Rivals Roundtable: Reacting to a wild ride on the coaching carousel

Today's Rivals Roundtable dives deep into the wild 2017 coaching carousel, with our analysts giving their take on the best hires, strangest fits and lasting memories.

HEISMAN TROPHY: What we thought of past winners as prospects

Rob Cassidy: I think Willie Taggart to Florida State is the clear choice here. Taggart is from the state and has a long history of coaching and winning in Florida. He beat FSU for a pair of recruits while he was at Oregon. And if he can stand toe-to-toe with FSU for Florida-talent from 3,000 miles away, it stands to reason that he’ll be able to clean up in Tallahassee.

Mike Farrell: Jimbo Fisher is an elite recruiter and was the biggest home run hire of the offseason. I know the geography will be different, but now he has access to Texas and Louisiana as well as his ties in Florida. This guy knows how to recruit and I expect Texas A&M to get a boost because of it.

Adam Friedman: The answer here has to be either Jimbo Fisher to Texas A&M or Scott Frost to Nebraska. The Aggies have been dying to get over the hump to win the SEC West and Fisher knows how to build a program that can beat Alabama, Auburn and LSU. Nebraska needed one of its one to come back and return the program to glory. Frost is the guy to do just that.

Adam Gorney: Nebraska receives so much recruiting attention one might think the Huskers have had top-10 recruiting classes regularly over the last few years, during the Mike Riley era, but that’s not the case. Scott Frost has the stuff to change that - especially if the Huskers start winning right away. Frost has recruiting connections in the West and in Florida and he should do a great job in the Midwest as well. Chip Kelly at UCLA is a huge name and Willie Taggart is known as a fantastic recruiter but I think Frost can really get it going at Nebraska and the Big Ten West could get more interesting.

Josh Helmholdt: I am going to go with Chip Kelly at UCLA. You put a former NFL head coach who runs one of the most exciting offenses in the game in the middle of a place that kicks out tons of skill position athletes. He's going to clean up.

Nick Krueger: I think that Scott Frost to Nebraska has to be the pick here. Even if recruits on the West Coast haven't paid any special attention to UCF this season, they will all be impressed with Frost leading the team to an undefeated record this season. Nebraska is still a brand name in college football and it won't take much reminding to recruits about what it could mean for the program to bring it back to the level of prestige its fans expect. A young coach that has a résumé that will excite players is usually a pretty solid recipe for recruiting success - at least in the very short term - and should give the Huskers a shot in the arm that they are hungry for after a turbulent 2017 season.

Chad Simmons: I would have to say Chip Kelly to UCLA. This seems like a perfect fit all the way around. Kelly is a proven winner, he knows how to recruit and he will be right at home on the West Coast.

Woody Wommack: I think you have to go with Willie Taggart to Florida State. He’s a Florida native and the type of young, energetic coach that kids in the Southeast love. If he was able to beat out the 'Noles for kids in Florida during his brief time at Oregon how well will he do now that he’s in Tallahassee? It’s going to be fun to watch.

Cassidy: Scott Frost brings the kind of offense Nebraska needs to kick start itself. If the Cornhuskers are never going to land a top five recruiting class, they’ll need to win with scheme, and Frost's high-powered offense is a proven commodity. Nebraska can get high-level talent with the right coach and Frost's offense will be even scarier with Power Five-level athletes. I think he’s going to win a lot of games in Lincoln.

Gorney: If you’ve listened to The Godfather & Gorney podcast recently (shameless plug) I’ve been a huge supporter of Florida hiring Dan Mullen and I think he did as good a job as possible at Mississippi State. Let’s not forget, a few years ago Mullen had the Bulldogs at No. 1 nationally and he’s done a great job in Starkville. But he also understands the culture in Gainesville from his days as offensive coordinator there and with an excellent defense, Mullen’s offensive mind could get the Gators back to the top of the SEC. There have been some tensions but that’s in the past and I think Mullen is going to kill it with the Gators.

Farrell: I’d say Chip Kelly at UCLA because of his previous ties to the Pac-12 and how big a hire that was for the Bruins who need a shot in the arm. I think he can do big things there.

Friedman: I really like what Dan Mullen will be able to do at Florida. He obviously had a lot of success in Gainesville as the offensive coordinator under Urban Meyer and he knows what to do to be successful there. If Mullen was able to win like he did at Mississippi State, then there is no reason he shouldn't be able to win leading a program with more resources like Florida.

Krueger: Without a doubt, it's Texas A&M. Forget about what has been said about the relationship between Jimbo Fisher and Aggies AD John Woodward, after the way this season got away from the Seminoles following their Week 1 loss to Alabama, both the program and Fisher looked as though they needed to hit the reset button. Meanwhile, Fisher brings a national championship-winning coach and some instant legitimacy to a program that is thirsty to be the premier name in the state of Texas - and the SEC.

Helmholdt: Nebraska with Scott Frost. Alum who grew up in the state on his way up in the profession after proving to be a heck of a ball coach. That's as good as it gets.

