WKU Football: Sanford Safe, For Now, According to CBS
On Monday, CBS Sports released (what I’m assuming is) their annual Hot Seat Rankings, where they evaluate all 129 head coaching jobs on a…
On Monday, CBS Sports released (what I’m assuming is) their annual Hot Seat Rankings, where they evaluate all 129 head coaching jobs on a scale of 0–5, with 0 being “Untouchable,” (Nick Saban) to 5 being “Win or be fired,” (Charlotte’s Brad Lambert).
Which automatically begs the question; how does CBS see Sanford’s job on the Hill?
Some of you aren’t going to like the answer, but they rated him a 2, or, “All good…for now.” (It also had the most head coaches in that rating tier, with 42.)
Sanford entered last season as “Safe and secure” (something I assume all first-year head coaches come in with), so he’s certainly trending in a not-great direction, but if you’re reading between the lines from CBS, if things don’t turn around for the Tops soon, Sanford very well could fly up the charts.
And, honestly, I think they’re spot on. However, I know many of you feel otherwise.
Going off of this rating, it also says to me that Sanford’s leash might be a little longer than original thought by some (myself included). I remember thinking fresh off of the end of last season that if things didn’t turn around in 2018, he may not be here in ’19, but over the last couple of weeks I’ve been singing a different tune (and we got into a big fight about it on the twitters). If the Tops do continue to trend downward, it’ll be a progression up the rankings for Sanford, but it isn’t going to be a get-him-out-of-here-now mentality from Todd Stewart and the athletics department (unless things go really south, really quick).
CBS ranked Sanford in the same tier as Doc Holliday and Rick Stockstill; take that as you will, as those are three wildly different scenarios (a team fresh off a heavy rebound, a team fresh off a disappointing campaign and a team that wallows in mediocrity).
The only “win now,” job in the conference is the aforementioned Lambert, who has been at Charlotte for five seasons.
Two rankings surprised me a ton — Skip Holtz from La Tech, who was ranked a 3 (“Pressure is mounting,”) and Bill Clark, who was deemed one of just six “untouchable,” coaching jobs in the country. I didn’t realize the seat was getting warm on Holtz, as his Bulldogs are just two years removed from a C-USA West division title, and I know Bill Clark did a heckuva job with the Blazers last year, but I thought CBS would want a bit of a bigger sample size with the Baby Blazers.
Anyway, long story short for Topper fans; Sanford’s job is in fact good for now, whether you like it or not.
Full C-USA rankings.
Charlotte’s Brad Lambert — 5, Win or be fired (2017–3, Pressure is mounting)
FIU’s Butch Davis — 1, Safe and secure
FAU’s Lane Kiffin — 1
La Tech’s Skip Holtz — 3 (2017–1)
Marshall’s Doc Holliday — 2
MTSU’s Rick Stockstill — 2 (2017–1)
North Texas’ Seth Littrell — 1
ODU’s Bobby Wilder — 2 (2017–1)
Rice’s Mike Bloomgreen — 1 (first year at Rice)
Southern Miss’ Jay Hopson — 2 (2017–1)
UAB’s Bill Clark — 0, Untouchable (2017–1)
UTEP’s Dana Dimel — 2 (first year at UTEP)
UTSA’s Frank Wilson — 2 (2017–1)
WKU’s Mike Sanford — 2 (2017–1)