August 7, 2005

The 2005 Coaching Hot Seat - Part I - The ACC

As a primer for the start to the season, we present Part One of a lengthy look at the relative security of coaches around the land. First up is the ACC.

This was a feature we started here for the first time last season, and with the start of the 2005 season around the corner, time to dust this off, shake out the cobwebs, re-evaluate some coaches and see whose job security is most perilous during the upcoming season.

We will be doing this as a multi part series, showcasing the last 4 seasons of results of all of the major football conferences. For some accountability, we'll also go over how we predicted last year's musical coaching chairs would end up.

Part I - The ACC

Boston College
Head coach: Tom O'Brien (9th year: 57-39)
-2004 - 9-3
-2003 - 8-5
-2002 - 9-4
-2001 - 8-4

Clemson
Head coach: Tommy Bowden (6th year: 44-29)
-2004 - 6-5
-2003 - 9-4
-2002 - 7-6
-2001 - 7-5

Duke
Head coach: Ted Roof (3rd Year: 4-12)
-2004 - 2-9
-2003 - 4-8
-2002 - 2-10
-2001 - 0-11

Florida St.
Head coach: Bobby Bowden (30th year: 278-70-4)
-2004 - 9-3
-2003 - 10-3
-2002 - 9-5
-2001 - 8-4

Georgia Tech
Head coach: Chan Gailey (4th year: 21-17)
-2004 - 7-5
-2003 - 7-6
-2002 - 7-6
-2001 - 8-4

Maryland
Head coach: Ralph Friedgen (5th year: 36-14)
-2004 - 5-6
-2003 - 10-3
-2002 - 11-3
-2001 - 10-2

Miami
Head coach: Larry Coker (5th year: 44-6)
-2004 - 9-3
-2003 - 11-2
-2002 - 12-1
-2001 - 12-0

North Carolina
Head coach: John Bunting (5th year: 19-30)
-2004 - 6-6
-2003 - 2-10
-2002 - 3-9
-2001 - 8-5

NC State
Head Coach: Chuck Amato (6th year: 39-23)
-2004 - 5-6
-2003 - 8-5
-2002 - 11-3
-2001 - 7-5

Virginia
Head coach: Al Groh (5th year: 30-21)
-2004 - 8-4
-2003 - 7-5
-2002 - 9-5
-2001 - 5-7

Virginia Tech
Head coach: Frank Beamer (19th year: 135-77-2)
-2004 - 10-3
-2003 - 8-5
-2002 - 10-4
-2001 - 8-4

Wake Forest
Head coach: Jim Grobe (5th year: 22-25)
-2004 - 4-7
-2003 - 5-7
-2002 - 7-6
-2001 - 6-5

2004 Look Back: The big prediction was the UNC Coach John Bunting would meet the axe, to be possibly replaced by Steve Spurrier. We guessed the wrong Carolina for Spurrier, and Bunting's late season push with wins over NC State and Miami helped Bunting earn a two year extension.

Rarely has a coach with high expectations done so little with so much than Chan Gailey. GT sits in a prime recruiting area, with top notch facilities yet the Yellow Jackets just can't get passed that 7 win plateau. The grumbling among the Rambling Wreck faithful has begun, and the expectations Gailey brought in may take him down if he stumbles this year. They have the talent, as the throttling of Syracuse in the Champs Sports Bowl showed last year, but consistency has been sorely lacking. An opening season visit to Auburn should be a good barometer for how secure Gailey will be this season.

Frank Beamer and Bobby Bowden have the type of security most coaches only dream of, and will be around for years to come.

Tommy Bowden is an interesting subject. He's got every football resource imaginable at his finger tips. He's owned instate rival South Carolina the last several seasons. He's got a huge multi-year contract which is matched by few in football. Yet why does his name constantly pop up as "someone to watch" year in and year out? After 2003, when Bowden seemingly shed that monkey, finished in a flurry and was rewarded with that big contract. The next step was that his Tigers came out of the gate last season and eeked out a 6-5 season marred by embarrassments at Texas A&M and Duke and finished up with a season ending brawl with USC. Bowden fired several assistant coaches, and replaced them with some of the hottest coordinators from the mid-major conferences, so time will tell if these changes help push this stalled school back in the right direction. The rival Gamecocks got themselves a shiny new ball coach over the off-season, and the pressure will once again be on Bowden.

Al Groh has put Virginia back on the college football map with three straight successful campaigns, and has little to worry about. Tom O'Brien has done the same at Boston College, and has plenty of security going into his first year in the ACC.

Ted Roof and Jim Grobe man the ship at two academic powerhouses, who seemingly have a much longer institutional tolerance of losing and mediocrity. Both join the ranks of Vanderbilt and Northwestern as tough academic schools where winning is seen as gravy, and will be given a long leash. Grobe's team lost five games by 7 points or less last season, so they could be teetering on breaking out this year, even more remarkable because it's rumored that Wake has even tougher admission standards than the more publicized "tough entry" school Duke.

Chuck Amato and Ralph Friedgen both experienced their first losing seasons as a head coach last year, but each coach's success in turning around their teams in recent years will buoy them thru a tough few years. Amato in particular must turn around a program who's taken a sharp southward turn since finishing 11-3 in 2002.

Could it be, that Larry Coker, he of the 44-6 record at Miami, is feeling the heat? A situation that is seemingly unheard of for 95% of college football schools, Coker finds himself under the microscope this season. There are only 5 or so schools that open every year with a realistic expectation of winning a national championship, and Miami is one of those schools. The Hurricanes have added one additional loss in each of the last three seasons, and it's safe to say an 8-4 season would have the Miami faithful lining up with pitchforks and torches outside Coker's office. It's similar to the situation Texas head coach Mack Brown has found himself in during recent years at Texas. To most of the college football world it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but that's life as the Miami Head Coach. Pinched by his own early success, and the weighty expectations, any sort of stumble this year could have Coker exiting stage left.

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