Bob Stoops, Kirk Ferentz on Notre Dame’s list?

As much as Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis wanted to make this game about his team, the 27-22 loss to No. 8 Pittsburgh will serve as more evidence for those who want Weis’ tenure as Irish coach to end. If athletic director Jack Swarbrick decides Weis’ Notre Dame career is over after his fifth season, a source said Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops and Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz will be in the mix to replace him. The source said Stoops has told confidants he would be interested in talking to the Irish. Weis wasn’t asked directly about his future after the game, but he said he was focused on his players. ”They just lost a tough game to a good team,” he said. ”Right now, I’m more worried about getting them out of the tank [mentally].” – Sun-Times

Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz: Richard Nixon to blame for BCS

Do you have a gripe with the Bowl Championship Series? Blame Richard Nixon. At least that’s a theory Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz tossed out earlier this week. Ferentz, who grew up in Pittsburgh, was referring to the 1969 season, when President Nixon declared Texas the national champions and snubbed an unbeaten Penn State. “Everybody was kind of mad about that in Pennsylvania,” said Ferentz, who was 14 at the time. “I think that’s probably why the BCS exists.” Ferentz made his comments tongue-in-cheek, but his Hawkeyes are at the heart of another potential debate. – Des Moines Register

Gary Barta’s faith in Kirk Ferentz pays off

Gary Barta subscribes to the same consistent, realistic approach that coach Kirk Ferentz uses to guide his seventh-ranked Iowa football program. Speaking Monday at the Davenport Grid Club, the Iowa director of athletics talked about the Hawkeyes’ 7-0 start, the team’s future challenges and what he appreciates about the man who has led the Iowa program since 1999. “Walking into a Wednesday practice before our game at Penn State or before our game with Arkansas State, you wouldn’t have seen a difference,” Barta said. “It’s that type of consistency in the way the team prepares, the way everybody goes about their business from one day to the next and from one week to the next that makes a program.” Barta believes that has allowed the Hawkeyes to compete at a consistent level over time, whether things are going well or if Iowa is struggling. He remembers speaking to the Grid Club gathering two years ago this month. Four straight losses had filled Barta’s e-mail inbox with a variety of less-than-flattering suggestions about what should happen to Ferentz, his assistants and even himself. “I fielded a few pointed questions here, too, and I recall saying that day unequivocally that I had all the confidence in the world in Kirk Ferentz and the leadership he provided, that I believed we would get things turned around,” Barta said. Iowa went on to defeat Illinois 10-6 that week and won four of its final six games, finishing 2007 with a 6-6 record. “I remember saying that there was still a lot of football left, that we still had six games to play. Today, our football team is 7-0 but my message isn’t going to be any different than it was two years ago,” Barta said. – Quad City Times

Rapid Fire: UNLV, Iowa, Clemson, UTEP Notes

“Rapid Fire” at Football Rumor Mill focuses on multiple coaches around the country who are in serious jeopardy. The latest edition centers on no less than four jobs…

UNLV

The case against Sanford: Sanford is constantly talking about turning the corner, but will he be the one to get them across it?Sanford is in the final season of his four-year contract. He signed on to coach the Rebels after leading the Utah Utes to a Fiesta Bowl victory as offensive coordinator in 2004. The Rebels’ head coach that season, John Robinson, resigned halfway through the season and his team finished 2-9 setting the trend for Sanford… In four years as head coach, his record speaks for itself: nine wins and 34 losses. Of those nine wins, only one has come against a team that has finished (or has to this point in the 2008 season) a winning record. – The Rebel Yell

Iowa

Kirk Ferentz, Iowa: Off-field problems the last two years haven’t helped Ferentz’s case, but the team has been playing better, and it faces a key stretch of games that will dictate the administration’s course with its $3 million-a-year coach. The five wins this fall aren’t too impressive, though Iowa should get a sixth at home against struggling Purdue. Still, the Hawkeyes might have to win two of these three remaining games — at Illinois and Minnesota, home against Penn State — for Ferentz to keep his job. – Sporting News

Clemson

Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster has been contacted about filling the coaching vacancy at Clemson, sources close to the search said. Foster, 49, is one of several candidates believed to be under consideration to replace Tommy Bowden, who stepped down Oct. 13. Others include Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, former Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin, TCU coach Gary Patterson, Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson and Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brent Venables. Clemson likely will talk to coordinators who are candidates before the season ends and wait until after the season to speak with sitting head coaches. – Rivals.com

UTEP

Mike Price, UTEP: The 0-3 start made things very shaky in El Paso. Winning three of four since has helped, and while the Miners won’t win the C-USA West (Tulsa will), Price can strengthen his case in games against state and conference rivals Rice, SMU and Houston. Win two of those three, and he’s safe. – Sporting News

Rapid Fire: Focus on Willingham, Bowden, Ferentz, Prince & Fulmer

“Rapid Fire” at Football Rumor Mill focuses on multiple coaches around the country who are in serious jeopardy. The latest edition centers on no less than five jobs which could soon be open…

