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Potential New Coach Power Rankings: Week 5

Things are looking stable up top. Who else will have a vacancy?

Ron Croomheisel is not a contender.
Ron Croomheisel is not a contender.
EDSBS/Ryan Nanni

Here's the rules: Nobody is exempt from consideration except head coaches currently at other P5 schools. It is absolutely certain that Illinois and Rutgers will have new head coaches next year. Maryland is a pretty strong contender, but I'll leave Purdue alone for now. Not that a close loss saves Hazell's job, but it may be indicative of figuring some things out. I'll assume the strongest (by power poll) program will get the strongest candidate for the purpose of making this list.

1. Justin Fuente, Memphis: 5-0, 2-0 against this list. Last week: 1 (-)
Welcome to Champaign, Coach Fuente!
Memphis continued to roll with a 7-point victory at South Florida. This is a solid program he's built. At MEMPHIS.

2. Matt Campbell, #24 Toledo: 4-0, 2-0 against P5 teams. Last week: 2 (0)
Enjoy Piscataway, Sir Campbell!
Toldeo is now ranked in the AP poll, which is something more than half of the Big Ten can't say.

3. Dino Babers, BGSU: 3-2, 2-0 against the B1G. Last week: 3 (-)
Maryland welcomes you with open arms; pay no mind to that booze/burning tire smell.
The Falcons held off a late Buffalo comeback attempt to win 28-22. Not much action at the top of this list.

4. Matt Rhule, Temple: 4-0, 1-0 against the B1G. Last week: 4 (-)
A 37-3 win against Charlotte is not going to move you up this list without those ahead of you faltering, but he'll have chances.

5. Jeff Brohm, WKU: 4-1, 0-1 against the B1G. Last week: 6(+1)
The Hilltoppers rolled to a 49-10 win against Rice. They've annihalated their last two and have a tough matchup with Middle Tennessee coming up. Let's see what they're made of.

6. Ken Niumatalolo, Navy: 4-0. Last week: 9 (+3)
Throttled a pesky Air Force team 33-11 to move to 4-0. Have not yet won by less than 10 points. Who wants to dramatically change their offense?

7. Tom Herman, Houston: 4-0, 1-0 against the ACC. Last week: 10 (+3)
Houston convincingly defeated the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, which presumably brought wide-scale golden showers to the area. Also, Ohio State's offense continued to struggle in the first half. Could this man build an offensive juggernaut in the Big Ten without Urban Meyer?

8. Bill Cubit, Illinois interim: 4-1, 1-0 against the Big Ten. Last week: 12 (+4) 
I'm still not sure how the Illini managed to pull that game out against Nebraska, but the fact is that they played inspired defense and got the offense going at just the right time. Sitting at 4-0 and giving Illinois a winning conference record for the first time since 2011, Cubit has a chance to rocket up this list due to having the most difficult schedule by far.

9. Willie Fritz, Georgia Southern: 4-1, 1-0 against this list. Last week: 7 (-2)
This team has an incredibly soft schedule that will not allow them any more opportunities to prove themselves. Until they play at Georgia in mid-November. Is the option an option for your team?

10. PJ Fleck, Western Michigan: 1-3, 0-1 against this list, 0-2 against the B1G. Last week: 8 (-2)
ROW ROW ROW YOUR BOAT GENTLY TOWARDS THE END ZONE. Broncos had a bye this week. They start conference play after getting beaten up in a tough non-con.

11. Rod Carey, Northern Illinois: 2-3, 0-1 against the B1G. Last week: 5 (-6)
Woah! A 3-game losing streak and a tough Ball State team coming to town do not bode well for the one-time Rutgers coach in waiting. A ten point loss to an admittedly bowlworthy CMU team shows that the Huskies no longer own the MAC.

12. Bo Pelini, Youngstown State: 3-1 with a loss at Pitt. Last week: 11 (-1)
Won 31-3 at South Dakota. Impressive. Takes on Illinois State next. Some coaches ahead of this list are younger than Bo, but to do your job at this level, at a place like the B1G, you gotta be a grown ass f****** man to lead something.

13. Brock Spack, Illinois State: 3-1. Last week: 14 (+1). Defeated Aaron Bailey's Northern Iowa Panthers 21-13 to enter a four-way tie for first in the MVFC. A showdown with Bo Pelini's Penguins is next.

14. Rick Stockstill, MTSU: 2-3, 0-1 against this list. Last week: 13 (-1)
Lost to Vanderbilt. In theory, there's nothing wrong with two SEC losses and a B1G loss for a C-USA team. But two of those losses are to Illinois and Vanderbilt.

15. Lance Leipold, Buffalo: 2-3, 0-1 against the B1G. Last week: 15 (-)
Put up a good fight against Dino Babers' Falcons, but ultimately may take a couple years to build a program. This is one to watch with interest though.

16. Bob Stitt, Montana: 3-2. Last week: 16 (-)
An unimpressive win against last-place UC-Davis nevertheless gives Montana a winning record and second place in the Big Sky.

17. Tommy Tuberville, whose 3-2 Cincinnati team took down Miami this past week, heads up the "probably not" section of the list.

18. Ron Zook, Packers Special Teams coordinator. (+1 from last week). In fairness to Zook, the Packers remain undefeated.

19. Greg SchiaNO

20. American Pharaoh, Triple Crown winner (+8 from last week) I did not give the thoroughbred his due last week, when he displayed his football acumen by correctly picking UCLA over Arizona on College GameDay.

21. Lee Corso, former Indiana coach: Outsmarted by a horse.

22. Ron Turner, FIU (2-3) (-4 from last week) Lost to UMass by 10. Barf!

23. Will Muschamp. Congratulations on beating San Jose State by 14, Auburn!

24. Zapp Brannigan, 25-star General of DOOP. Brannigan's Law is like Brannigan's love: hard and fast.

25. Tim Brewster

26. John L Smith. The commenters are playing their butts off and the writers are screwing it up!

27. Mike Locksley, puncher of assistants, owner of a 2-26 career head coaching record, and most damning of all, offensive coordinator for the 2015 Maryland Terrapins

28. Paul Petrino, Idaho: 1-4, 0-2 overall. A 3-point win over Wofford gave Paul Petrino his third win at Idaho, but two weeks later he sits at 3-25 overall.

29. Neville Chamberlain

30. The machines rise up and become all the head coaches and all the players; humanity is relegated to watching DraftKings and FanDuel commercials forever.

31. Lane Kiffin.