/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47769841/usa-today-8940535.0.jpg)
Wow, just wow. Who would have thought there would be this many openings going into this off-season? It seems that almost every single conference has at laelst 2-3 vacancies at the current time. Let's take a moment to recap the current rumor mill of who is going where:
- Update: Will Muschamp has officially been announced as the next South Carolina head coach. BOOM! I'm relieved that someone reached farther down the list than Bill Cubit.
-After forcing out Mike London, Virginia hired Bronco Mendenhall away from BYU in a move I don't believe anyone saw coming. Woah.
-Tom Herman has agreed to a new deal with Houston at $3M per year and includes "guarantees for significant program improvements"
-Ohio State defensive coordinator Chris Ash will reportedly be hired by Rutgers as head coach. Not official yet. as of 12/7. In other Rutgers news, former Rutgers basketball coach Mike Rice is now the interim coach of high school Patrick School in New Jersey.
-Eastern Carolina made the curious decision to fire head coach Ruffin McNeill after six seasons. ECU went 5-7 this year with a win over Virginia Tech.
-Miami has hired former Canes QB and former Georgia coach Mark Richt
-A perennially disappointing orange and blue team with a rich history in the distant past has hired Dino Babers, the coach of the MAC Champion Bowling Green Falcons...And it's Syracuse! We now go live to Thumpasaurus for his thoughts:
- USC has taken the interim title off of Clay Helton, promoting him to full time head coaching duties. That was...underwelming. It's rumored that he received a five year guaranteed contract, but nothing firm there, yet.
- Justin Fuente has taken the head coaching position at Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech will reportedly retain Bud Foster at defensive coordinator and this so far is probably the win of the coaching search so far.
- In shocking news, Matt Campbell has taken the Iowa State job. He was wildly rumored to be one of the biggest up and coming names and supposedly had a lot of options better than Iowa State.
- In more...absurd news, Illinois has taken the interim label off of Cubit and retained him for.....TWO seasons. This is probably one of the dumber things I've seen because he's a defacto lame duck coach with only two seasons and nothing to promise recruits for continuity. The presser may have been worse though when Illinois sort of said they could do worse and defacto kept him while they assess their options [paraphrased people!]. This makes me feel better about my own school's dismal situation.
-Update 12/1: Oregon OC Scott Frost has officially been announced as the next UCF football coach.
- Various outlets are reporting Butch Davis had a great interview with Miami. They fired him...so apparently they're over that and want some more Butch Davis football? #thingsthatdontmakesense Richt'd
- Rutgers is reportedly interested in interviewing Greg Schiano and Mario Cristobal. Schiano coached at Rutgers before leaving the position to coach the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before fizzling out in a short time span. Hmmmm...
- Earlier this weekend it was reported that DJ Durkin to Maryland was imminent, but those rumors have cooled today as he as of this moment is still in Michigan and not one of the coaches interviewing today. Frank Reich, the San Diego Charger OC, has been rumored to be in town and interviewing as well as interim head coach Mike Locksley. As a Maryland fan, I may revolt and protest if Locksley is retained and the interim label removed, but that's just me. Durkin was officially announced as Maryland head coach
- Penn State did what every Penn State fan wanted them to do and got rid of John Donovan. I find it hard to believe they have a hard time getting improvement from where they were, but then again Tim Beck might be available!
- After a season of up and down performances, mostly down on offense, Minnesota has fired their OL and QB coaches. Not waiting to outdo someone, Purdue ensued with firing both their offensive and defensive coordinators in an attempt to turn their dismal past few years around.
That's all I can find so far, but there are so many vacancies I know I've missed a few. Feel free to discuss them all and we'll update this as new situations come out!
For reference, here is the Thumpasaurus coaching search article from last week. #1, #5, #8, #9 and.......#30....are all officially off the board.