Gut reactions to College Football Week 6: Surprise teams shine, Oklahoma hits rock bottom

Interim (for now) head coaches rule

A number of college football teams have fired their head coaches early: Nebraska, Georgia Tech, Arizona State, and Wisconsin have all done this within the past few weeks.

The interim coach title means different things at different places. At Wisconsin, after the dismissal of Paul Chryst, it was clear that Jim Leonhard would be the interim head coach only for a limited time as long as he can deliver on the field.

The Badgers dominated Northwestern on Saturday, so he’s off to a good start. Mickey Joseph is another interim head coach that could earn the job permanently and he took a step in that direction for Nebraska after notching a second straight win, thanks to a 14-13 road win at Rutgers on Friday. It was ugly but the Huskers won a close game and are tied for the Big Ten West lead.

Brent Key is another interim head coach to know. When Georgia Tech announced him as head coach Deion Sanders was the trendy name to watch to replace Geoff Collins.

Yet, Key might have different ideas. The Yellow Jackets knocked off Pittsburgh last week, a team that was ranked as a massive underdog, and on Saturday, Georgia Tech followed it up with a 23-20 win over Duke in overtime.

Collins never won more than three games in a season and Key is one win away from doing that in his first month on the job. These aren’t wins over FCS teams either.

Making interim head coaches 4-0 on the weekend was Shaun Aguano of Arizona State, who led the Sun Devils to a surprising upset of No. 21 Washington.

In college football nothing is guaranteed, unless you win and if these four (interim) head coaches want to keep those titles, they need to keep doing just that, just like Dabo Swinney once did to get the head job at Clemson.