Rob's Rankings: Will these fired coaches get another chance?

CLASS OF 2019 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position | Team

The last spin of the coaching carousel saw a number of Power Five head coaches hit the exits. Not all were as lucky as Kevin Sumlin, who found a new head coaching gig months after being dismissed from his old one. Plenty of men that were once seen as “great hires” are left working as assistants or without jobs at all. This week, we rank the recently fired coaches’ chances of landing another FBS head coaching job in the years ahead.

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Things at Florida didn’t end well for McElwain. His offense was stagnant and his final season was, well, an unmitigated disaster. Still, let’s not forget that he reached the SEC title game twice in three seasons in Gainesville and now has experience leading a major SEC program. McElwain is a little on the older side at 56, but one season of spectacular failure won’t keep him from being a head coach. He’s currently working as a position coach at Michigan, which is a gig that could lead him back to the head coaching ranks in a hurry. If things go well in Ann Arbor, he’ll get another shot.

Chances of becoming an FBS head coach: High

Bielema is a big personality that rattled off three Big Ten titles at Wisconsin before taking the Arkansas job from which he was eventually fired. With that kind of success in his past, it’s not absurd to believe an athletic director would attempt to recapture the magic that made him hyper-effective for a stretch in Madison. He’ll never be thought of as a successful Razorback, but he did get the team bowl eligible in three of his five seasons. The 48-year-old Bielma boasts a 97-58 record in 12 seasons as a Power Five head coach, so there’s plenty of reason to think he’ll resurface in the big chair.

Chances of becoming an FBS head coach: High

The 53-year-old Graham has probably put his reputation as a job-jumper to rest, and it’s not as though he didn’t have some semblance of success at Arizona State. He finished his six-year tenure at the school with a 46-32 record that included two 10-win seasons and an appearance in the 2013 Pac 12 title game.

Seven current FBS head coaches have worked under Graham, so he shouldn’t have trouble finding a place to start over. Graham may not be a spring chicken, but he’s experienced just three losing seasons in his 12 years as an FBS head coach. An athletic director won’t have to look hard to find appeal. He’d be a solid hire for any number of programs.

Chances of becoming an FBS head coach: High

The disaster that was the end of the Butch Jones Era at Tennessee was somehow overshadowed the absolute calamity of a coaching search that followed. Still, Jones certainly isn’t appealing to many Power Five schools these days. That said, the Nick Saban Halfway House for Dismissed Head Coaches is a proven commodity when it comes to reforming images. Jones will need to work his way up from his current position of “offensive analyst,” but that’s not impossible.

The dismissed head coach recruited relatively well at Tennessee and twice won nine games, so it’s not as though he’s un-hirable. With no major scandal attached to his name, it’s not hard to imagine a world in which Jones leads another team out of a tunnel somewhere.

Chances of becoming an FBS head coach: Above average

On one hand, accountability … or something. Andersen forfeited $12 million when he stepped down as Oregon State’s head coach midway through his third season, saying he wouldn’t accept money for a job in which he didn’t succeed. On the other hand, he quit on his team mid-year with no warning. This could play either way for his career going forward, but his name probably won’t inspire much hope with a fan base after the way things ended in Corvallis. Andersen is 53 years old but has already caught on as an assistant coach at Utah, so another rise up the ranks isn’t totally impossible.

Chances of becoming an FBS head coach: Average

Who knows? NCAA investigations, calls to escort services, bowl bans; on the surface it seems like Freeze will have a hard time getting another head coaching job. Then again, he did win seven or more games in four of the five seasons he spent at Ole Miss. Freeze is just a couple years removed from a 10-3 finish, so after the heat attached to his name cools, there’s a chance a down-on-its-luck program gives him a look. Such a thing likely won’t take place for some time, however, as he has plenty of image rehabilitation left to do. Freeze is only 48, and it’s best to never say never when it comes to a million-dollar industry obsessed with winning.

Chances of becoming an FBS head coach: Below average

Mora is 56 years old, but won 10 games twice at UCLA, so he may have one last head coaching stand left in him. There’s also the more likely possibility that he catches on as an NFL assistant and finishes his career kicking around the league. If Mora decides he wants to be a college head coach one more time before retiring, the possibility exists. At the same time, there’s no evidence he’s interested in such a thing. Should he catch on as an FBS assistant in the next two years, he’ll move further up this list.

Chances of becoming an FBS head coach: Low

Off-field scandals aren’t conducive to second chances in 2018, so not matter how the rest of Rodríguez’s story plays out, his name will be tainted. Not only was the former Arizona head coach not always wildly successful in Tucson, the off-field chaos, which included accusations of creating a hostile work environment, makes him a high-risk hire. Rodriguez would have to find an athletic department undeterred by public blowback to take a chance on him as a head coach. This is an uphill battle to say the least.

Chances of becoming an FBS head coach: Low

A big factor working against Riley is his age. Being 64 isn’t ideal for a coach looking for work, so it stands to reason that Nebraska was the veteran’s last head coaching job. His track record is not ideal, either, with eight of his 17 college seasons ending with a losing record and a 14-34 mark as an NFL head coach. He’s incredibly well-liked, but time waits for no one, so the aging Riley is probably done as an FBS head coach.

Chances of becoming an FBS head coach: Next to none

With Roseanne returning to the air this week, there’s no time like the present to imagine more television reboots. Finding shows that have yet to remade is half the challenge here, but we’re up for it. Below we’ve ranked four shows that could easily be freshened up and presented to a modern audience.

PLOT: The robot is a dark comedy that centers on Michael "Dauber" Dybinski, the defensive coordinator from the original. Dybinski never made it in the college ranks and has fallen on hard times. He’s now a handler based in South Florida and makes a living selling official visits and commitments to colleges. He also charges parents for scam football camps. Think Friday Night Lights meets Eastbound and Down

PLOT: Steve Urkel has been locked up for continually stalking Laura Winslow. Hilarity ensues when Laura’s police officer father, Carl, is reassigned as the warden of the facility that houses the nerdy lead. The pilot features Steve accidentally starting a prison riot before tossing out his catch phrase, “Did I Do That?”

PLOT: It doesn’t matter. Just throw together a bunch of intriguing mystery with the implied promise that all the moving parts will fit together at the end. Then, hope to get cancelled. If that doesn’t happen, come up with a lame, catch-all ending to bail yourself out. You know, just like the first time. Don’t mess with what works here.

PLOT: After giving up on gaining acceptance from Seattle’s cultural and intellectual elite, an aging Frazier Crane, now laid off from his radio job, is depressed and addicted to the internet. Twitter allows him to chase his fleeting notoriety while making pithy jokes and peddle his snark for favorites and retweets until he dies alone by choking on an expensive cheese in front of his laptop.

What? Nobody said this had to be a comedy.