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Cover 3 College Football
Full Coaching Carousel Breakdown By Conference + Superlatives | Cover 3 on CBSSN
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Foreign.
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And welcome Back to the COVID 3 podcast here on CBS Sports Network. That's Tom Fornelli. That's Bud Elliott. I'm Chip Patterson. We are fired up to spend a little bit of time with you. Not necessarily going through our brackets. No, there will be time for that by the time the College Football Playoff comes around. No, we are going to spend the next hour breaking down what we seen so far in the coaching carousel. Now, at the risk of jinxing it, which we've done in years past, we're not going to say put a bow on it. We are not going to say the coaching carousel is done spinning because there is still time in an NFL coaching carousel which could impact things. But this is a nice chance to.
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Take our breath and look at some of the changes that there have been. We're going to go conference by conference, Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Big 12, and then before we get out of here, do a little bit of superlative. So let's dive into the coaching changes that we have seen in the Big Ten. And of course we are going to start with the job that was open for 54 days. Penn State made a move on James Franklin after a couple of head scratching losses. And then they began a search that went on and on and on. Lot of candidates connected to this job, but ultimately it goes to Matt Campbell. So as we look at how we got here and what it means for Penn State moving forward tomorrow, you, as I've given you credit for, already called Matt Campbell a candidate that you thought would be a good hire. Took them a while to get there, but they landed it. So what do you see about Matt Campbell in terms of being the next leader of the Penn State football program?
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C
Well, well, first of all, hold on, let me, let me get my Matt Campbell hat bill going here so that way we could discuss it. I listen, yeah, I thought this was a great hire. I thought the process was awful. Clearly that it took this long to go through it and they were.
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Down as many times as they were where we thought, you know, BYU's Galani Sataki was going to end up taking it and then the cookie man got involved and kept him at byu. But I do think that sometimes bad process can lead to a good result. And I think that is what happened here with Penn State. The reason I mentioned Matt Campbell as a candidate for the job and my, my top candidate for the job when it first opened was simply because I do think that it is a good fit for what Penn State is looking for and what Penn State needs. Matt Campbell if you look at what he's done at Iowa State, he's been the most successful. And that is not a program that has a whole lot of success or has had an easy time of winning football games, but he's done as good a job of it as anybody with the Cyclones. And I think if you look at how he does it, where it's, you know, developing talent, identifying the talent and then, you know, producing NFL talent out of it. And then also we've seen him go through coordinators on the offensive and defensive side of the ball, guys have left that program to go elsewhere, and he's been able to replace them and keep things going in the same direction without really skipping a beat. That's what you need, that's what you should be looking for for somebody who's going to be running a high profile program. Because if Penn State's winning, other schools are going to poach your coaches. They're going to want them, they're going to want a taste of your success. And I think that Matt Campbell has proven he can replace those guys. So I think when you look at it all, there's a lot of stuff to like. Of course, the situation also points out that he hasn't been at a job with the expectations that Penn State has. It's one thing to punch above your weight, it's another to be one of the heavyweights fighting in that class and beating other heavyweights. We do not know if he can do that just. But just based on everything that he's been able to do in Ames, I'm confident that he's as qualified to do it as anybody else.
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A
I mean, I, I completely agree with that. I think if you look at Matt Campbell, like coaching wise, organizationally, program wise, fantastic, like player development, great player id, excellent. Also like a pretty good identifier of coaching talent as well. If you look at kind of how his tree has started to spread out. The only question I have about Matt Campbell at Penn State is how do you relate to the five star kids? How do you relate to the guys who sometimes are kind of a diva, right? And you can say, oh, we're going to have a culture, we're going to build it from the ground up, like you said in the press conference, all that stuff. But guess what? If you want to win the 13th, 14th and 15th game, you need some of these guys who are really good and who act like they know that they are really good. And it's a different type of player, a different type of personality to coach. So that's my only real question here with Penn State, Matt Campbell, like how does he handle that type of player? Because he hasn't signed any of those at Iowa State. They don't get those type of guys with that level of talent and the attitude that comes with it.
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B
Yeah. And that is our secret. Word of the day, five Star which is a great reminder to watch five Star, the new docu series on Paramount plus which includes our very own Bud Elliott as a contributor. Five Star tracking the path from so many for the recruiting process to college stardom. Watch it on Paramount plus a mountain of entertainment. But I like your point. They yes, sometimes five stars are diva. Sometimes you are going to have to be able to have a little bit of a different recruiting pitch as you start to think about the staff that is going to be assembled and not just like the coaching staff but the support staff around it. Do you think that Penn State as a recruiting operation, which I think was doing a pretty good job already under James Franklin, do you think that they are prepared to be able to carry on some of the, the modernization that Franklin led during his time with that program?