Tyrone Willingham

Tyrone Willingham is still situated in the big office up on the third floor of the Graves Annex, but that doesn’t mean minds aren’t wandering. One name that keeps coming up to be on the nameplate of that office next season is that of Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp. A couple national experts on Muschamp, who was the defensive coordinator at LSU when current UW president Mark Emmert was chancellor and current UW athletic director Scott Woodward were in Baton Rouge: * Tom Dienhart, Rivals.com’s senior college football writer: “At this point, if I’m the president… I’ve got to have to open the door to guys like Muschamp, a hard-nosed, tough as nails, defensive kind of guy. He was a hot commodity a year ago. ” * Matt Hayes, The Sporting News’ national college football writer: “It’s certainly possible for a coordinator to come and do well (at Washington) but it has to be a guy like Will Muschamp. He’d definitely be a guy that could do a good job. He’s the kind of guy you sit down and talk with and you think, ‘Wow, this guy has it going on.’ He’s a tough guy, knows football, knows people skills, has social skills… and that is so important when you’re talking about a coach and developing relationships with the community.” * Joe Schad, ESPN college football reporter: “Muschamp is the coordinator most deserving of a head coaching job.” – Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Tommy Bowden

Clemson’s much-hyped season arrives at a major crossroads tonight in the Piedmont Triad. A campaign that started with so much promise — a preseason No. 9 ranking, predictions of the first ACC title since 1991 — is teetering on the brink heading into tonight’s 7:45 p.m. kickoff at Wake Forest’s BB&T Field, nationally televised by ESPN. Following a head-scratching 20-17 defeat to Maryland, Clemson is 3-2, 1-1 in ACC play. Beat the No. 21 Demon Deacons (3-1, 1-0) tonight, and the Tigers control their path to the ACC title game. Lose, and making a title-game appearance becomes unlikely at best, if not impossible. Can tonight’s importance be overstated? That, too, is pretty tough to do… Clemson coach Tommy Bowden — whose own job security was called into question following the Maryland loss — refuses to buy into the must-win hype. “Every game’s important, and this game, there’s some importance to this one, no doubt, anytime you have a conference loss,” Bowden said. “But they play a 12-game schedule, not a 6-game schedule. – Independent Mail

Kirk Ferentz

I love Kirk Ferentz. He is one of my dearest friends. I’d take a bullet for the guy. But at the same time, he is dangerously unbalanced. He’s bad at his job and mentally unstable. Actually, the best explanation I’ve seen for Iowa’s recent struggles comes from Marc Morehouse of the Cedar Rapids Gazette. As you may recall, the Hawkeyes went 31-7 from 2002-04, and they did it with largely unheralded, blue-collar recruits. In early 2005, Ferentz landed his first truly decorated recruiting class. I was at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl that year — the annual ego-inflating event where high-school kids get treated like heads of state — in which seven participants became future Hawkeyes. As Morehouse detailed, that class, for various reasons (injuries, disciplinary problems, flat-out busts) has produced only two of Iowa’s current starters. Considering those are the team’s fourth-year players, that’s a pretty gaping hole in the roster. Just ask Bobby Bowden or Larry Coker what can happen when even a couple of highly rated recruiting classes fails to pan out. The good news for Ferentz’s team is that they aren’t that far off. As John noted, every loss has been close. RB Shonn Greene is having a fantastic season (six-straight 100-yard games) and Iowa’s defense has been stout. If the Hawkeyes had even a semi-decent passing game they’d probably be at least 5-1 right now. There seems to be young talent coming up the ranks; the question is whether Ferentz will still be around to coach it. A $3 million salary is a lot to pay for 6-6 seasons. – SI.com

Ron Prince

The Kansas State football program is in a state of disrepair just five years removed from winning the Big 12 Conference championship, and the man responsible for such a drastic downfall needs to be shown the door. Ron Prince, now in his third season as the successor to the legendary Bill Snyder, has taken a program that had risen from the depths of the college football world to become one of its most successful programs in the 1990s and early 2000s and smashed any resemblance of its once rock-solid foundation. To put it bluntly, Prince doesn’t belong as a Division I head coach, and this season is exposing that very fact. Prince came from a program in Virginia that had experienced marginal success under Al Groh, whom Prince constantly credits as his mentor. Prince was an assistant coach at a weak BCS school for less than five years before he smooth-talked his way into the job as K-State’s coach, and as K-State fans are now painfully finding out, Prince talks a good game, but he has shown little ability to coach one. Prince might have succeeded had he been humble enough to hire assistants that had the experience he lacked and the knowledge necessary to field a competitive Big 12 program. But Prince, being arrogant, hired friends and cohorts from college football afterthoughts like Cornell, South Dakota State and Hofstra, thinking his master plan was good enough to overcome his staff’s shortcomings… The harshest comparison I could make would be one all fans in this area could remember. Ron Prince is K-State’s version of Terry Allen, the completely inept Kansas football coach who preceded Mark Mangino. Kansas State football is in need of a change, because if Ron Prince is allowed to further his destruction of the Wildcat program, it might take nothing short of the second coming of Bill Snyder himself to lift the program back up again. – Emporia Gazette

