The FootballScoop Status Report series rolls on, this time with the Pac-12. The league has already experienced one coaching change at Oregon State. What else could be on the horizon?
Gone Too Soon?
Willie Taggart, Oregon
Tenure: 5-4, 2-4 Pac-12
This year: 5-4, 2-4 Pac-12
Thanks to the buyout language in his contract, Taggart would be available if a certain school in his home state happened to have an opening.
Movin' On Up
Mike Leach, Washington State
Tenure: 36-36, 24-27 Pac-12
This year: 7-2, 4-2 Pac-12
Leach is 17-7 in the Pac-12 since 2015, equal to Washington and trailing only Stanford and USC in the Pac-12 over that span. AD Bill Moos left for Nebraska. So it would seem if The Pirate had any desire to sail to a new port of call for perhaps the last time in his career (Leach is 56), this would be it.
A Swing Season Meets its Swing Month
Rich Rodriguez, Arizona
Tenure: 42-31, 23-27 Pac-12
This year: 6-2, 4-1 Pac-12
After back-to-back 8-5 seasons to begin his tenure, Rich Rod peaked to a Pac-12 South title and Fiesta Bowl appearance in 2014. The program backslid from there -- 7-6 in '15, 3-9 in '16 -- and started this season 2-2 with the wins coming against Northern Arizona and UTEP. And then Khalil Tate happened. The explosive quarterback ignited the Wildcats into an ongoing 4-game winning streak in which the Wildcats are averaging 48.8 points per game and are headed toward a game at USC that could decide the Pac-12 South. What a sport.
Todd Graham, Arizona State
Tenure: 43-30, 28-22 Pac-12
This year: 4-4, 3-2 Pac-12
Consecutive 10-win seasons in 2013-14 turned into consecutive 7-loss seasons in 2015-16. Arizona State at one point strung together a streak of 11 straight games in which the Sun Devils allowed at least 30 points, then allowed 17 points total in wins over then-No. 5 Washington and Utah. And then USC dropped 48 on Sparky on Saturday night. Arizona State closes with three straight winnable games (Colorado, at UCLA, at Oregon State) before hosting Arizona to end the year.
Jim Mora, UCLA
Tenure: 45-28, 27-24 Pac-12
This year: 4-4, 2-3 Pac-12
Much like the others, Mora started fast (nine wins a year from 2012-15, two top-20 finishes) before plummeting (a 4-8 season in 2016). See-sawing between the excellent Josh Rosen on one side and and a defense that has allowed 40-plus points five times in eight games, UCLA closes with a toss-up month: at Utah, Arizona State, at USC and Cal.
Reverting to Form
Mike MacIntyre, Colorado
Tenure: 25-35, 12-30 Pac-12
This year: 5-4, 2-4 Pac-12
MacIntyre has followed the opposite course, winning 10 total games in his first three seasons before a 10-win season with a Pac-12 South championship last fall. As The Rise becomes more and more in the past, expect MacIntyre to get involved in a number of openings this winter with a particular eye on the one in Oxford.