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It's not a no. It's an I don't know. We're going to have to see what kind of, we're going to have to see what kind of support they put around Matt Campbell. Like Matt Campbell is going to need to bring in some guys from other programs who have recruited high level athletes before for because Iowa State did not get those guys, as I said. So interacting with them, understanding that like these guys have agents and handlers and like a just a different like amount of like you know, people around them who's actually calling the shots in this recruitment. So I would expect that Penn State, like we'll probably talk to that Campbell and say, hey, we understand your loyal to your guys. You want to bring your guys obviously from Iowa State, but we do think it's important you bring in some guys who have been at like you know, a Georgia or an Ohio State or like one of these programs that consistently recruits, you know, top eight, top 10 because that's a little bit different way of doing things.
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B
You know, you want to talk about a different profile. Pat Fitzgerald was a long run in a run that I think that you have to say is undeniably was a success, particularly at its peak at Northwestern. Obviously it did not end well. You've got lawsuits, you've got a firing that happened right before the season. It was messy at the end. No other way to put it. But Pat Fitzgerald, he won his lawsuit, and now he's back in the Big Ten, and now he's at Michigan State. Tom, what are going to be the adjustments for Pat Fitzgerald as now he takes on a program that is a public school versus a private school, a much bigger school, one with different academic restrictions and also, I would say, different expectations, because Michigan State, while they have been down bad these last couple of years, this is still a program that wants to be a top half of the Big Ten competitive team. How do you see that Pat Fitzgerald situation coming together? And also, if you could give us any insight into how we got here, because this was among the fastest. Right? It's the reverse Penn State. Penn State took 54 days. I mean, was it even 54 hours? I'm not sure if it was 54 hours. From Jonathan Smith out to Pat Fitzgerald in. What do you make of this? Higher in East Lansing?
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Yeah, this is one of the more polarizing hires, I think, of the cycle. Some people love it, some people are very confused by it. I. I tend to skew more towards the love it side, because as far as the differences between Northwestern and Michigan State that you asked about that ship, it's kind of the same situation that we just discussed with Matt Campbell. Now, Michigan State's not Penn State. They're not routinely at the top of the Big Ten and fighting for College Football Playoff and thinking of themselves as a national title contender.
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But.
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C
But at Northwestern, Pat Fitzgerald was the underdog, punching above his weight. And now at Michigan State, they want to compete with Michigan. They want to compete with that top half of the Big Ten. And I think the one thing he will have to adjust to, and I don't think he's going to have a difficult time adjusting to, is recruiting a different kind of player. Because when you're at Northwestern and with the academic restrictions that they place on their, you know, school and their students, there are a lot of players, and not just the five stars and the four stars who are really not eligible to be playing for your program because they don't have the grades. I think for Pat Fitzgerald, he's going to find a far easier time recruiting because some of the guys that he's wanted to get before at Northwestern that he didn't have access to, he can bring to Michigan State and he could sell the ability to compete towards the top of the Big Ten. So I think that will be an adjustment. But I also do think that he's equipped for it, and I think that he was more coaching for the situation he had, not coaching to a certain situation that he believes in.
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I, I agree with that. Overall, I, I, I look at this and I, I, I do worry about that Fitz has like, can he recapture the magic? And I'm open to the idea that he can. Right. Because he did visit so many other programs out there. I've heard him on various interviews talking about what he learned from visiting guys and like, how there's new ways of doing things and how he's actually excited to embrace an era of nil. But I have a hard time shaking that. Like, I mean, they did, they were terrible in the Big Ten in their final three non Covid seasons. He actually had a great Covid year somehow. But ultimately 2019, 2021, 2022, I'm just going to need a little more convincing on the field, I think, to believe that he still got it because, like, some of those hires he made were really poor when he lost important guys and obviously he's got to hire well there. I just don't know, like, how that's going to work out. We'll see. Maybe he still has it.
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B
Well, we go from a couple of, you know, university profile changes to a coach that has just been on the rise rapidly because you heard at Holy Cross there was a coach named Bob Chesney who is a name to watch, you know, maybe connected to a few jobs there in the Northeast. Ultimately, he lands at James Madison after Kurt Signetti heads off to Indiana and then, whoa, now you're off at ucla. Dagum. Okay, so Bob Chesney's gone from Holy Cross to ucla being in the Big Ten very, very quickly. But for fans who are not aware, what should they know? What is the book on Bob Chesney, in your opinion, and what do you make in terms of the outlook for UCLA football with him at the helm?
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So I think he's a guy who does score a lot of points with whatever offense he chooses to run. They consistently won at Holy Cross. They came in, you know, didn't really miss a beat too much from what Kirsten Eddy was doing there at James Madison, which is pretty impressive, especially when you consider what Signetti has gone on to do at Indiana and some of the players that Signetti took off this James Madison roster. The guy is really like, just a winner, man. I know that sounds crazy, but like, and I know a lot of people have won, obviously at James Madison. I think there's some institutional stuff in that program that allows you to have success, especially as they moved up from the FCS to the fbs. UCLA is a whole nother ball game. I have no idea if he's going to work out at ucla. And I'm not trying to steal Tom's bit about great hire. I know I do works out, like, literally, where's UCLA going to play their football games next year? They in the Rose bowl or are they going to be in Sofi Stadium? Or, like, what kind of money do they have to spend on the roster? What kind of money do they have to spend on coaches and especially assistant coaches? Right. If you, if you pay an analyst 100,000 in Penn State, he's living pretty good. If you pay an analyst 100,000 at UCLA, how far away from your stadium does he have to live to live in a place that he feels safe and feels good and his family is happy? Probably like an hour and 40. Right. So you're going to have to like the spend if you're in a major city like that where the cost of living is so high is so significant. And I do wonder, like, can they get good people aside from just the 11 on the coaching staff? Like, how quality are your analysts? How quality are some of your other assistants, like your assistant offensive line coach and things like that? You know, guys who interact with the players every day and have a real impact on your program?
