Hardest jobs in college football (M on the list)
The Athletic has a fairly interesting article ($) about which are the hardest jobs in college football based on a poll of "more than 60 people working in college football." Obviously there are different types of difficult, as the results (of Power 5 programs) demonstrate:
- Vanderbilt
- Kansas
- Nebraska
- Texas
- Wash St
- Miami
- Auburn
- Tennessee
- Wake Forest
- Michigan (which had 1 first-place vote):
Being inextricably tied and compared to a power like Ohio State was the most consistent reason Michigan’s name came up. Beat the Buckeyes or it’s not good enough.
“Ohio State has one rival,” a Power 5 assistant said. “Michigan has three. You have to compare yourself to others.”
Any season that doesn’t include a win against Ohio State, a perennial Playoff contender and consistently the most talented team in the Big Ten, isn’t a success.
After Lloyd Carr, neither Rich Rodriguez nor Brady Hoke lasted more than four seasons.
“Leash is short for any non-alum,” one Power 5 assistant said.
They also do Group of 5/Independents, not too much of interest there. EMU was briefly mentioned as an impossible job.
October 14th, 2021 at 1:59 PM ^
lol, texas. there's never been a better setup for a coach in any sport, anywhere. unlimited resources, name recognition, a single rival (lol, texas a&m. a competent texas program would turn a&m into a fine pink mist. oklahoma is the beginning and end of texas' rivals), HUGE local talent base just freaking dying to go to your school.
the reason texas is hard is because they keep fucking it up.
October 14th, 2021 at 2:56 PM ^
This is what I thought about Clemson for years. They're in the middle of a fertile recruiting base, the ACC is theirs for the taking, USC is in a different conference and prone to periods of near-sucktitude, school is not overwhelmingly difficult academically, isolated from anyone interested in playing by the rules, etc. But they always found a way to screw themselves.
October 14th, 2021 at 1:59 PM ^
Is Michigan really that hard of a job? I feel like if Harbaugh were at USC, Bama/Auburn, OSU, UF/FSU or OU/Texas and had the record he does vs the main rival he'd have been fired after year 3 or 4; the fact that Harbaugh isn't really on the hot seat is testament to how *relatively* easy the job is. I
If anything imo. Rodriguez should've gotten a fourth year imo, but I don't think firing him after getting embarrassed by a tier II SEC school after 2 of the worst seasons in Michigan football history was that unreasonable, and Brady Hoke was fired for the Shane Morris fiasco and general incompetence as opposed to his record vs rivals, in fact you'll note his 4 matchups vs OSU were some of the best performances we've had vs OSU in the past 15 years if anything.
October 14th, 2021 at 5:59 PM ^
Harbaugh is given a lot of leeway because he’s a former U-M player and alum. It’s pointed out that in the article that the leash isn’t very long if you’re not an alum.
October 14th, 2021 at 7:50 PM ^
I think it is more than just Harbaugh being an alum. Harbaugh had a significant track record of success at Stanford and SF 49ers. It's rare that you get a successful NFL coach to come back to college; that's why it was such a big story when it happened. I think resume has as much to do with it as does his alum status. Brady Hoke is almost like a Michigan football alum given his connections and history with the Michigan football program, and that maybe bought him one more year.
I also think the decade prior to Harbaugh is a factor as well. Michigan went through one of the worst decades in history prior to Harbaugh. Getting Michigan back to a top-15 program happened faster than I think almost anyone expected, and I don't think we are far enough removed from the Rodriguez-Hoke years as a program to throw him out if he can keep Michigan in the top 15 and near the top of the Big Ten.
October 14th, 2021 at 2:06 PM ^
They also do Group of 5/Independents, not too much of interest there. EMU was briefly mentioned as an impossible job."
I guess if there was an institution whose football team I genuinely felt bad for, it would be Eastern Michigan's. It's a commuter school, which isn't a recruiting killer by itself (there are examples of such school having successful football and basketball programs), but it is only six miles from Michigan's Central Campus, about a 70-minute drive from MSU, and within a couple hours radius of MAC programs with far better success, relatively speaking.
If you were being recruited widely, even just within the MAC, I very much doubt EMU would be at the top of your list but for sheer convenience, if that was the overriding concern. I could be wrong, of course, and to be fair, Eastern has some great programs, but if the idea was to play football....well....
October 14th, 2021 at 5:25 PM ^
Eastern's tough, especially in terms of fan support - never gonna happen being down the street from UM.
OTOH, it can't be easy to lure kids to Normal, Illinois (or Muncie, or Athens, or Akron for that matter). At least Ypsi is in a large metro area.
