07 Issues: New Coaches Everywhere

There will be 23 new head coaches this year in college football. With 119 teams in DIA, my shaky math tells me that means nearly one in every five schools has a new head coach. I don't have numbers from previous years but that's an incredible turnover rate and will mark 2007 as a year of transition in college football.

So what goes along with the whole "year of transition" tag? Well, sloppy play perhaps. Obviously not every coach will fall on his face in his first year, but many teams are bound to take an early performance hit as they reshuffle their lineups, learn a new system and compete against more cohesive opponents.

It also effectively eliminates these 23 teams from a legitimate chance to win the national championship. I simply don't see a Larry Coker type situation where a coach inherited a team at Miami's mini-dynasty level who could simply pilot the goodship S.S. Championship for a year and then put his stamp on things later.

However, we do have a few championship type coaches now in the ranks. The splashiest and most controversial hire this offseason was Dolphins (and former LSU) coach Nick Saban to Alabama. Butch Davis, who created the Miami monster that Larry Coker so capably led to a championship has found a home at North Carolina. And then there's Dennis Erickson who led Miami to a pair of titles and has traveled to the desert to revive Arizona State.

For more on these 23 coaches, I recommend taking a look at this article by Olin Buchanan at Rivals.com. It lists all 23 coaches with short bios and a blackjack theme on whether to double down, hit, or stay with the various coaches.