During and after the 2022 season, fifteen coaches were fired. Some of them were on the hot seat before the season started and couldn’t improve, others had a bad year that they couldn’t overcome. Let’s take a look at where five of the remaining unemployed coaches could land.
Scott Frost
Coach Frost was supposed to be the coach who brought Nebraska back to glory. He was a former player who won two national championships with the Cornhuskers in 1995 and 1997. Frost was a successful coordinator at Oregon who helped lead Marcus Mariota to a Heisman Trophy and subsequently took UCF from 0-12 to 13-0 in two seasons.
However, the results didn’t match his hype and expectations. Frost developed a reputation for losing close games, going 5-20 in one-possession games and 16-31 overall. Since he was fired after week three, Coach Frost has only appeared as the coach for the gold team in the U.S. Army Bowl on December 17th. He was in the running for the USF head coaching job and the Miami offensive coordinator position. USF instead hired Alex Golesh, although the Miami offensive coordinator spot is still vacant.
Prediction: Offensive assistant at a P5 school
Paul Chryst
Similar to Frost, Paul Chryst was fired early in the 2022 season from his Big 10 West Alma Mater where he played quarterback. Unlike Frost, the firing was surprising, as Chryst had amassed a 67-21 record and three west division titles during his tenure in Madison. Wisconsin started the 2022 season 2-3 with two bad losses to Ohio State and Illinois by a combined 31-86. Chryst had plateaued and had issues developing a quarterback and playcalling.
His buyout leads me to believe that he will be coaching next season. Instead of taking up to twenty million dollars up until 2027, Chryst chose to accept eleven million dollars paid by February first. Coach Chryst was a candidate for Stanford’s head coaching job but was passed up. He also has connections to Oregon State where Chryst was an offensive coordinator in the late 1990s/early 2000s and even coached current Beavers head coach Jonathan Smith. Schematically, the Beavers are similar to the Badgers with a physical power-run attack.
Prediction: Offensive assistant at Oregon State
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Geoff Collins
Geoff Collins worked his way up as a brilliant defensive coordinator leading Mississippi State to a top-five SEC defense in 2014 and Florida to the #6 scoring defense in the country in 2016. He spent two seasons at Temple going a combined 15-10 with a Gasparilla Bowl win. However, he couldn’t mimic that success Georgia Tech which led to a disastrous 10-28 record.
Collins was clearly overmatched but his defensive reputation has remained solid. He was a candidate for the Arkansas defensive coordinator job and met with Sam Pittman in Atlanta. However, he was ultimately passed up for UCF’s Travis Williams.
My prediction: Defensive assistant at a P5 school
Bryan Harsin
Harsin was a Boise man his whole life who couldn’t get it done in Auburn. He was born in Boise, played quarterback for Boise State, and spent sixteen of twenty-two years coaching in various roles with the Broncos. The only times he was away from Boise were for better jobs, such as the previously mentioned SEC Auburn Tigers. He was a tremendous head coach at Boise State, winning three Mountain West Championships and even the Fiesta Bowl in 2014. I can’t see him coaching anywhere other than his home, especially after he just left his comfort zone and failed miserably.
My prediction: Offensive assistant at Boise State
Herm Edwards
The former eight-year NFL head coach went back to college in 2018 after spending nine years as an NFL Live anchor and initially had a hot start in Tempe, making a bowl in all three full seasons and finishing with a 26-20 record. However, NCAA recruiting violations and declining performances did him in. After the 2021 season, seventeen players entered the portal and many coaches resigned or were fired although Edwards somewhat surprisingly kept his job. He only lasted three games however after losing to Eastern Michigan 30-21 and was fired the next day.
Prediction: Done with coaching career
Unlike every other coach mentioned, Edwards was hired back by ESPN on November 1st, 2022. He is working on shows such as Sports Center, Get Up, NFL Live, and more. Considering the ongoing NCAA investigations, it is highly doubtful he ever returns to the sidelines for a collegiate program.
