College football coaching carousel: Grading each new hire, how they fit
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The college football coaching carousel is in overdrive, and at least one big name has already found a ride.
Nine jobs in the Power Four conferences opened up in-season, including at blue-blood places like LSU, Florida and Penn State. Expect more jobs to become available once the dominoes start to fall.
USA TODAY college football columnists Blake Toppmeyer and Matt Hayes will grade each hire in this year’s coaching cycle as the hires are made.
HIT REFRESH FOR UPDATES.
James Franklin to Virginia Tech
Grade: A
Virginia Tech — with the hiring of James Franklin — is making perhaps the best move of the coaching carousel, despite not being anywhere near the best job available.
Virginia Tech securing Franklin is a big-boy move, reinstalling gravitas to a program that went the Group of Five hiring route to replace Frank Beamer, and then went the coordinator route with Brent Pry to replace Justin Fuente, who was previously head coach of Memphis.
It’s not hyperbolic to say Franklin is far and away the most accomplished coach to ever accept the Virginia Tech job. Beamer’s stardom occurred after taking the Hokies job, not before.
Virginia Tech doesn’t need Franklin to reinvent himself. It just needs Franklin to be who he’s been his entire career.
∎ WE WILL UPDATE AS MORE COACHING HIRES ARE MADE. STAY TUNED…
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College football coaching hire grades: Good, bad, we’ll see
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