One thing Athlon doesn't point out about the AZ State situation is that there's some upheaval going on with the athletic department. The AD there is also on the hot seat, and there's some disagreement on who actually should head up the search for a new coach...though it seems the AD is taking the lead. There is dysfunction there, and I'm sure it will turn off some good coaches from pursuing it. Dysfunction and not the biggest upside doesn't make for an attractive job. Also, despite our academics, we have a slight advantage in recruiting region and historical recruiting.
My rankings would be:
1. Auburn
2. Wisconsin
3. Nebraska
4. GT
5. ASU
6. Colorado
One thing to keep in mind, is the domino effect. I highly doubt GT is a good enough job at the moment to pull a good coach away from another P5 job. But what happens is if Auburn pulls a coach away from another P5 school (say Kiffin at Ole Miss, or Stoops at Kentucky)? Well, that creates another opening that could take a potential GT candidate off the board. Hopefully Batt gets ahead of the coaching musical chair that will happen after the last week of the season.
Agreed. I think GT is in a unique position right now, in that I don’t think we’re really targeting anybody who is getting a ton of attention for the other open P5 jobs. Everybody on the list besides maybe Colorado is too proud to hire Chadwell. BOB
might be of interest to Nebraska as somebody who could just start climbing their way out of the hole they’re in, but probably to not attractive to anybody else. Dell McGee might be of interest to Auburn, but after their fiasco with Harsin I bet they go with somebody much more proven. Garrett Riley and Jeff Lebby seem to have fallen off our boards, but I could definitely see one or both of them going to Colorado and/or ASU. Willie Fritz probably isn’t getting a ton of love.
A few names I could see some of the bigger schools going to battle for would be Deion, Matt Rhule, Luke Fickell, Jeff Traylor, and Mullen.
But other schools poaching existing P5 coaches would put us in a competition.
Another example on top of Auburn would be Wisconsin or Nebraska hiring Leipold from Kansas. I think Kansas would go after Chadwell
hard in that scenario.
If Hugh Freeze gets hired by somebody with a vacancy, the Liberty job is open. They pay good money too. Freeze is making $5M there, and they’d probably match that for somebody new to come in.
Some other P5 jobs that may become open within the next couple of weeks: Northwestern, Stanford, Cal, West Virginia, and Indiana.
What I really hope doesn’t happen is that we have what we think is our next coach locked up, and then they get a better offer from somewhere that opened up late and we have to scramble for backup options.
athlonsports.com
