There's a lot of talk -- understandably -- about underachieving coaches right now in the upper levels of college football.
Understandably so. mind you. Places that want for nothing and have resources 100-plus other Football Bowls Subdivision programs dream about are nonetheless staring down the barrels of tens of millions of dollars of disappointment.
For the sake of posterity, we won't name names in this space. Not today, anyway.
What we will discuss and write here at FootballScoop? Some coaches helping lead some of the nation's best programs who are perhaps either flying under the proverbial radar or just flat-out underappreciated.
While the purposes of this discussion and content piece are primarily to examine those assistant coaches who need more spotlight or perhaps haven't gotten any, this college football season also has rapidly accelerated to its midpoint and a couple of overachieving, under-loved head coaches deserve some credit.
What Cincinnati's Scott Satterfield is doing is flat-out remarkable, far more reminiscent of his stellar Appalachian State days than anything associated with his just-OK run atop Louisville.
The Bearcats look like legit Big 12 contenders and now own two supremely quality conference wins at Kansas and home against then-unbeaten Iowa State, a game in which Cincy never trailed and primarily led by double digits.
Additionally, Tony Elliott has Virginia atop the ACC standings at 3-0 and in the national rankings for the first time this decade, with some other accomplishments for the Cavaliers program dating back to the opening decade of this century. Hello, UCLA? You should be covertly and overtly making this call.
Sure, Elliott played at Clemson and has coached on the East Coast, but he's from central California and has proved he can rebuild a program after long ago proving to be a deft offensive mind and elite recruiter. Just a thought.
As for those assistant coaches, no need to spoil listening to the entire episode for you, but a few names must be printed.
Navy's Drew Cronic is a name to know; the Midshipmen's offensive coordinator continues to do elite things and help the unit set records while amassing wins.
Ole Miss's Charlie Weis Jr. is always in the shadow of Lane Kiffin, but FootballScoop's resident coach Doug Samuels has some unique and compelling first-person insight into Weis Jr.
There's also Texas Tech's Mack Leftwich. Hello, big-time. Ditto new Red Raiders defensive coordinator Shiel Wood.
And no ignoring Oklahoma's Ben Arbuckle or James Madison and San Diego State defensive coordinators Colin Histchler and Rob Aurich, respectively. Pitt assistant head coach and safeties coach Cory Sanders is another name to know and watch.
Anyway, dive into the discussion below:
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