20 for 2020 College Football Topics, No. 15: The five second year head coaches who should have a much stronger Year Two.
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Well that didn’t go so well.
25 college football head coaches are going into their second seasons at the helm, and now is where the production is supposed to start to kick in.
There’s usually a reason as head coach is taking over a program, and most of the time it’s because the last guy got canned. So there’s a grace period because of all the work there is to do, but there’s usually not enough of one.
Even so, Year Two is when the turnarounds are supposed to come. Unfortunately, unlike our piece last season on the 5 Instant Impact New Head Coaches – which turned out to be close to the pin – the 5 Year Two Coaches Who’ll Be Much, Much Better really, really didn’t work.
And why?
Chad Morris at Arkansas … oops. Willie Taggart at Florida State … dropped too soon, but fired. And it goes on from there, so this time around these five have to be right.
Which five got through a slew of first year problems and are about to blow up?
The five coaches about to make the biggest instant impact in their second seasons are …
5. Tom Arth, Akron
There’s nowhere to go but up.
Win one game, and it’s already going to be an improved season. Win three, and it’ll be a huge step forward. Go bowling, and Tom Arth is your coach of the year.
Akron was easily the worst team in college football last season.
It was the only team that failed to win a game. It was dead last in the nation in total offense, couldn’t generate a lick of production on the defensive front, and it got worse as the year went on scoring six points or fewer in five of the last seven games.
But to give Arth a little bit of credit, he had plenty of work to do after taking over a team team that closed out 2018 on a five-game losing streak.
The 38-year-old worked his way through D-III John Carroll – his alma mater, which he took to three D-III playoff appearances – before taking on the Chattanooga gig. He went 9-13 with the Mocs, but that was enough to get him the Akron job.
So what are things possibly going to be better in Year Two? Experience has to count for something.
With the season slipping away, Akron went young to get the time logged in. Now, if all goes according to plan, ten starters will be back on O, six should return on D, and there’s hope to get off to a hot start with Youngstown State, New Mexico State, Clemson …
Starting 2-0 is a possibility, with home games against UMass and Bowling Green to potentially crank up a few wins.
0-12 to 4-8?
NEXT: The adjustment continues …
4. Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech
So the adjustment is going to take a wee bit longer than expected.
It’s just football. So what that the Yellow Jackets had to completely overhaul their offensive style under a new coaching staff? The defense still had players, the schedule wasn’t that bad, so they should’ve been able to simply figure it all out.
Instead, in the transition from the Paul Johnson option-offense to a pro-style team that needed offensive linemen who fit a more conventional style, Georgia Tech went 3-9 with the three wins by a total of 12 points.
There was a loss to Citadel – TOTALLY inexcusable considering the option attack the Bulldogs run – a 24-2 clunker at Temple, and loss after loss with the nation’s least effective Red Zone offense, an attack that averaged under 300 yards per game, and not enough help from the defensive side.
If ever a team went through the football definition of growing pains, 2019 Georgia Tech was it.
But there’s a ton of experience back to try figuring out how to improve things in Year Two.
Almost everyone of note who made a tackle last year is back, a few transfers are coming in to compete for spots on the offensive line, and there’s a young group of skill players who’ll be allowed to turn it loose and work through their mistakes.
And now here’s where we have to grade on a curve.
This is still a young team that’s going to need its recruiting class to shine, and it’s going to be about improving and rising up for Year Three. As long as the Yellow Jackets start to create more of an identity and are more competitive, 2020 will be a success.
And why?
Gardner-Webb is an early home game, and playing Duke at home is winnable. The other ten games …
Clemson, UCF, at North Carolina, at Virginia Tech, at Pitt, at Syracuse, Notre Dame, Miami, at Georgia.
Win more than three games, and Collins will have a far better second season.
NEXT: His first year at his old place sort of stunk, too …
3. Neal Brown, West Virginia
Brown took over the Troy heal coaching job as the 33-year-old offensive-minded whiz kid who served as an offensive coordinator at Texas Tech and Kentucky to build up his resumé.
His first Trojan team went 4-8. His second team went 10-3 on the way to a 31-8 run over his last three seasons with a Sun Belt title and three bowl victories.
It was just a question of time before he got the call to take over a big Power Five gig, and West Virginia seemed like a great fit.
Former head coach Dana Holgorsen had established a good tradition for the offensive side, the program had been solid, and it was time for a talented young head man to step in and bring a few new ideas.
However, it was a rebuilding year for the Mountaineers in 2019, and it showed.
The offensive line was a disaster, the O was the worst in the Big 12, and the defense wasn’t quite strong enough to pick up the slack.