October 14th, 2021 at 6:27 PM ^
Bloomington-Normal is an island in the middle of Illinois, but it’s not too far of a drive from the West suburbs of Chicago. Not much in terms of population to the East and West with Champagne as the next “big” city to the south. I drove through central IL for a decade in my early sales years.
October 14th, 2021 at 2:09 PM ^
There is absolutely no way the Michigan job is the "hardest". We have unlimited resources, the biggest fan base in the country, and national cache for recruiting. We are constantly at the top of the list for best uniforms/helmets and stadium. We get 100,000+ plus to every (non-Covid) game.
Michigan is tough--there are unrealistic expectations, academic limitations, and you have to deal with Ohio State. It clearly is far from the easiest. But out of every 1-A head coach in the country, if you offered them 7 million a year to be the coach here, how many would jump at it with very few reservations? I bet that number is at least around 70%.
October 14th, 2021 at 2:57 PM ^
A hard job can still be a good job. I don't think the authors are saying these are all bad jobs. I think they are saying that these jobs are hard from the angle of the level of difficulty to achieve a level of success that meets the expectation of the fanbase and institution.
October 14th, 2021 at 2:12 PM ^
I'm really surprised that Vandy is at the top of the list. Sure its a top academic institution, but there is no expectation to win and they are in the SEC afterall.......even our buddy Franklin showed you can win there.....
October 14th, 2021 at 5:08 PM ^
Franklin's the only coach who's had any success at Vandy.
Vandy is basically Northwestern of SEC - smallish, somewhat out of place private school competing against football-crazy public schools.
Unfortunately for them, the job is even tougher because SEC standards are lower and corruption higher than B1G, while Vandy/NW standards are probably similar.
Franklin has 2 of Vandy's 7 winning seasons since 1960. Yikes.
And lest you think he made them a powerhouse, they were 11-13 in SEC during his tenure (best SEC record 5-3). He did an incredible job there to make them an ok team.
October 14th, 2021 at 2:22 PM ^
Michigan is one of the tougher blue blood jobs right now but pretty much only because Ohio State is a juggernaut. If OSU was at PSU and Wisconsin's level where we were going about .500 vs. them we would've won the conference a few times under Harbaugh and probably made the playoff a few times. The huge weight of high expectations exacerbates the issue
Otherwise the history and ease of recruiting here should make this a somewhat easy job. If you're any kind of decent recruiter, 8-4/9-3 should really be your floor here
October 14th, 2021 at 2:24 PM ^
Texas?
Endless resources in a state overflowing with talent. I'll never get anyone calling that a hard job. You could add two more A&M-level programs to the state and it still shouldn't be a hard job.
Maybe on the front that they take academics somewhat seriously but not even then because this is the same program that bragged about a team average 2.0 GPA a few years back.
They'll accept transfers, they have oil money, in Texas talent pool, will to win, etc. Not a hard job.
October 14th, 2021 at 5:14 PM ^
I agree with this, WayOfTheRoad.
It's kind of amazing Texas isn't more successful more often. They typically get their pick of TX recruits, much like USC usually gets SoCal's best. Huge baked-in advantage.
That said, the job just got tougher with the impending move to SEC.
October 14th, 2021 at 2:34 PM ^
Michigan's third rival is literally every Big Ten team not named Michigan State or Ohio State.
October 14th, 2021 at 2:57 PM ^
The hardest jobs list should relate to the perennial Top 10 to 15 ranked teams because the bar is set so high. After the Top 4 elites, the HC job gets a bit harder because those schools are in the chase pack to the elite playoff schools.
Michigan is among the chase pack and the bar is set more by OH State success than our own. No doubt that after Lloyd Carr retired, the HC position at Michigan has been ore difficult. JH kept is job by a thread this year. I wish him all the best and he's off to a good start in these first 6 games.
Look at the LSU program, a very hot seat, there. The Wisc HC job is fast becoming a hot seat.
The Iowa HC job is not a hot seat position so there are exceptions to rule.
October 14th, 2021 at 4:51 PM ^
Couple of thoughts:
1. IMO ND is absolutely our "third" rival. Ancient history with them, all-time wins/percentage battle, and never-ending recruiting battles. We're close geographically and go after the same kids, again and again. The fact we currently don't play them every year does not (at least in my mind) eliminate them as a rival. My mood can always be improved by thinking about our beatdown of them last time we played.
2 For me, a perfect football weekend: Michigan wins, aOSU and ND lose. There aren't many of these, sadly. Don't care if Sparty wins or loses.
