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Who could be out next as the college football coaching carousel starts swinging round
Head coach Mark Helfrich is a long way from when he took the Oregon Ducks to the College Football Playoff two years ago. Gene Sweeney Jr/Getty Images

Who could be out next as the college football coaching carousel starts swinging round

The college football head coaching carousel has already started with a bang with two of the biggest head coaching openings filled over the holiday break. Texas fired Charlie Strong and quickly pounced on highly sought after Houston head coach Tom Herman while LSU decided to give interim head coach Ed Orgeron the full-time job. In all honesty, the swiftness that these two major programs filled their positions did little to disrupt the rest of college football and failed to start a string of dominoes to fall. However, that may change in the coming days.

Now it comes down to some decisions being made about if a school is deciding that now is the right time to make a change. If so, here are some jobs that could find themselves open:

Oregon

It sure looks like the Ducks will to fire Mark Helfrich instead of sticking with him for at least one more year. After all, two years ago Helfrich had Oregon in the inaugural College Football Playoff championship game. This year, however, saw the Ducks fall to 4-8 as they suffered some embarrassing defeats. Unlike places like Texas or LSU, Oregon isn't a guaranteed power and this sudden slippage in performance and recruiting is a huge problem.

The names you will see at the top of several coaching searches will be in play here (most notably Western Michigan's P.J. Fleck).

Baylor

Baylor has had a job opening all season long. After the scandal that rocked the campus unfolded, Art Briles lost his job before the season began. Former Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe has done a admiral job taking over in short notice but has watched his 6-0 squad lose five games in a row heading into their regular season finale at West Virginia. Rumors are swirling that SMU head coach Chad Morris is Baylor's target. Morris took over a 1-11 program and turned it into respectability while running the spread offense that is popular in Waco.

Purdue

The Boilermakers are an interesting case. Could Purdue actually land a guy like Les Miles or will they also try to look to bring in Western Michigan's Fleck? Early rumors have Fleck as the guy their focused on and Purdue needs to make a big hire. In the last four seasons, the Boilermakers have gone 3-30 in Big Ten play and 9-39 overall. Purdue hasn't had a winning conference season since 2006 and haven't made a bowl since 2012.

Notre Dame

While it doesn't seem that Notre Dame is looking to remove Brian Kelly, there has been some chatter that he may be looking around for a new job. As you see on this list, there aren't really any cherry college jobs for Kelly at the moment (I mean, how many jobs are worth leaving Notre Dame for?) so this is a bit surprising. The Irish just finished a dismal 4-8 season and just had wins vacated from the 2012 and 2013 seasons due to an academic scandal so there is a cloud over the program. Maybe he's holding out for an NFL gig or maybe he's just curious to see what really is out there if things get a bit tight in South Bend.

Houston

Herman is taking his assistants to Texas so there isn't a quick fix of promoting from within (though that could still happen with defensive coordinator/interim coach Todd Orlando). The Cougars gig is a hot property right now. Not only is it set up to win now, but is a great springboard for a bigger, better deal in the future. There will be the idea to go the route that they took with Herman by luring one of the hot, young coaching names to continue Houston's rise to prominence. Also, there should be a list of coaches who are currently or used to be at Power 5 schools that may want this job. This could be a place where a guy like Art Briles might attempt to resurrect his career.

Cincinnati

The job isn't open as of now, but the pressure is on Tommy Tuberville. The Bearcats woefully underperformed this season and showed little life outside of a spirited nationally televised game against Houston. Cincinnati is just 29-22 in Tuberville's time in the Queen City and they lost 7 of their final 8 games of this season. The buyout is doable if the Bearcats feel like a change is needed and with the university trying to position itself as an athletic program that is worthy of stepping into a Power 5 conference, then they may have to look in a new direction.

There are other, smaller openings that are open and others (like Western Michigan) will opening up as coaches take on bigger jobs. There are also big names like Miles, Strong and possibly Tuberville or Kelly that could be out there. While this doesn't seem to be a huge overhaul of coaches, when Texas, LSU and possibly Notre Dame are make changes in the same offseason, there is quite a tremor in college football.

Can you name every player from the University of Oregon to make to a Pro Bowl?
SCORE:
0/24
TIME:
5:00
1964 (10)
Mel Renfro
1949 (9)
Norm Van Brocklin
1964 (7)
Dave Wilcox
1973 (6)
Dan Fouts
2006 (5)
Haloti Ngata
2005 (4)
Richie Incognito
1972 (4)
Ahmad Rashad
2009 (3)
Jairus Byrd
1975 (3)
Russ Francis
2013 (3)
Kyle Long
2009 (3)
Max Unger
1947 (2)
Brad Ecklund
1978 (2)
Fred Quillan
2010 (2)
T.J. Ward
1960 (2)
Willie West
1964 (1)
Bob Berry
1999 (1)
Josh Bidwell
1937 (1)
Del Bjork
2016 (1)
DeForest Buckner
1951 (1)
Dick Daugherty
1956 (1)
Dick James
1950 (1)
Woodley Lewis
1987 (1)
Chris Miller
2008 (1)
Jonathan Stewart

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