As hot seats get hotter, fans around the country dream of landing a proven winner. These five men won’t be returning to college football in 2018.
One of college football’s annual traditions is watching the seats heat up under coaches around the country. Losses early in the season get the talk started almost immediately. At this moment, some of the country’s biggest schools are longing to see whether they can land a big name to take over their football programs.
But even when a leader gets fired, the coaching carousel often recycles head men from one outpost to another. Once a coach develops a winning tradition, that pedigree never completely vanishes. Even when one team tires of a successful leader, others are right there hoping to swoop up talented tacticians.
Thus talk often turns toward which heralded names on the market might land new jobs. Fans of prominent programs like Nebraska, Arkansas, and Texas A&M long to find a new leader for their programs after falling in a rut. Guys like Jimbo Fisher, now 0-2 after an upset defeat to NC State, could even start to feel some heat.
But if fans of those schools are hoping to land one of these guys, they are sorely mistaken. It is fun to dream, but these five head coaches will not be returning to a college sideline next season.
1. Chip Kelly
Every year since he left Oregon to go to the NFL, Chip Kelly’s name has been bandied about among the names of coaches who might be hired by a major college program. Kelly is currently breaking down both the pro and college games for ESPN. But several schools will be hoping to pry him away from television and back to the sidelines in 2018.
It is understandable why fans might hope for Kelly to come take over their favorite program. While at Oregon, he had a short but storied career leading the Ducks. After two years as the offensive coordinator in Eugene, Kelly took over the program from Mike Bellotti and elevated the Ducks into perennial national contenders.
Between 2009 and 2012, Kelly’s Ducks teams won at least 10 games every year. In that span, Oregon won three conference titles and a share of the Pac-12 North in the fourth season. Kelly boasts an .868 winning percentage at the college level and has 46 wins to his name so far in his career.
That number will not climb any higher than 46 in 2018, however. Kelly signed a multiyear deal to work for ESPN as an analyst. He won’t leave the studio after one year, especially since he seems more eager to get another crack in the pros than he does to return to college. Your favorite FBS team will not land the innovative offensive guru this offseason.
2. Les Miles
Les Miles is one of those polarizing figures that is either loved or hated. The Mad Hatter’s antics are legendary, right down to his penchant for tasting the turf in tense situations. But while it is fun to goof on Miles, it must also be remembered that he is among the most successful college coaches who is not currently leading a college program.
In recent years, before his termination last season, Miles’ teams had a reputation for offensive ineptitude. But LSU was not always mediocre under Miles when they had the football. In his first seasons in Baton Rouge, with Gary Crowton as his offensive coordinator, LSU finished in the top 12 nationally in scoring offense in both 2006 and 2007. They won the national title in his third season with the Tigers.
And before that it wasn’t like Miles was an unknown commodity. In 2001, Les Miles took over an Oklahoma State team that had been to one bowl game since Barry Sanders won the Heisman Trophy as a Cowboy in 1988. After a rebuilding year, Oklahoma State went to three straight bowl games before Miles moved on to LSU. He has succeeded at several stops along the way, bolstering his credibility.
With 141 victories to his name and a 71.9 percent career winning percentage, Les Miles is just an average season away from passing the 150 mark in his career. That season won’t be 2018, though, as Miles remains outside the ranks of college coaches for another year.
3. Bob Stoops
After 18 years at Oklahoma, Bob Stoops suddenly and surprisingly retired from coaching in the offseason. The Sooners have survived under his replacement, Lincoln Riley, but it was still a stunning blow for a program that was a model of consistency under Stoops. College football lost one of its great coaches when Stoops stepped away from a national championship contender.
Stoops won the Big 12 championship in 10 out of his 18 seasons in Norman. His 2000 Oklahoma squad also won the 2001 Orange Bowl over Florida State to claim the BCS national championship. There were certainly some serious issues with players recruited to play with the Sooners during his tenure. But plenty of good head coaches have been hired multiple times after questionable practices and policies surfaced in public.
Yes, Stoops plateaued in terms of postseason success with the Orange Bowl win over the Seminoles at the turn of the century. He lost two other chances at a BCS championship, first to USC in the 2005 Orange Bowl and then in the 2009 BCS National Championship (played fittingly in Miami) against Alabama. But Stoops is also the only coach to win all four BCS bowls over the course over his career.
His overall success among coaches during the 21st century is unquestionable. Many teams would love to land a coach of Stoops’ caliber for their roster, and several will surely come calling as soon as they have a vacancy. Stoops will rebuff every offer that comes along this season, though he may eventually make his way back to the game in 2019.
4. Houston Nutt
After six years away from college football, Houston Nutt had seemingly vanished out of sight and out of the minds of fans. But his name has resurfaced in the midst of the Ole Miss drama that transpired this offseason. Some fans might look at Nutt’s record and see the possibility of a quick turnaround at their own school.
Given his success on the football field during a two-decade career at various schools, it is no wonder that his name is returning to people’s minds. He helped turn Murray State into a I-AA powerhouse in the mid-1990s, then parlayed one year at Boise State into the Arkansas gig. In Fayetteville, Nutt built his reputation as a strong leader who won three SEC West titles over a decade-long tenure.
After failing to reach the national championship he declared as a goal upon arriving at the school, Nutt left Arkansas in 2007 and jumped immediately to Ole Miss. By that point, though, the SEC West had become an annual battle between Alabama and LSU. Four downward-trending seasons in Oxford led to Nutt’s dismissal. The closest he has come to a coaching position since leaving Ole Miss was an April Fool’s joke.
Given what has transpired in Oxford since his dismissal, people are beginning to see Nutt in a new light again. There are some who will look at a guy who led Arkansas and Ole Miss to contention in the SEC West and clamor for his hire. But he will remain away from football for a seventh season in 2018 as nobody makes a serious offer.
5. Pete Carroll
It has been almost a decade since Pete Carroll left USC ahead of NCAA sanctions against the school. Officially he jumped from Southern California for the Seattle Seahawks position. After seven seasons it appears to have been the correct move for his career. While the Trojans are beginning to emerge once again as a national contender under Clay Helton, Carroll has continued a long streak as a successful head coach.
Carroll’s Seahawks teams won Super Bowl XLVIII over Denver in 2014 and lost Super Bowl XLIX the following year to New England. Seattle has won four times since 2010 and have reached the playoffs in six of Carroll’s seven seasons with the team. As he enters his eighth year in Washington, there is no indication that he has any desire to leave the pros to return to the college ranks.
There was talk in 2015 about USC trying to get Carroll back to Los Angeles after Steve Sarkisian was fired and Ed Orgeron was not offered the full-time position. During his nine seasons with the Trojans, Carroll won eight Pac-10 championships. His 2003 team claimed the AP’s share of the national title, and won the BCS championship the following season over Oklahoma.
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With an 86.2 percent career winning percentage, Pete Carroll would be right back among the best coaches in the college game were he to make the leap. Carroll’s former nemesis at Stanford and then with the San Francisco 49ers, Jim Harbaugh, returned to college in 2015. Tempting though it may be for fans of the sport, no college team is going to lure Carroll away from the Seahawks in 2018.