re: Worst coaching moves in college football history

quote:

---

Mike Riley going to Nebraska

---

He had hit the end of the road at Oregon State, terrible funding, they were getting stomped by Oregon, he got out of that shitty situation and somehow landed at NEBRASKA. Again, yall are putting up situations where a coach jumped to a much better job"

quote:

---

Probably more indicative of something going on in Wisconsin than poor moves by coaches

---

On the side of Gary Andersen, the cultural fit was never there. He, explicitly, left because of Wisconsin admissions. Dude couldn't get JUCO or high-risk academic kids into school. The most-notable was Jordan Stevenson, a four-star RB that committed under Andersen and, when Paul Chryst arrived, was denied admission. He ended up at Nebraska, but no-longer with their program.

Wisconsin is one of the few programs that requires more core credits than other universities. Kids must move through NCAA clearinghouse and University admissions. Though University admissions relaxes criteria, it's more-difficult than some would imagine.

In all, Gary Andersen was a coach that was never accepted by Madison, and vice-versa. He needed to get back to the west coast, which is where he is today.

Bret Bielema is a bit more-complex. Not only did he feel he could win Championships in the SEC, which is valid, but not at Arkansas, but the bigger issue was assistant pay at Wisconsin. For the most part, this has been rectified since those times - Jim Leonhard made near $1M last season, for example.

The aforementioned have their own set of values when building a program. If you follow that, sure... something is "going on in Wisconsin." When looking at this at a micro-level, though, they were poor coaching decisions.

That said, thank the fricking Lord that Andersen left. Having Paul Chryst back home is a Godsend.

Kansas firing Mangino was a death sentence for the program.

Sure, he’s a prick. He chewed kids out, and allegedly flossed his arse with a towel after shitting and made grad assts dispose of them.

But he won, and damn near took Kansas to the fricking National Championship Game.

ETA: not a dumb move by the coach, but a wtf by admin.

He had more than 1 good year at Louisville. Regardless he had it made here. Fans loved him, overwhelming support from the AD, paid very very well and moving into the ACC. He was coming off back to back bowl wins over Florida and Miami. Yes I understand the allure of Texas, but he had it pretty damn good here.

Arkansas was just a season removed from finishing #5 in the country before Bielema got there, so in retrospect the move looked a lot better than it does now. Hell the John L. Smith year there were some analysts picking us as a darkhorse national title contender

Doesn’t look like the right move now but at the time he left for better pay and better recruiting (which he got on paper, but also faced better competition in the SEC). And he leveraged a big buyout into a cushy NFL job.

quote:

---

Brock Berlin

---

Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a very long time

Bielema just needed to try to make it on his own with a new wife. I am sure that had as much to do with it as anything.

Worst coaching hire was Wisconsin taking Don Morton in 1987. He tried to run the veer option at UW by taking 3rd tier Texas recruits. 6 wins in 3 years and his last game at Camp Randall was the definition of social distancing as only about 20k were there.

Enter Barry Alvarez. And now over the last 25 years plus only a couple of programs have won more often than Bucky.

quote:

---

Butch Davis to Cleveland in 2001.

---

+1. Miami could've been a dynasty with butch. They probably win at least 2 more titles if he stays.

Nebraska hiring Bill Callahan