Thursday, December 17, 2015

Tulane Fires Curtis Johnson

After much speculation, Curtis Johnson was fired as head football coach at Tulane.  This is a good time to look at the Tulane Green Wave under former head football coach Johnson's tenure since he was hired as head football coach in December 2011.

Below is a chart of offense, defense and total production of the University of Tulane Green Wave football program during Johnson's tenure as head football coach, along with who would be the lowest ranked team during this time period (in purple) and the average team (sky blue).   As you may notice, Tulane has been a below average football program overall for all four seasons of Johnson's tenure. All rankings in this blog come from my Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.  More details about the program under Johnson are after the chart below.


Curtis Johnson (2012 - 2015) as head football coach

2012  
The Green Wave finished the regular season again at 2-10 and were bowl ineligible. Tulane played an "average" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS, meaning that Tulane SOS was less than plus or minus one standard deviation of the league's average SOS.  Tulane's best game was a 27-26 victory over #57 ranked SMU and their worst loss was 20-24 to #105 ranked UTEP.  Overall, Tulane had the #121 ranked team with the #116 ranked offense and the #120 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.

2013
During head football coach Johnson's second year at the helm, Tulane finished the regular season at 7-5 and were bowl eligible, but lost to #52 ranked Lousiana-Lafayette 21-24, playing against an "average" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS.  Their best game was their victory over #18 ranked East Carolina 36-33 and their worst loss was to #74 ranked Syracuse 17-52.  Overall, Tulane had the #68 ranked team with the #97 ranked offense and the #14 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.  Unfortunately, the team was unable to improve as this was the best of the four seasons under head coach Johnson.
 
2014
Tulane finished the regular season at 5-7 and were bowl ineligible while playing against an "average" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS.  This season the Green Wave's best game was a victory over #12 ranked Memphis 38-7 and their worst loss was to #72 ranked Temple 3-10.  Overall, the Green Wave had the #99 ranked team with the #115 ranked offense and the #40 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.

2015
Tulane announced that head football coach Curtis Johnson would not return for the next season as the Green Wave finished 3-9 overall.  The Green Wave played against a "average" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS.  Tulane's best game was a victory was over #72 ranked Army and their worst loss was to #122 ranked SMU.  Tulane had the #106 ranked team in total production with the #109 ranked offense and the #88 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.  With numbers like those ...

2015 In Season NCAA FBS Head Coach Changes
University of Illinois and Tim Beckman
University of Maryland and Randy Edsall
University of North Texas and Dan McCarney 
University of Southern California and Steve Sarkisian 
University of South Carolina and Steve Spurrier 
University of Miami (FL) and Al Golden 
University of Central Florida and George O'Leary 
University of Minnesota and Jerry Kill 
University of Hawai'i and Norm Chow 
University of Louisiana-Monroe and Toddy Berry 
Iowa State University and Paul Rhoades 
Syracuse University and Scott Shafer