Darrell Hazzell took over the Kent State program after being a top assistant at Ohio State for years, but he was a late hire. In fact, he had just six weeks to get his first recruiting class put together.
Frankly, Franklin steps into a mess. The new Vandy head coach inherits a 2-10 team on the bottom rung of the Southeastern Conference.
The Wildcats have always been more of a basketball power rather than a force to be reckoned with on the gridiron in the SEC.
Rob Ianello’s first year at Akron went about as poorly as it possibly could have. Ianello was known as an offensive-minded coach, but the Zips were 119th in the nation in total offense. How bad was the offense?
I often talk about how unbalanced offenses usually struggle, but the Bowling Green Falcons were the epitome of a team without any balance last year. Bowling Green ranked dead last in rushing yards, and it wasn’t even close.
It seemed as though Boise State was poised for a BCS bowl last season until the stunning 34-31 overtime defeat at the hands of the Wolf Pack of Nevada that shoved them out of the national spotlight. Now they will be in a new conference ready to show that they are for real.
Eight months removed from going undefeated and edging out Wisconsin 21-19 in the Rose Bowl, Texas Christian University is heading into their final year as a member of the Mountain West Conference without their star quarterback.
Eastern Michigan fans are hoping for some improvement from last year, but they can’t have set their sights too high.
The Broncos finished at .500 last season, and they are looking to build on that as they move into 2011. The team was bowl eligible in 2010, but they weren’t selected for a bowl game.
The Central Michigan Chippewas have lost some pretty good players and coaches over the last few years. Dan LeFevour set all kinds of school records at the quarterback position.
Auburn had its whirlwind dream season last year, coming back to beat nemesis Alabama, winning the SEC title and the National Championship and yielding a Heisman Trophy-winning QB in Cam Newton.
The Central Florida Knights took Conference USA East title last year, and then they went on to defeat SMU in the Conference USA Championship Game.
Larry Porter’s first season on the job at Memphis was a miserable one. The Tigers went 1-11 and they were abysmal in every aspect of the game.
This program has had its share of turmoil since long-time coach Phil Fulmer’s forced resignation in 2008.
There is tangible pressure on Houston Nutt in just his fourth season at the helm in Oxford.
Doc Holliday took over at the beginning of last year, and the Thundering Herd stumbled out of the gates to sit at 1-6 after their first seven games.
