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Harbaugh Led a 2015 Coaching Class Full of False Assumptions

The 2015 Coaching Carousel Class Proves There Are No Sure Things

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Oct 7
Oct 7

By Rock Westfall

The 2015 Coaching Class Teaches Perpetual Perils of Blind Expectations  

Following a lost (5-7) 2014 season, the Michigan Wolverines fired fourth-year head coach Brady Hoke. Next, there was but one choice for the Maize and Blue. Jim Harbaugh was hired after parting ways with the San Francisco 49ers. Harbaugh was the ultimate “Michigan Man” as a former All-American QB under the school’s iconic late coach Bo Schembechler. Harbaugh worships and quotes Bo to this day.  

Michigan fans dreamed of the national championships to come, but it wasn’t that easy or automatic.  Finally, after much trial and error and a near firing in 2020, Harbaugh said he would “bet on myself.” Three consecutive College Football Playoff appearances followed with a 2023 national championship, something Schembechler never achieved. Harbaugh departed Michigan for the NFL Los Angeles Chargers on top and in the conversation as the GOAT coach of Michigan.  

Harbaugh’s ultimate triumph was one of the few 2015 coaching hires that ended as expected. For the rest of the 2015 coaching carousel class, the results are mixed, with odd hires, false assumptions, and letdown lessons that will forever apply. 

What is now startling is that each major hire was met with near-universal acclaim.  Yet only a few of the hires ended as even a partial success. Not one of the major hires in 2015 was considered anything less than first-rate. The Media gushed and glowed over each coach.  Sadly, for many of these coaches, the 2015 carousel proves what a crapshoot a coaching hire actually is.  

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Andersen Fled Wisconsin for Coaching Oblivion as Chryst Saved the Badgers

Gary Andersen took over the Wisconsin Badgers for the 2013 season after Bret Bielema shockingly bolted for Arkansas. Andersen went 19-7 in his two seasons in Madison and was not in trouble. However, Andersen grew tired of the heavy hand and large shadow of former UW head coach and then-athletic director Barry Alvarez, the Godfather of the Wisconsin program. There were disputes over academic requirements and admissions, as well as Andersen’s slight tweaking to more of a finesse-oriented offensive style, despite the fact that Alvarez hired Andersen after being impressed with his Utah State offense in a previous game at Wisconsin, where the Badgers nearly lost.  

After getting annihilated in the Big Ten championship game by Ohio State, Andersen fled for the Oregon State Beavers, who had just lost long-time HC and campus icon Mike Riley to Nebraska. Andersen committed career suicide at Oregon State, going 7-23 in two seasons and six games. He quit midway through the 2017 campaign, leaving millions of dollars on the table. One wonders what Mrs. Andersen thought about that!  In the end, Andersen came off as erratic, strange, and a loser. A subsequent career comeback attempt at Utah State ended in a similar fashion.

Meanwhile, Madison’s hometown hero Paul Chryst returned to his alma mater, where he was a Badger quarterback and an offensive coordinator. Chryst adopted the full Alvarez Gospel and started off Gangbusters with records of 10-3, 11-3, and 13-1 in his first three seasons. In 2017, Chryst had the Badgers within one score of the College Football Playoff with a final ranking of 6th. Two years later, the Badgers played in the Rose Bowl and finished 8th in the nation. 

Ironically, after Chryst landed the highest-ranked QB prospect in program history (Graham Mertz), his offense became discombobulated. Chryst tried a hybrid of Wisconsin’s traditional power running with a more sophisticated passing attack.  The changes ultimately cost him his job two-and-a-half seasons after Mertz arrived.  

At Least It Was the Life of Riley At the Water Cooler

Despite a career record of 67-27 at Nebraska, Bo Pelini was fired after seven seasons.  Nebraska never won less than nine games in any of Pelini’s campaigns. But athletic director Shawn Eichorst believed Nebraska was capable of more. Also, Eichorst was tired of the volatile Pelini’s profane tirades and explosive nature. Eichorst went with the mirror opposite of Pelini by hiring Oregon State head coach Mike Riley, known as “Mr. Nice Guy.” Riley was credited with going 93-80 at Oregon State, where winning is difficult in the best of times.  

The theory was that Riley would finally prove his greatness as a coach at Nebraska with all of its resources. Instead, Riley went 19-19 with a final season of 4-8.  Riley was fired after that third season, but at least he was nice to talk to at the water cooler, unlike Pelini. Nebraska is still trying to dig out of that catastrophic mistake.

Sharks and Swampy Knolls in Florida 

After Florida discovered that Will Muschamp was not head coaching material, it turned its attention to Colorado State head coach Jim McElwain. Florida knew McElwain best as Nick Saban’s offensive coordinator when Alabama took off as a new national championship powerhouse.

McElwain started off 10-4 and 9-4 with SEC championship game appearances in his first two seasons.  But a 3-4 start in his third campaign in Gainesville got him fired. Sadly, McElwain is best known for social media memes about his wrestling a shark in the nude and for going public about death threats from fans. In the end, McElwain was the object of ridicule, complete with jokes about former JFK assassins awaiting him on swampy knolls. A promising start ended in humiliation.  

Three Coaches of the Future, One Success Story

Three other coaching hires in 2015 were at Group of Five programs with aspirations for growth. Tom Herman (Houston) and Chad Morris (SMU) were so successful that they were quickly snapped by aspiring Power Five schools with championship dreams. Herman went on to Texas, where he had the Longhorns on the cusp of a turnaround after a Sugar Bowl win over Georgia but could not sustain the momentum and was fired the next season. Morris went to Arkansas, where he was a miserable fit, and fired ten games into his second season.  

Meanwhile, Lance Leipold took the Buffalo job and was so successful that the desperate Kansas Jayhawks hired him to save the program, then the worst in college football. Leipold has done so well that KU is completely renovating its stadium and coming off consecutive bowl campaigns. A statue could be in Leipold’s future.

In and Out of the Pitts 

Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi replaced Chryst as head coach of Pitt. Narduzzi led the Panthers to the 2021 ACC championship and a final ranking of 13th. Narduzzi has the second-most career wins at Pitt but an overall record of 65-50 and a win percentage of a mediocre .565.

Pitt has never been a serious national contender since its era of glory from 1976 through 1984, in which it won a national championship and finished in the top 10 six times. So the problem is more likely Pitt rather than Narduzzi, who has done about as well as can be expected in this era.  

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