Forde-Yard Dash: High Expectations Set for Second-Year Head Coaches
Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football, where Conference USA already has had one team opt out (ODU), two postpone their openers (Louisiana Tech and Rice), one coach forced out (Southern Miss) and one gruesome shutout loss (Middle Tennessee):
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FOURTH QUARTER: YEAR 2 BREAKTHROUGHS?
Half a dozen coaches start their second year in a job this weekend, most of them with high expectations. The Dash looks at their chances to improve upon what they started last season:
Mack Brown (31), North Carolina. Credentials: He’s won only a national championship and played for a second one during his tenure at Texas. Before that, Mack 1.0 was arguably the best coach in UNC history in the 1990s. Debut season at UNC: 7–6, the Tar Heels’ best record since 2016.
This year’s opener: hosts Syracuse. Expectations: On paper, North Carolina is the third-best team in the ACC, after Clemson (which it nearly beat last year) and Notre Dame. The Heels return a star on either side of the ball in quarterback Sam Howell (36 touchdown passes and 3,600 passing yards as a true freshman) and linebacker Chazz Surratt (115 tackles in his first season at the position). Circle Nov. 27, when the Fighting Irish visit Chapel Hill.
Mack Brown
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Chris Klieman (32), Kansas State. Credentials: won four FCS national championships in five seasons at North Dakota State. Debut season at K-State: 8–5, 5–4 in the conference, highlighted by an upset of eventual champion Oklahoma.
This year’s opener: hosts Arkansas State, a dangerous opponent that gave Memphis a decent game Saturday. Expectations: tempered, since the Wildcats are replacing their entire offensive line, leading rusher and leading receiver. They do return quarterback Skylar Thompson and some quality defensive players, but a Big 12 opener at Oklahoma on Sept. 26 will come early.
Scott Satterfield (33), Louisville. Credentials: ushered Appalachian State into the FBS level and won 51 out of 75 games as coach of the Mountaineers. Debut season at Louisville: took the Cardinals from 2–10 to 8–5, one of the best coaching jobs in the country in 2019.
This year’s opener: hosts Western Kentucky (see below) Expectations: They were already high, and that was before the ACC rejiggered its schedule and dropped nemesis Clemson from the Louisville slate. The Cardinals also skip North Carolina. Louisville was be explosive again, after averaging 33.1 points last year, but the key will be mandatory improvement in the run defense. Key schedule segment: at Notre Dame, Oct. 17, then home against Florida State (Oct. 24) and Virginia Tech (Oct. 31).
Tyson Helton (34), Western Kentucky. Credentials: He was the only rookie head coach on this list in 2019, arriving after assistant stints at Tennessee and USC. Debut season at WKU: After an upset loss to FCS Central Arkansas in the opener, WKU regrouped and went 9–4. Helton was C-USA Coach of the Year.
This year’s opener: at Louisville (see above). Expectations: high within C-USA, and WKU won’t be an easy out for Louisville Saturday. The Hilltoppers return nine starters from a defense that allowed the fewest points per game (20.1) since 2004, when the school played on the FCS level. Quarterback Tyrrell Pigrome arrives as a graduate transfer from Maryland and should provide more of a dual-threat element to Helton’s offense.
Matt Wells (35), Texas Tech. Credentials: He went 44–34 in six feast-or-famine years at Utah State; there were two 10-win seasons and three losing seasons. Debut season at Tech: It was, for lack of a better term, agonizingly close. The Red Raiders went 4–8, but four of the losses were by three points or fewer. They had the stats of a 6–6 team: scored 30.5 points and gave up 30.3; averaged 474 yards and gave up 480.
This year’s opener: hosts Houston Baptist in what should be a low-stress affair. Expectations: Texas Tech hasn’t had a winning record in Big 12 play since 2009, when Mike Leach was the coach. That might still be too much for this team to attain, but 4–5 seems possible after last year’s hard-luck 2–7.
Les Miles (36), Kansas. Credentials: won the 2007 national championship and many other games at LSU. Debut season at Kansas: The Jayhawks were 3–9, which is terrible in most places but tolerable in Lawrence. Winning a Big 12 game (over Wells and Texas Tech) was an added bonus.
This year’s opener: hosts Coastal Carolina, which handed Miles his first Kansas loss a year ago. Take nothing for granted. Expectations: eh. Kansas has very good skill-position talent (running back Pooka Williams, receivers Andrew Parchment and Stephon Robinson) but nobody proven at quarterback. The defense was bad in 2019 and might not be any better in ’20.
COACH WHO EARNED HIS COMP CAR THIS WEEK
Kalani Sitake (37), Brigham Young. He’s had some good wins as coach of the Cougars: upsetting Wisconsin in Madison, Tennessee in Knoxville, Michigan State in East Lansing, Arizona in Tucson; plus beating USC and Boise State in Provo. But Sitake has never had a team dominate its opponent the way BYU did Navy on Monday night. The Cougars owned the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, serving notice that there is an enhanced element of power football in Provo this season.
COACH WHO SHOULD TAKE THE BUS TO WORK
Ken Niumatalolo (38), Navy. The flip side of Sitake’s great night was Niuamatalolo’s nightmare. The veteran coach admitted that he underprepared his team from a physical standpoint, and it showed—the Midshipmen weren’t ready to block or tackle. This was the worst loss of his career and Navy’s worst loss since a 70–7 beating from Georgia Tech in 2001, when the Midshipmen were on their way to an 0–10 season.
POINT AFTER
When thirsty in the breadbasket town of Champaign, Ill., The Dash recommends a stop at Blind Pig Brewery (39) downtown, not far from the University of Illinois but still removed from the Campustown area. It’s an impressive place with an array of fine beers. Have a cleverly named U of IPA (40) and thank The Dash later.
MORE DASH: Bring on the Big Boys | Big Ten Noise | No Time for COVID Secrecy
