The month of December brings the bowls, and also new coaching hires. Many moves are enlightened and have the promise of success, given the immense talent of rising stars in the coaching profession. Some hires involve men who are new to head coaching or who have never achieved at a high level at previous points in their head coaching careers. These are the moves which might work out, but should generally be viewed with a lot more skepticism. For one reason or another, these new coaching hires just don’t offer much hope at first glance. They’re not the moves one should instantly be excited about. Here are the head coaches in the most conspicuous positions to fail at the end of the college football coaching carousel:
Ed Orgeron, LSU Tigers
The hope for LSU is that Orgeron’s two coordinators – offensive coordinator Matt Canada and defensive coordinator Dave Aranda – will be able to handle the Xs and Os. Orgeron will try to recruit as well as humanly possible and be the public face of the LSU program. Conceptually, this plan could work, but it is usually the case that the head coach himself has to be able to offer strategic and tactical value to his team in terms of game planning against Alabama and other tough teams in the SEC. Orgeron is going to have a very tough time matching up with Nick Saban. LSU might make this work, but the Tigers probably needed someone who could match wits with Saban, and Orgeron isn’t that guy. Maybe his two hotshot coordinators will be able to make him look good and bring this unusual plan to fruition. However, that normally doesn’t happen. Orgeron is clearly in a position to fail. In some very real ways, the success of his stay at LSU is not centrally under his control. He’s ceded that control to his coordinators.
Luke Fickell, Cincinnati Bearcats
There is uncertainty about Temple’s hire of new coach Geoff Collins in the AAC East, but the division also added Charlie Strong to South Florida. Stepping into this mix is Fickell of Cincinnati, in the same division. Fickell coached the 2011 Ohio State team in the Gator Bowl against Florida. It’s hard to make an overly broad conclusion from just one game, but the fact that Fickell did not do well on that day makes it a little easier to go with the skeptical assessment of this coaching hire. Fickell might recruit well within the state of Ohio and improve Cincinnati’s talent, but whether he can coach that talent remains to be seen. This seems like Cincinnati was in a bit of a tight spot and decided to go with a somewhat familiar name. In the long run, though, it doesn’t seem like it will change the trajectory of this college football program.
Shawn Elliott, Georgia State Panthers
When a coach who went down with the ship at a program — as Elliott did with Steve Spurrier after the legendary coach retired at South Carolina last year –fails to do much of anything in an interim capacity, it is often felt by most of the people in the room that such a coach is not going to make it as a permanent leader of a program. Perhaps more work is needed as an assistant coach and someone who can play an effective supporting role. Elliott is not yet in this position. It is hard to see what this college football team was looking for when they hired Elliott.
Jay Norvell, Nevada Wolfpack
This is a man who has been in the coaching business for many decades, and yet has failed to land major head coaching jobs. Norvell was with Charlie Strong at the start of the 2015 season at Texas. He was offensive coordinator for a period of time. However, that involvement did nothing for the Longhorns’ offense, which remained stuck in stagnation and suffered a lack of power. Now Norvell enters the head coaching profession. He is not the most modernized of play callers, and he has a lot of skeptics to confound. He has to build a foundation with recruiting, but he’ll need to demonstrate game-calling signs of progress before too long.
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