Dooley: After silly season

Ranking the 10 winners and 10 losers

Georgia coach Mark Richt hit a home run by getting FSU defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt, left, to become a Bulldog. (The Associated Press)


The dust never settles in college football because there is always something going on and someone stirring it up. But the silly season — when players and coaches bounce around like lottery balls — is pretty much behind us.

It was a little crazy and by that I mean nonsensical. The silly season was what the regular season usually is with results that leave you baffled.

But again, that's the beauty of college football. It's as unpredictable as the mail and you feel like you need to catch your breath when the season ends. But then comes the hopping, skipping and jumping that changes the landscape so radically.

Sometimes it's teams that change conferences or conferences changing names or conferences not changing names when they should. This silly season, we saw wild swings in personnel. They left us with winners and losers.


1. Georgia. Seducing FSU defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt, who has been on three straight national championship teams, was a huge get for Mark Richt. Saying goodbye to the boorish Todd Grantham was another plus.

2. Washington. How many times has Chris Peterson's name come up in a coaching search only to see him stay at Boise State? The Huskies actually did something hard to do — lose a head coach to another school and still upgrade.

3. Ohio State. Braxton Miller decided to come back and Urban Meyer pulled in assistants Larry Johnson and Chris Ash, a couple of super recruiters. And Meyer suffered two agonizing losses without having health problems.

4. Florida. OK, UF lost four starters as early entrants to the NFL draft. But it knew Loucheiz Purifoy and Dominique Easley were gone and suspected Marcus Roberson would follow. Even with the personnel losses (such as Tyler Murphy) the addition of Kurt Roper and Mike Summers should result in an offensive staff that is on the same page.

5. Texas. Charlie Strong may have been the fourth or fifth choice but he will make Texas a tougher program and has already handled his first controversy (booster Red McCombs) with aplomb. Landing offensive line coach Joe Wickline, a former Gator player and assistant, was huge.

6. Baylor. Art Briles seemed like the logical choice for Texas until the Horns asked him to interview. That worked out nicely for the Bears, who also kept quarterback Bryce Petty and receiver Anthony Goldby.

7. Fresno State. How everyone missed on stealing away Fresno coach Tim DeRuyter is a mystery, but it was good for the Bulldogs.

8. Oregon. Marcus Mariota is back and if he can stay healthy the Ducks will contend for a national title. De'Anthony Thomas leaving hurts, but it's a body blow, not a head wound.

9. UCLA. Another coach whose name came up during the silly season was Jim Mora Jr., but not only did he stay, his quarterback Brett Hundley will be back.

10. Clemson. The Tigers were hit at wide receiver, but the good news? Locking up Dabo Swinney and keeping offensive coordinator Chad Morris along with pass-rusher Vic Beasley.


1. Louisville. Hiring Bobby Petrino was a huge PR hit and shortsighted considering he has shown a history for leaving programs and leaving them with decimated rosters. And enjoy that move to the ACC, Cardinals, where you'll have FSU, Notre Dame, Miami and Clemson on your schedule.

2. LSU. I know Les Miles keeps loading up on talent, but you can't lose 18 juniors to the NFL in two seasons and not feel something. The biggest loss was Jeremy Hill, an NFL-ready running back.

3. Vanderbilt. Derek Mason may turn out to be a fine head coach, but any time you lose a coach who changed the culture of your program it's a loss. And it doesn't help when that coach raids your recruiting class.

4. Penn State. Nobody questions James Franklin was a great hire, but he is not an upgrade over Bill O'Brien and I liked the previous staff better than this one. And while Franklin has stolen some Vandy recruits, he's lost plenty of Penn State commitments.

5. Texas A&M. You can't see Johnny Manziel and Mike Evans leave early and consider your off-season a plus. Neither was a surprise, but it will be a different A&M team in 2014.

6. Stanford. The Cardinal lost Mason to Vandy and this was a team built on defense and the running game. So losing linemen David Yankey and Cameron Fleming can't help either.

7. Alabama. We'll see about Lane Kiffin, but the Tide had five players leave early and is still dealing with hangover of two straight losses.

8. Notre Dame. Both coordinators left for head coaching jobs and the Irish were hurt by early departures as well as Louis Nix, who could have received another year.

9. Florida State. It's hard to put the Seminoles on this list because there were a lot of juniors who came back. But losing players such as Kelvin Benjamin and Tim Jernigan as well as Pruitt cannot be considered a good silly season.

10. Southern Cal. Steve Sarkisian may be a good hire, but he had a ceiling at Washington. Who knows if he can push through it. It won't help that a program that can only have 75 scholarship players lost five juniors to the draft.


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