Phillip Fulmer

It’s hard to figure out just who is under the most pressure this week-Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville or Tennessee’s Phillip Fulmer. It would be a close race, although Fulmer would probably get the nod since his Vols made the mistake of playing before several thousand empty seats last Saturday. At least Auburn fans haven’t started showing their displeasure by staying away from games… yet. But make no mistake about it, both coaches are feeling the heat this week. Auburn’s case is a puzzling one. Auburn fans spent the summer working themselves into a frenzy over the new “spread” offense that new offensive coordinator Tony Franklin was bringing to the Plains. They envisioned 500-yard, 50-points-plus games with Kodi Burns running all over the field or throwing it to any number of receivers who would be running free all over the field. It hasn’t happened. Not even close. If you want numbers, try this one-16. That’s the total number of points that Auburn scored in games against Mississippi State and Vanderbilt, two of the SEC’s perennial doormats. – Randolph Leader

The Firing Line: Focus on Kirk Ferentz

“The Firing Line” at Football Rumor Mill focuses on coaches around the country who are in serious jeopardy. The latest edition centers on Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz…

Gary Barta’s cup of Hawkeye Kool-Aid is half full. “We have a young team,” Iowa’s athletic director said. “I like where we’re headed with the players that we have. “We have to win some games, and we all know that.” Iowa enters Saturday’s 11 a.m. game at Indiana with records of 0-2 in the Big Ten Conference and 3-3 overall after Saturday’s 16-13 loss at Michigan State. The Hawkeyes need three wins to even start thinking about a bowl game, but that goal may be a longshot, given that coach Kirk Ferentz suggested last week that his team would be an underdog the remainder of the season. “We’ll probably not be favored the rest of the season,” he said. Another loss on Saturday means a four-game losing streak for the third season in a row. “I think Kirk is a tremendous football coach and a terrific person,” Barta said of Ferentz, who is under contract through the 2012 season after being granted a one-year extension last February. “He’s proven he can win at the highest level, and he’s proven he can win at Iowa.” – Des Moines Register

So, after two six-win seasons, will this year be a repeat? Can the Hawkeyes turn it around and make it to a bowl game? If this season is a flop, will heads roll in Iowa City? Ferentz has had the same leadership on offense and defense during his tenure as Iowa head coach. Is it time for an off-season change? – Okaloosa Herald

Hanging by a Thread: Eight Coaches Who May Not Return in 2009

By our count, there were at least eight coaches Saturday who exponentially increased their chances of joining the unemployment line. Let’s cover them one by one:

 

Al Groh – Virginia:  Groh led his Virginia team to a 9-4 mark last year, winning several games by single digits.  This season, it seems thing are back to business as usual in Charlottesville.  The Cavaliers are 1-3 following a 31-3 trouncing by… (drum roll, please)… DUKE!  The Blue Devils ended their 25 game ACC losing streak.  We think it’s only a matter of time for Groh.  He has not endeared himself with prominent boosters.  Most power brokers around the football program do not like him.  It will take a near-miracle for Groh to return in 2009.

 

Phillip Fulmer – Tennessee:  The Vols couldn’t beat Auburn, who in eight possessions in the second half managed six punts, one turnover and one kneel down.  Tennessee is 1-3 with Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Kentucky and Vanderbilt remaining on the schedule.  7-5 looks like a best case scenario, as we can’t see how the Vols can stay on the same field with the Tide and Bulldogs.  Throw in another loss and Fat Lady can begin warming up her vocals.

 

Joe Glenn – Wyoming:  After the 5-7 finish last season, Glenn’s Cowboys are off to a 2-3 start after being blown out Saturday 45-16 by Bowling Green. The heat is rising and we think there’ll be a new sheriff in Laramie very soon.

 

Kirk Ferentz – Iowa:  The Hawkeyes are 3-2 after losing to Northwestern Saturday.  Ferentz was widely respected when he took over the Iowa program coming from the NFL.  He had an immediate impact, but the luster is long gone as the Hawks have fallen to the middle of the pack (6-6 last season).  Ferentz should have taken another job long ago.  Now, with the program engulfed in turmoil with several arrests over the past year, we think a change in leadership is very likely.

 

Greg Robinson – Syracuse:  The Orange lost to Pitt Saturday in a competitive game.  However, it really doesn’t matter at this point.  Robinson can’t save his job.  Every coach in American knows this one is only a formality.

 

Tommy Bowden – Clemson:  Clemson is a difficult spot and Bowden has done an admirable job – even though he has yet to win an ACC title.  However, the Tigers are 3-2 after a loss at home to Maryland.  Bowden just signed a long-term extension – and we think he deserves to return.  Nevertheless, the natives are restless.

 

Stan Brock – Army:  The Knights were 3-9 last season and are currently 0-4 following a valiant effort against Texas A&M.  It’s clear Brock is not getting the job done.  A change is likely.

 

Tyrone Willingham – Washington:  At the time of publication, the Huskies were trailing to Stanford 21-14 in the second quarter.  However, we included him in our list because Tyrone Willingham is in the same situation as Greg Robinson at Syracuse:  he can’t save his job.  It’s not if, but when.  Washington will have new coach in 2009.