Wisconsin, Arizona State and More Add to Interim Coaches Succeeding in Week 6

Schools that already fired their coach have had a pretty good weekend on the field.

What do Brent Key, Shaun Aguano, Mickey Joseph and Jim Leonhard all have in common? They are interim coaches who all won this week. 

At Georgia Tech, Key improved to 2–0 since taking over for Geoff Collins with an overtime win over Duke. Aguano led Arizona State to a victory over No. 21 Washington. On Friday night, Joseph’s Nebraska team won a second straight game, this time over Rutgers, and Leonhard, in his first game as interim at Wisconsin, got a 42–7 rout of Northwestern.

In their short interim stints so far, the four coaches are 6–2. Meanwhile, UAB interim coach Bryant Vincent picked up a win over Middle Tennessee to improve to 3–2. Maybe more head coaches should be fired? Well, we all know more will very well be coming.

The Sun Devils were 1–4 entering Saturday, then knocked off the ranked Huskies :: Ross D. Franklin/AP

That might start with Bryan Harsin at Auburn, whose team has lost two straight after a walloping at the hands of Georgia, 42–10. The struggling Tigers limp into a game at Ole Miss next weekend. Will Harsin make the trip?

Speaking of the Rebels, they survived a scare from Vanderbilt (Vanderbilt!). Down three at halftime, Lane Kiffin’s team roared back to win, 52–28. Oklahoma State remained unbeaten as well, but barely. The Pokes stormed back to beat a feisty Texas Tech team.

But let’s get back to those interim coaches. Of the five, Leonhard would seem to have the best shot to become the permanent coach. But don’t sleep on Key, who is a former GT offensive lineman from nearby Birmingham and a guy who worked for three years under Nick Saban.

Joseph, the brother of the NFL’s Vance Joseph, is a Nebraska guy. Would the Huskers retain him? He’s close with Nebraska AD Trev Alberts.

Either way, things are suddenly trending in the right direction for teams whose seasons seemed to be lost.