Grind City Football: Setting pecking order of potential job openings as SEC hot seats simmer through November
Michael WallaceBy Parrish Alford
Grind City Media CorrespondentOXFORD – Imagine the dusty sandlot.
Picture a time when kids roamed neighborhoods with real footballs and the helmets of their favorite teams, even though the side logo looked something less than authentic.
Remember the process of picking teams? Recall how the big and the strong went first, and then others in descending order based on attractiveness? Someone had to be last, right?
When it comes to the looming SEC coaching search carousel, chances are Ole Miss will be last among the pickings. Only two SEC schools have confirmed vacancies right now. Ole Miss has been open since July 20, when Hugh Freeze was forced out amid an off-the-field scandal.
Florida only just joined the fun last weekend as it parted ways with Jim McElwain.
Depending on how things play out at other schools, there could be as many as seven new smiling faces at SEC Media Days next summer. Wear your nametags, please. Butch Jones, Kevin Sumlin, Bret Bielema and Barry Odom are all less than secure at Tennessee, Texas A&M, Arkansas and Missouri, respectively.
If Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen joins his former athletics director, Scott Stricklin, at Florida, then MSU would become the seventh school in transition.
The view from here: Texas A&M seems the best job in the group.
In the face of mounting losses and controversy over alleged death threats, Florida parted ways last week with coach Jim McElwain midway through his third season. Photo Credit: Jonathan Bachman/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
The Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer days at Florida were a long time ago. If Stricklin was impressed by McElwain’s two Eastern Division titles, he’d have worked harder to keep his coach. Texas rivals Florida in high school recruiting, and the Texas A&M administration, since joining the SEC, has done its best to ignore the state’s flagship program over in Austin.
Right now, the lethargic Texas Longhorns are making that both possible and easy.
Tennessee would be third in the pecking order of most attractive, potentially available SEC jobs, followed by MSU, Missouri and Vanderbilt. At another time, Ole Miss might not be the least among the not-so-Magnificent Seven, but there’s that NCAA thing going on.
Yes, after five years, it’s still going on – though the end is in sight. The Rebels should hear a ruling from their mid-September meeting with the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions sometime this month. The outcome remains to be seen, but it could definitely impact the coaching search.
The investigation itself has already impacted recruiting, which has impacted depth, which has had a major impact on the Rebels’ 8-12 run since Jan. 1 2016. That’s the day when Freeze stood on a riser at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and hoisted the Sugar Bowl trophy. The Rebels had just torched Oklahoma State, and Freeze proclaimed a “new normal” for Ole Miss football.
Not much has been normal this SEC season.
Troy wins at LSU. Arkansas has been largely non-competitive against Power Five conference opponents. Texas A&M’s collapse at UCLA was the talk of opening weekend. The Aggies right themselves by showing some resistance against Alabama, then get smacked at home by MSU to fall to 1-6 in the post-Johnny Manziel Era against Mississippi’s two-team SEC contingent.
Vanderbilt was impressive in beating a ranked Kansas State team in mid-September. Then someone had the audacity to say “bring on Alabama.” The Commodores haven’t won since, and only once have they been closer to winning than a two-touchdown deficit.
The league’s traditionally famous depth is embarrassing. Five teams – Missouri, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Arkansas and Ole Miss – are a combined 2-22 in conference play. SEC coaches’ familiar cry of “beating each other up” inside the league is taking on water.
All things considered, it’s easy to see why unprecedented turnover appears imminent.
And while Florida, Tennessee and Texas A&M have bigger stadiums and more money, Ole Miss athletics director Ross Bjork proved he’ll pay a big salary and reward success. Freeze made $4.7 million in 2016. Bjork has shown he’ll pay for assistant coaches, too, and facilities at Ole Miss are top-shelf with the indoor complex that adjoins Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and significant upgrades the past two years.
Yes, the bigger schools have more money, but everyone in the SEC gets that SEC check.
It’s not insignificant.
Ole Miss interim coach Matt Luke is expected to be replaced after the season, when the Rebels will learn where they rank in the pecking order of SEC openings. Photo Credit: Scott Donaldson/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
In addition, the new coach will find four- and five-star talent at some positions on offense, as fingerprints from Freeze’s earlier recruiting. The bigger stage will appeal to some candidates, but others might find Ole Miss quite attractive if not for NCAA sanctions and the unknown of what else is coming.
Ole Miss will not have a bowl game to contend with this season, which will turn out to be a blessing. The administration volunteered a one-year bowl ban last February and hopes it won’t receiver another from the NCAA infractions fallout.
This season’s Rebels would have to win three of their last four to be bowl-eligible anyway, and that would require an unlikely run of good fortune for a team starting its backup quarterback and struggling with a woefully inadequate defense these days.
The absence of a bowl game can let everyone focus on the coaching search, which has the new dynamic of the early signing date of Dec. 20. In years past teams making a move with a head coach could have a new man in place in the middle of January and still have three weeks to market him.
That’s no longer the case.
Will schools now rush to have their business done by Dec. 20? Some who are trying to salvage good recruiting classes just might. The Ole Miss class is currently ranked No. 14 in the SEC and No. 77 nationally on the 247Sports.com composite list.
It will benefit Ole Miss if SEC vacancies are fewer rather than more.
It doesn’t mean Ole Miss will not make an impressive hire. The job has a lot to offer a coach who is willing to gut it out through sanctions, with an aim to really amp it up when the storm passes.
Soon, the dominoes will fall. Each hire will affect another program’s search.
Expect the unexpected, and hope for the best. Tis the season.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Memphis Grizzlies. All opinions expressed by Michael Wallace and/or Parrish Alford are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Memphis Grizzlies or its Basketball Operations staff, owners, parent companies, partners or sponsors. His sources are not known to the Memphis Grizzlies and he has no special access to information beyond the access and privileges that go along with being an NBA accredited member of the media.
Published on Nov 01, 2016
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