drafting, and we could talk about, but it is such a different mindset when you feel like you've identified that quarterback that you can build around, versus still being in a

state of flux. Right. We thought that Connor Beasilak was going to be that guy for Eli Drinkwitz that you know he's transferring now to Indiana. That culdarly did not work out.

on to bleeps in pretty much every direction. They weren't always the team that was going to go out there and beat your brains in, but they were able to utilize, at least offensively, their talent at quarterback, their talent at running back, the talent at wide receiver in the best possible ways, and they were damn competitive in the SEC. They won nine games. They went from three to seven in twenty twenty to nine and four this past year.

I mean, you can nitpick it if you want, but to do that in the SEC, especially for where Arkansas was, like even compared to Baylor, which you know, Baylor had its moments, but even compared to Michigan State, Arkansas was down and out. Man, he was down out taking that job and to do what he's done in such a short period of time is frankly maybe the best turnaround story in all of college football.

it's not always the coach, sometimes it's the school. So you're like, Okay, what is going on in Fayetteville for Sam Pittman to come into a situation recognize what needed help. I love when an offensive line coach gets a chance, because at the very least, you know, okay, there's an identification of talent up front, there's development of talent. You

know that there's going to be focused there. When a team has two offensive line coaches, a head coach and a position coach, and obviously you have Gas Nalys whatever, But when they have those two offensive line coaches, you're pretty sure that that's going to be a good looking team up front. And I love the floor raising that that gives you. Specifically to Arkansas. I mentioned the coordinator Hires. I mentioned how aggressively. They've hit the portal on both

sides of the ball. This past offseason we hat Drew Sanders from Alabama and then Jaden Hazelwood on the other side of the ball, the receiver from Oklahoma. They've hit

the portal impressively hard. And there's something about the Sam Pittman experience right recruiting offensive line portal assistant hires that I think, to me could translate more efficiently anywhere that his force of personality, and the same thing be said of Meltucker right when you have two defensive backs coaches, whatever depends, but the force of personality with Sam Pittman, the ability to look they gave Alabama kind of everything

they could handle for what over three quarters, three and a half quarters. This is year two versus year whatever it is thirteen for Nick Saban. So there is something about Sam Pittman that wherever he would go, I think that he would be fueling eight plus win teams. The difference to me with mel Tucker, which I think is more of a case for Sam Pittman as well, is you look at how many ten plus win seasons Michigan State has had in the past decade versus what Arkansas

has done in the last decade. Yeah, it's just more difficult. They're starting for becoming, they're starting from a different point. Yeah, he I mean, look, Michigan State was horrendous when mel Tucker got there, don't get me wrong, But in terms of reputation, what Arkansas was dealing with with their low points, which I guess was losing to Western Kentucky, I just, man,

it was so down in the dumps. So I don't know, I give I give a lot of out of the box credit to Arkansas for making the move that they did and empowering Sam Pittman like they have. So that was it was a tough back and forth with me for Sam Pittman. I think I might have gone a Randa because of age that Sam Pittman, I think is considerably older than Dave Randa, so maybe that's a factor. I just I love it. I love the pick hit job well.

It's tough to argue with nine wins with a first time starting quarterback in kJ Jefferson, just everything he's done across the board and his force personality too. You know, this is the kind of thing that I think for sure both Sam Pittman and Meltucker have in common. You hear a lot about mel Tucker, especially walks in a room. He's got that gravitas, and there's a lot of that going on with Sam Pittman as well. So I'm it's hard to argue with any of the three guys that

we've thrown out there. Maybe the argument gets a little bit more interesting now as we dive into your pick, your fourth pick, because it seems to me like those are the three obvious ones. The more we dig in, now now we're getting into like Lane Kiffin territory. Right now, we're getting into.

That's where he was with Charlie Weist junior. Like he has taken components of a bunch of different offenses spread in West Coast and RPO. I think he's going any school he goes to, we'll have a productive at the very least quarterback. We'll have speed, We'll hit the portal hard. He'll recruit well, and he's connected enough in the college football world to make savvy hires. I mean, how many games that all Miss win this year? They win ten games?

