Breaking down 2018 college football coaching carousel

The college football coaching carousel is getting interesting heading into the 2018 offseason. Which spots are open and who will fill them?

There is no coaching carousel like the coaching carousel in college football and at the end of every season, we see the lever being pulled and the college football world goes into crazy twists and turns fueled by tweets, flight watching along with the usual rumors and speculation.

The 2017 version of the carousel goes from Los Angeles to Gainesville and all places in between. Even if we are just one day removed from the end of the season, some schools have already begun the process of replacing the leaders of their football program. This will serve as a guide to what major openings are out there and once a hire is officially made, I will grade the hire and evaluate what the choice means for the school.

Let’s start off in Los Angeles with the UCLA Bruins and their newest hire over the weekend.

UCLA Bruins

With the firing of Jim Mora Jr., the UCLA Bruins didn’t waste any time in hiring their next head coach as Chip Kelly was the new head man Saturday afternoon.

So, what is the grade of the hire and how does it affect everything down the line? Well, first of all, this is the first domino to fall in the coaching carousel. This hire will determine what Florida, Arkansas, Tennessee, and others will do when comes to new hires.

Grade the hire: A+

In a matter of a week, UCLA fired the guy that they wanted to get rid of and they landed the guy that they wanted. It’s all pretty simple for them and now the Bruins can get started with recruiting and Kelly would be able to do further evaluations in bowl prep as the Bruins barely became bowl eligible by defeating Cal on Friday.

We know that Chip will want to resurrect the dynamic spread offense that was his claim to fame at Oregon. The big question for UCLA and Chip is how well this works? For some reason, the UCLA Program has struggled to keep a coach as they’ve gone through their eighth coach in the last twenty-plus seasons. Oh, and for those wondering, Chip Kelly and the UCLA Bruins travel to Oregon next season. November 3rd to be exact so get your popcorn ready.