19 for ’19 Offseason Topics, No. 16: The five new head coaches who’ll rock right away this season.
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27 teams have new head coaches coming into the 2019 college football season.
No, it’s not the star-studded group like the 2018 class that had Jimbo Fisher, Chip Kelly, Scott Frost, Dan Mullen and Kevin Sumlin among the newbies, but it’s an interesting bunch.
Which five are about to do the most to turn around their respective programs right away? Which ones are about to payoff and rock out of the gate?
Who doesn’t make this list? Coaches who are inheriting heaters.
Ryan Day will be wonderful at Ohio State, and Eliah Drinkwitz will be a home run for Appalachian State. But they’re not going to boost up the win totals by leaps and bounds.
These are the five new coaches about to make the biggest instant impact.
5. Les Miles, Kansas
Does your head football coach have a national championship on the resumé?
Considering who he is and the star power he brings, it was slightly stunning that Miles ended up taking over at Kansas. There are far easier ways for a 65-year-old to make a living.
Miles was fired by LSU after starting out 2-2 in 2016. Kansas hasn’t won more than three games in a season since 2009.
No, The Jayhawks aren’t about to win the College Football Playoff this season just because they have a big-name head coach – ask UCLA how that first season went under Chip Kelly – but he does bring instant credibility. He also brings a whole lot of talent.
In 15 full seasons as a head coach at LSU and Oklahoma State, Miles had 14 winning campaigns, with the only dud a 4-7 run in his first year at Oklahoma State. Get ready for him to make Kansas more competitive again.
There’s work to do on the defensive front seven, and the offense needs more playmakers, but the JUCO transfers are coming in, and the team should get off to its first 2-0 start since 2011 when it plays Indiana State and Coastal Carolina.
The bar is set low. After going 3-9 last year under David Beaty, win four games, and it’s going to be a huge season and a massive step forward for a program that’s known nothing but woe and misery for a decade.
NEXT: The offense will be much, much better …
4. Tyson Helton, WKU
It was among the strangest clunkers of the 2018 season.
Under former head man Mike Sanford, the Hilltoppers managed to go bowling in 2017, but the offense went into the tank last year until late. It only scored more than 17 points in three of the first ten games, and the season was sunk.
Sanford was fired, WKU finished 3-9, and now comes Tyson Helton after serving as the offensive coordinator at Tennessee to try turning this thing back around.
It’s Conference USA. There are more than enough winnable games to be had for a program that needs some adjusting, and not a total rebuild.
The former Houston quarterback was the offensive coordinator at WKU under Jeff Brohm, and then he moved on to USC and the Vols before landing the Hilltopper head gig.
He’s young, he’s offensive-minded, and he’s the type of coach to build around – right up until he’s plucked by some Power Five job, just like Brohm was.
It’s asking a bit much to get back to the 11-win, Conference USA-title mark the program hit in 2016, but there’s more than enough talent to be a factor and go bowling again.
Arkansas transfer Ty Storey should be an upgrade at quarterback, everyone else of note is back on offense, and seven starters return on D.
– Spring Preview: Every Power 5 Team’s Letdown Game
NEXT: But can he win more than he would’ve this season at Temple?
3. Manny Diaz, Miami
It’s not just that Miami went a massively disappointing 7-6 last season. It’s that it was 7-9 in its last 16 games under head coach Mark Richt.
The program needed a new buzz, new energy, and new ideas to boost up an offense that managed to score fewer than 24 points seven times last season, and failed miserably at continuing the momentum of the great 2017 run to the ACC Championship and Orange Bowl.
Manny Diaz was a huge part of the turnaround, helping to build up a Turnover Chain-led killer of a defense that did what it could to make up for the woeful offense.
He was able to get former Central Michigan head coach and Arkansas offensive coordinator Dan Enos to bring the offense up to speed – yeah, the Hogs weren’t great, but the passing game was solid – and overall, there’s a new energy around the program.
Take that fire up a few notches if Ohio State QB transfer Tate Martell is eligible right away. But even if he’s not, the skill players are solid, the lines are good, and the linebacking corps should be among the best in the country.
The ACC Coastal isn’t that great – it’s very, very winnable. The opener against Florida will be a stretch, but there isn’t another game on the slate that the Canes can’t win.
Don’t be shocked if the head coaching pivot to Diaz is worth at least three more wins.
– Spring Preview: Predictions For All 130 Teams
NEXT: #FireUpChips …
2. Jim McElwain, Central Michigan
Lost in the way the Jim McElwain era ended at Florida – getting booted after a rough 3-4 start in 2017 – was that he went 19-8 in his first two seasons, won two SEC titles on the way to SEC Championships.
Before that, he was coming off a 10-3 season at Colorado State.
Yeah, it was a strange departure from Gainesville – complete with alleged threats against him after the way the 2017 campaign started – he’s still a Power Five-level head coach, and Central Michigan got him.
The Chippewas had six straight seasons with six wins or more and went to four straight bowl games before the wheels came flying off last season.
The offense was a total disaster, failing to score more than 24 points in any game and not getting past 13 in any of the final five outings. It was a 1-11 season with the only victory coming against Maine from the FCS world.
But this year, CMU and McElwain were able to land Houston QB Quinten Dormady – who started his career at Tennessee – as a key grad transfer. The offense should be much, much better, but the defense loses a few NFL-caliber defensive backs and has to do some reworking up front.
Even with the concerns, there are more than enough winnable games to expect at least a four-win improvement, and maybe even get bowling.
The new head man will have plenty to do with that.
– Spring Preview: Best Programs To Not Make The CFP
NEXT: All it will take is just a little bit of D …
1. Scott Satterfield, Louisville
Sometimes, a program just needs a breath of fresh air.
Bobby Petrino had one really, really, really bad year after four terrific ones.
After going to four bowl games in four years, and after helping Lamar Jackson become a Heisman legend, Petrino and his team didn’t have it in 2018, going 2-8 in a stunning fall.
And why? There was absolutely no defense whatsoever.
The Cardinals allowed 52 points or more in six of their last seven games, and the Jackson-less offense couldn’t keep up the pace.
Just how much does Scott Satterfield have to do to get the program back up to speed?
For several years, the now-46-year-old Satterfield was on everyone’s Next Big Thing Coach list, helping Appalachian State go from the FCS to the FBS/Sun Belt world without a hiccup.
His Mountaineers went 47-19 in his five seasons at the higher level with three bowl wins – not counting the New Orleans Bowl victory last season after he took the UofL gig – with three Sun Belt titles.
Best of all for Louisville fans, Satterfield’s defenses were killers. In 13 games last season, ASU allowed fewer points than the Cardinals did in their last four.
The quarterback play has to be better, but ten starters return on offense and nine are back on D. However, there aren’t a whole lot of sure-thing wins on the slate after the first few weeks.
But Louisville isn’t going to be one of those easy wins anymore. Expect at least a three-win turnaround.
