Send Accomplished College Football Coaches Back to Earlier Jobs

Welcome again to the One-Question Mailbag, where a reader like you sends us a single question (email it to oneqmailbag@themessenger.com) and then we offer you multiple answers to it.

This week's question comes from Reid:

You can go back and give any current school any former head coach as their current head coach (i.e. Nick Saban at Michigan State) What teams with their current roster would see the most improvement from the new coach?

Kaelen Jones: Pete Carroll at USC. Carroll’s reign might have ended on a sour note a decade ago, but hear me out. In a year where the top feels unsettled, the Trojans would be college football’s consensus no. 1 if Carroll coached them. (And to Reid’s point, it’s among the funnier pairings I can think of.)

Two reasons Carroll takes this team farther than Lincoln Riley: 1. Carroll understood Southern California culture and 2. He actually cared about defense.

As I’ve detailed in a previous column, Riley rarely fields competent defenses, which history suggests is a necessity for title-contenders. In Carroll’s nine seasons at USC (2001-09), the Trojans finished outside the top-20 in points allowed per game only twice — 2005 (the season they lost that Rose Bowl vs. Texas) and 2009 (Carroll’s last season). Former five-star defensive linemen Bear Alexander and Korey Foreman should be household names. Calen Bullock and Domani Jackson should be among the nation’s most feared defensive backs. None of that is the case, not at the level it could be. Carroll would turn the possibility of USC having a dominant defense into a reality. He also wouldn’t be so publicly indignant if called out for having a lengthy track record of being poor in one specific phase.

That brings me to the culture fit. Carroll showed more self-awareness after making one of the most infamous mistakes in Super Bowl history than Riley has displayed over having a long-standing flaw pointed out. Perhaps it’s out of loyalty to his long-time coordinator, which is noble. But if Riley keeps defending his assistant’s job, then eventually there needs to be tangible change that is noticeable to untrained eyes and bears out meaningful statistical measures.

As far as I know, reporters viewed Carroll as pithy and charismatic. He never needed to send weird messages to the media by suspending a young reporter like Riley did. Riley sounds like he’s already thinking about what’s next in life after USC, a consideration that isn’t inherently wrong. Juxtaposed with Carroll’s unbridled energy for the job, though? Well, it’s obvious why one coach was a champion and guided USC through its most recent golden era, while the other appears to be continuing their inability of getting over the hump despite having the talent to do so.

Ryan Nanni: I’m going to cheat and give you two answers in wildly different directions. The first is Jimmy Johnson, formerly of the Miami Hurricanes and Dolphins and the Jerry Jones Football Family. I am not putting him in Coral Gables, though. He’ll be headed back to his very first head-coaching gig, leading the Oklahoma State Cowboys. (He’s already got lots of practice shouting excitedly about them!) Johnson’s five years in Stillwater don’t look particularly impressive now — a 29-25-3 record, with two bowl appearances — but Oklahoma State had a very mixed history of consistency, and everything he did afterward shows what he was capable of with greater resources. Even if Mike Gundy pulls a decent season out, it feels like his team’s hit a ceiling, and the vibes upgrade alone Shoeless Fishing Enthusiast Jimmy Johnson would bring seems like the boost this program would need to make things interesting down the stretch. Let other teams come up with their turnover props; if you’re an Oklahoma State defensive back who picks off a pass, you get to come to the sideline and put on Jimmy’s three championship rings (one college, two Super Bowl).

Now let’s go with one that’ll really be unpopular. Mike London was not a success at Virginia; he left Charlottesville with a .370 winning percentage, lost all six of his matchups to Virginia Tech (including some very meh Hokie seasons) and didn’t win a single ACC road game in his last three seasons. But he’s done some very good things in his latest job, leading William & Mary to the FCS quarterfinals last season and keeping them in the FCS Top 25 this season. In fact, UVA just hosted London last weekend — and the Tribe came eight yards away from tying the game late in the third quarter before the Cavaliers got a stop and drove for a touchdown to get enough separation. Who doesn’t love second chances? Hang on, I’m being told it’s “everyone who has a UVA message board account.”

Oh, one other thought. "Nick Saban, Returned Michigan State Head Coach" is interesting, sure. But "Nick Saban, Returned LSU Head Coach" would be downright fascinating, especially given some of the defensive performances the Tigers have put together.