We still have a few games left to play that I previewed on Monday, including Cincinnati playing a Georgia or Georgia-adjacent team in the Peach Bowl, which is what you get when you’re an undefeated Group of Five team who probably earned more consideration for a playoff spot than you got.
As such, with this year still not totally wound down, I’m not going to do any year-end stuff yet, like putting together a roster of players I liked this year and calling it a “team” or an “all-” something team or whatnot. All of that stuff is made up in general, and it’s particularly made up this year, so I don’t even know what I’ll call it yet. But it will happen at some point in the doldrums of the intermission between now and the start of the FCS season. That’s right, the FCS season.
Anyway as we settle in for our end-of-year traditions remixed for 2020 (no bowling for me) let’s take a look at something important but with no finality.
Coaches Who Got Fired And Hired
Utah State: The Aggies and Gary Andersen parted ways three games into the season, back in early November. It was seen as kind of a perplexing move at the time -- this column from Gordon Monson in The Salt-Lake Tribune quotes Nietzche in the lede -- and the Aggies only won a single game all season. Deseret Newsreports the decision wasn’t necessarily mutual, that it was the school’s decision. In any case, the two-time Utah State coach was done in Logan early.
But of course, like those guys who date a girl named Sara and end up dating a girl named Sarah, the school didn’t venture too far from the Andersen name. Enter Blake Anderson, previously the head coach at Arkansas State. Anderson had a 51-37 record in four years with the Red Wolves. This year the record wasn’t very impressive, at 4-7, his first losing record as a head coach, but one of those four wins was over Kansas State. That’s pretty good. He was previously a coordinator at North Carolina, Southern Miss, Louisiana and Middle Tennessee State. He brings with him quarterback Logan Bonner, half of the two-quarterback duo he had at Arkansas State this year, who is transferring.
Boise State: Bryan Harsin, the guy Blake Anderson replaced at Arkansas State, won’t face his previous successor in Mountain West play. Harsin took the Auburn job, leaving a fanbase that always compared him to previous coaches for one that constantly asked for their previous coach to be fired. And also elected a former coach to the U.S. Senate. And compares everybody to Pat Dye. While the fan reaction in Auburn has been, well, not super excited, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Harsin do quite well. Sure, the recruiting competition is increased, but so is the stature of the program you’re recruiting to. Harsin also has experience replacing Gus Malzahn after doing so at Arkansas State.
Louisiana-Monroe: Matt Viator was fired after going 0-10. HIs five-year career at ULM resulted in a record of 19-39, which isn’t as good as his 78-33 record at McNeese State before that. That happens. His best year was 2018, when the Warhawks went 6-6. This year wasn’t like that. You can make a lot of arguments for this year being an anomaly, and it is, but 0-10 is hard to explain away. There was a close game in there, back in early October, when they came within a few feet of a win over Georgia Southern. But close doesn’t count in football, and 1-9 ain’t much better than 0-10.
Replacing him is Terry Bowden, who holds a 175-114-2 record overall as a head coach. His career is really in two phases: First he had stops at Salem and Samford before a good run at Auburn that included an 11-0 season in 1993 and a 10-3 record in 1997. Then he became a broadcaster for a while, but got the coaching itch again, and took the head job at North Alabama in 2009. In 2012 he went to Akron, going from a 1-11 first year to a couple of bowl appearances, including the Zips’ first bowl win ever in the 2015 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. The man made Akron decent. ULM fans must be ecstatic.
South Alabama: The Jags fired Steve Campbell after a 4-7 season that was, actually, his best at the school. That’s still not good, and after three years in which he went 9-26, they decided to move on.
The new guy is Kane Wommack, who is 33 and in his first head coaching gig. Wommack played at Arkansas and Southern Miss, getting three straight bowl appearances with the Golden Eagles. He’s been an assistant for South Alabama before, serving as defensive coordinator in 2016 and 2017. Those defenses were pretty good. Then he went to Indiana, where he ran the defense for this year’s surprisingly good Hoosiers.