1. Dan Mullen. His track record at Miss State was spectacular, considering the massive disadvantages he was competing with. He's already won 2 national titles at Florida as OC.
2. Joe Moorhead. Very underrated hire. Unfortunately for him, he's going to get compared to Dan Mullen, so it's going to be very difficult for Moorhead to improve results further at Miss State. That said, Moorhead was the best OC in the nation over the past two years; Penn State was very mediocre before Moorhead arrived. Moorhead already succeeded in a very tough job at Fordham, as well.
3. Jimbo Fisher. On paper, it sounds like a great hire. In reality, I'm skeptical. First off, A&M is paying an insanely high price for Fisher. While Fisher's dropoff at FSU this season can be partly blamed on injuries, it also feels like he has some personal demons he's battling. But the other thing here is that A&M is a much tougher job than FSU. In the ACC, FSU is top dog. Miami was down while he was there (till this season), so FSU was easily the best job in the ACC recruiting-wise. And there's really only 2-3 teams that compete with FSU when it's run well: Clemson, Miami, and maybe Virginia Tech. A&M is a very different beast. Fisher steps into the 4th best program in the SEC West. He now has to compete against Nick Saban and Gus Malzahn. It's going to be tougher at A&M than it is at FSU.
4. Chad Morris. Excellent offensive coordinator at Clemson and he rebuilt an SMU program that was basically in shambles when he took over. Arkansas is a tough job right now, though. I'd argue that it's become the toughest job in the SEC West, as Miss State has improved its facilities and stature. It's really the only SEC West school that lacks much in the way of blue chip home state recruits. That said, Morris will recruit the hell out of Texas.
5. Jeremy Pruitt. The bright side IMO is that Pruitt has a lot of upside. The glass half empty perspective, however, says he also has the more downside than any of the four guys I ranked above him. I'm optimistic for now, but it's really all going to come down to whether he can figure out how to get this offense working again and that's something he has virtually no experience doing. It seems like our entire staff has been given promotions, rather than being experienced guys, so it's tough to say how it will turn out. My fear is that Pruitt is Will Muschamp Part 2. That said, he could end up bieng a very successful Dabo Swinney type hire. We'll have to wait and see. Even though I'm ranking this #5, I don't think any of the SEC hires were bad and I don't think it's far-fetched to look back in 5 years and for this to end up being the best hire. But he's definitely less proven than the other guys.
6. Matt Luke. David Cutcliffe protege. Underrated as a coach, but no one can succeed at Ole Miss right now. That's just the reality. Unfortunately, Luke is the sacrificial lamb, but it's unfair to him. He's a good coach who is trying to swim up Mount Everest right now.
