Forde-Yard Dash: This May Be the End for Several Coaching Greats

Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football, where sometimes winners get washed and sometimes they run sprints after the game .

First Quarter: When Your Forever Coach Stops Getting the Job Done One of the beautiful things about college sports is that, on occasion, a gifted coach lands at a mid-level program and stays, elevating it beyond where it should logically fit in the hierarchy.

Its not easy building a consistent winner in places like Stillwater, Okla., and Iowa City, but those fan bases have enjoyed decades of it thanks to their forever coaches.

But there is always an expiration date, at which point a difficult reckoning is at hand.

That seems to be rapidly approaching in those two locales, and possibly others.

Lets examine.

Mike Gundy (1) has won 170 games at Oklahoma State.

Thats not just the most in school history; its 108 more than the next-winningest coach the Cowboys have ever had.

He was also a star quarterback at the school, and an assistant coach there for a decade.

Nearly his entire adult life has been inextricably tied to Oklahoma State, and its been a win-win proposition.

Its no longer win-win.

There are a lot of losses piling up, none of them uglier than the humiliation at Oregon on Saturday.

In Week 1, the Ducks mascot lost his head running on the field , and in Week 2, Oregon beheaded Gundys Cowboys, 693.

It was the worst loss of Gundys 20-year tenure as head coach, and the worst the Cowboys have suffered since 1907.

It was Oklahoma States 10th straight loss to an FBS opponent, the last two of them by a combined 118 points.

The bottom has fallen out.

Gundy certainly sounded like a guy who saw the Eugene massacre coming last week, when he noted how much larger Oregons NIL war chest is than Oklahoma States .

Gundy even suggested that when it comes to non-conference scheduling, the wealthy Ducks should pick on someone their own size, and not his poor little Pokes.

Oregon coach Dan Lanning (2) , who isnt the merciful sort, put his foot on Gundys neck early and kept it there until the fourth quarter Saturday.

Oregon is indeed blessed to have the financial backing of Nike founder Phil Knightjust as Gundy and Oklahoma State were blessed for many years to have the backing of T.

Boone Pickens, who donated more than a quarter of a billion dollars to athletics at his alma mater.

Gundy remembers those days, right? The Stillwater Mullet has never been that easy for his administration to work with, but they were willing to accept the headaches in exchange for the program consistently punching above its weight.

But the rope tying the two together is fraying .

Last year was evidence enough, when the Cowboys went 39 and Gundy was coerced into a $1 million annual pay reduction and a flat, $15 million buyout over the next three years.

The Big 12 looks like a tub of live bait once again this season, so well see who crawls to the top.

Maybe the Pokes can get it togetherthey dont play BYU or Arizona State, which should help.

But it seems more likely that Oklahoma State will have another bad season, after which it might have to make a move.

Kirk Ferentz (3) is the only FBS head coach who has been in one place longer than Gundy.

Hes in his 27th season at Iowa and working on a string of 11 straight winning seasonsnot nearly the same point of drastically diminishing returns as Gundy.

But his program is broken in one of the foundational elements of modern football, the passing game.

And it doesnt matter what changescoordinators or quarterbacksnothing is fixing it.

Iowa ranks 135th out of 136 FBS teams in passing yards per game and 131st in pass efficiency.

Last year those rankings were 130th and 104th, respectively.

In 2023, the Hawkeyes were 130th and 133rd (which was dead last).

They havent been in the top 100 nationally in either categorya very low barsince 2020.

Brian Ferentz, the head coachs under-qualified and over-employed son, was considered the primary problem for many years.

But even after he was forced out following the 2023 season, Iowa remains offensively inept and especially anemic throwing the ball.

Iowa City is where quarterbacks go to die.

Cade McNamara transferred there with a serviceable 137.4 career pass efficiency mark from his time at Michigan.

In 13 games with the Hawkeyes in 2023 and 24, his efficiency rating was 112.54.

This years big hope was South Dakota State transfer Mark Gronowskia 10,000-yard career passer, the FCS Walter Payton Player of the Year award winner and a two-time national champion.

Yet through two games, Iowa has changed Gronowski more than he has changed Iowa.

His efficiency rating is 84.53, last by a long way in the Big Ten.

Hes averaging a microscopic 3.3 yards per attempt.

Through two games, Gronowski has completed just one pass longer than 15 yards.

Iowa can probably muddle to another winning record on the strength of its defense and special teams, but that looks like the ceiling.

It has now lost two straight to rival Iowa State for the first time since 201112, and three of the last four.

It cannot be fun rooting for a team that refuses to play modern football, nor can it be easy to recruit a quarterback to play there.

