The 2017 college football coaching cycle won't soon be forgotten.
It featured big names (Chip Kelly, Jimbo Fisher, Dan Mullen) making big and, in some cases, rare moves between Power 5 programs. Christmas came early in Nebraska as Scott Frost came home, and three states -- Florida, Oregon and Mississippi -- had changes at both of their flagship programs. Hires ranged from the expected (Oregon State's Jonathan Smith) to the surprising (UCF's Josh Heupel) to the utterly bizarre (Arizona State's Herm Edwards). Most memorable was a meandering, messy, costly, dysfunctional, dramatic and drawn-out search at Tennessee that ended with a pretty decent hire in Jeremy Pruitt.
All but one FBS job (Kent State) is filled, and while there could be another wave of moves when the NFL season ends -- looking at you, Jim Harbaugh -- it's a good time to reflect on a wild month.
Here are 10 takeaways from this year's coaching carousel.
1. UCLA's seismic statement goes beyond Chip Kelly
The Bruins landed the most coveted free agent of the cycle in Kelly, who engineered an unforgettable four-year run at Oregon -- three Pac-12 titles, a national title appearance and a 33-3 record in league games. But the totality of what UCLA has done the past four months -- opening a long-overdue on-campus facility, firing an underperforming coach (Jim Mora) with an eight-figure buyout and landing Kelly -- shows that the program is serious about winning in football. UCLA should never go 19 years without a Pac-12 title, and while Kelly's presence doesn't guarantee championships, he has everything in place to compete for them, including a glittering track record in the conference. As USC ended a long league title drought, UCLA showed it intends to close the gap.
2. A rocky search on Rocky Top ended OK, but patience is necessary
The search was a very bad look for Tennessee, even if it ended with a solid pick in Pruitt. Greg Schiano didn't seem like a great choice for the Vols, but the negative reaction that ultimately killed the deal made the whole thing very ugly. Pruitt has all the ingredients to be a successful SEC coach -- relentless recruiter, success at multiple brand-name programs, strong Southern roots, the ability to attract talented assistants -- but he will need time to settle into the lead role. Tennessee fans are understandably anxious, especially with Georgia's rise in the SEC East, but they also should recognize and embrace Pruitt's learning curve. Several candidates turned down this job because of the toxicity around the program. Pruitt won't succeed until the air clears in Knoxville.
3. Dan Mullen perfectly played an important coaching carousel
This felt like the year Mullen had to make a move, especially with so many attractive jobs available. But Mullen never seemed desperate to leave Mississippi State, mindful of the talented team he would have in 2018 and the unprecedented SEC-urity he enjoyed at a self-aware program with realistic expectations. He likely would have been Tennessee's top choice but wisely waited out Florida -- the job he wanted all along -- as the Gators flirted with Kelly and Frost before turning their focus to him. Mullen makes sense at Florida, where he's won before as an assistant, and may be exactly what a quarterback-challenged roster needs right now. Still, he had one winning SEC record in nine seasons at Mississippi State. Florida made a really good hire, but Mullen is the biggest winner here.
4. Jimbo Fisher's departure from Florida State to Texas A&M could benefit both schools
A national-championship-winning coach rarely leaves a top-shelf program with airtight job security for a team that last won a national title in 1939. The bloated contract Texas A&M offered enticed Fisher, as did the chance to lead a program that spares no expense. While Texas A&M could end up regretting the length of Fisher's deal (10 years), this move provides complete clarity. Fisher must deliver championships -- division, league and ultimately national -- or he will be deemed a failure. There's no middle ground for a program that has lived there for far too long. Florida State, meanwhile, gets younger with Willie Taggart. It gets a coach who can maintain or even enhance the program's recruiting clout. It also gets a coach who won't always be wanting, as colleague David Hale wrote about Fisher. Taggart has a lot to prove here, but he could be exactly what FSU needs.
5. Ray Anderson's massive gamble will impact Arizona State for a very long time
I'm not against out-of-the-box decisions, especially for an ASU program trying to increase its profile in a competitive league. But Anderson better be right with the Edwards experiment, or the damage to Arizona State will be staggering and long-lasting. No one in the industry can make sense of what has happened in Tempe the past few weeks. Anderson fired Todd Graham despite a second-place finish in the Pac-12 North, sending him away with a $12 million buyout not subject to mitigation. The former NFL agent then hired Edwards, a onetime client who last coached in college in 1989 and went 20 games under .500 in the pros. Next came a bewildering news release that, among other things, emphasized the importance of keeping Graham's assistants. Both coordinators have already departed ASU, and Anderson's grand plan is looking shakier by the day.
