Never before have we written a Doing Good Things™ Report this late in the football season. Technically, there is still post-season football to attend to although for the most part the stories have been written for the vast majority of the programs and coaches across the country.

First, let’s take a look at the teams who have already pulled the plug or are currently experiencing a new leadership already since the season began back in September

Changes

USF – Charlie Strong
Boston College – Steve Addazio
FSU – Willie Taggart
Rutgers – Chris Ash
Old Dominion – Bobby Wilder
UTSA – Frank Wilson
New Mexico – Bob Davie
UNLV – Tony Sanchez
Washington – Chris Petersen
Arkansas – Chad Morris
Ole Miss – Matt Luke
Missouri – Barry Odom
Colorado State – Mike Bobo
Fresno State – Jeff Tedford

So far, we’ve had a couple of these positions filled starting with Greg Schiano heading back to Rutgers after an 8-year absence while inking a deal that doesn’t even seem real. According to reports, Schiano signed an 8-year contract for $32,000,000 for a cool $4 million per year, twice as much as the fired Chris Ash. While there were hangups in negotiations with Schiano wanting all of the money guaranteed he didn’t actually win that battle but still should be smiling all the same.

This past Monday, news broke that Chris Petersen had stepped down from his position at Washington and would be moving into an advisory role with the university. In his place steps Jimmy Lake, the soon to be 43-year old defensive coordinator for the Huskies with a strong recruiting background. It’s a potentially massive shake up for the Pac-12 if not the country as a whole.

USF is apparently in talks with former coach Willie Taggart who could return following short stints at Oregon and Florida State. Talk about coming back down to earth.

Florida State has been rumored to be chasing James Franklin at Penn State although a switch seems highly unlikely. Many expect Memphis coach Mike Norvell to eventually wind up in Tallahassee.

Three of the worst four or five SEC jobs are open and the market appears to be extremely suspicious of filling any of those challenging programs. Perhaps worth to mention that Chip Long’s name has been mentioned for the Ole Miss job or possibly a return to Memphis if Norvell leaves for greener pastures.

Doing Good Things

Cincinnati – Luke Fickell
SMU – Sonny Dykes
UCF – Josh Heupel
Louisville – Scott Satterfield
Memphis – Mike Norvell
Central Michigan – Jim McElwain
Oregon State – Jonathan Smith
Louisiana – Billy Napier

A reminder that we usually don’t bring up the obvious candidates here. For example, Ryan Day has yet to lose as Ohio State’s head coach and I’m sure you already knew that. He’s doing great things.

Fickell has suddenly sky-rocketed up the coaching ranks following a combined 10-14 record as interim Ohio State coach and first year at Cincinnati. Since then, he’s gone 21-4 and has a chance to win the American Conference this weekend.

Dykes spun his wheels at California but has quickly resurrected a SMU program in a way that his predecessor–who ended up getting a Power 5 job recently fired–couldn’t even do.

We probably need another year or two to flesh out if Heupel is really a top-notch coach or riding the wave left behind by Scott Frost. Still, it’s hard to argue with the same 21-4 record that is attracting attention to Luke Fickell.

Scott Satterfield should probably win National Coach of the Year. Virtually no one had the Cardinals winning more than 4 or 5 games and to have a chance to win 8 after a bowl game is a fantastic job.

Norvell is a little tricky for me. He walked into a very solid program when he was hired, kind of a light version of post-Frost UCF if you will. He ended up losing 14 games over his first three seasons but is on fire this year with a chance to win 13 games, a conference title, and a major bowl victory.

It had been a tough couple years for Jim McElwain who started a not-terrible 19-8 at Florida, lost 4 out of his first 7 against a tough opening schedule in 2017, then found himself fired and working as the receivers coach at Michigan last year. All he did in 2019 is take a 1-win team and turned them around into playing for the MAC Championship against our friend Chuck Martin.

This thing probably won’t keep improving exponentially but the job Jonathan Smith did at Oregon State was damn admirable. Oddly enough, 3 out of the Beavers’ 4 conference wins came against cross-divisional teams (all 3 on the road, too) but it was enough to finish in second place in the Pac-12 North.

Billy Napier is probably an under-the-radar name to watch as a potential surprise hire at a Power 5 program either this year or next. He comes with plenty of P5 assistant experience and has improved Louisiana quickly in his second year to where they have won 10 games and will have a chance at a conference title this weekend.

Not Doing Good Things

Houston – Dana Holgorsen
UConn – Randy Edsall
Miami – Manny Diaz
NC State – Dave Doeren
Nebraska – Scott Frost
Texas – Tom Herman

Remember when Dana Holgorsen voluntarily left West Virginia, tried some weird redshirt policy for proven starters, and lost 8 games in his first year at Houston? The Cougars hadn’t lost that many games since 2004 and this does not appear to be a positive experience for anyone thus far.

UConn–who are leaving the AAC and becoming independent for 2020–feel like they are on the verge of dropping football altogether at some point in the near future. The return of Randy Edsall certainly hasn’t helped matters as the Huskies once again went win-less in conference (19 straight league losses overall) and dropped to 6-30 since 2017 with only 3 FBS wins over that time frame.

I thought it was a bit strange how much applause the boomerang hiring of Manny Diaz received at Miami yet when they opened with a close loss to Florida it seemed like it could be an okay debut season and an opportunity to make some noise in the ACC. Instead, the Hurricanes lost 6 games including closing with losses to FIU and Duke. It should be a long off-season for Diaz in Coral Gables.

Once upon time, even stretching back to as early as November 2018, Dave Doeren was thought of as one of the hot coaches in the ACC, or even nationally. Then, NC State got obliterated by 39 points in last year’s bowl game and proceeded to go 1-7 in league play this year. The arrow is not pointing up.

To be fair, Scott Frost was a victim of too much pre-season hype at a Nebraska program still stuck with a relatively modest recruiting base and overall talent level. Still, no one expected only a one game improvement and the same record in the Big Ten as last year. There should be tons of patience in Lincoln but at the same time molding a divisional winner could be a long ways away.

One team was ranked in the top 10 during the pre-season and may finish unranked. It’s Texas, everybody! Tom Herman followed up a promising 2018 with a 7-5 stink bomb including several close wins that could’ve turned the season even worse. The recruiting pipeline is looking good so things aren’t too dark in Austin–plus they might have the honor of being matched up with Notre Dame in a bowl game because #BrandPower–yet the Horns are turning over a ton of their coaching assistant staff and will go through a difficult off-season.