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Strangest coaching hires
Posted on 11/10/26 at 9:43 am
Posted on 11/10/26 at 9:43 am
Every now and then you see a real head scratcher. What is the strangest hire you can think of?
I’ve got to go with Alabama hiring Bill Curry from Georgia Tech. His only claim to fame before then was beating Bear Bryant in the 1981 season opener when Alabama was ranked #2. It was his only win that season. His best record was the year we made the All American Bowl and finished 9-2-1. The next season he went 5-5-1 and was then hired by Alabama.
I’ve got to go with Alabama hiring Bill Curry from Georgia Tech. His only claim to fame before then was beating Bear Bryant in the 1981 season opener when Alabama was ranked #2. It was his only win that season. His best record was the year we made the All American Bowl and finished 9-2-1. The next season he went 5-5-1 and was then hired by Alabama.
Posted on 11/10/26 at 9:55 am to Ramblin Wreck
Jimbo to A&M. FSU was starting to rumble about potentially firing him when A&M came along and tossed him a $100m life raft.
Posted on 11/10/26 at 10:25 am to Ramblin Wreck
Ellis Johnson at USM. Fedora proved that hiring the young up and coming offensive minded coordinator was the route to go going forward, then he left and USM replaced him with an old LB coach. Made no sense at the time and led to the worst season on their history.
Posted on 11/10/26 at 10:27 am to TheTideMustRoll
quote:
Jimbo to A&M. FSU was starting to rumble about potentially firing him when A&M came along and tossed him a $100m life raft.
Nah, this made sense at the time. If FSU was considering firing him, it was because they knew Jimbo was already looking for an escape route. I still believe there was some legitimacy to him wanting the LSU job.
Heading into his last season at FSU, he had a top-5 team, and was coming off an Orange Bowl win and top-10 finish. However, he was becoming more openly critical of university administration, and claiming the program wasn't keeping up with other major programs.
Everybody laughed at Jimbo at the time, and while he didn't work out at A&M, FSU has been a dumpster fire for much of the last decade, so he might've been right.
Posted on 11/10/26 at 10:47 am to Ramblin Wreck
Chad Morris hired by Arkansas after three seasons at SMU going 2-10, 5-7, 7-5. How was going .500 the American Conference a suggestion he could elevate Arkansas in the SEC?
Posted on 11/10/26 at 10:49 am to nvasil1
quote:
Heading into his last season at FSU, he had a top-5 team, and was coming off an Orange Bowl win and top-10 finish
We went 10-3 in 2016 but it was a mirage. We lost by 40 to Louisville and the team was already giving up on Jimbo. Those teams were stacked with talent and after Deondre Francois went down against Bama in 2017 that was the final nail in the coffin and Jimbo started looking for a way out. All the bitching about facilities and money but he was still bringing in top 5 recruiting classes so he had no one to blame but himself for the implosion of 2017. His notebook offense sucked and his refusal to fire guys like Charles Kelly at DC squandered all the talent he recruited
Posted on 11/10/26 at 10:51 am to Ramblin Wreck
Why would anyone down vote my opinion that Bama hiring Curry was a strange decision? One of the top programs of all time hiring a 5-5-1 coach doesn’t seem weird?
Posted on 11/10/26 at 11:31 am to nvasil1
quote:
If FSU was considering firing him
They weren't, but we were grumbling because he wouldn't change up the coaching staff and his offense
Posted on 11/10/26 at 11:40 am to Ramblin Wreck
Derek Dooley to Tennessee after 17-20 at LaTech is up there.
Posted on 11/10/26 at 11:45 am to Ramblin Wreck
Willie Taggert at Oregon and then a year later, Willie Taggert at FSU.
Posted on 11/10/26 at 12:07 pm to Ramblin Wreck
Notre Dame hiring Gerry Faust
Posted on 11/10/26 at 12:21 pm to Ramblin Wreck
BK at LSU. Reputation ever not winning the big game. Pretty universally unliked, and 60 years old when they hired him.
