Gotta go big with bold proclamations and flavors.

Love for that program:
Baylor hires Matt Rhule
FIU hires Butch Davis
Houston hires Major Applewhite
Oregon hires Willie Taggart
Purdue hires Jeff Brohm
Texas hires Tom Herman

Love for the comedy:
FAU hires Lane Kiffin
LSU hires Ed Orgeron

Hate:
Cincinnati hires Luke Fickell

Hate because I wanted him as DC:
USF hires Charlie Strong

Don't Care
Nevada hires Jay Norvell
Fresno State hires Jeff Tedford
Indiana hires Tom Allen (interim?)

Baylor hires Matt Rhule

Solid hire, I guess; he's just so dramatically different from their current style that I'm not sure how we'll they'll fit. I do think Rhule is a decent coach, though.

Cincinnati hires Luke Fickell

Meh. There's a reason Urbs passed over him for the DC job repeatedly. Good recruiter and very popular in Ohio, though.

FAU hires Lane Kiffin

Poor Lane. Well, not really, but it seems like he's finally done failing up.

FIU hires Butch Davis

Good hire for most programs, excellent hire for them.

Fresno State hires Jeff Tedford

Meh.

Houston hires Major Applewhite

Not bad. Maintains continuity and, since he's less proven than Herman and Sumlin, might be more likely to stick around for more than a couple of years.

Indiana hires Tom Allen (interim?)

Best of a bad situation, maybe. He was a decent coordinator, not sure how he'll do as head man. Indiana said the move is permanent, which is a little bit surprising; I would've thought they'd wait a bit to see if he had more involvement than he should've in what led them to can Wilson.

LSU hires Ed Orgeron

LOLz. Hey, keeping Aranda was huge. If he can get a real OC in, he can be his goofball self and keep things exciting.

Nevada hires Jay Norvell

OK, I guess. It's a crappy job. I know some ND fans wanted us to hire Norvell a couple of years ago, so there's that. Whatever that's worth.

Oregon hires Willie Taggart

Very good hire on paper. I like Taggart a lot. Not sure how he'll adjust to what has traditionally worked at Oregon or vice versa, but it's a bold move to get a guy who I think is pretty good.

Purdue hires Jeff Brohm

Excellent hire for one of the worst Power 5 jobs. A little stunned that he took it, but if he can get them back to consistent 8-4 seasons he'll get a better offer pretty quickly.

Texas hires Tom Herman

We'll see. I'm not as sold on Herman as some; he has only two seasons as a head coach, with a couple of big wins and a couple of really head-scratching losses. He definitely has a very different approach to coaching, though, and I'm curious to see if it can take on the big stage.

USF hires Charlie Strong

Fantastic hire. Excellent Florida roots, of course, and great track record. I wonder if it works out there, if he'd be willing to stay long term. There are are worse ways to play out the string than kicking AAC asses while hanging out in the sunshine.

--
"Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." - Yeats

I'll put mine in groups. I don't see any real homerun hires - I guess Rhule and Kiffin are probably the best given their respective schools' positions.

5

4
Baylor hires Matt Rhule (Pretty solid grab, all things considered)
Texas hires Tom Herman (Ceiling is pretty high)
Purdue hires Jeff Brohm
USF hires Charlie Strong

3

FIU hires Butch Davis
Fresno State hires Jeff Tedford
Oregon hires Willie Taggart (pretty big risk on a guy who was nearly run out of town 18 months ago)
Houston hires Major Applewhite
Nevada hires Jay Norvell (if for no other reason than a better incoming resume than Polian)
Cincinnati hires Luke Fickell

2
LSU hires Ed Orgeron

1:

Unknown:

Indiana hires Tom Allen (interim?)

I don't see any slam dunk 5's out there in this year's edition. Here's what I came up with, from least risky to most.

4 Baylor hires Matt Rhule. I think Rhule did enough the last few years at Temple to mark himself as a solid coach. Good bet here by Baylor, even with the potential for culture shock.

4 Purdue hires Jeff Brohm. Brohm was 30-10 at WKU and is a known offensive whiz. This was a great hire for Purdue. They probably couldn't have done better.

4 USF hires Charlie Strong. Strong was the biggest name on the board, and USF moved quickly to wrap him up once Taggart stepped out. The guy is a celebrity in Florida who should recruit well. Very low risk by USF here.

4 Fresno State hires Jeff Tedford. I think this is a fantastic get for Fresno. He's been around forever, knows the terrain, and still has a lot of credibility. Fresno was sort of a mess under DeRuyter, after the long successful tenure of Pat Hill. Tedford is very low risk for them.

3 Texas hires Tom Herman. Good overall record at Houston, with some notable missteps, but on paper this looks pretty good. I don't think it's without risk, but I think any coach going into Texas, with all its palace intrigue and politics, is taking on more than just winning football games. Herman could turn in a mediocre Charlie Strong record at UT, and that might not say much about his abilities as a head coach.

3 FIU hires Butch Davis. The only risk here is if Butch is treating this like a retirement gig. He's also been out of the game for seven years. Otherwise he's a known commodity and a very good hire for a small place like FIU.

3 FAU hires Lane Kiffin. Stated above.

2 Oregon hires Willie Taggart. Taggart looks the part, but he basically has a season and a half of success at USF he's working off of. There's also the question of institutional fit at Oregon, which is used to doing things its way. Is this going to be a big culture clash?

2 Houston hires Major Applewhite. Internal promotion here for a guy who's never been a HC. Risky move, but Houston has a track record of doing this successfully, and they know Applewhite firsthand. Maybe it's a 3.

2 LSU hires Ed Orgeron. I think this is super risky for a place like LSU. Orgeron is essentially a failed head coach, going 10-25 at Ole Miss. He's also volatile and cuckoo.

1 Cincinnati hires Luke Fickell. A complete flier. Fickell was never even a full coordinator! What is Cincy thinking?

1 = total flier, 5 = slam dunk

1s
LSU hires Ed Orgeron

2s
Cincinnati hires Luke Fickell
Fresno State hires Jeff Tedford
Houston hires Major Applewhite
FAU hires Lane Kiffen

3s
Oregon hires Willie Taggart
Baylor hires Matt Rhule
Purdue hires Jeff Brohm

4s
Texas hires Tom Herman
USF hires Charlie Strong

5s
FIU hires Butch Davis

no idea
Indiana hires Tom Allen (interim?)
Nevada hires Jay Norvell

Baylor hires Matt Rhule -- 4 (probably the best hire)

Cincinnati hires Luke Fickell -- 2

FIU hires Butch Davis -- 3

Fresno State hires Jeff Tedford -- 3

Houston hires Major Applewhite -- 3

Indiana hires Tom Allen (interim?) -- Who?

LSU hires Ed Orgeron -- 3

Nevada hires Jay Norvell --- Who?

Oregon hires Willie Taggart -- 3 or 4 -- depends on what Oregon expects from him...doesn't seem a good fit although I think he's a good coach.

Purdue hires Jeff Brohm --- 3

Texas hires Tom Herman -- 4

USF hires Charlie Strong -- 3 or 4