Top college football coaching jobs

By Rick Morris

While watching college football with the family over the holidays, I got into a conversation with my brother about which coaching jobs were on the top tier. We were talking about this because:

A) College football is the only sport my brother follows in-depth (as a Notre Dame grad).
and
B) This topic is really in the news a lot, with openings at (so far) Michigan, Texas A&M and Nebraska.

So here we have for you the FDH Top Two Tiers of College Football Coaching Jobs, each listed alphabetically. To be on the top tier, the program must have great fan interest, the prestige of a long successful history and at least some semblance of recent success (with BCS bowl berths as one determinant). The top tier was a consensus of the opinions of my brother and myself; the second tier I wrote afterwards.

TOP TIER
^ Alabama (barely clinging to their spot on this tier with their troubles of recent years)
^ Florida
^ Florida State (they're down now, but there will be insane interest in the job when the old man leaves)
^ Miami
^ Michigan
^ Nebraska (see Alabama)
^ Notre Dame (as long as they have a network TV deal, they're on this tier regardless of anything else)
^ Ohio State
^ Oklahoma
^ Penn State (see Florida State)
^ Texas
^ USC

SECOND TIER
^ Arkansas (realistically towards the bottom of the tier)
^ Auburn (if Tuberville leaves for A&M, it's a lateral move aside from the money -- see below)
^ Clemson
^ Georgia
^ LSU (at the top of this tier, but no, Delusional Tiger Fan, a half-decade of relative success does not yet erase the last few decades and put you on the top tier!)
^ Michigan State
^ Tennessee
^ Texas A&M
^ West Virginia (stepping up to keep Rich Rodriguez from taking the 'Bama job showed that the program has grown enough financially to justify being rated here)
^ Wisconsin (Barry Alvarez goes down as one of the all-time greats for getting the Badger program to this level)

Only Llllloyd left the Big House laughing

By Rick Morris

Check out this outstanding Top Ten list about the Michigan-Notre Dame game. The poster depicting two happy coaches would only be half-right, as Charlie Weis reached his lowest point thus far in his South Bend tenure.

In particular, I like the reference in that list to Jimmy Clausen as "third person Jimmy" from Seinfeld: "Jimmy doesn't like getting hit from the blind side. Don't. Touch. Jimmy!"

The list also made me laugh merely by reminding me that Ron Powlus is the QB coach at Notre Dame. Those who can't, teach, huh? That put me in mind of my mirth when I found out Rob Deer is now a minor league hitting instructor.

On a more serious note ...

notwithstanding the coaching controversies of the last decade at Notre Dame, the administration is going to have its biggest conundrum of that entire time if the Irish struggle through the upcoming games as it looks like they might and limp into the Navy game in November winless. The immense contract extension Weis received in Year One makes a buyout seem unlikely, and he still appears somewhat likely to get the ship turned around eventually, but will he get the time? Expecting to be viewed in a rational light when the team is degenerating to depths unseen may be asking a bit much. The reaction from the very powerful ND fanbase will be one of the biggest stories of the college football season.