The Overlooked Club: The most impressive 2022 coaching jobs no one is really talking about
TCU’s Sonny Dykes is your early frontrunner for National Coach of the Year.
Kansas head coach Lance Leipold has been featured on multiple ESPN College GameDay segments. Josh Heupel’s Q-rating went from obscurity to the new-hotness in two months. Brian Kelly’s new family suddenly loves him a whole lot, too.
All four coaches have been covered extensively within this space, and for good reason, they delivered some of the most impressive coaching jobs we’ve seen in 2022.
Likewise for Georgia’s Kirby Smart, who lost a record 15 players to the NFL Draft last year yet has the Bulldogs undefeated and back at No. 1, and Ohio State’s Ryan Day, who overhauled his defensive staff and has navigated a slew of injuries to the Buckeyes’ top playmakers this season.
But what about some other coaches who deserve a little shine?
With the season winding down, it’s a perfect time to highlight some impressive coaching jobs from a few guys overshadowed a bit in the national discourse.
THE ACC BOYS
Florida State opened the season with a wild, almost-Surrender-Cobra win against LSU in New Orleans — a major statement for then-maligned head coach Mike Norvell.
And then everyone on the Seminoles started to get hurt.
FSU managed to win three straight games despite a cascading sequence of injuries, only key players didn’t stop getting hurt, so when the ‘Noles faced their toughest stretch of the season, they lacked the depth to beat Wake Forest, NC State or Clemson.
And yet, Norvell’s team didn’t fold. There was no tailspin in Tallahassee.
The signs of improvement from earlier in the season, particularly from the offensive and defensive lines, returned once key contributors like defensive lineman Fabian Lovett or Jared Verse started getting healthy again, and over the last month, few teams have been as dominant as Norvell’s ‘Noles.
After Saturday’s 38-3 shellacking win at Syracuse, FSU is now 7-3 — with three-straight wins by an aggregate of 124-22. The Noles might be the best three-loss team in the country, leading the ACC in yards per play offensively (6.89) and yards per play allowed defensively (4.62).
Norvell already pantsed Mario Cristobal and the Miami Hurricanes (45-3), and if the Seminoles take care of business at home against Florida the day after Thanksgiving, it’ll be the first time FSU has beaten both in-state rivals in the same season since 2016.
There’s no hot-seat scuttle in Tallahassee anymore.
Elsewhere in the ACC, Mike Elko has been the unequivocal best new hire in the conference this fall.
While Virginia and Virginia Tech have remained unmitigated disasters with new coaches, Elko has taken a dumpster-fire Duke program and made it respectable again.
The Blue Devils are among the most improved teams in the country under the former Texas A&M defensive coordinator, playing with discipline and effort in order to overcome their talent deficiencies.
Elko has Duke at 7-3. The Blue Devils weren’t expected to come close to going bowling in Elko’s first season — much less win more than the previous two seasons combined, or deliver Duke its best regular season to date (with two games still left, too) in five years.
“We started this thing to become the best football team we could be this year, and not just to become a bowl eligible football team,” Elko said after Duke beat Virginia Tech on Saturday.
“I thought they handled that challenge really well.”
Under Elko’s stewardship, the Blue Devils have become more efficient offensively (6.24 yards per play vs. 5.38 in 2021) and way less prone to allowing explosive plays defensively. They’ve also benefitted from some crazy turnover luck, recovering 21 fumbles.
Still, Duke was among the worst defenses in America last fall, allowing over 500 yards per game and an ACC-worst 89 plays over 20 yards. In 2022, those figures have been slashed dramatically, as Duke has yielded just 40 plays over 20 yards — fifth-best in the conference and better than the likes of Clemson, Pitt and Louisville — and is allowing 5.6 yards per play (down from 7.1).
THE PAC-12 SPOILER
Kalen Deboer’s first season in Seattle has been a total success story.
Deboer dashed No.6 Oregon’s playoff hopes with an upset win in Autzen Stadium on Saturday, as Washington’s head coach has already doubled the Huskies’ win total (four to eight, so far) in less than a year. He joined legendary Washington head coach Chris Peterson as the only other coach in school history to win eight games in their debut seasons.
“There was great talent in the program,” DeBoer said after beating Oregon.
”It was getting everyone headed in the right direction. We’re doing that.”
Sure enough.
The school’s decision to part ways with Jimmy Lake and bring in Deboer, who then brought in quarterback Michael Penix Jr., looks brilliant. The Huskies were awful offensively in 2021, and now boast one of the most prolific passing attacks in the country.
With Penix slinging the pill in Deboer’s pass-happy scheme (364 yards per game, 25 passing touchdowns), Washington sent Michigan State’s season into an early tailspin with a Week 3 blowout.
After a pair of one-score losses on the road (at Utah, at Arizona State) midseason, the Huskies have rallied to win four-straight games.
After back-to-back ranked wins over Oregon State and Oregon, Washington is now in position to potentially play for a Pac-12 Championship, and at worst secure its first 10-win regular season since 2017.
THE STATESMEN OF THE SUN BELT
At some point, some Power 5 AD is going to take a chance and hire Jamey Chadwell away from Coastal Carolina.
After consecutive 11-win seasons, the Chanticleers were not supposed to be this good in 2022, but Chadwell continues to piece-meal wins together with chicken wire (or rooster, in this case) and duct tape.
The culture in Conway is real.
Despite losing their top three wideouts (a combined 161 catches and 24 touchdowns) and No. 1 tailback (Shermari Jones rushed for 1040 yards and 13 scores), Coastal Carolina still has one of the most fun offenses — a modern spread-option attack — in the country.
Before suffering a (likely) season-ending injury, quarterback Grace McCall had 21 passing touchdowns to just one pick, with four rushing scores, too.
The Chanticleers are 9-1, beating Southern Miss without McCall on Saturday. They’ve clinched the Sun Belt East Division and have a chance to win the conference for the second time in three years.
The team — and coach — standing in Coastal Carolina’s way? Jon Sumrall’s Troy Trojans.
Since suffering a gut-punching, last-second Hail Mary loss at Appalachian State in Week 3, the Trojans have rattled off seven straight wins — tied for the longest active winning streak among any Group of 5 teams.
They’re 8-2, with a pair of conference games left before the Sun Belt Championship. Under their hard-nosed head coach, Troy has displayed a knack for winning close games — with five of their last seven victories coming by less than a touchdown.
Sumrall has the Trojans in position for their best season in 2018.
While not exactly atop the national discourse, both Sumrall and Chadwell will be intriguing candidates when the coaching carousel really heats up come the end of the month.