It would not surprise me if having 4 FBS teams in one state hire new coaches at the same time is a record. I believe we all made roll of the dice hires. UNC-CH hiring a staff that has spent more time on the golf course than a football field in the last 5-6 years is certainly a maybe. ECU and Charlotte have both hired FCS coaches that will have to prove that they can translate their success to more challenging schedules. Charlotte’s coach has shown he can take nothing and turn it into a winner, while ECU’s has less evidence of that, taking over a good JMU team. On the other hand, ECU’s coach has had more overall success. App just announced their hire, the OC at NC State, and Pack fans have mixed feelings about him leaving. Many think they can do better. The one certainty is the new App coach will have the highest bar to success. If he does not win his conference, a bowl, and at least 11 wins for the season his fans will turn on him.
I do not believe all four will be successful. Both math and history say so, and there will be some amount of fishing in the same pond for recruits that works against them. I feel like ECU is most likely to meet their goals, App least likely, and Charlotte and UNC-CH in the middle.
One thing that stands out is Mac Brown is 67 years old–while Healy and Drinkwitz together are 69.
For today, everyone seems happy.
Ohio has 8 FBS schools, that might be the only competition.
Maybe Texas or California
| State | Count |
|---|---|
| Texas | 12 |
| Ohio | 8 |
| California | 7 |
| Florida | 7 |
| North Carolina | 7 |
| Alabama | 5 |
| Louisiana | 5 |
| Michigan | 5 |
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see anything funny here. We got the coordinator of one of the top offenses in the ACC (16th nationally) and you got a guy with a winning season in a middle of the road FCS conference.
Only time will tell who’ll be laughing, and I’d bet money on it being App fans next September and beyond.
All college football programs and their fans want to win, and as a result we often say things we may not be able to substantiate or back up. I did this today in fact. Conversely, I respect App State and what they have accomplished through the years. I wish Coach Drinkwitz (sp?) success and wish nothing more than for both schools to be successful. It would be tremendous if we could be in the same conference and play often in many sports.
clt says you could not afford our HC.
I have no desire to play App in multiple sports or be in a conference with them until they decide to field a complete AD and invest in sports other than football. They are a one trick pony and neither their fanbase nor their AD cares about anything besides football.
clt says to be fair, they have a hot, hot, hot, video production program
And a pretty good meaty urologist program, I hear.
How bad would it suck to lose a head coach to another Confernce USA team? That’s what Elon fans must feel like right now.
clt is certain the jmu fans hate us for this hire
Will Healy B
I met Healy in January at the College Football Playoff National Championship. He was literally making the rounds chatting up sports writers to get his name out there. It worked. Healy is well-known in the industry having taken Austin Peay from a 1-45 four-year run to 8-4 in 2017.
Mike Houston C+
The results on FCS coaches moving up to FBS are mixed. The hope here is that Houston (coming from FCS powerhouse James Madison) is better than Mike London (a failure at Virginia after coming up from Richmond). The Pirates have a long way to go in a top-heavy AAC.