For College Football Coaching Hires, Here's a History Lesson for LSU, Florida and Southern California Fans
GAINESVILLE - Among a plethora of candidates, there’s good reason to believe three college football bluebloods each hire their next Head Coach from a list of up and coming young coaches like Billy Napier.
College football fans always want the ‘Big Splash’ hire from another major university. Well, that might be nice, but people in Alaska want free hand warmers, too.
As for Coach Napier, who now coaches the University of Louisiana, there’s time for him at the end of this history lesson about big-time coaching hires. Before that, LSU fans with big expectations, beware. Florida fans, same thing. Southern California fans, you know the deal.
Here’s what history proved to be true about elite coaches making lateral moves within the coaching profession.
Since the mid-1970s, so-called lateral coaching moves have been all but nonexistent. There was Tennessee hiring away then Pittsburgh Panthers Head Coach Johnny Majors after he helped them win the National Championship in 1976.
The next big lateral head coaching move would be Jimbo Fisher going from Florida State to Texas A&M in 2018, 41 seasons after Coach Majors took to the sidelines for the Vols in 1977. To that point, think about where the following coaches came from before they made it big.
Bobby Bowden came to Florida State by way of being the Head Coach at West Virginia. At that time, even Florida State was not considered a big-time school. West Virginia was solid, but nothing great or to be considered among college football’s giant programs like Ohio State, Southern California or Texas.
Coach Bowden’s close friend Lou Holtz went to Notre Dame from that powerhouse Minnesota. He led the Irish to the 1988 National Title as its Head Coach, but the Irish did not steal him away from a blueblood program. Ironically, Coach Holtz was at Arkansas in 1977, a team that came very close to winning the National Championship.
The team that won the title that year? Notre Dame. One could argue that Holtz was the best non-blueblood school hire of the last 40 years for any one program considering his overall coaching experience prior to being hired at Notre Dame.
Current Clemson Head Coach Dabo Swinney was not even a coordinator when he took over as the top man for the Tigers. He was hired from within the Clemson program without any head coaching experience. A major risk for sure, Coach Swinney represents many current college head coaches that were doubted before becoming famous.
Coach Swinney started being the Head Coach for Clemson in 2008 after Tommy Bowden stepped down from the same position once the Tigers unexpectedly started the season 3-3. Coach Swinney never looked back.
Current Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban came to Tuscaloosa after being disgruntled with his Head Coaching position with the Miami Dolphins. While Alabama has always been a college football blueblood, that was an issue of timing more than luring Coach Saban back to the college coaching ranks. Coach Saban probably wanted off the trainwreck in South Beach, Fla. more than he wanted to be at Alabama, or at least that was the rumor back then.
Then there’s the history of coaches like the ones for the Gators, just as an example from the three true bluebloods mentioned above that are currently hunting down a new head man. Here are four of the Florida Head Coaches and how they ended up coaching for the Gators.
Utah Head Coach Urban Meyer went to Florida after leading the Utes to an undefeated 2004 season and 35-7 victory over Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl. There’s no comparison between Utah and Florida in terms of coaching cache, however.
Even while he was the hottest coach in the profession at the time, no person knew for sure if he could handle the pressure of a SEC program like the Gators. Same with several other former Florida Head Coaches, like the following three.
The ‘Head Ball Coach’ even came from a program that does not usually gain much respect as a program, and that would be Duke. When Steve Spurrier took over in Gainesville, of course he became a legend. Was the move from Duke a true lateral move, however? Of course not.
Urban Meyer and Steve Spurrier
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Florida fans might want to forget about Ron Zook, the Defensive Coordinator for the New Orleans Saints that could recruit like crazy for Florida but did not exactly meet expectations with game day decisions as its Head Coach. At least Coach Zook had coached in Gainesville before as an assistant coach, but he had never donned the title of head coach for any program prior to landing the Florida job.
Or course one cannot forget to bring recently fired Head Coach Dan Mullen into the equation. He came to Florida from Mississippi State. While not a true lateral move between big-time programs, that’s about as close as there has been in recent memory.
Coach Mullen had brought the Bulldogs all the way up to a No. 1 ranking during the 2014 season. Mississippi State’s Football history is not great, but at least it’s an SEC program. He made the move to Gainesville to coach his first game with the Gators in 2018.
Still need more evidence that lateral moves just do not happen? Here are five of the nation's top programs based going to the College Football Playoffs at least one time since its inception in 2014, and one additional program that's about to make that move into the playoffs.
Georgia hired then Alabama Defensive Coordinator Kirby Smart to run its program. While never a head coach prior to that point, Coach Smart was under Coach Saban for a very long time, as well as being a former player at Georgia. Few people doubted he would do well in Athens, Ga.
Oklahoma Head Coach Lincoln Riley was the Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach for the Sooners in 2015 and 2016. He took over as the Head Coach for Oklahoma in 2017. He was previously at Texas Tech and East Carolina as an assistant coach.
The Ohio State Buckeyes allowed Ryan Day to go from being the Offensive Coordinator to Head Coach when Coach Meyer stepped down in Columbus. He was the Quarterback Coach for the San Francisco 49er’s prior to joining Coach Meyer’s staff as the Co-Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach with the Buckeyes.
Cincinnati Head Coach Luke Fickell held the interim Head Coaching title for Ohio State 10 seasons ago in 2011, but quite honestly did not do well as the Buckeyes went 6-6 on the year, with the offense really struggling.
That’s when Coach Meyer was brought in and Coach Fickell was named the Defensive Coordinator for Ohio State to serve alongside Coach Meyer. After doing well as the Defensive Coordinator for the Buckeyes, he made the move to be the Head Coach at Cincinnati and coached his first game in 2017. Now the Bearcats are closing in on their first Colleg
As for the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, they brought in Head Coach Brian Kelly from Cincinnati after he led his Cincinnati Bearcats to an 11-0 regular season record in 2009. He had never been the top man at a Power Five program, yet Notre Dame hired him. He’s now Notre Dame’s all-time winningest coach.
That leads us to Coach Napier, a redhot coaching name even though he’s only been Louisiana’s Head Coach since 2018. It has also been his only head coaching experience.
Think that the Gators will land Lane Kiffin? He could jump from Oxford, Miss. to Gainesville, Fla. in a heartbeat, but history says otherwise. Coach Kiffin is arguably the name Florida (and Miami) fans want right now. Does not mean he’s leaving the Rebels though.
Which exact landing spot Coach Napier ends up at, or Coach Kiffin, that's hard to say. Bottom line, do not expect a current head coach of a college football blueblood to end up at LSU, Florida, or Southern California. It's been that way for over 40 years.
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