The college football season is five weeks old. At this point, we know a lot about some teams and very little about others. Almost halfway through the season, it’s a great time to look back at some of the first-year head coaches. Which of them have forged the best start in the country?
TSS associate editors Bart Doan and Terry Johnson join staff writer Kevin Causey in this roundtable discussion.
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Question: Which first year coach has done the best job so far?
Bart Doan:
On Twitter @TheCoachBart
There’s only one answer to this question, and he eats cereal with Gatorade when he’s out of milk. He has already been to Mars. That’s why there are no signs of life. He can build a snowman out of rain. The Lochness Monster hides because it came out of the water and saw Jim Harbaugh and decided it’d be best to never knowingly show itself to humanity again.
In all seriousness, though, Harbaugh turning around Michigan has been intense and quick. Remember, this was such a fractured program that students were protesting on the President’s lawn just a few weeks from this time last year. Fans were purposely avoiding games to make a point. Michigan could barely complete a forward pass to the correct team.
Enter Harbaugh, and suddenly all of those high-level recruits have found their talent arc ascending rather than sitting flat. The quarterback was playing at Iowa last season. One would have to imagine Jake Rudock isn’t starting at Michigan if anyone other than Harbaugh is there.
Now, Michigan has given up all of 14 points in a month … and the Wolverines have played every weekend. This team is a real threat to win the Big Ten, an unfathomable thought (other than by, you know, homer me) in the preseason. The Harbaugh train is coming. Choo, choo.
Kevin Causey:
On Twitter @CFBZ
The two guys that immediately pop into my head when discussing this topic are Houston’s Tom Herman and Florida’s Jim McElwain. Both coaches have their teams off to unbelievable starts.
As great as those two guys have done, my pick is someone who has had more odds stacked against him (yes, even more than McElwain). On August 28, Illinois fired head coach Tim Beckman, who had gone just 12-25 in his three years for the Illini. His dismissal was shocking because of when it happened. It left no room for the new coach to be sufficiently prepared for the coming season.
Enter Bill Cubit. He has stepped up from offensive coordinator/quarterback coach to the interim head coach position. He’s wearing a lot of hats for the Illini, which are 4-1. Yes, they had a squeaker of a win over Middle Tennessee and got blown out on the road against UNC. On the flip side, they beat Nebraska. If I’m reading HuskerMax correctly, this was the Illini’s first win over the Huskers since 1924.
Illinois isn’t balling out of the mind, but the fact that Cubit has kept the team’s head above water is a huge feather in his cap. Illinois is a team to keep an eye on this season. Can Cubit keep the momentum going and take the Illini bowling as an interim coach? That would be a huge win in my book.
Terry Johnson:
On Twitter @SectionTPJ
Without question, it’s Jim McElwain.
Make no mistake about it: Florida’s offense during the Will Muschamp era was so awful that Jim Mora, Sr.’s epic rant wouldn’t even begin to cover it. Regardless of who was calling the plays, the Gator offense couldn’t move the ball against anyone, ranking 104th, 105th, 115th, and 96th nationally in total offense in four seasons under Muschamp.
Things have been completely different under McElwain’s watch. Despite breaking in a new starting quarterback, the Gator offense is averaging almost 400 yards per game. The passing attack has looked especially sharp in the past two weeks, completing 47 of 72 passes for 554 yards and an impressive 6-to-1 TD-to-INT ratio.
With this newfound firepower on offense, the Gators are off to a 4-0 start and look like the team to beat in the SEC East.
That’s a dramatic improvement from what fans in Gainesville saw on the gridiron last year.
