The Coaching Carousel

Well Buckeye fans, that time has come where coaching changes are upon the college football landscape. Coaches have been fired, coaches have resigned jobs to take ones with other schools, and some coaches have just simply resigned.

The biggest surprise in the carousel happened in our own Big Ten when Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema left to take the job in Arkansas. He left a job where he had excellent job security for one where if he doesn't turn the program around quickly enough he will be booted out the door, no questions asked.

So now as schools are hiring head coaches that have jobs, that leaves schools with a "surprise" vacancy that they weren't expecting to have.

Here is a breakdown of the carousel so far:

Conference
Fired/Left - School - Hired

Big Ten
Danny Hope -Purdue - Darrell Hazel (Head Coach, Kent State)
Bret Bielema - Wisconsin - N/A

ACC
Frank Spaziani - Boston College -Steve Adazzio (Head Coach, Temple)
Tom O'Brien - North Carolina State - David Doeren (Head Coach, NorthernNN/AAIllinois)

Big East
Steve Adazzio - Temple - N/A
Skip Holtz - South Florida - N/A
Butch Jones - Cincinnati - N/A

PAC 12
John Embree - Colorado - N/A
Jeff Tedford - California - Sonny Dykes (Head Coach, Louisiana Tech)

SEC
Gene Chizik - Auburn - Gus Malzahn (Head Coach, Arkansas State)
Derek Dooley - Tennessee - Butch Jones (Head Coach, Cincinnati)
Joker Phillips - Kentucky - Mark Stoops (Defensive Coordinator, Florida State)
John L. Smith - Arkansas - Bret Bielema (Head Coach, Wisconsin)

Miscellaneous (Mid-level Conference Schools)
Rob Akey - Idaho - Paul Petrino (Offensive Coordinator, Arkansas)
Mario Cristobal - Florida International - N/A
Bill Cubit - Western Michigan - N/A
Dave Doeren - Northern Illinois - Rod Carey (Offensive Coordinator, Northern Illinois)
Sonny Dykes - Louisiana Tech - N/A
Darrell Hazell  - Kent State - N/A
Ellis Johnson - Southern Mississippi - N/A
Gus Malzahn - Arkansas State - N/A
Mike Price - UTEP- N/A

That is a lot of unfilled positions. How will this list affect the Buckeyes?

Well first, the two Big Ten moves are important because they directly affect the competition in the conference. I believe Darrell Hazell can make Purdue into a second tier team in the conference judging by the turnaround he did at Kent State. He can recruit the state of Ohio, and while I expect Urban Meyer to be able to get the in-state recruits that he wants, Hazell should be able to get the players that Meyer is not after.

Bret Bielema leaves the conference for the Arkansas Razorbacks of the SEC. This move is very important because the Wisconsin Badgers play in our division. I am sure that whoever Barry Alvarez hires to replace Bielema will keep up the tradition of a strong run game and massive offensive line. I wouldn't be shocked for an assistant coach under Bielema to be tagged for the job. Remember, Bielema wasn't a big name coach when Alvarez hand picked him as his successor.

Now, the other teams with openings could come after Ohio State's assistant coaches to fill their vacancies. I would not be surprised at all for the mid-level conference schools to try and interview some of the Buckeye staff for their vacancies. I just hope we can keep this staff intact to make a run at a National Championship next season.

I would guess that by the end of the bowl season most of the vacancies will be filled in one way or another. One thing to take note of is that so far, only one school has made an assistant coach under the departed coach the new head coach of the team (Rod Carey of Northern Illinois). So expect this list to possibly grow in the coming weeks as head coaches are poached from other schools to fill the vacancies above.