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C
Yeah, I think that when it comes to the coaching hire side of this, like, there is signal to me to coaches who win at a high level at multiple, you know, different levels, whether it's at the FCS Division 2, like when you're consistently moving up and winning, that tends to bode well for your ability to succeed at your next stop as you continue moving forward. It's just, you might not have the Kurt Signetti where you're suddenly number one in the country competing for national titles, but you could be like a Lance Leipold, where you're taking a Kansas program that was a perennial doormat and now you're competing, at least for bowl games every year. And I think that that is a similar situation to what UCLA is dealing with with Chesney. But as Bud was touching on, there's a lot about this UCLA job that makes it a very difficult place to win that will rely on far more than just, are you a good football coach? Because I do think Bob Chesney is a very good football. As Bud was talking about, there are a whole lot of other parts of this equation that need to be figured out and solved. And maybe with Bob's, you know, his relationships and his ability to win at every other level, maybe he's the guy to solve that puzzle and figure it out and help UCLA get to a place where it gets to, you know, competing in its new conference at the top level because UCLA's first couple seasons in the Big Ten have not gone very well.
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Yeah, and Matt Campbell gets right to work at Penn State. Pat Fitzgerald gets right to work at Michigan State. Bob Chesney still is leading James Madison in the College Football Playoff. He will be out facing Big Ten foe Oregon in the first round matchup with the Duke. So still some work left to be done at JMU for Chesney, though I'm sure that that binder is being filled with lots of ideas and plans for the Bruins as well. Well, coming up on the other side, we turn our attention to a conference that has, yes, a few more of those College Football Playoff impacted coaches and teams. And let's take a look at all the coaching changes in the SEC and more next.
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Back here on the COVID 3 podcast live on CBS Sports Network, taking a look at coaching changes across the country. And now we turn our attention to the sec, where the changes were robust and extremely impactful. Dominoes did fall and yes, plenty of blue bloods are going to have new leaders in 2026, and we must begin at a topic that got plenty of airtime. So I guess the greatest thing that we can do to continue to spin this forward is to know that we've gotten over the shock of, you know, all the drama with Lane Kiffin and Izzy Woney Willie when he now we know what it's going to look like. Now we even know what some of the coaching staff is going to look like. So Bud, for you, what is on the checklist for Lane Kiffin right now at lsu? What has been accomplished that you feel like you are going to understand what the Tigers are going to be and what do you think still needs to be done to give you a better idea of what the Lane Kiffin era will be at Louisiana State University?
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A
Yeah, Chip, so he's already accomplished a lot there, right? They had a couple of kids who had kind of hinted they weren't going to sign on signing day. He ended up saying, hey, like it's time to sign. And they did indeed sign. I don't know like how much LSU up their offer to those guys, but they got the deal done. He's obviously bringing in some, some nice coaches so far. I want to see him continue to fill out this coaching staff and then next he's going to have to find a quarterback in the transfer portal. I don't know who that is. You do have a couple nice options out there, both guys who are already in and then a lot of guys were monitoring who we fully expect to enter there in the coming weeks I think Lane Kiffin will probably have his pick of the quarterback market given his success with that position and the money that LSU is surely going to pay. So getting a quarterback to hit the ground running fast in 2026 is probably thing on my list right now.
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C
Yeah, this is, I think, one of the better hires of the cycle so far. Like, you know, you could say what you want about the way Lane Kiffin went about the situation, and God knows I've said plenty about it. But at the end of the day, as far as just hiring a coach, it's hard to argue with LSU's decision to want to bring in Lane Kiffin, considering what he was able to accomplish at Ole Miss. And kind of like we discussed in the earlier segment with Matt Campbell and Pat Fitzgerald, it's not the same exact situation, but it is somewhat similar in that at Ole Miss, Lane Kiffin was brought in to make the Rebels a top program in the sec, which he did, but there wasn't really like we're going to go win national titles expectations. We're not going to be the one of the top five recruiting classes year in and year out at lsu. There will be. At lsu, you're hired to win national championships. And even if you win national championships, they still might fire you if you have a bad season after winning that national championship. And the biggest question mark to me is Bud touched on there a little bit. Lane Kiffin, when he was at FAU and then especially at Ole Miss, with the advent to the transfer portal, really did an excellent job of building his program via the transfer portal. But as we know, if you want to really compete at the top of this sport, you need to recruit at the high school level and you need to stack high school class after high school class. We need to see if Lane Kiffin will be able to do that and if he will show the kind of, you know, determination to get that done on the recruiting trail. Because it is a lot more difficult to do it at the high school level than it is at the portal where you know what you're getting and you just kind of go in there with your offer and say, take it or leave it.
