Larry Blakeney has really built up an impressive program at Troy. The Troy Trojans have at least tied for the Sun Belt title in five consecutive seasons. Blakeney has instilled a very positive attitude in this program.
Rickey Bustle was the head man at Louisiana-Lafayette for nine years, but last year’s disappointing season was enough to push him out of that job. Bustle’s team never won more than six games in a season.
Todd Berry did a nice job with the Warhawks of Lousiana-Monroe in his first year with the team in 2010. The Warhawks had only nine returning starters overall, but the team showed marked improvement from 2009.
Howard Schnellenberger is a legendary and colorful coach who has been at some big schools through the years. He is now in his 11th season at Florida Atlantic.
Steve Roberts was at Arkansas State for nine seasons. The Red Wolves seemed to really be on the upswing with Roberts at the helm until the last two seasons.
The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers haven’t been at the FBS level for long. In the school’s first four years at the highest level in college football, they beat just one FBS team.
Todd Dodge was a wildly successful high school coach in Texas, but the experiment with him as the top man at North Texas was a huge disappointment. North Texas went just 6-37 in Dodge’s 43 games as head coach.
Expectations were high for Middle Tennessee State in 2010, but the team just never got things going. Star quarterback Dwight Dasher was suspended for the first few games, and then when he came back he didn’t play like a star.
