It often takes at least 2 years to see a program turnaround. Even Nick Saban lost to ULM (and us) in '07 before a stout '08 campaign. Others on the list: Gene Chizik, Bob Stoops, Jim Tressel. But as I noted last year, defenses can be quickly turned around with the right system, coach, and decent amount of coachable talent in the cupboards.
Here are the new DCs that began their tenure in the 2010 FBS season:
The 2010 FBS college football season featured 23 new head coaches and staffs (defensive coordinators in parentheses): Florida State (Mark Stoops), UVa (Jim Reid), Kansas (Carl Torbush), Texas Tech (James Willis), Cincinnati (Tim Banks / Jon Jancek), Louisville (Vance Bedford), USF (Mark Snyder), ECU (Brian Mitchell), Marshall (Chris Rippon), Memphis (Jay Hopson), Notre Dame (Bob Diaco), Akron (Curt Mallory), Buffalo (William Inge), Central Michigan (Joe Tumpkin), UNLV (Kraig Paulson), USC (Monte Kiffin), Kentucky (Steve Brown), Tennessee (Justin Wilcox), Vanderbilt (Bruce Fowler), UL-Monroe (Troy Reffert), Western Kentucky (Clint Bowen), La. Tech (Tommy Spangler) and San Jose State (Kent Baer).
In addition, there were 20 programs that unveiled new defensive coordinators: Georgia Tech (Al Groh), Georgia (Todd Grantham), Arizona (Bill Bedenbaugh / Greg Brown), Stanford (Vic Fangio), Cal (Clancy Pendergast), Illinois (Vic Koenning), Duke, (Jim Knowles), FAU (Kurt Van Valkenburgh), Nevada (Andy Buh), UTEP (Andre Patterson), FIU (Geoff Collins), Ball State (Jay Hood), UF (Teryl Austin), Mississippi State (Manny Diaz), Middle Tennessee St. (Randall McCray), Houston (Brian Stewart), Boise State (Pete Kwiatkowski), Eastern Michigan (Phil Snow), and Texas A&M (Tim DeRuter). That's quite a bit of turnover. But such is the modern age of college football.
Of the listed BCS DC's, Carl Torbush (Kansas), James Willis (Texas Tech), Mark Snyder (USF), Bruce Fowler (Vanderbilt), Bill Bedenbaugh (Arizona), Vic Fangio (Stanford), Teryl Austin (UF), Manny Diaz (Miss. St.), & Tim DeRuter (Texas A&M) had moved onto greener (or browner) pastures prior to the 2011 season.
So how did the remaining DCs fare in Year 2? After the Jump:
| Team |
2009 D. F/+
|
2010 D. F/+ |
2011 D. F/+ |
2009-2010 net change |
2010-2011 net change
|
2009-2011 net change |
|
| Florida State | 99 | 41 | 6 | 58 | 35 | 93 | |
| Illinois | 96 | 22 | 9 | 74 | 13 | 87 | |
| Notre Dame | 89 | 18 | 14 | 71 | 4 | 75 | |
| Nevada | 109 | 70 | 59 | 39 | 11 | 50 | |
| California | 64 | 38 | 33 | 26 | 5 | 31 | |
| Louisville | 86 | 45 | 55 | 41 | -10 | 31 | |
| Cincinnati | 67 | 82 | 41 | -15 | 41 | 26 | |
| Georgia | 41 | 47 | 17 | -6 | 30 | 24 | |
| Kentucky | 55 | 83 | 42 | -28 | 41 | 13 | |
| Georgia Tech | 72 | 33 | 62 | 39 | -29 | 10 | |
| Boise State | 10 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 5 | |
| USC | 39 | 50 | 45 | -11 | 5 | -6 | |
| Duke | 92 | 64 | 105 | 28 | -41 | -13 | |
| Tennessee | 27 | 62 | 46 | -35 | 16 | -19 | |
| Virginia | 26 | 96 | 57 | -70 | 39 | -31 | |
| East Carolina | 33 | 118 | 88 | -85 | 30 | -55 | |
So here's the key to the above table. Each team's defensive F/+ ranking is indicated for 2009, 2010, and 2011. Following this is a column indicating the net change (positive numbers indicates improvement; negative, decline) in their ranking from 2009 to 2010. The following column is the same, but from 2010 to 2011. The final column indicates the net change from 2009 to 2011 under a team's 2nd year defensive coordinator. And as always: My tables are click-sortable.
There's lots of good tidbits here. Please find them and share below. But the rankings are clear: Over the last two years, no other FBS team has improved more than Florida State has under their 2nd year defensive coordinator Mark Stoops.