Rivals national columnist Mike Farrell is here with five massive coordinator hires, five controversies from the 2021 season and some Big 12 coaching job comparisons this season.

TRANSFER TRACKER: The latest news

*****

RIVALS RANKINGS WEEK

Saturday: Who should be awarded fifth star?

Sunday: Who should be No. 1?

Monday: Five-Star Countdown | Meet the new five-stars

Tuesday: New Rivals250 revealed | Gorney's thoughts | Who will we regret dropping? | 10 biggest movers

Wednesday: Offensive position rankings | Recruiting updates on all uncommitted offensive players in Rivals250 | Five schools that received boost from new rankings | QB Rankings Spotlight | RB Rankings Spotlight | WR/TE Rankings Spotlight | OL Rankings Spotlight

Thursday: Defensive position rankings

Friday: State rankings

*****

There have been some significant coordinator hires in the recent days (or rumors of such). Here are five that I think will have a huge impact.

1. Frank Wilson to LSU — The Louisiana native comes back to LSU, where he was an assistant coach for six seasons and will immediately give Brian Kelly a massive boost on the recruiting front. It’s unclear what his on-field role will be as the associate head coach, but he is for sure the recruiting coordinator - and that’s the big thing for LSU. He will lead the recruiting department, now more important than ever, given Kelly's lack of experience in the state and the South in general. While Kelly still has a lot of work to do to fill out his staff this is a great way to kick it off.

2. Jim Knowles to Ohio State — The architect of Oklahoma State's outstanding defense heads to Columbus to take over for an Ohio State team that relieved Kerry Coombs of play-calling duties after its Week 2 loss to Oregon. The Broyles Award finalist will bring his aggressive 4-2-5 scheme with him - a scheme that led the nation in sacks and was third in yards-per-game allowed. This is a big upgrade, making the most talented team in the Big Ten even scarier headed into next season.

3. Jeff Lebby to Oklahoma — Brent Venables' first hire in Norman was a big one, luring Ole Miss offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby out of Oxford and making him one of the highest-paid assistants in the country. Lebby has been a Broyles Award finalist in each of the last two seasons, and he helped groom Matt Corral into potentially the first quarterback taken in the upcoming draft.

4. Mark Whipple to Nebraska — Most recently the offensive coordinator for a Pitt team that lit up the ACC, Whipple resigned a bit unexpectedly earlier this week before being named the new OC at Nebraska. Whipple will be Scott Frost's third offensive coordinator in a span of four years, and he will be expected to turn around an offense that has yet to be ranked in the top 50 during Frost's tenure. This season, Pitt ranked third in the nation in total offense behind a pass-heavy attack led by Heisman Trophy finalist Kenny Pickett.

5. Zach Kittley to Texas Tech — A little more under the radar than some of the other hires, Kittley's rapid rise over the past few seasons is nothing short of remarkable, and he will bring his modern air-raid attack to Texas Tech. The Lubbock native has spent the last two seasons installing his offense first at FCS Houston Baptist and then at Western Kentucky, and with massive success. This past season, Bailey Zappe (who moved from HBU to WKU with Kittley) led the nation in passing yards with 5,545 - more than 1,000 yards more than the No. 2 player on the list - as well as touchdowns with 56 (13 more than the No. 2 player). Expect to see some huge numbers once again for the Red Raiders' offense.

1. Bishop Sycamore High School. Yes, I know it technically didn't take place in college, but it's too insane to not talk about, and it has already been forgotten. This was the story that swept the country in late August and is still almost unfathomable looking back at it. The "high school" turned out to be almost completely fabricated - the address of the school is a P.O. box, it claimed an enrollment of three students in 2020 and had played two days before taking on IMG Academy on Aug. 29. We all know what happened in that 58-0 blowout, and the fallout since has completely exposed the hoax.

2. MSU-Michigan officiating. Were it not for some questionable officiating, we might be looking at an undefeated Michigan team heading into the playoff right now, giving the Wolverines the No. 1 seed and an easier matchup against Cincinnati instead of having to face Georgia. The conference even admitted to Jim Harbaugh that it made some mistakes - most notably a reversal of a fumble call on MSU QB Payton Thorne that was recovered for a Michigan TD by Aidan Hutchinson. In the end, the Wolverines still won the conference and are in the playoff, but it still stings and Big Ten officiating is as bad as ever.

3. Tank Bigsby not going down inbounds. Oh, what could have been. Auburn had Alabama on the ropes - up 10-3 with 1:56 left and with the ball in its possession in the Iron Bowl. All the Tigers had to do was run the ball, get one first down and - most importantly - not go out of bounds. But on second and 11, Bigsby went out of bounds after running for 10 yards, saving a timeout for Alabama, which would get the ball back with an additional 40 seconds. The Tide went 97 yards in just over a minute, and went on to win in OT. Notre Dame is not happy with you, Auburn.

4. Baylor kicking a late FG against Oklahoma. With the game already in hand against the Sooners, Dave Aranda elected to kick a field goal as time expired. His reasoning? Point differential. The Big 12 still uses point differential in conference play as a tiebreaker, so every point matters. Lincoln Riley was up in arms about this, but let's face it: He's been known to run it up himself, and he gets no sympathy anymore in Norman.

5. Kenny Pickett's fake slide. The Pitt QB is taking some heat for this move against Wake Forest in the ACC title game, and I can see why. You can't breathe on a QB these days without getting a targeting call, even if they're running in the open field. It's definitely a borderline move, but I commend Pickett for his creativity. Pickett pretended he was heading into a slide and fooled Wake defenders as he scampered for a long touchdown run.

And finally, I round out my look at coaching comparisons with a glance at the jobs done in the Big 12 by six coaches.

Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma vs. Steve Sarkisian, Texas — Riley is gone, but this is the big coaching matchup we wanted to see. Things started off promising for Sark, but Riley clearly did the better job despite being a bit of a disappointment himself.

Dave Aranda, Baylor vs. Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State — What a battle. They both outcoached Matt Campbell at Iowa State, but weren’t supposed to, and I suppose Aranda gets the close nod here for winning the rematch.

Matt Campbell, Iowa State vs. Chris Klieman, Kansas State — Campbell was supposed to have a playoff-caliber team and he didn’t, while Klieman’s team surprised many and he gets the clear nod here.