Listen Now: Morning News

Column: Ranking the Big 12 football coaches by job security

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Last September, when Forbes magazine heralded “Job Security is Dead,” TCU’s Gary Patterson was wading into the most dramatic schematic reversal of his career. Or more accurately, he was cannonballing into it.

A conservative-leaning head coach who played safety in college and ascended the ranks as a defensive assistant, Patterson abandoned his comfort zone by allowing TCU’s new offensive staff to unleash an up-tempo spread attack that pitched passes around the ballyard and made the Frogs resemble their Big 12 counterparts. This was Patterson’s personal reinvention, a coach and a program in survival mode coming off a 4-8 season.

As TCU’s 12-1 finish proved, the reinvention evolved rapidly and with stunning results. And Patterson, after failing to win back-to-back conference games the previous two years, once again seems indispensable.

See where TCU’s coach sits among his Big 12 peers as Allan Taylor ranks the job security statuses for all 10 of the league’s football CEOs:

1. Art Briles, Baylor
55-34 in seven seasons at Baylor. Signed through 2023. Will reportedly earn more than $4 million in 2015.

Private universities aren’t compelled to reveal dollar figures, but suffice to say Briles is making a boatload of them after signing a lengthy extension before last season. His uptempo offense and speed-stocked roster resuscitated the Bears, who have shared the past two Big 12 titles after winning only one since 1975.

Briles looks entrenched in Waco, where a new stadium is bound to lure more recruits, and where he has the satisfaction of having rebuffed an offer from Texas last year. Can’t put a price on that one.

2. Gary Patterson, TCU
132-45 in 15 seasons. Signed through 2020. Will reportedly earn more than $3 million in 2015.

He won the Bryant, the Robinson and AP’s national coach of the year for guiding TCU to the brink of the College Football Playoff. Those accolades typically come with extensions and such was the reward for Patterson, a defensive whiz in an era where most head-coaching gigs are reserved for offensive minds.

Athletics director Chris Del Conte on re-signing Coach P, who owns eight of the Frogs’ 14 all-time bowl wins: “We don’t wait around. You don’t let grass grow between your toes when you have the very best in America. So we settled up … shook hands and crossed the T’s and dotted the I’s.”

3. Bill Snyder, Kansas State
187-94 in 23 seasons. Signed through 2017. Will earn $2.95 million in 2015.

His name’s on the stadium, he’s generally beloved for making football matter in the Little Apple, and even four bowl losses in five seasons can’t change the fact he looks retro-chic in a windbreaker. The 75-year-old Snyder, newly elected into the College Football Hall of Fame, will write his own exit—or rather his re-exit—from coaching whenever he’s good and darn ready.

Upon accepting the K-State job back in 1988, when the Wildcats were the losingest program in Division I, Snyder joked about some colleagues offering congratulations and others calling with condolences. Now the condolences are reserved for whomever must follow the legend.

4. Bob Stoops, Oklahoma
168-44 in 16 seasons. Signed through 2020. Will earn $5.3 million in 2015.

The meteoric expectations in Norman aren’t being met, not when the Sooners haven’t won an outright Big 12 title since 2010 and haven’t been in the national title running since 2008. That doesn’t necessarily put Stoops on the verge of being ousted, but, geez, that 40-6 bowl loss to Clemson sure makes a dent. No wonder Stoops is canning assistants.

He has survived eight-win territory before, but not all eight-win seasons are created equally. The 2005 Sooners were reloading and the 2009 bunch lost a Heisman quarterback to a shoulder injury. The 2014 team was simply an underachieving mess.

In its last six seasons, Oklahoma has finished outside the Top 25 as many times as it has finished inside the Top 10 (twice). Perhaps most telling about Stoops was the fact Florida nor Michigan pursued him for their vacancies.

Soon enough, Stoops will be trying to land recruits who weren’t even born when OU claimed that 2000 national title.

5. Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
84-44 in 10 seasons. Signed through 2019. Will earn $3.1 million in 2015.

He has flirted with at least three SEC jobs and feuded with T. Boone Pickens, making for a tenuous marriage between the Cowboys and their most successful football coach. That relationship seemed certain to turn rockier when OSU missed a bowl game this season, but a funny thing happened on the way to 5-7: Tyreek Hill’s punt return busted Bedlam wide-open and Gundy’s team miraculously got to 6-6. That became 7-6 after an upset of Washington in the Cactus Bowl.

