This is list a ranking of the worst head coaching failures from the timespan of 2012-2021.
10. Kevin Sumlin, Arizona. Sumlin’s early success from the Johnny Manziel era in College Station slowly but surely faded. Post Manziel, Sumlin accumulated a 31-20 record including a 1-2 bowl record in the same span. Afterward, he was hired by Arizona and the Wildcats endured an abysmal 9-20 record. His final year in Arizona was 0-5.
9. Gary Andersen, Oregon State. This was a peculiar development. For starters, Coach Andersen left the Wisconsin Badgers for the Oregon State Beavers. Normally, you don’t see coaches leave big national brands for schools known on a more regional level. Be that as it may, Andersen believed he could change the culture in Corvallis. His best intentions only resulted in a 7-23 record ending with a 1-5 record in his third and final season.
8. Darrell Hazell, Purdue. Granted, the Boilermakers are more known for basketball, but Hazell’s record is bad even for Purdue’s standards. Hazell failed to amass more than three wins in his tenure at West Lafayette. Year one, 1-11. Year two, 3-9. Next, 2-10. His final year was 3-3 before his termination.
7. Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee. This guy had more NCAA recruiting violations than actual victories in Rocky Top. After going 5-7 in his inaugural season, he loses to Georgia State at home in the 2019 season opener. Then followed it up with an overtime loss to BYU despite leading in the fourth quarter but would turn the season around by going 7-4 the final eleven games to end the year 7-6. The final year in 2020 brought a 3-7 record with longtime rival Florida clinching the East at home. Soon afterward, the NCAA cited 18 Level 1 recruiting violations for improper benefits which allowed Tennessee to fire him with cause.
6. David Beaty, Kansas. Even by Kansas football standards, the level of play was dreadful. His record was 6-42. That was not a typo. Even Lance Leipold in his second season won six games in Lawrence. Quite frankly, you could have added any coach Kansas hired in the 2010s decade and wouldn’t receive any pushback. The Jayhawks had arguably the worst decade of any college football program in the sport's history.
5. Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech. Now, Collins had an uphill battle of changing schemes and recruiting strategies due to a long tenure of triple option offenses from Paul Johnson. Not to mention the global pandemic in his second season. Sadly, Geoff Collins could not bring any success to the Yellow Jackets of Atlanta. 10-28 was the record he amassed.
4. Chris Ash, Rutgers. After serving a decade and a half as an assistant for six different programs, Ash received his lone head coaching gig for Rutgers. Over four years, the Scarlett Knights posted an awful 8-32 record, including not one but two winless conference records. Ash was fired after being shut out by Michigan 52-0, Rutgers’s fourteenth straight conference loss.
3. Willie Taggart, Florida State. He was hired in 2017 after Jimbo Fisher moved to College Station to coach Texas A&M. As a Florida fan, this era brought me a lot of entertainment. Rivalries aside, this was a horrible hire. It ranged from hydration issues to having an undermanned staff, from bad clock management to recruiting failures, and of course, the end of Florida State’s historic thirty-six-year bowl eligibility streak.
2. Scott Frost, Nebraska. Nebraska not only took a hot commodity in Frost but also an alumnus who played quarterback for the school in his younger days. Frost, coming off an undefeated season at UCF, took the Big Ten job soon after. His run at Nebraska was almost the complete opposite of his time at Central Florida. Never won more than five games in a year, was completely winless against ranked opponents, and his final loss was against Georgia Southern. He was the first coach to be fired in the 2022 season.
1. Chad Morris, Arkansas. The good news is that this blunder brought Sam Pittman. The bad news is it won’t take away the bad memories. Morris is cited for separating teammates based on walk-ons or scholarship players. Insiders also described how players were automatically slotted as starters regardless of performance in the weight room or practice field. The Razorbacks did not enjoy more than two victories in the two seasons under Morris.
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