It's always tough for a new coach to come in and find immediate success, and even more so for a new coach coming into a tough situation. You have to look no further than Curt Cignetti who left James Madison to go to doormat Indiana.
To be honest I thought he was crazy leaving an up and coming program for the basement in the Big 10 but he has the program on fire. As we know the Hoosiers are sitting at 7-0 with Game Day coming to Bloomington for the game against Washington on Saturday. The transformation has been incredible and there is an excitement for football here that has never been seen before.
You have Manny Diaz at Duke who has the Blue Devils sitting at 6-1 on the season with a huge home game this weekend against SMU on Saturday. I don't think there is anyone who thought after Mike Elko left for Texas A&M that the next season has a chance of being an overall better season.
Obviously, Duke will always be a basketball school, Coach Diaz has continued the excitement to the football program that Elko brought in his tenure. No matter how bad Florida State is this season for Duke to finally break a 22 game losing streak is a huge thing and Diaz doing it in his first year says a lot about what he has brought to this team.
Success at Syracuse has been very hit and miss over the years and there hasn't been much sustained success since Paul Pasqualoni. Entering the 2024 season with new coach Fran Brown from the Kirby Smart coaching tree the expectations were low for the Orange. Coach Brown has already exceeded expectations leading his team to a 5-1 record including a huge road win against UNLV this season.
He had faith in Kyle McCord and this has transpired to success right out of the gate. Now this program has a huge game Thursday night against undefeated Pittsburgh. A win here would not only get Syracuse to bowl eligibility but show they are a true contender in the ACC. I still am not sure how this team lost to Stanford at home.
Maybe the biggest surprise is what Ken Niumatalolo has done with San Jose State after Brent Brennan left for Arizona. I'm sure the expectations were low in year one with the former Navy coach taking over, but he has the Spartan sitting at 5-2 on the season.
Maybe the most impressive part of this first year success is Coach Niumatalolo completely changing his offensive identity from what was run at Navy to what the San Jose State offense looks this year. Quarterback Emmett Brown throws for nearly 300 yards a game and at Navy it was rare for the QB to throw a pass at all.