Tuesdays with Gorney: Five coaches that need to start winning
The dismissals of Scott Frost at Nebraska and Herm Edwards at Arizona State got Rivals national recruiting director Adam Gorney thinking about other hot seats to watch. In this week’s Tuesdays with Gorney.
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Bryan Harsin, Auburn
After surviving an attempt to oust him this past offseason, Harsin is not making his life easy early this season. The Tigers trailed San Jose State at halftime before an eight-point victory two weeks ago and on Saturday, Auburn got whipped by Penn State, 41-12, at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The Nittany Lions ran all over Auburn and dominated pretty much the entire way. And now the SEC schedule is coming up for the Tigers.
Penn State fans were taking pics with running back Nicholas Singleton and Sean Clifford was cheering them on and the Auburn decision-makers could not be thrilled. Missouri is next and then the month of October is a complete bear with games against LSU, Georgia, Ole Miss and Arkansas.
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Karl Dorrell, Colorado
Colorado has lost to TCU by 25 points, Air Force by 31 and now Minnesota by 42 in just a terrible start for coach Karl Dorrell and the Buffaloes. So bad that it prompted athletics director Rick George to issue a statement expressing his disappointment in the team’s performance so far and that he hears the fans’ frustrations. That is usually the first step to moving on from the head coach unless wins start piling up fast.
That’s going to be tough. Colorado hosts UCLA this weekend and while the schedule softens up a bit over the next few weeks, the closing month is brutal with games against Oregon, USC, Washington and Utah. It’s been a very deflating start to the season for Dorrell and the Buffaloes, and he might be running out of time.
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Scott Satterfield, Louisville
Satterfield went 8-5 in his first season with the Cardinals but then slid to 10-14 over the next two campaigns before a 1-2 start this year. Louisville got dropped by Syracuse, 31-7, in the season opener, then bounced back for an impressive win over UCF only to lose to Florida State and its backup quarterback last weekend. That inconsistency has gotten frustrating and it means Satterfield is on the hot seat. Malik Cunningham has been inconsistent throwing the ball and while there is talent on the team, is it being maximized?
This gets a little more interesting because Louisville’s recruiting class is No. 19 nationally with eight four-stars and legitimate game-changers. Do they come if Satterfield and his staff are gone? That will be something worthwhile to consider because there is potential elite talent coming.
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Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech
Paul Johnson coached 11 seasons at Georgia Tech and had three losing ones. Collins has coached three seasons there and hasn’t won more than three games in any one of them. There was complete understanding early in Collins’ tenure since he had to basically transition from the entire flexbone offense Johnson ran with new personnel but things have not gotten better with most of Collins’ players in place.
The final straw might have been a 42-0 shellacking by Ole Miss this past weekend where quarterback Jeff Sims was sacked seven times, Georgia Tech’s leading receiver had 35 yards and its leading rusher finished with 27. There were some rumors of a team meeting Sunday after Collins met with Todd Stansbury but nothing substantive has come of it yet. A big matchup against UCF comes this weekend.
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Neal Brown, West Virginia
West Virginia is scoring 46 points per game, the Mountaineers are out-rushing and out-passing their opponents and yet they find themselves at 1-2. To be fair, West Virginia lost a close one to Pitt in the season opener and lost to a surprisingly good Kansas team in overtime with a blowout win over Townson. But Brown’s tenure in Morgantown has been choppy.
Previous coach Dana Holgorsen had two 10-win and two eight-win seasons during his stretch there. Brown has gone 5-7, 6-4 and 6-7 in his first three years and is now 1-2 heading into a tough October stretch with games against Texas, Baylor, Texas Tech and TCU. There is talent in Morgantown but now wins need to come – and fast.