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The end of the regular season is upon us and the coaching carousel is kicking into high gear so Rivals national recruiting director Adam Gorney looks at the hot – and not – coaches among the Power Five conferences:
ACC
HOT: Jeff Brohm
Louisville has been in about a decade-long drought of double-digit win seasons since Charlie Strong was the coach but Brohm is back in town and has the Cardinals at 10-1 heading into its rivalry matchup against Kentucky this weekend.
The shocking part is that Louisville should be 11-0 if not for a crazy stumble at woeful Pittsburgh earlier this season. But Brohm has had a phenomenal first season back at Louisville and things should only look up from here. The Cardinals face Florida State in the ACC Championship Game no matter what happens against Kentucky and that should only help recruiting as the Cardinals are No. 12 in the ACC team rankings right now.
*****
NOT: Pat Narduzzi
It’s been a forgettable season for Pitt as the Panthers sit at 3-8 and close out the season against Duke this weekend. Things got ugly for Narduzzi after a blowout loss to Notre Dame when he said that Pitt lost a lot of good players from last season and he thought they replaced them but apparently they had not. There was some public relations that needed to be done after that but it’s just been a bad season for the Panthers.
Pitt hasn’t had a losing season since 2017. Win or lose against the Blue Devils, this will be the worst season for the Panthers since going 2-9 in 1998.
BIG 12
HOT: Steve Sarkisian
There have been some close calls and leads blown along the way but Texas is 10-1 and should be in line for its best season since Mack Brown took the Longhorns to the national title game in 2009. A win against Texas Tech solidifies the Longhorns’ spot in the conference title game but the Big 12 released that formula over the weekend and it looked like something out of the movie A Beautiful Mind.
Either way, Sarkisian has done a phenomenal job with this club and even with some heart-wrenching leads lost, Texas has come back to win almost all those games. Of course, it was rival Oklahoma that beat the Longhorns and stopped a guaranteed spot in the College Football Playoff but that is still not out of the question.
*****
NOT: Dave Aranda
Two short seasons ago, Baylor went 12-2, won the Big 12 championship in a thriller and won the Sugar Bowl. Wow, how things changed quickly. After last season’s 6-7 season, Aranda promised to hold players more accountable, that lessons were learned and the whole bit. Well, Baylor is worse this year at 3-8 with wins over Long Island, a miracle comeback over UCF and a bad Cincinnati team.
Baylor has lost four straight and five of its last six, all by double digits except in a home loss to Houston. Aranda has a different approach, a Zen-like attitude, and one wonders if anyone is really even listening to him any longer.
BIG TEN
HOT: Ryan Day
Day has won 90 percent of his games at Ohio State – and he’s topped that so far this season at 11-0 heading into the all-important Michigan game, which the Buckeyes have lost two straight for the first time since 1999-2000.
Day’s record in the Big Ten is even better as Ohio State’s coach is winning a mind-boggling 95 percent of his conference games and is 38-2 overall now in his fifth season. Those numbers are nearly mirror images of Urban Meyer’s success in Columbus although Meyer delivered a national title and Day hasn’t done that yet.
Still, he’s one of the best coaches in America and Ohio State has the second-best recruiting class in the country heading into college football’s biggest game of the year against the Wolverines on Saturday.
*****
NOT: Jim Harbaugh
There’s no question Harbaugh can coach, he’s turned Michigan into one of the nation’s top programs and the Wolverines are an amazing 36-3 in their last 39 games spanning three seasons.
But Harbaugh is also on his second three-game suspension of this season alone, the NCAA is still investigating Michigan for its sign-stealing operation and whether it had integrity-of-the-game consequences and there are also some reports that Harbaugh’s suspension could bleed into the 2024 season.
Michigan has defended Harbaugh to this point and Harbaugh denies any wrongdoing. Many outside of Ann Arbor, though, still have serious questions.
PAC-12
HOT: Kalen DeBoer
Washington is not only playing great football with a shot at the College Football Playoff but the Huskies have a real chance of having their best two-year run in program history dating back to 1916.
That’s right. Only twice in program history have the Huskies won 22 games over two seasons and Washington is already there going 11-2 last season and it’s 11-0 heading into the Apple Cup this weekend then the Pac-12 championship game and then whatever is after that.
From Sioux Falls to Fresno State and now Washington, DeBoer is a total winner going 101-11 in his head coaching career. That’s a 90 percent winning clip.
*****
NOT: Deion Sanders
After getting blown out by Washington State last week, Sanders said this was the toughest stretch of his life. Colorado, the darling of college football after winning its first three games over TCU, Nebraska and Colorado State, have won only one game since Sept. 16. The Buffaloes have lost seven of their last eight, quarterback Shedeur Sanders is beaten up and the offensive line would fall over in a stiff wind. And Colorado finishes at Utah this weekend.
Plus, recruiting has not been very active so Sanders might be thinking about another transfer portal overhaul. The Buffaloes have only nine commitments, are second-to-last in the Pac-12 team rankings and they’re No. 70 nationally between Cal and Miami (Ohio).
SEC
HOT: Eli Drinkwitz
Drinkwitz went from preseason hot-watch to arguably the coach of the year – at least in the SEC. Missouri is 9-2 and wraps up the regular season against Arkansas so a 10-win regular season is certainly within reach. The two losses came against LSU and Georgia and the Tigers pounded Tennessee recently and came back in a thriller to beat Florida Saturday night.
Plus, the Tigers landed five-star defensive end Williams Nwaneri (beating Oklahoma for him) and have a ton of momentum heading into the transfer portal window and early signing day. Times haven’t been this good around Columbia since the Gary Pinkel days.
*****
NOT: Billy Napier
It’s been a really rough stretch for Florida. Four-straight losses including an inexcusable one to Arkansas in The Swamp. Now the Gators have to regroup for their rivalry game against Florida State to close out the season. That could be five-straight defeats to close out Napier’s second season and that would mean three-straight losing seasons, the first time that’s happened in Gainesville since 1945-47.
Florida fans are notoriously fickle but losing like this gets under their skin real fast. Plus, Florida has dealt with a string of decommitments from four-stars Jamonta Waller, Nasir Johnson and Wardell Mack in recent weeks. The Gators still have a top-12 class but Napier has to keep the rest together heading to
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