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Time and results will ultimately tell how we grade all of these different moves. But when Florida decided to turn its attention elsewhere, rather than wait out on the rose ceremony that Lane Kiffin was going to have for whichever school was going to get his services, they turned their attention to other candidates, including the one that they ended up landing to Lane coach John Sumrall. John Sumrall was already A coach who was on the wish list for other SEC schools and Florida, because they are Florida, a national championship winning program, was able to jump to the front of the line and ultimately secure SummerAll services for 2026. John Summerall, like Bob Chesney, like some others, are going to be finishing out the College Football Playoff run with his squad after the Green Wave won the American Athletic Conference and got the 11 seed in the College Football Playoff. But in terms of the future, you know, beyond this CFP run, when Summerall hits the ground running and really starts working on the Florida Gators, getting them back to where they want to be competing for championships. Tom, what do you make of what the John Sumrall era might look like in Gainesville?
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I bet it's going to include a lot more wins than the last few eras have looked like in Gainesville because as you mentioned with with Summerall, he's been a head coach for four years. He's won or been in a conference championship each of those four years. He won the Sun Belt, whose champion is in the playoff this year. He won the American this year, and his team is in the College Football Playoff. He has been a very successful coach and he has shown he knows how to quickly build a program and get it ready to compete at the level that they're at. And I think that he's taking over a Florida program where for all the faults and all the failures that that team has had, it's not like they've been short of having good players. There are very good players on that roster. So if he steps in and maybe brings a little bit more of a coaching technique to the program that they haven't had in recent years, we could see that turn around pretty quickly. And I'm not saying I think that John Sumrall is going walk into Gainesville and suddenly Florida's going to be in Atlanta playing for an SEC championship next year. But I won't be surprised if towards the okay, yes, I am. I'm saying it right here, right now. I'm guaranteeing the Florida Gators win the SEC in 2026. But in reality, I'm saying, I bet you there's a decent chance that they are very much in the playoff conversation come late 2026, even if they fall short.
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I mean, honestly, I, I think they're going to make the playoff next year if they get quarterback right? This is a really nice roster. John Summerall has played for what, four straight conference titles? I think the guy is an excellent coach for the money, and that's an important part of the statement. But for the money, I would rather have John Summerall than Lane Kiffin. Given what LSU had to pay and given the lacks of like the lack of flexibility LSU now has and they're locked in Summer all doesn't work out at Florida. Given what they're paying him and what they had to pay for a buyout, they remain nimble. So I think he's a tremendous coach. I like the hires he's made so far on both sides of the football. I think he's going to hit the ground running there as long as they get quarterback. Right. Much like we talked about with Lane, I think they are a playoff team next year.
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Bud, quick follow for you because you just hinted at it. Will you let the people who haven't necessarily been keeping up with it, I mean, I know we got Buster Faulkner. Let's, let's spell it out because that was a big, big part of the conversation. I liked John Summerall higher. Curious who he's going to get for coordinators. It was almost tucked in to the analysis. Now we're starting to see that staff come together. What, what will that Gator staff look like?
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A
Yeah. So Buster Faulkner on offense is a guy who was Georgia Tech's offense, according to a lot of teams have tried to poach over the last few years. In fact, I think you've had some conversations internally where it's like, hey, we like Brent Key as a head coach. How much of his success is Buster Faulkner calling the plays for that Georgia Tech offense? Because the offense has certainly carried that team, not the defense, over the past few years. And then Brad White, who's Mark Stoops, D.C. at Kentucky, Summer all came from Kentucky. He's a guy he knows pretty well. I think Brad White's a pretty good defensive coordinator. It's not like Kentucky has studs up and down the roster. So, you know, sometimes you kind of have to make it work with a little bit lesser player in the toughest league in the country, at least, you know, depth wise. So probably a pretty good defensive hire there. It's still going to be Summeralls, you know, defense, but Summeralls off that Mark Stoops tree, so they really kind of run the same thing. The familiarity there, I think, has to be kind of bonus points.
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B
Yeah, I wasn't going to editorialize too much, but given John Summerall's background, I had to think that the defensive coordinator is going to be kind of the extension of the head coach. That was what you were looking for there. Somebody who speaks my language. We've got a language. We've got a very different language, actually. Maybe not a different language, maybe a different tone and a personality with the Ole Miss ed coach because Pete Golding has already come out and he says, I don't go to hot yoga. You know, he, he, he doesn't do all these, all these other things. He is about football. He is brash, he is gruff. He loves this stuff. He's also a really, really good recruiter. You're not going to see him trolling online, but you are going to see him getting Ole Miss now up in the recruiting rankings based on his strengths there. But what about the entire operation? Tom? Pete Golding takes over at Ole Miss after being Lane Kiffin's defensive coordinator. Was this the best Ole Miss could do or is this also, just without any complications, a good hire for the Rebels program?
