Grading the hires on college football's coaching carousel

Dan Wolken | USA TODAY Sports

This did not turn into the wild year of coaching changes many predicted. Though a number of attractive jobs were open, there was surprisingly little domino effect as Southern Cal stayed in-house, Miami hired an out-of-work coach and Georgia hired an assistant.

For now, BYU's hiring of Oregon State defensive coordinator Kalani Sitake brings the coaching carousel largely to a close. Barring a surprise post-bowl game firing or an NFL team swooping in and hiring out of the college ranks, no more big jobs will open this cycle.

Here is how we ranked the hires in the top six leagues, including the American Athletic Conference where the pay scale has risen to near Power Five levels.

A-plus

Virginia Tech — Justin Fuente

From the fit to the way athletics director Whit Babcock conducted the search, this was arguably the smoothest coaching transaction of the year.

Not only did Babcock move quickly and authoritatively to secure his guy before other coaching dominoes could fall, but he also brokered a meeting between Fuente and longtime defensive coordinator Bud Foster before the deal got done to gauge whether they could work together.

The possibility of Fuente's offense producing like it did at Memphis, which won 19 games the last two seasons, combined with Foster's defense is a scary thought for the rest of the ACC.

A

Miami — Mark Richt

If there are any reservations about this marriage, it's whether Richt's calming persona and spiritual nature will mesh with the culture Miami fans and its former players want to foster.

But Richt is an alum, which counts for something, and you get the sense he will be re-energized by a change of scenery and the challenge of proving Georgia shouldn't have fired him in the first place. Bottom line: He is the best combination of coach and recruiter Miami has had in a long time, maybe since Jimmy Johnson.

Iowa State — Matt Campbell

Maybe Campbell could have gotten a quote-unquote "better" job than Iowa State after his success at Toledo. And Campbell, 36, is definitely taking a risk by jumping to a job where it's historically difficult to win.

But Ames is the kind of place where Campbell's personality and approach, rooted in Midwestern values, may work. Athletics director Jamie Pollard did an excellent job establishing a personal connection with Campbell and recruiting him to take the job before other schools could get involved.

B-plus

Virginia — Bronco Mendenhall

Whether it was the lack of a conference affiliation or the recruiting restrictions at BYU, you could sense the past couple years Mendenhall might be wiling to jump for the right situation. After 11 mostly successful seasons in Provo, Mendenhall knew it was time for a change.

Kudos to athletics director Craig Littlepage for picking up on that vibe and landing Mendenhall, who has a 99-42 career record, in a very under-the-radar search. It will be interesting to see Bronco 2.0 in a new environment without the roadblocks of BYU's very particular culture. Mendenhall has been willing to evolve in his offensive approach over the years, and his defense has always been hard-nosed and physical.

Syracuse — Dino Babers

This is about as well as Syracuse could have done. The Baylor offensive system, which Babers learned as an assistant from 2008-2011 under Art Briles, is starting to put up big numbers in lots of places and conferences and now comes to the ACC after an 18-9 run at Bowling Green over the last two seasons.

Babers, 54, waited a long time to get his shot as a head coach in 2012 at Eastern Illinois. It has been a quick rise since then to a Power 5-level job, but this feels like a very good move for a football program that really lacked an identity. It has one now.

Tulane — Willie Fritz

This was a savvy hire by new athletics director Troy Dannen, who got the job a little more than a week earlier.

Fritz will give Tulane a chance in the American Athletic Conference because he is an offensive innovator and, at 55, has been around the block a bit. In his last two jobs he went 40-15 at Sam Houston State and 17-7 at Georgia Southern, which was making the transition from FCS to FBS.

Memphis — Mike Norvell

The former Arizona State offensive coordinator checks every box for continuing Memphis' run of success under Fuente.

Norvell, 34, has been a hot name in recent years but wasn't brought up as much in this cycle because Arizona State had a disappointing season at 6-6. Still, his up-tempo offense has been highly productive, he's a terrific recruiter and he has ties to the region from which Memphis recruits.

B

Missouri — Barry Odom

The situation at Missouri is unique at the moment. The football team going on strike in a protest tied to the bubbling racial tensions on campus had reverberations in this search. Combined with the idea of replacing Gary Pinkel, who raised the bar at Missouri to unrealistic heights, a number of coaches didn't want to touch Missouri right now.

Given those factors, it was smart to settle on Odom, 39, who played at the school and did a terrific job as defensive coordinator last season.

Maryland — D.J. Durkin

Pretty much everyone in the industry who has met Durkin, 37, is impressed with him. Maryland might have lucked into a really good hire.

