The one thing I see being missed on a lot of these comparisons is that not all new coaches are in their position for the same reason. There is a huge difference between a previous coach leaving for a better opportunity after success and a previous coach being fired for failure. Teams who fire their head coaches are usually trending down already and need rebuilding.
So guys like Freeman at ND, Venables at OU and Lanning at Oregon who walked into great situations that were stable teams already don’t have the same issues to contend with.
The three main guys, outside of Napier, that followed a fired head coach are Cristobal, Riley and Kelly. Cristobal has been garbage and faced a far less difficult schedule. We talk about not seeing improvement at times here. The canes flat out quit on multiple occasions and were blown out again in the finale.
Kelly finished better than us, and did a decent job. But remember, Ed O wasn’t fired for his recruiting. He was fired because he had off field issues and isn’t a great gameday coach. Kelly’s new job was similar to Meyer/UF in 2005. Needed tweaks not an overhaul, and he still managed to get blown out twice and lose to the same team we lost to, but in a what amounts to a home game. Better year than Napier, but not by much.
Now, if Riley was available and we chose BN, we missed. He walked into a great job but one that needed a lot of work. That said, give him our schedule and I don’t see them ranked where they are. Still has been better thus far.
As I’ve said, Dykes at TCU is the lone exception, imo. I honestly can’t remember if Patterson was fired or stepped away. But regardless, SD has done a remarkable job.
I think it’s fine to be down on BN. It was a rough year. But most of these comparisons don’t work.