re: Who’s made the best hire so far?

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They truly want to compete for national championships with USC, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan State.

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Ain't no way you slipped Michigan State in here again

Definitely Wisconsin. I like Fickell, a lot. It became somewhat clear, through reading up, he was a B1G type guy, so, I'm not sure whether, or not, he was interested in being at Auburn, if they had pursued him...

Nebraska
Wisconsin
Auburn

In that order. And I’m all on board with Freeze. He has won everywhere he has ever coached and only finished with a losing record twice. Had ole miss in ny6 bowls after 3 years when they hadn’t won a single sec game in 2 years before he took over. Hookers aside what he did to get ole miss on probation is now legal. Plus it’s who the richest man in the state wants. The nil$ will flow.

Nevertheless

Nebraska, Wisconsin, Auburn.

Saban thought we were a sleeping giant after that trio. I would not put Nebraska in that category. The thing we have over them is a local recruiting base.

Auburn

Wisky.. No question

Whoever gets Leonhard has an absolute jewel. Put him as a DC for a P5 team for another 3-4 years.

Without a cheating or hooker related bust I'll say Freeze is the most successful.

Not really sold on Fickell being a good enough coach to overcome the issues that have held Wisconsin back for years from taking the next step (money to upgrade facilities and maintain coaches) he does have the benefit of not having to deal with an overly involved AD like other recent coaches.

Fickell sucked his one year as head coach at Ohio State. Obviously he's a lot more experienced now, but a lot of guys have had at Cincinnati and a lot of guys have had success in the AAC and flirted with playoff contention before he finally made it. There have been some very mixed results from a lot of seemingly sure thing prospects in that lot.

I think each school probably made the best school they realistically could have for their program.

My best guess for how it all plays out:

Rhule rebuilds Nebraska to the point where by year 3 they get back to being an 8-9 win a year program.

Fickell does what Wisconsin usually does and wins 8-10 games most years with an occasional bigger year that might mean At Large berth in the new system.

Freeze records at Auburn will be incredibly similar to his Record at Ole Miss / Gus Malzahns record at Auburn.

So basically they all end up with similar results.

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He made Temple into a good team, which is very difficult. Baylor was also an impressive turnaround for a roster that had to be rebuilt coming off of their scandals. Rhule is just a perfect choice to get that program back on track.

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I don't mean to downplay Rhule's accomplishments, but Temple wasn't in terrible shape when he took over.

They were two years removed from a streak of winning seasons under Golden and Addazio. They only took a step back when Temple jumped from the MAC to the Big East for one year, when it was still a BCS conference.

He did an awesome job turning around Baylor, but aside from the oft-mentioned record against ranked opponents, he also jumped to the NFL as soon as he had a great year, so we haven't seen him sustain success anywhere yet.

Not that long ago, Willie Taggart was considered a rising star in coaching after quickly rebuilding WKU and USF. Scott Frost was treated like a demigod based on one great year at UCF. We obviously saw how they worked out at big jobs.

Now I believe Rhule is a better coach than either Taggart or Frost. I'm just saying, I don't know if he's the home run hire a lot of people think he is.