The SEC is home to some of the best coaching jobs in America, but the ACC made some of the best coaching hires this past week.

The coaching carousel was cranked up to 11 as the 2015 regular season made its way down the home stretch, with administrators and fans alike less patient than ever — and money seemingly never a concern — to field a legitimate contender. Three SEC schools (Georgia, Missouri, South Carolina) and four ACC schools (Miami, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech) made a change at the top.

While the new coaches in the ACC have track records of success leading other programs, not one of the new SEC coaches can make that claim.

Miami landed big-name alumnus Mark Richt. He may not have captured a national title at Georgia, but he registered double-digit wins nine times and won nine bowl games.

Syracuse got the fast-rising Dino Babers. In just two years at Bowling Green, he won two MAC East Division titles and the conference championship game this season.

Virginia surprised a lot of experts when it landed Bronco Mendenhall. A consistent winner at BYU, he had turned down overtures from other universities.

Virginia Tech won the Justin Fuente sweepstakes. His predecessor at Memphis, Larry Porter, won three games in two years, while Fuente has won 19 since 2014.

Four hires. Four home runs. Four happy fan bases.

The same can’t be said for any of the SEC newbies.

Georgia welcomed home Kirby Smart — he was a safety for the Bulldogs from 1995-98. One of the top assistants in the country as Alabama’s defensive coordinator for eight seasons, his path was similar to, well, Richt. Before his stint in Athens, Richt was Florida State’s offensive coordinator for seven years.

That didn’t stop the deep pockets in Athens from handing Smart a six-year contract worth $3.75 million annually, which is more than two of this year’s playoff participants (Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney) made in 2015.

“That’s $250,000 less than Mark Richt was making in his final season with the Bulldogs,” wrote Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald, “but he was in his 15th season as a head coach and had won two SEC titles and made five trips to the league title game. Smart has never been a head coach before.”

Defense isn’t the problem at UGA. The Bulldogs were third in the conference in total D behind the two division winners, Alabama and Florida.

The offense, however, is a different story. Georgia’s passing game in particular was poor — 10th in the SEC. The Bulldogs seemingly always have a talented tailback, but this team was never the same once Heisman Trophy hopeful Nick Chubb shredded his knee.

If Smart can find a way to keep Jacob Eason, a five-star QB commitment from Lake Stevens (Wash.) High School, then maybe the aerial attack gets an upgrade.

Like Smart, Barry Odom also appears to have landed the dream job at his alma mater, as he was a linebacker for Missouri from 1996-99.

Gary Pinkel, the winningest coach in Tigers history, stepped down following a decade and a half — he was in Columbia as long as Richt was in Athens — of exceeding expectations more often than not. The 63-year-old has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and wishes to spend his remaining time in the company of family and friends, not dealing with the 24-7-365 coaching grind.

Odom has been looking forward to this opportunity for quite awhile, even when Pinkel was in perfect health and usually contending in the Big 12.

“Five or six years ago, when he was a safeties coach under Pinkel, Odom told his older brother Brad that he wanted to be in Pinkel’s chair someday,” wrote David Morrison of the Columbia Daily Tribune. “When Pinkel brought him back from Memphis as Missouri’s defensive coordinator last December, many thought Odom would make the move soon enough, even though Odom said the topic never came up in conversations with Pinkel.”

He was the best choice if the goal was to keep Mizzou as Pinkel-like as possible, although the only other vacancy Odom interviewed for was Fuente-less Memphis.

But the real head scratcher is South Carolina going all in with Will Muschamp, the second former Florida coach in a row to get the Gamecocks gig.

The original, Steve Spurrier, was wildly successful with the Gators, winning the school’s first national championship in 1996 before eventually giving it a shot in the NFL — he came to Columbia in 2005 after two seasons with the Washington Redskins. Muschamp, meanwhile, went 29-21 in four years at UF, and his 4-8 mark in 2013 was the institution’s first under .500 since 1979.

He took a step back this season to be Auburn’s defensive coordinator, which was considered a coup at the time for offensive-minded coach Gus Malzahn, but the Tigers still finished 13th in the SEC in total D.

Why South Carolina brass believe Muschamp’s image is now rehabilitated and he’s ready to be The Man again is a mystery. His résumé on the recruiting trail is impressive — he earned the nickname “Flipper” for changing the minds of premier prospects — but his reputation as a hot head on game day is more befitting of a special teams coach.

Current Florida coach Jim McElwain made it to the SEC title game in Year 1 with Muschamp’s players, which doesn’t say much about Muschamp’s leadership atop the totem pole.

“There were enough issues with Muschamp’s tenure at Florida that South Carolina fans have a right to their anxiety for now, but none of those issues were off-field problems,” wrote Josh Kendall of The State. “He inherited a program that outgoing coach Urban Meyer admitted was ‘broken’ and restored its sense of right and wrong.”

The Gamecocks have chased big names before. Spurrier, of course. Lou Holtz before him. Muschamp is a big name, too. Just not necessarily for the right reasons.

Smart? Safe. Odom? Status quo. Muschamp? Boom or bust.

And all three raise just as many questions as they answer.