What if Hugh Freeze says no? South Carolina should consider these options
Liberty coach Hugh Freeze is reportedly the top choice and widely considered the front-runner to replace Will Muschamp as South Carolina’s head football coach.
Freeze’s credentials are largely tied to his success at Ole Miss, where he took down Nick Saban and Alabama twice and led the Rebels to a No. 3 ranking in 2014. More recently, Freeze this season has produced an 8-0 record and his team is ranked No. 21 in the country.
But there are some who believe Freeze may turn down South Carolina for another year at Liberty and wait for more prominent SEC jobs to potentially open at Auburn or Tennessee.
So if Freeze follows that general theory, or simply says no, what’s the next move?
Let’s handicap 4 other options for South Carolina:
Louisiana’s Billy Napier
Napier is arguably the most realistic choice and is touted for his coaching pedigree at Clemson and Alabama under Dabo Swinney and Nick Saban. Napier played at Furman, then was a graduate assistant at Clemson before he became a quarterbacks coach at South Carolina State. Napier joined Clemson as a full-time offensive assistant from 2006-10, and he’s also been a wide receivers coach at Alabama. He was Arizona State’s offensive coordinator in 2017 before taking over at Louisiana in 2018. Napier is 25-11 in 3 seasons with the Ragin’ Cajuns. Obviously he knows South Carolina and has competed in the SEC.
Coastal Carolina’s Jamey Chadwell
The Chanticleers are undefeated and No. 15 in the AP Top 25. Caldwell also has deep ties in the state, as he coached at Charleston Southern before moving to Coastal in 2017.
Chadwell has been the school’s full-time head coach since 2019. He replaced Joe Moglia, first as on an interim basis. Chadwell started his career at NCAA Division II North Greenville, where he guided that program to its first NCAA playoffs bid. Overall, Chadwell has won 75 games in 10 years as a head coach at Charleston Southern (2013-16), Delta State (2012), North Greenville (2009-10) and at Coastal Carolina (2017 and 2019).
Alabama’s Steve Sarkisian
Similar to Freeze’s story, Sarkisian is weighing rehabilitating his image while also weighing the type of job he wants to land as a head coach. He, too, might wait for a more prominent opening.
Sarkisian interviewed for the recent opening at Colorado before he pulled his name and received a raise to stay at Alabama as offensive coordinator.
Though he has been at Alabama, Sarkisian is most known for his West Coast stints, and corresponding recruiting ties at Washington and Southern Cal. Sarkisian is in his second year as Alabama’s offensive coordinator after serving 2 seasons in the same capacity with the Atlanta Falcons. The Alabama offense is arguably the most efficient offense in college football. One potential question: Could he land the same athletes he’s worked with at Alabama, Southern Cal or Washington?
Oklahoma’s Shane Beamer
This would be a link back to the Steve Spurrier days after Beamer served on the Gamecocks’ staff first in 2007. He has coached mostly special teams, outside linebackers and cornerbacks, but also coached running backs at Virginia Tech. He was praised as South Carolina recruiting coordinator for classes from 2009-2011. He may have the most varied experience around the country with stops at Mississippi State, South Carolina, Virginia Tech and Georgia.
He’s the son of Hall of Famer Frank Beamer and was also a graduate assistant at Tennessee assistant. He’s been a full-time Power 5 assistant since 2004.
More dark horse candidates include offensive coordinator Joe Brady of the Carolina Panthers, the wunderkind passing game coordinator credited with plenty of LSU’s success during last year’s national championship run.
Also interesting is Louisville coach Scott Satterfield, the former coach at Appalachian State, no doubt with the kinds of recruiting ties throughout the Carolinas that are paramount to being successful, along with a proven offensive background.
Most view this as Freeze’s job to accept or reject. If the latter happens, the Gamecocks have plenty of other enticing options.
You can’t have Sark!
ha. sark will be gone for sure. This year if it werent for covid but still maybe. Next year for sure. have to wonder if he thinks he will get a shot at the USC job should it come open. Dont see him staying in the sec though. maybe Michigan… Freeze to michigan??? Doesnt seem like a good fit but michiganders are tired of losing.Who knows. There may very well be a lot of options for SC in this covid year where many coaches will get a do over…
PS: Butch Jones is a much bigger laughing stock than SC could ever hope to be.
Fickell will get the call from Michigan no doubt.
Who ever is going to Michigan probably has already gotten the call, just waiting to the end of the season.
Will Muschamp as the DC?
Nobody wants to go to Columbia, least of all Hugh Freeze. Its now a laughingstock, most pittyful program in the entire Power 5.
They should have stayed in the ACC where maybe, just maybe, they’d have a snowballs chance in Cooterville in ever being relevant.
#laughingstock
your friend,
Butch
“Most pitiful program in the entire Power 5”
Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, Syracuse, Oregon State, Kansas, Northwestern, Duke, FSU. There are way worse programs than SC
Northwestern is undefeated and leading their division.
Also Northwestern is rank! Very lucky to have Fitzgerald Mizzou might be the next team to be rank if not this year but next year! Strange how some schools have gotten lucky with the right HC that are not top football programs.
It’s funny that a Tenn fan lists calls a bunch of teams more pitiful than USCe. Meanwhile FSU fans are trying to figure what stage of Tenn they are in. Answer, they are in the kiffin era. They had hope, and within a year they realize it was a mistake.
What’s your story, troll man?
Clemson fan? Gamecock slid into your wife/gf/daughter?
He’s B1tch Jones.
He b1tches to nobody on a site used by boomers.
Make you feel like a man by using the boomer cliche? Idiot.
He talks like a clemson fan. You know, the kid that broke off a piece of their howard’s rock?
butch, you’re no one’s friend. Even your dog hates you.
