Interim gig shines spotlight on assistants
Larry Scott – the tight ends coach, not the Pac-12 commissioner – wasn’t a particularly familiar name prior to Sunday. But then Miami canned Al Golden after a 58-0 loss to Clemson, and it became Scott’s job to shepherd the Hurricanes (4-3, 1-2 ACC) through the next five games.
That run starts at Duke on Saturday as Scott becomes the 11th interim football coach in the ACC in the last quarter-century. That doesn’t include Tommy West (1993 Clemson) and Carl Torbush (1997 North Carolina), who were assured full-time promotions when they led their teams to bowl victories.
Three coaches parlayed interim gigs into full-time jobs, while even more receded back to anonymous assistant jobs after one-game bowl stints. A look, then, at the company Scott joined:
George O’Leary, Georgia Tech 1994: Former East Carolina coach Bill Lewis lasted less than three years in Atlanta, and O’Leary absorbed the final three losses of a 1-10 season. But he got the full-time job, developed Joe Hamilton, went 52-33 and never had a losing record in ACC play in any of his seven (mostly) full seasons with the Yellow Jackets.
Mac McWhorter, Georgia Tech 2001: The Yellow Jackets’ offensive line coach got the nod to coach a bowl game when O’Leary left for Notre Dame. Georgia Tech beat Stanford in the Seattle Bowl (yes, that existed for a few years), and McWhorter later made assistant coach stops at Texas and Penn State.
Ted Roof, Duke 2003: After taking over for the fired Carl Franks with five games to play, Roof led Duke to a blowout of Georgia Tech and its first victory over North Carolina since 1989 to earn the full-time job. That was twice as many ACC wins as the Blue Devils would earn in the next four years. Roof was fired after the 2006 season with a 6-45 mark (3-33 ACC).
Frank Spaziani, Boston College 2006: Before he was failed head coach (21-29 from 2009 to 2012), Spaziani was a good defensive coordinator and one-game caretaker after Tom O’Brien left for N.C. State. Spaziani and the Eagles edged Navy 25-24 in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.
Jon Tenuta, Georgia Tech 2007: When the Yellow Jackets grew weary Chan Gailey’s seven-win ways, Tenuta got the plum assignment to prepare for a game against Fresno State in Boise. It did not go well (a 40-28 loss), and Tenuta has since bounced from Notre Dame to N.C. State to Virginia as an assistant.
Dabo Swinney, Clemson 2008: Swinney replaced Tommy Bowden in October and got the full-time job with four wins in the Tigers’ last five regular season games, including a victory over South Carolina. He’s now Clemson’s most successful coach since Danny Ford, owning a 68-26 career mark.
Jeff Stoutland, Miami 2010: Stoutland was the one-game bridge between Randy Shannon and Golden as the Hurricanes lost 33-17 to Notre Dame in the Sun Bowl. He’s now the Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive line coach.
Everett Withers, North Carolina 2011: Drew the unenviable year-long interim assignment after Butch Davis’ firing and went 7-6. He’s since spent two years as the defensive coordinator at Ohio State and is 16-5 in two seasons as James Madison’s head coach.
Dana Bible, N.C. State 2012: After O’Brien’s firing, Bible (a longtime TOB lieutenant) coached the Wolfpack in a Music City Bowl loss to Vanderbilt.
Joe Rudolph, Pittsburgh 2014: Presided over the Panthers’ Armed Forces Bowl meltdown against Houston after Paul Chryst left for Wisconsin, then quickly rejoined his old boss as the Badgers’ offensive coordinator this season.
Trivia
Pittsburgh is 6-1 under first-year coach Pat Narduzzi entering Thursday’s home game against North Carolina. Who holds the ACC record for most victories by a first-year coach?
Petrino’s mystery team
Louisville was an unknown quantity early in the season. It might remain so well into November.
Bobby Petrino’s team faced Clemson, Florida State and Houston (combined record: 20-1) in the first half of the season with freshmen scattered all over the depth chart, including (eventually) quarterback Lamar Jackson and three starting offensive lineman.
Now, the Cardinals (3-4, 2-2) are a game into a four-game swing against Boston College (no offense), Wake Forest (improved, but still limited, offense), Syracuse (embattled coach) and Virginia (extremely embattled coach). Combined record: 11-19 overall and 3-13 in the ACC.
Louisville won the first of those games by a field goal, and heads to Wake Forest on Friday night. But trite Parcellsisms aside, it’ll be hard to know just who the Cardinals are until they close out the regular season at Pittsburgh and Kentucky.
Answer
Boston College’s Jeff Jagodzinski set the ACC record for victories by a first-year coach when the Eagles went 11-3 in 2007. Ken Hatfield (1990 Clemson), Ralph Friedgen (2001 Maryland) and Jimbo Fisher (2010 Florida State) each won 10 games in their debut seasons.
This story was originally published October 27, 2015 at 9:08 PM with the headline "Interim gig shines spotlight on assistants."