It made no sense to me when they did it and worked out even worse than I expected. Just such a weird fit
It made no sense to me when they did it and worked out even worse than I expected. Just such a weird fit
Posted on 11/10/26 at 12:27 pm to Ramblin Wreck
Tulane settling for Will Hall after being near the top of the G5/G6 for the past few years
Posted on 11/10/26 at 12:29 pm to TheTideMustRoll
quote:
Jimbo to A&M. FSU was starting to rumble about potentially firing him when A&M came along
No, FSU was trying to poor-boy their athletic department, and Jimbo wanted to move to a better-run one. If public support for Les Miles had not happened, his next stop would have been LSU.
Posted on 11/10/26 at 12:34 pm to Mingo Was His NameO
quote:
BK at LSU. Reputation ever not winning the big game. Pretty universally unliked, and 60 years old when they hired him
LSU had tanked under O and was nowhere close to a potential playoff team, let alone CFP team.
BK had led ND to the CFP 2 of the prior 3 seasons and had his team with an outside shot to make it again the year he was hired by LSU. Considering no one was going to pull away guys like Smart, Saban, Harbaugh, Kelly and Lincoln Riley were the most accomplished coaches who would consider leaving their current schools. Without the benefit of hindsight it is hard to say at the time LSU could have gotten a more accomplished coach.
The thought on BK was that he was a good HC who just couldn't get over the SEC hump in the CFP due to the admission restrictions at ND. So he and LSU felt that with the looser admissions restricts, regionally fertile recruiting landscape, that would be enough to put him over the hump for a NC
The problem is the college football world was changing at that time, and BK wasn't as willing to adapt as quickly as others.
Posted on 11/10/26 at 12:44 pm to HoustonTigerNKaty
quote:
Derek Dooley to Tennessee after 17-20 at LaTech is up there.
Jimmy Sexton, aka multimillionaire Jimmy Sexton, had delivered Kiffin, and then Dooley. How did he do this? Tennessee's AD was a bean counter and also had Sexton as his manager and svengali.
From TN, the AD went to Nashville where he had a charity digging wells in Africa. (Did Sexton arrange that, too?)
Posted on 11/10/26 at 2:14 pm to John Casey
quote:
Willie Taggert at Oregon and then a year later, Willie Taggert at FSU.
Honestly, I think this is the real answer. It's like Taggert had some kind of favors from up on high to get these gigs. Especially, getting the FSU job after Oregon.
Posted on 11/10/26 at 2:17 pm to Ramblin Wreck
quote:
I’ve got to go with Alabama hiring Bill Curry from Georgia Tech. His only claim to fame before then was beating Bear Bryant in the 1981 season opener when Alabama was ranked #2
And to make it even stranger, the only other candidate for the job in Tuscaloosa was Bobby Bowden.
Bowden thought the "interview" was just a formality and was unprepared, and somewhat insulted, that they expected him to submit for a full interview with several different people.
Posted on 11/10/26 at 2:21 pm to Ramblin Wreck
Boom at USCe after failing at UF. If you can't win at UF, maybe you need to look at alternatives.
Zook at UF seemed like a very underwhelming hire.
Not a troll at Arky. I only follow CFB at a distance nowadays and not sure why I'm posting in this thread but I have no idea how they keep hiring flops. They have resources, fan support, and used to be a really strong program.
Arnsparger was a strange coaching hire at LSU after '83. But it worked.
Zook at UF seemed like a very underwhelming hire.
Not a troll at Arky. I only follow CFB at a distance nowadays and not sure why I'm posting in this thread but I have no idea how they keep hiring flops. They have resources, fan support, and used to be a really strong program.
Arnsparger was a strange coaching hire at LSU after '83. But it worked.
This post was edited on 11/10/26 at 5:56 pm
Posted on 11/10/26 at 2:33 pm to Ramblin Wreck
Tulane hiring Will Hall last offseason
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