Big East Football Preview '07: Coaches on the Hot Seat

With all the recent success of the Big East, and five teams that went to and won bowl games last year, there isn't a lot of need for Big East coaches to worry about their jobs. There are two new coaches in the conference this year, Brian Kelly at Cincinnati and Steve Kragthorpe at Louisville. So their jobs are safe barring the unexpected. But like every other conference in college football, someone has to be the door mat. And every door mat has to have a fall guy.

Coaches Sitting on Blocks of Ice:

Rich Rodriguez, West Virginia- Expectations are high this year like last year, but with the relatively easy schedule and a ton of talent back, he shouldn't even think about losing his job.

Greg Schiano, Rutgers- The best season in school history to go along with the schools first bowl victory. Again, nothing to worry about.

Jim Leavitt, South Florida- Wins over Louisville in 2005 and West Virginia in 2006 to go along with two winning seasons and two bowl appearances since joining the Big East. It might be hot in Florida, but not where Jim is sitting.

Coaches on the Luke Warm Seat:

Dave Wannstedt, Pitt- I don't think he is in any trouble of losing his job after this year, no matter what the outcome. But if he follows up 5-6 and 6-6 with two more like seasons it could be curtains for Dave. The talent is there. Pitt has had great recruiting class after great recruiting class since Wannstedt arrived. It should start to show up on the field this year and continue to improve next year. If not, you'll be reading about Wannstedt in the same vein as the guys after the jump.

1. Greg Robinson, Syracuse

Every head coach in America is always "excited to be hear" and wants to get back to "(insert your teams name here) football" when they are hired. But Syracuse isn't everywhere else in America. It's one of the 15 most winning football programs in college football. And the guy they fired to hire Robinson, Paul Pasqualoni, was fired for a 6-6 record and taking his team to a bowl and winning getting crushed in the bowl game. Not to mention finishing at or near the top of the Big East nine out of the 13 years he was coaching the Orange, and two conference titles.

So to say that the pressure is on Greg Robinson might be an understatement considering his 1-10 record in his first season and a 4-8 record in his second season. His offense has finished at the bottom of the Big East both years in total offense. And the defense came out the same both years as well.

According to some Syracuse fans, he doesn't show a lot of emotion or get his team fired up. And that's just a bad combination for a college head coach. So what does he have to do to keep his job? At least one upset of the big three in the conference plus a bowl appearance should keep his job. But considering his predecessor, it still might not be enough.

2. Randy Edsall, UConn

How bad is it for coach Randy Edsall? It's so bad that Getty Images doesn't see fit to have a picture of him. Yeah, the picture to the right is from 2002, so it's pretty safe to say what we already knew: Connecticut football isn't really on the college football map.

And that's not to say that Edsall hasn't done some good things at UConn. His 2004 team went 8-4 and won their bowl game and he did bring them from 1-AA to D1 in the process. But after two losing seasons in a row, a 41-51 overall record in his eight years, and not much hope of a turn around this year, things are not looking good. Support for the football team isn't at the level it is for the basketball team in Connecticut, but the expectations probably aren't too far off.

What does Edsall have to do to keep his job? A winning record and a bowl birth would be a good start. The schedule isn't too hard until they get into October. A 4-1 start should really be expected. But that's where the pain begins, with a road trip to Virginia followed by games with Louisville, South Florida, and Rutgers in consecutive weeks. It's not impossible to think that the Huskies could end the season with six wins. But if they should fall to anyone in the first five games not named Pitt, expect to see a new coach at Connecticut next year.