The passing game wasn’t good enough, the team scores 17 points or fewer in six games, and things got ugly after a 3-1 start against the easy part of the schedule.
But through all of the problems and inconsistencies, the team kept on fighting. It might have had a few blowout losses along the way, but it pushed Texas, lost to Baylor in a heartbreaker, and it closed out strong winning two of its last three games – both wins on the road – including a regular-season ender at TCU that kept it out of a bowl game.
A losing season wasn’t okay, but in this case, 5-7 just wasn’t all that bad.
Can West Virginia go 10-3 like Brown’s second-year Troy team did?
There’s a whole lot to like with ten starters expected back on offense and eight likely to return on defense.
Beat Florida State in the opener in Atlanta, and the Brown era will take off like a rocket. Lose, and with a very, very winnable stretch of games to start the year – Eastern Kentucky, Maryland, Kansas State, at Texas Tech, TCU – there’s a chance to get a whole lot better right away.
The bar isn’t set at the Big 12 Championship quite yet. However, a nine-win season isn’t crazy, even if the bar is going to be set at just getting to a bowl game.
NEXT: Let’s try this again …
2. Dana Holgorsen, Houston
It didn’t go according to plan.
Holgorsen made the move from the Power Five world to the Group of Five when he left West Virginia to Houston. It was a big move for the program, it was getting back statistical superstar QB D’Eriq King, and there was a whole lot of excitement and buzz about a possible run to the American Athletic Conference title.
The Cougars were competitive against Oklahoma in a loss – no biggie.
They were competitive against Washington State in a loss – again, not a big deal considering it was a 31-24 fight against a Power Five program.
But a brutal loss to Tulane on the road in the final moments broke the team’s back. It was 1-3, and at the four-game mark – the time players could stop playing and maintain a year of eligibility – King decided to sit out the year, and the season was effectively over.
The team considered a sleeper in the race for a New Year’s Six slot finished 4-8 with wins over Prairie View, North Texas, UConn and Tulsa. Yippee.
King is now at Miami, but Holgorsen got time to work with all the parts in what turned out to be a year-long scrimmage.
Former superstar linebacker recruit Eyabi Anoma is in the transfer portal, but Holgorsen was able to land S Jovannis Stewart from West Virginia and return most of the parts on both sides to the ball.
Marquez Stevenson leads a loaded receiving corps with the top four pass catchers returning, there’s decent talent at running back, and QB Clayton Tune wasn’t all that bad with most of last season to prepare.
It also helps that the top ten tacklers are expected to return.
It’s not the easiest schedule for Holgorsen’s second season, but it’s more than manageable to at least go bowling and be a bit of a player in the AAC West race. It’s not crazy to think that an attitude change and reboot are coming, and it all starts against Rice to kick things off.
But it would’ve been nice to get by D’Eriq King, who’s going off to …
NEXT: They have to pay the bill …
1. Manny Diaz, Miami
It was sort of a strange situation.
Manny Diaz was off to become the Temple head coach, Mark Richt abruptly retired at Miami, Oregon’s Mario Cristobal was pained to stay at his gig and not come back to his alma mater in Coral Gables, and Diaz left Temple to take over at Miami.
Diaz went to Florida State, but he grew into a star defensive coordinator at several stops including Texas, Mississippi State, and Middle Tennessee before settling in at Miami.
He seemed like – and still appears to be – a great fit for the job.
He’s got non-stop energy and enthusiasm, he knows how to crank up a killer defense, and he certainly knows how to recruit.
Last year’s team, though, didn’t know how go get enough going offensively.
The 2019 season was half full: Miami pushed a brilliant Florida team in a 24-20 loss, got by Virginia, rocked Louisville, and started out 6-4 in a bit of a grind.
The 2019 season was half empty: Miami lost to FIU, a mediocre Duke team, and in an all-timer of a clunker, dropped the Independence Bowl to Louisiana Tech 14-0 – it was the first time anyone had been shutout in the bowl.
But the talent is returning to take back a mediocre ACC Coastal after a year off.
Changes needed to be made, and a whole lot of players are transferring out. However, one key one is coming in.
Former Houston QB D’Eriq King is exactly what the team needs to jumpstart the offense under new offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee. The recruiting class was among the 15 best in the country, the offensive line should be stronger, and despite some massive losses on the front seven, the defense should be okay.
Temple, Wagner, UAB. The Canes should be 3-0 without breathing hard, and they’ll get time to get the O up and going.
There’s no Clemson on the ACC slate, and the date with Florida State is at home, but the Virginia and Virginia Tech games are on the road. Best of all, the ACC is still the ACC – it’s all there to get back to the ACC Championship for the second time in three years.
This program is too good to be that mediocre again.