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C
I, I don't know if it's the best Ole Miss could do, and I don't mean that in the sense that Pete Golding isn't a very good coach and he might not be an excellent hire for them. But the, considering the situation that Ole Miss was put in, as we discussed earlier with the way Lane Kiffin went about the will he or won't he leave? All the coaches that had been on Ole Misses kind of shortlist as possible replacements for Lane Kiffin had taken other jobs by the time Lane Kiffin finally made the decision and Ole Miss was able to truly enter the market and go get a coach. So considering the situation that the Rebels were staring at, where they have a College Football playoff game being played in 10 days and they'd like to consider themselves contenders to win the national title because of it, did they really want to go for an, an extended coaching search while this team was preparing to play in the playoffs, or did it just make more sense to promote somebody who was still part of that program to ensure that that team is able to focus on the task at hand and maybe take advantage of this opportunity. Now, will Pete Golding lead them to a national title? I don' coach ever leave Ole Miss to a national title. I don't know. It's not, not exactly a long history showing that it's possibility there, but I think that considering the situation, this was a good move by Ole Miss. Will it be a long term solution? Couldn't tell you. It kind of reminds me a lot of what we seen at Michigan when Jim Harbaugh left and they promoted Sharon Moore to the top job. It makes sense at the time they're not really buying in for the long term.
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A
I actually think I like this hire quite a bit. I mean if you talk to Pete Golding, I think he's a really sharp guy. He's obviously been there at Ole Miss, so he has the institutional knowledge of maybe some things that not only you could maintain, maybe some things you could potentially improve on there for the Rebels. We don't know who's going to be the long term offensive play caller yet for this team, so that'll be one question. Obviously you're going to run Pete Golding's defense. Obviously he worked, you know, for Nick Saban prior so they're going to run that kind of similar style of defense. As Chip and Tom mentioned, he is likely their best recruiter on staff. You'll want to keep adding to that especially if the transfer portal starts to dry up a little bit. With the advent of these high school guys signing multi year contracts that makes a little bit harder, you know, for them to get out of and actually hit the portal. High school may may rebound in terms of the amount of importance and if that's so then maybe it's a really good time for them to make the switch to Pete Golding because he's certainly an excellent high school recruiter.
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B
Bud, what's your read at Auburn? Out with you Freeze in with Alex Golish. What do you think has changed dramatically for the Tigers in this transition?
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A
I just think program vibes honestly like getting Hugh Freeze out. I mean come on, like getting Hugh Freeze all the way out of there is probably the biggest upgrade regardless of who you bring in. And I think Golash look they did a really good job recruiting high school here in in the state of Florida where I live you see it every day. Like they're out there quite a bit. They did a really good job putting this roster together. It's largely a homegrown roster and you continue to see a strong emphasis on high school recruiting. You're going to run that Tennessee, you know former Art Briles Veer and shoot offense that now like half the SEC is running. With South Carolina hiring Kendall Browse to be their ocx which is kind of a a fun side note. Score a lot of points. They are, they are one of the the still like extreme tempo teams. I I believe that they kept D.J. durkin and as D.C. so that'll be interesting to see how they mesh there. Certainly with some Auburn people trying to hire DJ Dirk to be the head coach. I don't know how much leverage Golesh really had there in making that move when he took the job. As far as picking the DC maybe really one of them, I have no idea. But I think he has a good chance of success. It's just, it's a tough league.
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C
You know, it kind of reminds me, honestly, like when they brought in Hugh Freeze, the idea was, all right, we're going to get a really good offense of a coach who can, you know, develop quarterbacks and put points in the.
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A
Board, and we're going to pair them.
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C
With a great defensive coordinator. Let's get D.J. durkin and we're going to go cook. And then Hugh Freeze simply didn't carry his end of the bargain. And now it's like, well, let's go get a better Hugh Freeze, one who doesn't golf nearly as often and one whose offense still proves to be very, very effective and he's able to run it correctly. And I think that's what Alex Goles is going to do. We've seen his offense at USF work. We've seen what he's been able to do with that program, and we've seen that offense work in the sec. Tennessee got to the College Football Playoff running it last year and they had a chance to get back there this year. So now you come into a situation where you're keeping Durkin, who was at the helm of one of the best def defenses in the conference. It's the only thing that kept that team afloat all season long. And you're hoping that Goles and the coaches he brings with them for that offensive side of the football can help you score points, which you haven't been able to do, really, for the last two years. And if you can compare it, when you combine it with that defense, hey, look at what we might actually start winning some more of these football games going forward.
- [29:14]
B
You know, between Pete Golding taking aim at hot yoga and Alex Golish taking aim at golf, hobbies are under fire in the sec. I don't know why we're out on hobbies, but, you know, in the sec they do say it just means more. Well, unfortunately, because of more, we are pretty tight on time. So, Tom, I want to get your thoughts on Arkansas going out and getting Ryan Silverfield from Memphis and then right after that, Will Stein to Kentucky. What's the need to know? So, Tom, why don't you get a start, bud? Will Stein to Kentucky. Tom, why don't you get us started?