The answer is, No, Sark can’t land the same players at south carolina as elsewhere
Muschamp has shown it is possible to recruit at a high level at SC
If you say so but what about results? Might be the same since Butch did it at Tennessee and the results were no better than South Carolina’s results!
Gotta have the right combination of quality coaching and recruiting
Muschamp definitely recruited decently. The underutilization of talent paired with the lack of being able to develop anything meaningful offensively was a recipe for disaster.
I would broaden the net in this search to include current P5 head coaches like Jeff Brohm from Louisville, Matt Campbell from Iowa State, Dave Clawson from Wake Forest, Bronco Mendenhall from Virginia, and even Tom Allen from Indiana.
There is no reason why South Carolina cannot become a top program in the SEC. Everything is in place if the right manager gets that job. It has everything a program needs to succeed–money, attractiveness, recruiting base near Florida and Georgia. If Bill Snyder could turn Kansas State into a consistent winner, then basically any state school can do it.
Jeff Brohm is at Purdue.
Yeah that was hilarious. And Matt Campbell would never leave Iowa State for SC. The worst is his suggestion that Allen would leave after building a program at Indiana. LH61 must really be a SC fan with a false flag.
Not an SC fan, I assure you.
Tom Allen?! LOL he is from Indiana and that is his hometown! No way he want to leave his dream job for South Carolina!
Giant Ditto !! That was a crazy thought about Allen. Probably a worse dream than Freeze. I still say Freeze will end up at Tennessee. What was that..ten years or more coaching high school in Tennessee?
“If Bill Snyder could turn Kansas State into a consistent winner, then basically any state school can do it.”
Yeah, any state school can be a winner but not just any coach. Bill Snyder was/is far from just any coach.
Steve Sarkisian: no. While he is very good with Xs and Os, he is a west coast guy and his tenure at Washington and USC West – the two Pac-12 programs with the best recruiting potential – showed that he can’t recruit.
Jamey Chadwell: no P5 experience in any capacity (player, grad assistant, assistant coach) and was Division II/FCS coach until 2017. Based on that I wouldn’t even recommend him for an ACC job, let alone an SEC one where you get worse recruits than Clemson, UGA, UF and Tennessee yet are expected to occasionally beat them. Let him start out at an AAC or better yet C-USA school instead maybe.
Napier: A good fourth choice. Ideally you would want a guy who has been at a school for at least 4 years so that he could show what he could do with his own recruits. Remember that Will Muschamp looked like a good hire after year 2 at Florida and South Carolina also.
Shane Beamer: the best option of the bunch IMHO. Though you wonder how long he would stick around (which is why South Carolina hired Holtz and Spurrier in the first place).
A good coach is a good coach. I would rather have a successful Group of 5 coach than a losing P5 coach. Didn’t Will have SEC experience. How did that go?
Drinkwitz has less than 2 years of HC experience and less than 1 year at Missouri. He is doing great so far! That is what you need to look for and take a gamble like Missouri AD did.
My top choice is Napier. Proven winner, proven developer, young, and eager to prove himself on the P5 level.
^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^
Not sure why SDS went all out on Freeze. Bad source?
amen brother.
I think Napier is their guy. If none of those guys work out, they could add Josh Heupel of UCF.
Heupel is a clone of Leach! Why haven’t any AD call him from a power of 5 school?
Id USC has no coach or qualified list the firing Muschamp is equally stupid but then we are talking about South Carolina right? SEC is way too good of a conference for schools like this in it.
Man, way too harsh. Maybe some lingering bitterness.
Whoa, yet our “Two” included you, Mr. “Way too good”.
Calm down, we’re just looking for a coach.
We certainly are talking about South Carolina, the team that beat your fearsome War Eaglets.
Sark is a boss. IF he’s licked the problem that got him booted from USCw, definitely him.
USC has a lot going for it. Money, great facilities and a rabid fan base. We have always under performed, with the exception of the Spurrier years, but we have always said “we will be better next year”. Same results different year. We have the tools to be successful. We just need the right leader. Spurrier proved that you can recruit great talent here and that you can dominate. Now we have to find the HC that can duplicate what Spurrier did.
Realistic options
Billy Napier
Jamey Chadwell
Will Healy (UNC Charlotte)
Bill Clark (UAB)
A stretch but possible
Joe Brady (Panthers OC)
Mario Cristobal (Oregon) He used to be an assistant with Miami and Alabama
Luke Fickell (Cincinnati) Rumor is he is interested in the SEC
Rhett Lashlee (Miami’s OC). Familiar with the SEC. Was Malzahn’s OC at Auburn
Out of this list, I would like Napier.
Apparently Brady has reached out to the school and reported interest in the job.
Shane Beamer should be in your realistic options also. Did you leave him out due to no HC experience?
Didn’t they say they were only considering guys who were sitting HC’s? Or at least HC experience? Didn’t want to hire a coordinator was my impression. I think Napier would be a good choice, but would require some patience. My gut feeling is Freeze stays at Liberty. He’s making good money, fans base loves him, and a lot less pressure. Plus there is no way of knowing if the SEC will even let him come back yet. SEC is very prickly with coaches who have serious NCAA infractions on their resume.
I didn’t have that takeaway. Only focus if Offence minded. Honestly I don’t think Freeze would make it through the vetting process. I think he stays at Liberty for now too.
Rooster…I agree with you concerning Hugh Freeze. He seems content where he is now and can wait for that right job to open-up. Frankly I like Jamey Chadwell of Coastal Carolina.
He’s had success everywhere he’s been & he understands the word “offense”. I prefer a younger coach who is on his way up. Upward & Onward for South Carolina now.