The Coaching Carousel

There’s no denying it, the coaching carousel is in full spin this week. And probably for many more weeks to come.

There are some very high profile jobs out there including spots at Alabama and Miami.

North Carolina put itself way ahead of the pack by taking the bull by the horns and securing one of the biggest names out there in former Miami head coach Butch Davis. He is saying all the right things and has the ability and know-how, by all accounts, to return the Tar Heels to the level Mack Brown reached in Chapel Hill.

Whether or not the Heels’ move force North Carolina State’s hand or not is irrelevant. The Wolfpack axed Chuck Amato after finishing this season with a seven game losing streak; including a third straight loss to bitter rival North Carolina and lame duck coach John Bunting. And now they too join the search for a new coach.

This whole coach search is such a crazy thing. I think the folks in Chapel Hill hit a home run by just being the only ones in the Butch Davis race at the time. Davis may have looked at Alabama had the situation been different. But credit North Carolina for securing him sooner rather than later, which may have meant not at all.

Alabama and Miami are two high profile, big time NCAA Football coaching jobs. But in this day and age, when a coach a year removed from a 10-win season and another a few years removed from a national championship can be fired, it’s tough to bring another experienced guy in there and say, “This is a great place with great tradition, but if you don’t give us 10 wins and a BCS bowl in the next few years you’re gone.”

That’s the challenge Miami, and in particular, Alabama face in finding the right man to restore those programs to national prominence. But they will. They will find their man, and that will be just another spin on the carousel of college coaching.