Ferentz has been untouchable for decades, but hes also 70 years oldthe retirement rumors keep percolating.

And former Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald (4) is just waiting out there for someone to hire him.

On a lesser level than Gundy and Ferentz, Kentucky is staring down the separation barrel with 13-year head coach Mark Stoops (5) .

Like the other two, Stoops is the winningest coach in school history.

And like the other two, Stoops has hit a point of declining returns.

Hes 1921 in his last 40 games.

Not unlike Ferentz, Stoops is locked in a cycle of quarterback futility.

Since Will Levis left in 2022, the Wildcats have flailed for answers in the transfer portalfirst Devin Leary, then Brock Vandagriff, now Zach Calzada.

Kentucky was 11th in the SEC in pass efficiency with Leary, last with Vandagriff and thus far last with Calzada.

The Cats and Stanford are the only two power-conference programs not to throw a touchdown pass yet this season.

After playing Eastern Michigan Saturday, Kentuckys next five games are against ranked teams: at South Carolina, at Georgia, Texas, Tennessee and at Auburn.

Like John Calipari in basketball, Stoops has a very large buyout that makes firing him dauntingif he could follow the Calipari script to the end by making a sideways move out of Lexington, everyone would probably be happy.

Alum Jon Sumrall (6) , who is crushing it at Tulane, would be the popular replacement choice.

Other College Football Coaches Verging on a Pink Slip The above situations would be painful goodbyes to winning coaches.

There are others that would require no such maudlin sentimentality on the way out the door.

Billy Napier (7) continues to flunk September, which continues to keep him on the hot seat at Florida.

This is his fourth straight 11 start as coach of the Gators, and the spit-stained, 1816 debacle against South Florida was the worst of those early losses.

In the SEC Hall of Infamy, Brendan Betts loogie is now enshrined alongside Florida defensive back Marco Wilsons thrown cleat and Mississippi receiver Elijah Moores fake dog urination in the Impossibly Stupid Losing Move wing.

Its good to be known for something.

Napier survived last year by turning around the season against a brutal SEC schedule.

He will have to do the same this year.

There is not a single easy game remaining.

Brent Pry (8) somewhat surprisingly got a fourth season at Virginia Tech despite a 1621 record, and hes wasted no time squandering that extra chance.

The Hokies are 02, with an offensively challenged opening loss to South Carolina and a brutal second-half beatdown at home against Vanderbilt on Saturday.

The score of the final two quarters was Vandy 34, Tech 0.

The yardage: 32121.

It was a complete meltdown.

The schedule offers some rallying points: Old Dominion and Wofford are next up, and the ACC has its share of beatable teams.

But at this point you have to figure the fan base has given up on Pry, and its hard to see a scenario where he wins enough to get them back.

Deshaun Foster (9) is just 14 games into the job at UCLA, but at 59 overall and 02 this season, its getting late early.

Being routed at home by Utah was bad.

Losing to UNLV was worse.

UCLA hasnt led at any point in a game yet this season.

The Bruins final eight opponents of the season are all currently 20 The Bruins spent good money in the portal to land Nico Iamaleava from Tennessee , running off Joey Aguilar in the process.

Current data from that trade: Iamaleava is 02 with a 119.75 passer rating; Aguilar is 20 with a 170.24 rating.

(Iamaleava has outrushed Aguilar 10634, for what thats worth.) The Dashs College Football Playoff Bracket The ground rules: If your team hasnt yet played a power-conference opponents, its not getting in the Dash bracket.

Playing somebody is the price of admission.

Interesting to construct a 12-team playoff with three from the Sunshine State, and none of them are Florida.

Kudos to South Florida (10) on its serve-notice 20 start.

Thus far, that is not the resume of a No.

12 seed; its the resume of a first-round host.

1.

Ohio State 2.

LSU 3.

Miami 4.

Florida State 5.

Oregon 6.

South Florida 7.

Oklahoma 8.

Auburn 9.

Illinois 10.

Utah 11.

Notre Dame 12.

Texas No.

12 Texas at No.

5 Oregon No.

10 Utah at No.

7 Oklahoma No.

9 Illinois at No.

8 Auburn Illinois-Auburn winner vs.

Ohio State in the Rose Bowl Utah-Oklahoma winner vs.

LSU in the Sugar Bowl Notre Dame-South Florida winner vs.

Miami in the Orange Bowl Texas-Oregon winner vs.

Florida State in the Cotton Bowl Also considered: Iowa State, TCU, Mississippi State, Missouri, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Georgia Tech.

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