- [29:45]
C
I think Ryan Silverfield to Arkansas was somewhat of a surprising hire considering a lot of the names I had heard connected to the Ark Arkansas gig before it went through and it just kind of came out of nowhere. But you know, Silverfield has been at Memphis where he's won a lot of games. The question is, why didn't he win more? Because he was at a program that had financial advantages in that league that the rest of the league did not have and they were rather never really able to break through and win that league and get a college football playoff verse. So if he couldn't do it with those advantages at Memphis, I wonder how he's going to do it at Arkansas.
- [30:16]
A
Yeah, really kind of. Ditto Tom's thoughts there on Silverfield with Kentucky and Will Stein. Ultimately, I look at this, I think it's a really good hire. I was a little surprised Kentucky paid what they paid to get Mark Stoops out of there, but he did agree to them paying it over a longer term. And importantly, I think they sensed that shoot, like, what if Jeff Brahm goes to Penn State and we lose our chance to get Will Stein? Because I think Stein would probably choose Louisville over Kentucky. So Kentucky saw that riding on the wall potentially. They, they made the call, they fired Stoops, they got Will Stein in there. Good young coach, successful everywhere he's been. Like Tom says, no idea if it'll work out or if. Or if like Kentucky even has any intention of giving him the actual resources to work out given what they spend on basketball. Like, are they just collecting SC check and then spending it on hoops and saying, hey, like we're required by the conference bylaws to field a football team, but we're not really required to try and win, so we'll see if they give any resources. I have no idea.
- [31:11]
B
Yeah, and like we had Bob Chesney is still with jmu. John Summerall is still with Tulane. Will Stein also still working with the Oregon Ducks helping Dan Lanning and the Ducks as they go on their College Football Playoff march. Well, coming up on the other side, we'll turn our attention to the Big 12. Oklahoma State was one of the first jobs open. We're looking at Eric Morris, plus Kansas State, Iowa State and more nukes.
- [31:38]
Back here on the COVID 3 podcast live on CBS Sports Network, taking a look at some of the changes at the coaching level, conference by conference. And now we look at the Big 12. We start with the first job that opened up in the conference. It was Oklahoma State. And while we have moved on from Mike Gundy, I tell you what, they do certainly have a type. Eric Morris, former Texas Tech wide Receiver. Obviously a lot of success as an offensive coordinator at Washington State. Incarnate word also on his resume before he landed at North Texas. 11 wins for the Mean Green. So, Tom, what do you see with the Eric Morris. Morris fit and future in Stillwater?
- [32:17]
C
I think the fit makes a lot of sense. I think that Eric Morris brings a lot of the things to the football field as far as offense is concerned that Mike Gundy brought to the program for all those years that helped make it more successful. I think the biggest difference and the reason you're making this move is Eric Morris is probably far more inclined and willing to adapt to the way that the college football system works as far as recruiting in the transfer portal than Mike Gundy clearly showed a willingness to do in his last few years, which led to that team losing a lot more games than they wanted to lose. And that's why Eric Morris is in Stillwater now.
- [32:49]
A
Completely agree on that. I, I think if you look at Eric Morris, like great identifier of talent at the quarterback position, the guy wins, they score a lot of points. If Oklahoma State like gets their nil back, kind of like they had it under their, their former guy, I, I think they have a shot to win. It's still a really good job. It's a very winnable league with the exception of Texas Tech and I guess now BYU with their spending. But like, you could be in the upper half of the conference again in very short.
- [33:15]
B
Yeah, ring the bell because we've got another continuation of the storyline. We've got a coach who's taking over who still has a little bit of work left to do at their previous stop. Yes. Colin Klein, the Kansas State legend at quarterback and offensive coordinator, is the offensive coordinator at Texas A and M, where he has done a great job with Marcel Reed and helped the Aggies be able to make it to the College Football Playoff. Colin Klein returns to his alma mater. We were all covering the sport when he was a superstar and had them right near the top of the BCS rankings. So other than making us feel old, Bud, what is Colin Klein as head coach really make you think about the future of Kansas State football?
- [33:54]
A
So comes with good institutional knowledge of Kansas State, obviously, because he played there, has coached under Mike Elko, has done a really good job with quarterback development with quarterback Marcel Reed. I think like a guy that if Kansas State had not acted this year, I don't know if they could have gotten him next year. If A and M had followed up this season with another really good season, he might have just been priced out and go into like more of like a top 20 job as opposed to like a top 35 type job like Kansas State. So good on Kansas State to go ahead and get him in there right now and bring a hometown guy home.
- [34:28]
C
Yeah. And I my biggest question isn't Colin Klein, who's done a very good job as an offensive coordinator, and obviously he's going to get plenty of leash at Kansas State. I just worry about Kansas State's future in this current landscape where I don't know if they have the resources that the other schools in that Big 12 has.
- [34:42]
B
I think Iowa State always knew that Matt Campbell might be on his way out for another job because that job was open for about nine hours before they just immediately picked up the phone and they had Jimmy Rogers coming in. Now Jimmy Rogers really came from the FCS ranks. We had high, high success just one year at Washington State where I think he did a good job in tough circumstances. Tom, what is your read on Jimmy Rogers? Higher at Iowa State, State, serial winner.
