Group of Five Coaching Carousel Update: December 5, 2016
Welcome to another Forgotten Five coaching carousel update, where you can find the biggest news and speculation regarding the comings and goings of Group of Five (and occasionally FCS) head coaches and assistants.
Last season’s carousel was fast and crazy enough to make you want to upchuck all your nachos, but this season’s carousel has been decidedly more demure in nature. That said, there’s still plenty of axes falling and coaches moving following the end of the regular season.
First, we start off with the big headlines.
1. Tommy Tuberville “Resigns” from the University of Cincinnati
The fourth year head coach, who shockingly fled to the land of fake chili on spaghetti from a state that actually makes real chili, had grown just as stale as a box of Skyline that had sat in the sun for, say, 4-8 weeks.
Reported candidates for UC may be Neal Brown (Troy), Scott Satterfield (Appalachian State), and everyone’s favorite prom date PJ Fleck (Western Michigan).
Charlie Strong has also been reported to be in the mix by the Cincinnati Enquirer, and if UC can find a way to convince him to coach instead of rolling around in a bath of his Texas buyout money, he’d potentially be a pretty good fit.
However, the one name that surfaced early in UC’s rumored coaching wish list is already off the table because…
2. Purdue Hires Western Kentucky Head Coach Jeff Brohm
Purdue made their next hire official today as the Boilermakers tabbed the two time defending Conference USA champion head coach to undertake the herculean rebuilding job in West Lafayette. A previously moribund athletic department with seemingly little interest at competing in the Big Ten has seemingly upped their game a bit, as Purdue used a 6 year, $20 million compensation package and a rumored substantial increase to their assistant coaching salary pool to lure Brohm away from Bowling Green.
Yahoo’s Pat Forde reports that Titans QB coach Jason Michael as well as current WKU assistants Nick Holt (who was confirmed as the current interim head coach) and Tony Levine (former Houston head coach) may be in the mix to replace Brohm at WKU. WKU has low key become the Arkansas State of Conference USA when it comes to coaching changes, so stability will likely be a major priority in the upcoming hire.
Man WKU had 3 HeadCoaches in 4 yrs. They all changed the program around to where we’re today! Bigger and better each yr. Who will be next? ?
— Antonio Andrews (@Salute2Dat5ive) December 5, 2016
No word on whether Brohm considers going from an amorphous GLOMPblob to a soulless rail engineer with the creepiest of thousand yard stares to be an upgrade or downgrade in mascot.
3. In case you missed it…
Here’s some assorted scuttlebutt around the G5 world.
- Embattled head coach Tyson Summers relieves both co-offensive coordinators of duties after a disastrous first season at Georgia Southern.
- Baylor is reportedly showing interest in Arkansas State’s Blake Anderson, and that interest may be mutual. If Anderson left, that would mean ASU would need to hire their fifth head coach since 2011.
- Art Briles is reportedly not a candidate to replace Tom Herman at Houston, although Alabama OC Lane Kiffin and former LSU head coach Les Miles are reportedly targets.
If you need to catch up on all of the previous hirings and firings, head over to our own Jeremy Adcock’s mid-season rundown of the coaching carousel.