6. Bill Moos and John Cohen show how coaching searches should be done
It has been a rough few months for Power 5 athletic directors, from Shawn Eichorst to Jay Jacobs to Jeff Long. John Currie never got the chance to hire Tennessee's next coach, and ASU's Anderson is feeling more than desert heat. But several ADs shined during the carousel. Nebraska hired Moos for one main purpose: to hire Frost as Mike Riley's replacement. And the veteran administrator got his man. Frost fretted over the decision, even in the final days, but Moos and the Nebraska muscle made it too tough to say no. Moos' candor throughout the process was incredibly refreshing, too. Cohen, meanwhile, made a smart, strong move in getting Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead to Mississippi State. He prepared for the likelihood of losing Mullen and found a coach with a similar profile who can continue what Mullen started and perhaps build upon it.
7. Oregon and Ole Miss made emotional but understandable decisions
The circumstances are different, but both Oregon and Ole Miss opted for continuity in elevating coaches to permanent leadership roles. Oregon can maintain some of its momentum in recruiting, an area where Mario Cristobal always shines, while Ole Miss slogs through its sanctions with a coach (Matt Luke) who is popular among players and alumni. The concern is over whether the administrations at both schools responded to the emotion of the moment by letting the players and fans pick their coaches. While both Cristobal and Luke are good coaches, neither was landing another Power 5 job (or perhaps any FBS job) in this cycle. Both schools could have hired more proven head coaches, and Ole Miss had a three-month head start. There are likely short-term gains with both promotions, but Luke and especially Cristobal must deliver in the long term for these moves to make sense.
8. The Saban tree continues to bloom, and look out for the Dabo tree
As Alabama searches for another new defensive coordinator, Nick Saban's pitch is pretty simple: Come here, have a lot of success, make a lot of money, become a head coach. Saban's coaching tree continues to be the most fruitful in college football, as four of his former assistants landed jobs in this cycle, including two first-time FBS head coaches in Pruitt and Louisiana's Billy Napier. As colleague Chris Low noted, 10 former Saban assistants have taken head-coaching jobs since 2015. The next big coaching tree could be Clemson's Dabo Swinney, who has remarkably kept his assistants during this record-setting run but saw former aide Chad Morris hired by Arkansas. Morris built his reputation as Clemson's offensive coordinator before an unremarkable three-year run as SMU's head coach.
9. Memphis won big by keeping Mike Norvell
If you told any rational Memphis fan before the season that the Tigers would win 10 games and the American West, but the SEC also would have six coaching vacancies -- one within the same state and three others in bordering states -- he or she would fully expect Norvell to move on. Norvell is a young, successful, offensive-minded coach, the type regularly plucked from successful Group of 5 programs. Several SEC schools considered the 36-year-old but ultimately balked at hiring him. On Dec. 5, Norvell signed a new contract that could keep him with the Tigers for several more seasons. It's a big victory for Memphis and for the American Athletic Conference, which has been losing promising coaches immediately after they taste success.
10. The window seems to have closed for Les Miles
Miles went 114-34 in SEC play at LSU with two league titles, three division titles and the 2007 national title. Yet the Mad Hatter didn't have a legitimate shot at any of the six openings in his former conference this year. Miles told ESPNU Radio last week that "not one" school reached out to him about a vacancy, despite some lobbying at Tennessee.
How many teams reached out to @CoachLesMiles to be the head coach at their schools?
— ESPNU Radio on SiriusXM (@ESPNUonSiriusXM) December 14, 2017
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Meanwhile, the six new SEC hires included only one man (Mullen) with head-coaching experience in the league and just two (Mullen and Fisher) who were Power 5 head coaches. The 64-year-old Miles wants to coach, and the sport is better when he's on the sideline, but he has now been shut out of two coaching cycles. The verdict seems to be if Miles underachieved with LSU's talent, he might not be the best option to turn around a lesser program.