But the coaching search was a scattershot mess, and surely Maryland fans didn't envision firing Randy Edsall and ending up with Michigan's defensive coordinator.

Maryland is a classic example of a school that didn't have a realistic view of itself going into the process. No amount of Under Armour founder Kevin Plank's money was going to convince a high-profile coach to come to the same division Urban Meyer, Jim Harbaugh, Mark Dantonio and James Franklin.

UCF — Scott Frost

It will be interesting to watch whether Frost can successfully import the Oregon system to Central Florida the way former Baylor assistants have done at Tulsa and Bowling Green.

Frost, 40, was blessed with Marcus Mariota in his first two years as offensive coordinator, and it's still a bit of a mystery how much of that success you can ascribe to him as a playcaller. But give UCF credit for knowing what it wanted and securing a coach a number of other schools had wanted.

B-minus

Georgia — Kirby Smart

If being a former Nick Saban assistant was an automatic path to head coaching success, Derek Dooley would still be at Tennessee and Will Muschamp would still be at Florida.

Smart, who turns 40 next week, waited patiently for a head coaching gig and landed the opportunity of a lifetime at his alma mater. Maybe it will work out. But it's a big roll of the dice for Georgia, especially when it fired a successful coach in Richt and didn't even conduct a legitimate search, honing in on Smart from the get-go.

USC — Clay Helton

Nothing against Helton, who may do a good job, but USC's "search" was a joke and continued the insular ways of the Trojans' athletic department. Given that the last successful USC football coach had no previous ties to the school — that, of course, would be Pete Carroll — you'd think this time the Trojans' brass would have done whatever it took to get a proven winner.

Helton is a good guy who did a competent job as interim coach this season and has no personal baggage, which may be enough to win at USC. But to win a national title? That seems like a stretch for a guy who just six years ago was the offensive coordinator on Tommy West's Memphis staff that got fired.

Rutgers — Chris Ash

The former Ohio State defensive coordinator is accomplished, well-regarded and organized, but this is a tough job, especially for someone without significant ties to the region. If Ash and his staff can tap into New Jersey's underrated recruiting base, he has a shot to win.

The other wildcard here is Rutgers' famously inept administration. Julie Hermann is out, which should help, but new athletics director Patrick Hobbs, a former Seton Hall law school dean, has never worked in athletics in any capacity.

Minnesota — Tracy Claeys

With no permanent athletics director in place, Minnesota took the easiest and probably most sensible path in promoting Claeys to replace Jerry Kill, who retired for health reasons. Claeys served as acting head coach several times over the years when Kill had to miss games due to his epilepsy, so Minnesota kind of knows what it's getting.

This was a pure continuity hire, but there are no guarantees he will work out as well as Kill.

East Carolina — Scottie Montgomery

This could turn out to be a very good hire because Montgomery is smart, well-regarded and has the right kind of background — working both in the NFL and under Duke's David Cutcliffe — to be a successful college head coach.

The question people have is why get rid of a proven winner in Ruffin McNeill, an ECU alum, to hire a 37-year old who was only an offensive coordinator for two seasons.

C

South Carolina — Will Muschamp

Athletics director Ray Tanner was in a difficult spot. At one point, he thought he had Houston's Tom Herman locked up. Then he was going to hire Kirby Smart until Georgia opened. Still, Tanner had a two-month head start on this search after Steve Spurrier's retirement and ended up with an SEC retread in Muschamp.

In a division trending toward defensive-minded hires, Tanner should have gone for an offensive guy like Western Kentucky's Jeff Brohm or Arkansas State's Blake Anderson, but Muschamp's reputation still carries a lot of weight in SEC circles. We'll see if he is any better the second time around.

BYU — Kalani Sitake

The Cougars were working from a very limited pool because of school requirements that the head coach be an active member of the Mormon faith. Navy's Ken Niumatalolo would have been a home run, but once he turned BYU down, the options were much less attractive for athletics director Tom Holmoe.

Sitake, a BYU alum, did a great job as Utah's defensive coordinator between 2008-2014 before going to Oregon State with Gary Andersen last season. Whether that translates into head coaching success, particularly at a high-profile job like BYU, is unclear.

F

Illinois — Bill Cubit

The Illini administration had an entire season to figure out what it wanted to do with its coaching search. Instead it punted, elevating Cubit from interim coach on a three-year deal and leaving the big decisions to its next president and athletics director.

All this accomplished was kicking the can down the road and probably putting Illinois in an even deeper hole for the next guy to climb out of.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL COACHING CAROUSEL