- [35:07]
C
In his days at South Dakota State. And we saw this year at Washington State, even if their record wasn't graded overall, they played three playoff teams or they played four and they played three of them. Very tough. They were some of the tougher games that those teams face. So you're hoping he can bring that kind of toughness with him to Iowa State to keep things rolling there.
- [35:27]
B
All right, on the other side, we turn our attention to James Franklin and the ACC and more next.
- [35:39]
E
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- [36:10]
F
What's good, y'?
- [36:11]
C
All?
- [36:11]
F
It's Vaughn Miller, super bowl mvp, Sagmaster, and now your host of Free Range. This is where NFL meets Real Talk. Every week I'm bringing you inside the game. From locker room stories to league wide headlines. You want football iq, locker room insight and real conversation with the people shaping the league. Welcome to Free Range with Von Miller, where nothing is off limits and every down counts. New episodes every Wednesday. Listen and follow Free Range with me, Von Miller, wherever you get your podcast.
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G
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- [37:12]
B
Back here on the COVID 3 podcast when Penn State fired James Franklin, he was out there less than a week later declaring that his work was not done. He was still pursuing championships. And now that pursuit is going to start in Blacksburg, where he is taking over as head coach of the Virginia Tech Hokies. Tom, what do you make of what Virginia Tech will look like under James Franklin?
- [37:38]
C
I think Virginia Tech's going to look a lot like the Virginia Tech program that fans have longed for since the days of Frank Beamer. I think you're going to be tough and I think you're going to be going and playing well and you're going to have a very talented team built with players from the area, which is an area that James Franklin recruited very well. During his time at Penn State. He was often convincing those players to come to Happy Valley and be a Nittany lion. And now that he's at Virginia Tech, he literally took those same players and convinced them to join him in Blacksburg and become a hokey. So I think that if you were if you're Virginia Tech and you went into this market this year looking for a coach, James Franklin is exactly the coach you were looking for as a prototype. And then you ended up just hiring James Franklin.
- [38:16]
A
I think they absolutely killed it here. I expect Franklin to immediately get rid of Tech, like back to the top half of the conference. And like other than Miami, who can't you be better than? Florida State's a mess. Clemson has fallen off a cliff recruiting wise. They don't really use the portal like much at all or effectively. Like there's nobody else out. Like SMU and Louisville are like they're not easy to overcome, but they're not insurmountable. I think Franklin's immediately going to have Tech as one of the best programs in the acc.
- [38:42]
B
Again, there's you are in the mix, but I think that's the answer. Like you mentioned, you and Louisville I think that's the target for what Virginia Tech's looking for. What's the target for Cal, which moved on from Justin Wilcox after a long run there in Berkeley? Tosh Lupoi, Oregon defensive coordinator takes over. He is. You know, he played a Cal. He. The fans are fired up about this, and, bud, it does look like their star quarterback might be back for a sophomore season. What. What do you make of the Tash Lupo higher?
- [39:13]
A
Well, I mean, look, starting off your tenure by flying to Hawaii and locking down the best player in the conference is a huge win for you. And I. I do think that if you can build around it. Tasha Poy is an excellent recruiter. I think he's probably seen some good organizational stuff in his stops at Alabama and at Oregon, so we'll see how he builds out his staff. But, man, that's a nice piece to have. I assume the kid's gonna go pro early, but, like, that's a nice piece to have for the next two years to get you off on the right foot. I assume Cal has some pretty serious money to throw around. Like, they got Lu boy, they got JKs locked down. I mean, who else can they put around him to. To upgrade this roster in a way that maybe they didn't for Justin Wilcox, But I'm pretty excited to see what happens here.
- [39:54]
C
Yeah, I. I think this makes a lot of sense. Lupo understands the situation at Calendar. He's very excited, and he's bringing kind of energy that that program could use because it's not an easy place to win. It was not an easy place to win in the Pac12, and it's not an easy place to win now that you've got to travel across the country for half of your games every year. But I think Lupo, his energy is infectious, and he can revitalize that program.
- [40:14]
B
Stanford general manager Andrew Luck was fired up to introduce his friend Tavita Pritchard as the new head coach. He comes off of being an assistant for the Washington Commanders, but has extensive. Has extensive coaching experience and playing experience at the college level as well. What do you see here, Tom, in the hire of Pritchard to take over at Stanford?
- [40:37]
C
It's one of the more difficult hires to project considering, you know, Pritchard just hasn't been a head coach at the college level or hasn't really been coaching at the college level. But you do know that the relationship between him and Luck is solid. They've known each other for a very long time. They also know what it was like, like, at Stanford when Stanford was winning football games. So they do know the recipe. Will they be able to replicate it? We'll see.
- [40:58]
A
They got some really big donations recently. I think that's super important. Like, how many academic concessions is Pritchard gonna get? Can you get your own undergraduate kids into grad school when they graduate from your university like that? That's a pretty big thing. How creative can they get with their nil? Like, you have so many startup investors out there that come out of Stanford. Like, maybe they don't want to write checks, but maybe they want to offer, like, internships in exchange for equity or something in their business. There's a lot of ways you could probably win at Stanford, but I do think part of it is on some of the academic stuff, like get old, stay old. I don't think they have guys who want to leave sometimes. They don't let these kids into their own grad school. That's a piece they got to get licked.