The front man coping with all this backstage tension has steered OSU to nine consecutive postseason games, when the program’s previous best streak was three straight. It may not always be a comfortable marriage, but Gundy’s results in Stillwater are undeniable.

6. David Beaty, Kansas
Hired in December. Signed through 2019. Will earn $800,000 in 2015.

He’s making less than one-third what Charlie Weis pulled down, and less than half of Turner Gill’s salary, yet the task of building a winner in Lawrence remains just as monumental. Beaty, who was the receivers coach at Texas A&M, enters his first college head-coaching role having only been a coordinator for two seasons—and one of those was Gill’s ill-fated final season at Kansas.

Known as an ace recruiter, Beaty had better round up some adequate players fast. AD Sheahon Zenger axed Gill after just 24 games and Weis after 28.

7. Charlie Strong, Texas
6-7 in one season. Signed through 2018. Will earn $5 million in 2015.

Strong’s first run in Austin was noteworthy more for his house-cleaning than anything accomplished on the field. The Longhorns dropped five games by 21 points or more and limped into the offseason being outscored 79-17 by TCU and Arkansas. (That Texas Bowl no-show was especially embarrassing—as in 59 yards of total offense embarrassing.)

Considering Mack Brown failed to win eight games once in 16 seasons, Strong is already on the clock. The well-heeled boosters will rumble loudly should Texas languish again during Year 2.

8. Dana Holgorsen, West Virginia
28-23 in four seasons. Signed through 2017. Will earn $2.8 million in 2015.

Oliver Luck, the man who hired Holgorsen, now sports an Indianapolis zip code and it’s too soon to discern how new AD Shane Lyons will warm to the coach. WVU’s 7-6 record this season was sufficient to keep Holgorsen safe, though his penchant for late-season slides can’t be tolerated much longer.

At 11-16 in three Big 12 seasons, only Kansas, Iowa State, and Texas Tech have fewer league wins. That’s not necessarily the kind of company Mountaineer football aims to keep.

9. Kliff Kingsbury, Texas Tech
12-13 in two seasons. Signed through 2020. Will make $3.1 million in 2015.

Did Kirby Hocutt overreact by awarding Kingsbury such a lengthy extension last summer and paying him a top-20 salary? Kingsbury certainly didn’t perform like an elite coach during a 4-8 season tarnished by two quarterback defections and the Week 3 dismissal of defensive coordinator Matt Wallerstedt.

Season ticket sales soared in 2014, and the current recruiting class looks solid, but Kingsbury must prove he can keep his house in order.

10. Paul Rhoads, Iowa State
29-46 in six seasons. Signed through 2021. Will make $1.9 million in 2015.

Athletics director Jamie Pollard remains in his coach’s corner, despite the recent 5-19 stretch. Firing Rhoads would be costly for a program whose revenue ranks near the bottom of the Power 5. Finding a better and willing replacement would be difficult, too, considering the Cyclones have finished above .500 in their league only twice since 1978.

“Regardless of what the history is of any program, people still want to win,” Rhoads said in December. “Jamie and I have a great relationship, but it doesn’t mean he’ll keep me if I keep losing. This is a business world and I get that.”





More WVU Sports

WVU Sports
3 Guys Before The Game - Searching For Mr. Right (Episode 539)
What factors will determine how long the search lasts for WVU's new basketball coach?
March 18, 2024 - 3:05 pm
Sports
WVU heads to Iowa City as a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament, potential matchup with Caitlin Clark awaits
WVU will face Princeton in the NCAA Tournament opener Saturday.
March 17, 2024 - 10:56 pm
Sports
Ohio State rolls past WVU, 26-11 in series finale
An 8-run sixth inning allowed the Buckeyes to take two out of three in the weekend series.
March 17, 2024 - 7:13 pm
News
Wren Baker talks about the basketball coaching search
Baker spoke about the search on Friday's MetroNews Talkline and wouldn't put any timeline or number on candidates or direction other than to say he's focused on the future of WVU basketball
March 15, 2024 - 1:20 pm


Your Comments