I look at the defensive improvement this year from Ole Miss. Yeah yeah, I'm just like, there's a case that Lane Kiffin is actually the best proven coach on this list because of the amount of time that he has spent as a head coach and major coordinator. That if you were to give a coach a year to build a winning team, that Lane Kiffin might do the best job of it. There's the wildcard element that I think goes

against taking him first overall. But if you're just judging somebody based on proven best coach, like it might be Lane.

I believe that a lot of the baggage that has been with Lane Kiffin throughout the years, hopefully he's the kind of thing that he's grown out of or can grow out of. I guess that would be the argument against him, right, that'd be the argument against him that, Yeah, is this guy reliable? Because there have been moments where you know you got him and he wants to jump elsewhere Tennessee, Right, guy ends up going to USC. Can you trust him? Is he the kind of guy that

you want to build your program around? Feels like a risk, Like these are real things that I think follow Lane Kiffin wherever he goes. That being said, you're right to improve Old Missus defense, Like everyone's going to focus on Matt Carrall and he's probably gonna be a first round pick. And the offense was very good. The defense was quietly the story for Old miss this year, quietly the story because.

Who knows if they end up getting a guy like a Jackson Dart who could potentially be in play at Old Miss arch.

these are all recruiting bits that Lane's gonna use. He's also fabulous on social media and like, Yeah, not to say that either you or I enjoy living in that world, but I think we both respect its value in the modern age of college football, right, and the fact that he's that good and that kind of with it. He's got his finger on the pulse of Twitter or whatnot.

Sam Pittman, or Mel Tucker, and you are Virginia or Louisville. Yeah, and you are you are tasked with let's say they'll all accept the you know, six million dollars or whatever you're offering six seven million dollars to be the new head coach, and your big stipulation is you only get paid if you win nine games, and you have a year to you know, figure things out, and then the next season you have to win nine games in the ACC right now, an average conference coaching an average team

in Louisville, Scott Sanderfield is like, whatever, are you still going Sam Pittman or excuse me, are you still going Mel Tucker as your first choice? With Dave Verranda off the border? Would you go Randa or would you go Lane Kiffin or would.

State his short time at Ohio State. I like the youth. It's an incomplete though. This is much more of a a hope. This is much more of a ceiling thing and a potential thing. Like I could have gone Greg Schiano or Mike Leach right like Greg Ciano is definitely raising your floor one hundred percent, Mike Leach largely is. And you have the vision thing, and you have the track record thing that he's been there, done that, and so those are clear case to take either Leech or

Chiano over Jeff Halfley. So I'm sort of banking on the unknown at this point that I think his teams play hard. I think he is going to be smart. I think he's going to be cutting edge. I think he's going to raise floor pretty quickly no matter where he goes, because I don't think he's necessarily long for Boston College. If he does win eight or nine games there,

I think it's a difficult place to win. So for that, for those reasons, I'm going to roll the dice with Jeff Halfley, and I know BC fans aren't like fully enamored with him by and large just because of the inconsistent results his first two years. All that into consideration, I still am a believer in his reputation, in how the industry seems to view him, and say, I'm going I want him on my make believe squad. Okay, would you have taken somebody else over Halfley? Here? Would you

have taken Jeff Trailer? Would you have taken and say, like, Okay, I know he has this. You know it's a he's a one state guy in Texas, right, I mean, I think he's been at Arkansas, but his the majority of his career has been in the lone star state that you know Shiano, you know, NFL coach for US of Nature hit the portal hard from major schools.

season in a pretty drastic way. They were really counting on him to be the guy. He came back later in the year. We could talk about what that meant to the team, what it didn't, but I think that's the reason for the incomplete I was gung ho on BC coming into this year, and a lot of people were You could squint and find a way to get them to ten and two. The over under in Vegas was seven, and I remember at the time when I did the preview for BC, I was all in on

over seven. All in again, I could take the optimistic view. I'd give them ten wins. You could also look at the schedule and say this is maybe a five win team. In reality, because of the injury, they ended up being closer to the lower end of that. Right. He is a guy who What I liked about Jeff Halfley is in year one he did something very wise, had a transfer quarterback coming in, didn't know what we get out

of field your COVID. But whereas a lot of coaches out there tried to run like the full playbook in twenty twenty, Jeff Hafley just stripped the thing down. He went techmo super Bowl style. Let's just do a few things that we know we can master given the limitations of the season, and they did a great job with it. BC, even though they only had six wins, was a breakout success in twenty twenty because of the job that they

did under Halfley had the injuries this season. He just feels like a guy who knows how to maximize talent and he's at a place like BC where they're never going to get five star recruits, not in droves, right, that's not the game that they're going to play in BC. But the fact that they've been competitive now in a manner that they have for two years running to varying degrees, Like, I just think that's a great job that he's done.

