CBS Sports published a surefire click-a-palooza story a couple of days ago. It named college football’s 15 worst head coaching hires of the past decade.
Now, I don’t like to unnecessarily pile on for the sake of piling, but I know what USF fans are thinking.
Two words: Jeff Scott. Gotta be on there, right?
And maybe Charlie Strong gets a dishonorable mention.
So, I eagerly scrolled through the list, focusing one by one as it counted from 15 to one. You can read it here if you wish, so I won’t go through the whole list.
UCF haters will rejoice that Scott Frost checked in at No. 13 for turning a reeling Nebraska program into a train wreck.
Former Bulls coach Willie Taggart landed at No. 4 for the mess he made at Florida State.
Chad Morris topped the list of disastrous hires after going 4-18 in two years at Arkansas.
But there was no Jeff Scott!
To recap: Scott was 4-26 on the USF sideline before he was fired with three games to play in 2022 after losing 54-28 at Temple. For what it's worth, the Bulls lost their final three games in that year, so maybe that should count on his record, too.
Of those four wins, only one was over an FBS team. That was also Temple, 34-14 in 2021.
After that, the Bulls lost their next 13 games against FBS opponents. His final team surrendered 494 points and ranked 130th out of 131 FBS teams in total defense.
I’m just sayin’ … if you’re going make a list like this, how can he not be on it, if not at the top of it?
Here is a mandatory disclaimer: Like many other learned observers of college football, I thought Scott was the man to rescue USF from the mess that Charlie Strong left behind.
A lot of people thought it was a home-run hire. I thought it was at least a stand-up triple. Scott came from an elite program in Clemson and was in demand from other schools.
The Athletic reported that USF Athletic Director Michael Kelly called Clemson coach Dabo Swinney to talk about Scott. Afterward, Swinney called Scott and told him, “This is one of them jobs you want.”
It turned out to one of them jobs where Scott was over his head as the man in charge.
Kelly has publicly and privately owned up to being wrong about Scott. The man he chose to replace him – Alex Golesh – has rebuilt the program almost from the ground up.
Golesh has talked about the struggle to plug holes in the roster during his first two seasons because there wasn’t enough depth at several positions.
The Bulls seem in better shape to handle that now.
You live and learn and Kelly has certainly done that. It’s a steady hand on the wheel now and the future is coming with its hair on fire.
All of these things are true.
Something else is true, too.
Scott should have been on that list.