First-Year Coaches of 2007

College Gridiron Boss has a great post up today about all of the coaches from 2007 that were spending their first year with their teams. There were quite a few of them:

• Air Force: Troy Calhoun 9-4
• Alabama: Nick Saban 7-6
• Arizona State: Dennis Erickson 10-3
• Army: Stan Brock 3-9
• Boston College: Jeff Jagodzinski 11-3
• Central Michigan: Butch Jones 8-6
• Cincinnati: Brian Kelly 10-3
• FIU: Mario Cristobal 1-11
• Idaho: Robb Akey 1-11
• Indiana: Bill Lynch 7-6
• Iowa State: Gene Chizik 3-9
• Louisiana Tech: Derek Dooley 5-7
• Louisville: Steve Kragthorpe 6-6
• Miami (Fla.): Randy Shannon 5-7
• Michigan State: Mark Dantonio 7-6
• Minnesota: Tim Brewster 1-11
• North Carolina: Butch Davis 4-8
• North Carolina St.: Tom O’Brien 5-7
• North Texas: Todd Dodge 2-10
• Rice: David Bailiff 3-9
• Stanford: Jim Harbaugh 4-8
• Tulane: Bob Toledo 4-8
• Tulsa: Todd Graham 10-4
• UAB: Neil Callaway 2-10

College Gridiron Boss writer “The Phenom” notes that some of the positives include Troy Calhoun’s season at Air Force and Dennis Erickson’s season at Arizona State.

To that, I’d note that Jeff Jagodzinski at Boston College, Todd Graham at Tulsa, and Brian Kelly at Cincinnati had great years. In addition, I also see a lot of potential at Alabama and Michigan State.

Of course, there were some failures as well. The Phenom notes that Steve Kragthorpe at Louisville and Tim Brewster at Minnesota have disappointed, and to that list, I agree that these two really were the worst of the bunch, though I do see potential at Louisville is Kragthorpe can pull it together.

There’s a lot more to read about the 2007 hires at College Gridiron Boss, so make sure that you head over there to check it out!