College Football: Top 3 defensive coordinators available in 2017

Some of the nation’s top defensive coordinators could soon take head coaching jobs at big-time programs. Who are the top three?

It’s that time in the college football season where teams are firing their head coaches and are looking to start over. That also means they are trying to take great coordinators away from big time programs.

Big time jobs like Tennessee and Nebraska and other schools have head coaching vacancies. Both Tennessee and Nebraska love playing a great defense.

Nebraska and the Black Shirt days and Tennessee ruling the SEC in the late 80s and late 90s. If they want to go back to those days, there are a bunch of established defensive coordinators worth giving a call to.

Here are three defensive coordinators that could definitely be head coaches next year.

1. Bud Foster, Virginia Tech Hokies

Coach Bud Foster has said many times he’s staying in Blacksburg, but in college football anything is possible. If two schools could draw Foster’s interest, Tennessee and Nebraska could do it.

Foster has been at Virginia Tech for 30 years and has been at least co-defensive coordinator since 1995. He and Frank Beamer together made what we know today as “Beamer Ball.” Foster has been a finalist for the Broyles Award three times and has won it once in 2006.

His 1999 National Championship runner-up defense gave up a nation leading 10.5 points per game. From 2004-2009, his defenses had six straight top-10 finishes in scoring defense.

And his best work made have been his 2006 defense. The defense lead the nation only allowing 11 points per game, 219 yards per game and only 128.2 yards through the air. Since he became the defensive coordinator in the 1996 season, his defense has been arguably the nation’s best.

The Hokies lead the nation with 749 sacks, 337 interceptions, 44 interceptions for touchdowns, the lowest completion percentage (50.5 percent) and the highest interception percentage (4.5 percent).

Foster might be the hardest coordinator to pry from his school, but if your team wants a great defense, you know who should get one of the first calls.