Who made the best SEC coaching hire? Who made the worst?
The Southeastern Conference has seen six football head coaching changes before the first bowl game of the season has been played. Now, after everybody has had a chance to catch their breath after the whirlwind turnover, let’s figure out who made out well and who left us scratching our heads.
Ranking the SEC football hires:
Florida: Dan Mullen
The Gators hired former Florida assistant and Tim Tebow position coach Dan Mullen, who has spent the last nine years at Mississippi State proving he has the chops for the top job. Mullen was 69-46 in Starkville (making him the second-winningest coach on this list), and the job will be easier at Florida than it was at Mississippi State. The Gators took a big swing early on Chip Kelly, but they didn’t linger on it, moving on to check in on Scott Frost quickly and then nabbing Mullen. If this was the Gators’ third choice, it’s a really good backup plan to the backup plan, and they executed it without any embarrassment to the school.
Arkansas: Chad Morris
Chad Morris does not bring an impressive record to Fayetteville, but he does bring something that might be more valuable – strong recruiting ties to Texas. Before Morris got into college coaching at Tulsa, he was the head coach at five Texas high schools, and he remains a legend in that state’s prep circles. Given the low number of prospects traditionally produced by Arkansas high schools, it’s essential for a coach to successfully recruit Texas if he’s going to have a chance in Fayetteville. That combined with Morris’ success as Clemson’s offensive coordinator and his rebuilding job at SMU (where he went 2-10, 5-7 and 7-5) makes him a great fit here.
Mississippi State: Joe Moorhead
The Bulldogs could have ended up the big losers after seeing Mullen take off. Instead, they pulled off the best-executed search of anyone in the league. Two days after Mullen left, Mississippi State hired Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead. Bulldogs athletics director John Cohen was prepared for Mullen’s departure and didn’t waste any time with delusional thoughts about how this big-name coach or that big-name coach might give him the time of day. Instead, he jumped on Moorhead, who has head coaching experience at Fordham, a dynamic offense and is excited to have an SEC job.
Texas A&M: Jimbo Fisher
How do you dole out a 10-year, $75 million contract and end up with the fourth-best hire in SEC? Somehow, the Aggies seem to have done it. From the moment Texas A&M pushed out Kevin Sumlin, and even before that, it was focused on bringing Jimbo Fisher from Florida State. Fisher is 83-23 and won the 2013 national title so he’s the most successful coach in this year’s shuffle, and it was a good time for him to leave Tallahassee given that he and the Seminoles’ administration seemed to be growing tired of each other. However, Fisher’s record hasn’t been tracking in the right direction (13-1 in 2014, 10-3 in 2015 and 2016, 5-6 in 2017), and this is a huge investment in a coach whose previous fan base had its share of gripes.
Ole Miss: Matt Luke
There’s not much to say here. The Rebels were awaiting a nasty NCAA penalty, which now has come down, and weren’t going to find too many good options. When interim head coach Matt Luke, who played at the school and may be the only coach on the market who really wanted the job, upset rival Mississippi State in the regular season finale, it became an easy call to give Luke the full-time job.
Tennessee: Jeremy Pruitt
The Volunteers go docked some points for how messy the search is, and maybe that’s not fair, but it was really, really messy. First, Tennessee had a memo of understanding signed with Greg Schiano, but that blew up badly after a fan revolt. Then athletics director John Currie reportedly had a handshake deal with Mike Leach, but the powers-that-be back home nixed that deal and fired Currie on top of that. The athletics director job went to former UT coach Phil Fulmer, who reports said had been angling for it all along, and Fulmer went out and hired Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt. Pruitt fits the Saban-assistant mold that has worked at times at other places, but it sure felt like Fulmer immediately zeroed in on assistant coaches when he took over the search. A cynic might think that gives him the opportunity for more input into the program as the veteran sounding board.
This story was originally published December 12, 2017 at 12:45 PM with the headline "Who made the best SEC coaching hire? Who made the worst?."