College Football Head Coaches on the move

Ohio State

After the whole Jim Tressel debacle, Ohio State has landed the top candidate in Urban Meyer. Even though Tressel violated several rules and regulations, look for him to land on his feet with an NFL pick up the near future.

Urban Meyer's resume speaks for itself; Meyer holds the highest winning percentage amongst all active coaches in 5 year tenure or more at .842. He carries a 7-1 mark in bowl games and has won two BCS National Championships with the University of Florida in 2006 and 2008. 

Although he's a relatively young man at 47 years old, he left coaching for health related reasons and that has to leave a question mark over his long term prospects. Meyer will also be dealing with the loss of 9 scholarships in the next three years thanks to violations committed by the previous regime.

Penn State

We all know about the Penn State scandal and former coach Joe Paterno publicly announced that he's keen to address this but is currently dealing with a curable bout of lung cancer. Needless to say, the Paterno's made it public that they contributed to the university with their annual donation of $100,000. It benefits the university which is great, but it doesn't change what happened nearly a decade ago.

Bill O'Brien will be the Penn State coach and he carries some legitimate credentials, having been with the New England Patriots since 2007. When you're an assistant coach under Bill Belichick you’re learning from the best. 

During his tenure as assistant, O'Brien was a wide receiver and quarterback coach. This is also another positive as he was dealing with one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history in Tom Brady on a day in, day out basis. Before this, O'Brien was primarily an assistant on the offensive side of the ball and offense is something that Penn State sorely lacks. He'll be under heavy scrutiny but O'Brien seems like a great choice for the job.

Kansas

The Kansas Jayhawks have a successful program in college basketball on a yearly basis and will be looking for the same from newly hired head coach Charlie Weis and their football program. Weis carries a lot of weight (no pun intended) due to being a part of three Super Bowls from 2000-2004 under the Belichick regime as offensive coordinator. 

Where I'm from, a local sportscaster (Mike Francesa) is a good friend of former coach Bill Parcells and claims that Charlie Weis is attempting to be a Parcells clone (I happen to agree), acting in a similar manner and conducting himself like Parcells on the sidelines; however there is only one Bill Parcells.

Charlie Weis quickly found that out when he took on the head coaching job at the University of Notre Dame. He compiled a 35-27 and 1-2 in bowl games but the experience had to be considered a failure. Weis had quarterback Brady Quinn and that led to success but in Weis's final three seasons, he failed to compile a winning record in any season. He was 3-9 in 2007 and 6-6 in 2008 and 2009 respectively. This is far from "Notre Dame material". Since then he's taken jobs as offensive coordinator of the Kansas City Chiefs and the Florida Gators.

As OC, he's been spectacular but as a head coach he's unproven at best. His tenure at Kansas will be a very interesting one to keep an eye on.

UCLA

"Did anyone say playoffs?" Of course nobody can forget that interview clip that's been edited from an interview of former New Orleans head coach Jim Mora Sr. 

The Bruins have a new man leading the team but his name is Jim Mora Jr.

Things didn't work out for former head coach and alumnus Rick Neuheisel at UCLA. He was given some good recruiting classes but was an utter failure in his tenure at UCLA, which was stamped by a 50-0 beating that Matt Barkley and the bowl-ineligible USC Trojans inflicted on his team. Nonetheless the Bruins found the backdoor at .500 into the Pac-12 Championship game where they were beaten badly by running back LaMichael James and the Oregon Ducks.

Mora has had extensive experience in being a defensive back coach and defensive coordinator over the last two decades. He was cornerbacks coach under his father in the early to mid 1990's. 

Mora Jr. does bring something that Charlie Weis doesn't bring; he was an NFL head coach for a short period of time. He compiled a 32-34 record in just over 4 seasons with the Atlanta Falcons and the Seattle Seahawks. His one major accomplishment as NFL head coach was when he took the Atlanta Falcons to the NFC Championship Game in 2004 when the Falcons ultimately lost to the Philadelphia Eagles.

This could be a good hiring, considering the talent that UCLA brings in. They need a motivator and Mora Jr. might find success like Pete Carroll (the guy that replaced him at Seattle) did with the USC Trojans. Look for the UCLA Bruins to be a much improved football team in the next couple of years.

Other notable hiring

Howard Schnellenberger needs no introduction and he'll be stepping down as coach of FAU and Carl Pellini will be taking over. The last name Bowden needs no introduction as Terry Bowden fills the position at Akron while the state of Arizona has 2 new head coaches. Todd Graham takes over for former NFL and Miami Hurricanes coach Dennis Erickson at Arizona State and Rich Rodriguez is the new coach at the University of Arizona.

With all of the realignment (that we'll talk about at a future date) and new coaching positions being filled, NCAA football and college football picks will have a new complexion in the 2012-2013 season.