College Coaches Who Need a Big Year or Else (cue scary music)

The College Football season is coming up (Thank Goodness!!!). This is the time of year when there's all this excitement and anticipation. Players and fans are getting pumped up about the season. There are hopes of winning campaigns, hopefully conference championships, bowl games, and if things go the right way, a "National Championship." This is a great time because anything can happen. However, there are a select few who are feeling some pressure these days. Those would be coaches. When you're a coach, your job security is non-existent, no matter which sport it is.

In college football, due to the increased involvement of business, coaches can be hired and friend at the snap of the fingers. With the salaries that coaches makes these days, schools cannot afford to wait it out and see if a head coach will turn around a losing team or if their rebuilding project will yield results. They need results now!

Below, I've come up with a list of head coaches whose teams need to have a strong season or they will be getting the Marsellus Wallace speech from their respective athletic directors. "You leave town tonight, right now. And when you're gone, you stay gone, or you be gone. You lost all your [insert school name here] privileges."

Rich Rodriguez, Michigan - After a few so-so seasons and an embarrassing loss to Appalachian State (an FCS team), the time had come for long-time Michigan man Lloyd Carr to hang it up. In an effort to get with the times and modernize Michigan Football, The school hired Rich Rodriquez away from West Virginia. Considered an expert in the hot, new, trendy Spread Option offense, Rodriguez has had success at each stop during his career as an offensive coordinator or head coach. At West Virginia, he had the program ranked among the elite in college football. In 2007, the Mountaineers were thisclose to being in the"National Championship Game."

His tenure in Ann Arbor so far has been a nightmare, on and off the field. When he took the job, there was a nasty public fight with West Virginia over the buyout penalty in his contract, which was set a $4 Million. The case went to court, and received a lot of media attention. The case eventually got settled, but brought a ton of negative attention on Rodriguez. Then there were allegations of NCAA violations, stemming from players on the team (!) anonymously taddling on RichRod for making them practice too much (there is a set amount of hours that NCAA athletes can practice).

Now, let's talk about the football stuff. So far, Michigan under Rodriguez has not been the best. A pair of losing seasons is all there is to show for it. Most were anticipating an adjustment period for the current athletes to acclimate to the new offense and RichRod's way of doing things. Wait a second........ this is Michigan!!! This is one of the most storied programs in the sport, where some of the best athletes in the country go. In fact, Rodriguez and his staff inherited a team coming off a 9-4 season, including an emotional win over Heisman Trophy Winner Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day. The cupboard wasn't exactly bare. The program should be making bowl games at the very least, even if everything isn't exactly in place the way RichRod wants. In 2009, team ranked 59th among all Division 1-A teams in total offense. Offense is RichRod's specialty. That's a bad sign.

There have been some good recruits so far in the RichRod era (see Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson), but if there aren't more wins, there may be another coaching staff in place when they graduate. Rodriquez makes about $2.5 Million annually. The school simply can't afford another non-bowl season. Michigan needs to make a bowl game, any bowl game, or else RichRod will be updating his resume by Christmas.

Ron Zook, Illinois - The Zooker was a questionable hire from the start. Fresh off being fired by Florida after 3 relatively average seasons (by Florida's standards), Zook was brought in to rebuild Illinois after a period of non-competitiveness under Ron Turner. Zook's strong suit is his eye for talent. An ace recruiter, the man can sell ice to an Eskimo. In fact, the 2006 "National Champion" Florida Gators was largely made up of players he recruited while he was at Florida.

Save for the 2007 season, when the Illini won 9 games and played in The Rose Bowl, Zook's time in Champagne has been mediocre at best. Zook's Illini teams have been known for their blowout losses and inept offense. Using his recruiting magic, he has attracted top talent to campus. Unfortunately, that hasn't translated into wins.

Zook's current contract, which was extended twice, pays him $1.5 Million a season through 2014. Whether the school has enough cheese to buy him out is anyone's guess, but at that salary, I'm sure the Board of Trustees expect the program to at least be in a bowl game each year. The Zooker needs a bowl, or else he won't be welcome back at Kam's or any other place in Champagne.

Todd Dodge, North Texas - When a program plays in a non-BCS league, winning a conference championship and going to a bowl game is as good as life gets. In the early part of the aughts, life was awesome for North Texas, a member of the Sun Belt Conference. For four straight seasons, from 2001-2004, the program won the conference title, each time earning a spot in The New Orleans Bowl, one of the Sun Belt's two bowl tie-ins. The magic faded, and two losing seasons followed, costing then-head coach Darrell Dickey his job.

In comes in Todd Dodge. Dodge made his bones in Texas high school football, leading Southlake Carroll High School to a record of 98-11 over 7 seasons, winning four Texas 5A State Championships. Hired for his connection to the local high school programs and his high-scoring Air Raid offense, the expectation was to have a team full of Texas talent, all the while passing the ball on traditionally mediocre-at-best Sun Belt defensive backs. In the process, a return to competitiveness was expected.

Things haven't exactly turned out that way. While his offensive scheme has worked (see UNT v. Western Kentucky, October 31, 2009), there has been little defense. In 2009, the defense gave up an average of 36.4 points per game. To date, the program has not had a winning season under Dodge. While his salary ($265,000 per season) is relatively small when you compare it to other FBS coaches, the concern is fan interest. Fouts Field, North Texas' home stadium, has a capacity of 30,500 seats. The average attendance for home games in 2009 was about 18,228 people. That means the house was about 40% empty when they played. That's not good when the program isn't going to bowl games and getting the payouts. Dodge needs some wins, or else the stars at night won't be shining too bright :::clap, clap, clap::: deep in the heart of wherever Todd Dodge is standing.

Paul Wulff, Washington State - This year, the Pac-10 conference screams parity. Even before USC got punched in the face by the NCAA, a case could be made for almost each program about why they had a shot at winning the conference. All except for one. Washington State.

Hired before the 2008 season, Wulff, a Wazzu alumnus and former letterwinner in football, was brought in to rejuvenate the program after a slew of non-winning seasons. While he had a successful 8-season run at nearby Eastern Washington, a big reason for his selection as coach was his knowledge of the recruiting trail in-state. Plus, who better to steer the program and sell it to 18-year-old kids than a former player?

So far, the program has gone nowhere. Wulff's Cougar teams have have a combined record of 3-22 over two seasons. One of those wins came against an FCS team. It's not just that the team has lost, but most of their games are blowouts. Talent-wise, there isn't a player on Wazzu's roster who could dress for another Pac-10 team. That's not good when you play talent-rich teams like Oregon, USC, and Cal every year.

I'm a big proponent of giving newly-hired college football coaches four seasons to get the program going. This is different. There has not been anything to hang your hat on during Wulff's tenure. He needs to win now, and show that there is promise.