I just finished watching Colorado get dismantled by Toledo, and I don't know if there is a hotter seat in college football than the one Dan Hawkins is sitting on right now. This is his fourth season at Colorado, and he appears to be well on his way to his fourth losing season at a once proud program. Dan had amazing success at Boise State before taking this job. Was Chris Peterson the true genius behind BSU's success? Right now, I just don't see Dan Hawkins keeping this job after this season. Just looking at their recruiting under Hawkins, I think you can pin point their problems to just that. This is a program that has always been able to recruit on the national level in the past, and I don't think Dan Hawkins has recruited one NFL talent in his time at Colorado. Who could the Buffaloes be looking at if/when they decide to make the change? I feel that they need to get someone that will give them some national appeal and start bringing the recruits back to Boulder, CO. After going the Boise State route with Dan Hawkins, would the Colorado AD go after Chris Peterson? I think he would have to be one of the top names considered. What he's done at BSU over the past three seasons has really given him a name on college football's best head coaches list. I don't know if I see them going with anothr BSU head coach though after the way Dan Hawkins has turned out. This brings me to Oklahoma's offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson. He has plenty of experience in the Big 12 now and is ready for a head coaching job. Based on unsubstantiated reports, Kevin Wilson was a finalist for the Mississippi State job this past season that ended up going to Dan Mullen. Some other names that could come up in discussions are Arizona offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes, LSU offensve coordinator Gary Crowton, and Tulsa head coach Todd Graham. The other coach on a very hot seat right now is Al Groh at Virginia. IMO, Al Groh is a fine football coach. He's a good recruiter that has consistently had Virginia rated in the top 15 relative to recruiting classes. He has been able to keep programs like Tennessee and Penn State from cherry picking the top talent from Virginia. Despite this, his teams have always underacheived at Virginia. Lately, they have had a lot of offensive problems, and Al has been very slow in embracing the spread offense that has proliferated in college football. At the end of the day, Al Groh may simply be a much better pro assistant coach than college head coach. Who would Virginia look at as a possible replacement? I think much like Mississippi State this past year, they would target someone to specifically bring in the spread offense. Some of the names mentioned above for the Colorado job would naturally cross over to this job. The one guy in particular is Kevin Wilson, who is orginally from North Carolina. Virginia may be more attractive to him than Colorado for the simple reason that the Big 12 is much tougher than the ACC. Brian Kelly at Cincinnati would also be a strong candidate for the job. There will be more coaches added to this list before the season is over. Right now, I think these two are on the hottest seats though. It will be interesting to see if either of the ends up lasting the season.
Good catches. I believe that some coaches make great Assistants, but not necessarily great top dogs...and I believe that Al Groh is that kind of coach. Fortunately and unfortunately though, when you're a top Assistant someone eventually is there to give you a shot at a Head Coaching job. That's where guys like Groh and Cameron fail.
Randy Shannon won't have to lose track of timeouts and squib kicks to many more times and he will be on the replacement list. If we had lost to fsu the talk would already be fired up.
It still might be pretty soon. Canes could very well be 1-3 real soon. There next 3 games will tell us where they are at tho
I think he may finally have one with Nate Solder, their left tackle. He's very raw but a former tight end who's been playing the position for two years now I think. Agile guy that still has a lot to learn. He could be a good RT at the next level; his height is a disadvantage at times so he struggles with speed rushers from the little I've seen and that may keep him on the right side despite his athletic ability. I agree completely with your post though. They looked awful last night and Cody Hawkins was under throwing so many balls last night. It was a complete mess.
