Every school dreams of hiring the next Nick Saban who can transform its football program into a national champion.
CBS Sports recently championed the 25 best coaching hires of this century, headlined by Alabama hiring Saban in 2006. Over 17 seasons in Tuscaloosa, Saban dominated the sport, winning six national championships and nine SEC championships.
Unfortunately, the vast majority fail miserably at even finding a winning coach, let alone one capable of winning major championships. That’s where this list comes in.
If there are 25 best hires, we believe there must be 25 worst ones, too. These are the hires that still make you shudder if you’re a fan of the program. The coaches who delivered lows you didn’t even believe were possible.
This isn’t simply about win-loss record, though. While that obviously factored into our rankings, there’s much more that goes into why a hire failed than just the on-field results. Other things we took into account:
- Did the hire make sense in the first place?
- Did the coach’s predecessor have success?
- Does the program have the resources to win?
- Why didn’t it work?
With all those factors considered, we’ve compiled the worst of the worst: the 25 worst coaching hires since the year 2000.
Note: We only counted hires whose first season was 2000 or later. An asterisk denotes record impacted by vacated wins.
10 who just missed the cut: Herm Edwards (Arizona State), John L. Smith (Arkansas), Paul Pasqualoni (Connecticut), Ted Roof (Duke), Todd Graham (Hawaii), Larry Porter (Memphis), Bill Callahan (Nebraska), Scott Frost (Nebraska), Jimmy Lake (Washington), Paul Wulff (Washington State)
25. Mike Locksley, New Mexico
Record: 2-26
Locksley wanted to be a head coach but jumped at an opportunity that didn’t make geographic sense for the school or the D.C. native who built his early reputation on his recruiting prowess. His time at New Mexico was a disaster from the back-to-back 1-11 seasons to off-field issues that included a physical altercation with an assistant coach. Locksley got another head coaching opportunity in 2018 at Maryland where he has found considerably more success, including three consecutive bowl wins from 2021-23.
24. Steve Addazio, Colorado State
Record: 4-12
This hire made zero sense from the start. Addazio had success at Boston College, going to six bowls in seven seasons, but wouldn’t have been a serious candidate for another head coaching job had his former boss at Florida Urban Meyer not recommended him to Colorado State AD Joe Parker. The definitive Addazio moment: Getting ejected in the second quarter of his final game as CSU’s coach, a 52-10 blowout loss to Nevada.
23. Mike Riley, Nebraska
Record: 19-19
The record itself isn’t as bad as another Nebraska coach (Scott Frost) who just missed making this list. But when you fire a coach in Bo Pelini who won at least nine games seven consecutive years, you better nail the replacement. Nebraska decided the guy to improve the program was one who had won nine games only once in the preceding five years and had a 12-13 record over the previous two seasons. It wasn’t the slam dunk hire Nebraska needed to justify dumping Pelini.”
22. Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech
Record: 10-28
Collins had back-to-back winning seasons at Temple when Georgia Tech picked him to replace Paul Johnson. Collins ditched Johnson’s successful triple option offense, and the Yellow Jackets never came close to matching the success they had become accustomed to over the previous decade. There were some recruiting wins like eventual first-round pick Jahmyr Gibbs (who eventually transferred to Alabama) but the results never matched the hype and promises Collins made when he arrived in Atlanta. Collins never won more than three games in a season while his successor, Brent Key, has done so for three consecutive seasons.
… and the article continues with more names and details …