Simmons: I like the Nebraska hire. Scott Frost is a Husker and he knows what Nebraska football is all about. He has passion for the school, he is very innovative as a coach and he is going to bring life back to that program immediately.

Wommack: Scott Frost and Nebraska. It’s like this was a gift from the football gods for the long-suffering Huskers fans. Not only do you get an innovative offensive mind, but you also get a great recruiter and on top of it an alum who already has the full trust of the fan base.

Cassidy: Somebody hired Herm Edwards. Yup, that Herm Edwards. That’s seriously a real thing that happened.

Farrell: Herm Edwards at Arizona State is the easy answer. He hasn’t recruited in 100 years.

Friedman: Herm Edwards to Arizona State was kind of a head-scratcher. The former ESPN analyst has some name recognition but players and recruits don't really remember that Herm Edwards was a coach in the NFL and they certainly don't remember that he wasn't exactly successful as a head coach.

Gorney: If by “reach” we mean “oddest hire” then I have to go with Herm Edwards at Arizona State. Edwards has very limited college coaching experience, he’s 54-74 as a head coach in the NFL and he’s 63-years-old so it doesn’t seem like he’ll be the long-term solution in Tempe. If Edwards was brought in to right the ship and then hand it over to an up-and-coming coach, then maybe I can buy it. But Edwards has not coached in nearly a decade, I’m not sure he has the cachet needed with top West prospects to get them to Arizona State and in such an appealing job, I thought hiring an innovative coach at a smaller school or a big-time assistant would have made more sense.

Helmholdt: There are a lot of possibilities here, but was Jimbo Fisher really worth $7.5 million per year to Texas A&M? I think they could have gotten as good of a coach for less.

Krueger: Can we even call the Arizona State hire of Herm Edwards a reach? How many times does it need to be brought up that it didn't seem in his introductory press conference that he was even aware what the school's mascot was? A reach implies perhaps a team outsmarted itself taking a gamble on some assistant that had never had coaching experience and is stepping into shoes too big for him. The Edwards hiring might not be panned for bringing aboard someone that doesn't know how to coach so much as someone that is very unlikely to be in tune with the landscape of college football and how to manage a program in a Power Five conference.

Simmons: This is a no brainer: Herm Edwards. Edwards is very entertaining on TV and he seems like a great person, but I still do not understand this hire. He was not a great NFL coach, he has not coached football in more than 10 years and now he wants to get into college football and recruit 365 days a year? I do not see this marriage lasting very long.

Wommack: Herm Edwards and Arizona State. I don’t think there’s much to explain here. Edwards has been out of coaching for years and his first week as coach already featured several bizarre moments.

Cassidy: It’s the Tennessee search, a recap of which can be found here. We had local rib joints getting involved, wrestling shoes getting hijacked, fan outrage, fired athletic directors and a healthy dose of Jon Gruden fan fiction. It’s a coaching search that will always be near and dear to my heart.

Gorney: A book could be written about the Tennessee coaching search and that might be my way to millions. It was so incredibly mishandled that I don’t know who deserves blame, whether it’s the chancellor or former athletics director John Currie, who got fired in the middle of the search, or whomever else but there’s plenty to go around. I can’t even get started on what a joke the entire search had become but I’ll just say a former coach - Lane Kiffin - posted a photo that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would not be taking the job. That was the level it had gotten to and that was way before someone was hired. Tennessee finally hired Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt and God bless him because if the search is any indication on how that place is run, it’s going to be a wild ride.

Farrell: I think the obvious answer is Tennessee but truly I think Fisher leaving Florida State the way he did and heading to Texas A&M will be the biggest moment of the whole thing. The Vols debacle will fade but Fisher leaving affects the entire SEC and ACC.

Friedman: The way the Tennessee fan base essentially fired Greg Schiano before he was officially hired should be everybody's lasting memory from this coaching carousel. Social media and talking heads, for better or worse, have empowered the fan base of every school and the mob-mentality can get out of control pretty quickly.

Helmholdt: How can it not be the clown show at Tennessee? Certainly some of it was bad luck, but most of it was just plain mismanagement.

Krueger: Obviously Tennessee's arduous search for a head coach and the debacle of the attempted Greg Schiano hire is the clear answer. That being said, the Volunteers really seemed to stick the landing after hiring Jeremy Pruitt when it seemed as though all the best and obvious head coach candidates had moved on. Pruitt brings an element of experience, success and understanding of the landscape he'll be coaching in to a program that is desperate to get back to the level of success it feels it can achieve. While the results remain to be seen, Pruitt brings as high a chance for a happily ever after ending to Tennessee as could have been hoped for, given the circumstances.

Simmons: Do I need to say more than Tennessee? How many times did it seem like a coach was being hired? They missed on some top targets, numerous coaches used them as leverage to get raises and it was just a mess in Knoxville. With that said though, the hiring of Jeremy Pruitt could play out to be the best case scenario for the Vols. He has energy, he is intense and most importantly, he can recruit.

Wommack: I think we will all remember all the ups and downs of the Tennessee search. From fans dreaming of Jon Gruden to the Greg Schiano and Mike Leach situations, this one will go down as one of the most memorable of all time.