- [41:35]
B
Coming up on the other side, our superlatives for this coaching carousel so far, most set up for success, favorite hire, and who's destined for a buyout. All that and more next.
- [41:51]
Back here on the COVID 3 podcast, wrapping up our coaching carousel conversation with some superlatives. So, gentlemen, this is what I need. I need your favorite hire. I need the hire that is set up for instant success, the most surprising hire, and the hire destined for a buyout for superlatives. Bud Elliott, why don't you get us started?
- [42:11]
C
Started.
- [42:12]
A
All right. My favorite is James Franklin. I think it's just, like, such a perfect fit for Dana Tech. I think they got very lucky to get him. Instant success, John Summerall. I think Florida makes the playoff next year, assuming he gets a quarterback. Most surprising, I'm gonna go Summer all's replacement at Tulane, Will Hall. I. I didn't see that coming. I. I thought Tulane was. Was a. I'm not saying Will Hall's not a good hire. It just kind of surprised me a little. Was like, wow, I thought they'd do, like, a search and. And maybe have a little more interest in that job and then buyout. I do have Pat Fitzgerald. I just. I need to be convinced that he didn't totally lose it there at the end of his Northwestern tenure here.
- [42:44]
C
I do wonder. You mentioned the Will hall hire at Tulane. Like we mentioned it with Ole Miss earlier with Pete Golding. Two programs that are currently getting ready for a playoff game. Maybe the athletic departments weren't interested in getting a long search going. As far as my superlatives, My favorite hire Matt Campbell to Penn State. Listen, if I tell you to hire a guy 20 minutes after you fire your other coach and then you end up hiring that guy, I'm going to think it was a great move because I think I'm pretty smart. My setup for Instant Success Hire I think Lane Kiffin is set up to have instant success at lsu. That is a program that has plenty of they're clearly showing the ability and the willingness to spend money to give you whatever you need to win. So I think Lane Kiffin's in a good spot there. My most surprising hire was Ryan Silverfield. Just because of the names I mentioned earlier that I was hearing connected with that job. I thought Arkansas was going to be shooting a little bit higher than it ended up getting. And again, I'm not trying to knock Silverfield. It's just when you look at his success at Memphis compared to what they probably should have been doing, it's a bit of a head scratcher in my eyes and my destined for a buyout hire. It's also the guy that set up, for instance, success, Lane Kiffin. Who are the guys who get the giant buyouts? The guys who are given the giant buyouts, and that is Lane Kiffin. And we have seen at lsu, just because you win a national title, that doesn't mean they're not going to pay you a bunch of money to go away at some point.
- [43:58]
B
Yeah, you can get a lot of money, but they'll pay you a lot of money to go away, that's for sure. All right, My favorite hire is actually Pat Fitzgerald at Michigan State. I would like Michigan State to not just be in total disarray. I think that Pat Fitzgerald is going to be able to bring some stability across the board. Now there are some on field questions that need to be answered in a Big Ten that looks a lot different than the last time he was around. But I do think that Pat Fitzgerald is going to be able to get Sparty back into a place where they want to be, which in my opinion is the top half of the Big Ten set up for instant success. We talked about it a little bit in the ACC segment earlier. I think it's James Franklin at Virginia Tech. There's just no reason why this team is a top four top five team in the acc. And considering this is a conference that has five way ties for second place, that means you could be in the ACC Championship game. If Duke could be in at 7 and 5, yes, Virginia Tech could be playing for an ACC title. I think James Franklin is set up for instant success. Surprising hire it is not surprising that Bob Chesney got hired in this cycle. It was a little bit surprising for me that it was ucla. There were a couple other jobs where I thought that Bob Chesney might be a more geographic fit for Again, I understand what you're doing. If you're ucla, you believe he's one at every single level. But again, I'm not doubting the hire. I just said, oh, UCLA thought he might be in the mix somewhere else, but the Bruins do get a good one, in my opinion. And then, yeah, the buyout. Sorry Hogs, I'm going right back to where where you had this, Tom. I'm I'm going to go with. I'm going to go with Ryan Silverfield. Feels like the combination of the higher the outlook, what's going on in the SEC right now, I mean, I don't see in the next five years, four of them being bowl seasons for the Razorbacks. And if you're not making bowl games, well, then it's tough to be able to continue to make that SEC money along the way. So for mine, I'm going with Ryan Silverfield. Well, good conversations here on the COVID 3 podcast. This is not the only place that we are and if you just watched us for the first time, we appreciate you. But you can come and join us over@YouTube.com cover3, where we are live every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday at 11:00am Eastern Time. This week's gonna be a special one. We'll be giving you our big Game breakdown, our Army Navy Preview, looking ahead to the weekend, plus a little bit of Heisman Trophy conversation and so much more. The best way for you to join us is to scan that QR code. Make sure you subscribe on Apple, Spotify and wherever you get your podcast to get the COVID 3 podcast delivered right in your feed.
- [46:45]
H
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