3. For most of my life, MSU wasn't really a rival - we were certainly THEIR rival, but they barely registered. That's obviously changed over the last 20 years.
4. I think the list is pretty accurate. Michigan is not an easy job: a)expectations are very high, b) schedule is consistently difficult (and back-loaded every year), c) lots of competition for recruits in an average area for talent, and d)we have standards for academics/class attendance/behavior that are somewhat higher than many other schools. OTOH, we have the advantages of tons of national exposure, an established brand, lots of money, incredible alumni network and huge fan base.
5. Tough jobs: I wouldn't want to be Saban's successor at Alabama - only one direction to go. ND is much like Michigan - lots of history/fans/money, but high standards and lots of recruiting competition. Nebraska seems really tough - high expectations and no recruiting base. Other than those, schools without prominent history located in backwaters would be really tough - K State, Oregon St, Washington St, Iowa St come to mind,
6 Good jobs: IMO, USC would be a great job. A great recruiter could make them a powerhouse again in 2-3 years. Washington seems like a good potential situation - good school, nice campus/stadium, vibrant city, good history and tradition. FSU/Miami - hard to understand why both aren't more successful. Tennessee should be better than they are, and expectations have got to be more reasonable after years of ineptitude.
October 14th, 2021 at 6:48 PM ^
1. But with Notre Dame off the schedule, they don't directly affect the success of a Michigan coach anymore the way OSU, MSU, and PSU do with actual wins and losses. They may cross paths on the recruiting trail, but there isn't the same effect of on-field head-to-head comparison.
6. FSU and Miami don't have the money compared to other traditional football powers. The gaps between the SEC/Big Ten and the other conferences are growing wider. Miami is a private school with no on-campus stadium. FSU's athletic department has been in financial trouble. Those jobs are in Florida and have some recent history of success, but the trend line for them is not in the positive direction. MSU and Rutgers, for example, opened their wallets to hire Mel Tucker and Greg Schiano to keep pace in the Big Ten East, giving them packages that beat or are comparable to the ones FSU and Miami can offer right now. That's a bit of a problem when programs like MSU and Rutgers can outspend you.
Check out the database for head coach pay USA Today published today:
October 15th, 2021 at 4:04 AM ^
It's a good point about B1G/SEC $$$ - but Norvell at FSU makes about what Schiano does and I'd be surprised if a private school like Miami couldn't afford to pay big bucks if they wanted to. Stanford doesn't draw many fans, but they pay Shaw a ton because they can.
FSU was paying Jimbo Fisher almost $6M/year - I'm not sure they're all that cash-poor. A&M basically offered him a blank check, and it seemed like FSU didn't fight too hard to keep him -seemed like it was time for him to move on.
I admittedly know nothing about the finances of Florida universities, but if Miami and FSU are in financial trouble it's recent. And heck, if MSU can fling big bucks at Tucker after the Nasser debacle, I'd be surprised if FSU and Miami couldn't come up with some scratch for a coaching hire.
October 15th, 2021 at 9:00 PM ^
FSU has crap facilities. Seriously substandard and unlikely to be improved anytime soon. It’s thought to be a major reason why Jimbo left.
October 14th, 2021 at 5:01 PM ^
I think Michigan is pretty much the hardest job in CFB along with maybe Auburn and Tennessee. Why? Because basically being anything less than a top 5 team in the country is just not cutting it due to who you're comparing yourself against.
Teams like Kansas or Vanderbilt are even easier in comparison because you just need to be an ace recruiter with 'connections' ($$$) and know your Xs and Os and you'll do better than whoever the other current bottom feeders of the conference are, and they'll build you a statue for the 8-5 seasons.
October 14th, 2021 at 5:32 PM ^
Iowa State, Kentucky, Northwestern would all be top 5 if it weren't for their current coaches' success.
October 14th, 2021 at 7:59 PM ^
This is wrong. Iowa State, Kentucky, and Northwestern all allow their coaches multiple years to build without calling for a firing. All of their coaches can up and leave for better jobs if they really wanted to.
Yes, very hard but they are fairly safe for coaches.
October 14th, 2021 at 6:33 PM ^
Fans are quick to want to out you... You can have multiple 10 win seasons and they want to eradicate you. The problem is OSU. Always has been.
October 14th, 2021 at 9:13 PM ^
Michigan absolutely one of the toughest.
October 14th, 2021 at 11:17 PM ^
With all the talent in Texas I just don’t get why they aren’t a top ten team every year and competing for a national championship. Same goes for usc. The advantage those schools have is a reason I root against them