So as I'm looking up and down the list here, you could probably convince me on Kaylin de Borr, who's my boy?

So yep, and Ricky Ronnie it was a great story, but he's a huge incomplete because they didn't even play in twenty twenty. I think the only answer here is Jeff Hafley.

State coming into this season. I was the Mississippi State in twenty twenty was four and seven. They went seven and six into twenty twenty one. I feel like seven and six is a bit of a disappointment cause you had much higher expectations for this team. I'm curious why Leech is still in the conversation for you win total went up right out about it jump by three, but at the same time, seven to six still feels like a bit of a disappointment relative to preseason expectations.

in an emotional spot for him. They improved over the course of you know, Mike Leach's tenure thus far, and they have a quarterback who seems to be more and more comfortable in this offense. They've got playmakers at receiver obviously, playmakers on defense. I just think that the inconsistency points to some sort of I don't know, messaging problem, an

inspiration problem, a motivation problem. I don't know what it is, but I can't fully get on board knowing that there is that while that the team reflects the head coach and Mike Leach is nothing if not a wild card, and that's what Mississippi State seems to have been this

past year. So the best of KLANGA is really fun and impressive and can hang with or beat most teams, but man, the depths, especially like last year when what they beat LSU they throw for all those yards the kJ costello and I mean obviously an awful and decimated LSU team, and then to completely fold the way that they did for the stretch through the middle of the season.

I don't know. I'm just I don't think I would feel super comfortable at this point saying this is who I can count on if I'm Louisville, Virginia cal Like, I just I need more dependability and a little bit more recruiting for me.

annoyingly competent? Is that a selling point for a coach to establish that base levels to ability where you're gonna win seven eight games a year? Is that good enough for Mississippi State at this juncture in college football?

Who has been added to the roster in the portal or what recruiting classes have looked like short of a major cornerback who opted for Jackson State, I hear you, But those are in theory, interesting names. So I just haven't seen enough on the field, Like if the best of Florida State is what the way they finished out the Miami game, the way that they finished out almost beating Notre Dame, Like, what what are we buying here

with Florida State? And so yeah, Miszoo is much more hypothetical just because it's a more difficult job based on conference, based on recent track record. But yeah, you look at Florida State this past year. It's I yeah, it's pulling out Miami and almost pulling out Notre Dame, which is not amazing.

out there is not what he wants to do. That's not his mo. So it remains to be seen to me if he can get more of his kind of quarterback in there, if that's going to reverse fortunes a bit on offense and and make this team just feel a lot different and get to different heights. The recruiting thing with Travis Hunter, Norvell was the victim of that this year. People were calling for his head because of it. There are gonna be other coaches that fall victim to

this too. It's not Norvell just happened to be the first.

that joke, but true. I don't know if anyone truly gives a damn about Rutgers football in the numbers of the big power. Yeah, it's just it's just not a thing. And so it's hard to kind of rebuild that. It's hard to recapture that magic, the pandemonium in Piscataway that he was part of way back when, over a decade ago. To kind of have that local knowledge and the experience of having done that once I think is very valuable at a place like Rutgers. And so he's already elevated

and raised the floor. In year two they went from three wins to five and eight. With the Wonky Bowl situation, yep, I think they're getting better. They are at least far more competent than they were under the previous regime. So I like him there in terms of somebody that I would draft, He's a lot older than pretty much every name on this list. That works against him, for better or worse. If we're drafting, if we've got our two cents about who we're gonna who we're gonna take and

when in what order? I like you said, outside of Jersey. I don't know if it plays, but at least in that very specific instance, he's done.

into the season. Right, there were so many unknowns, especially with these guys in their programs and the jobs that they did. So write and let us know what your thoughts are. Don't forget to subscribe and follow, rate and review the show. Going out to verballers dot com. That's our Patreon, Going out to solid Giveaway dot com. That's where you can compete, compete on don't know, enter the contest. You don't really have to compete to win. That signed Reggie Bush.