Maurice Linguist out at Buffalo
Maurice Linguist out at Buffalo
Buffalo's head coach is the fourth MAC head coach to leave for an assistant job since 2014 — potentially the start of a trend for MAC coaches looking to eventually level-up.
After giving the MAC a try for three years, Maurice Linguist has left Buffalo for the new Alabama. It’s the first head coaching change in the MAC of the offseason, and it’s the first MAC head coaching change since Western Michigan fired Tim Lester and hired Lance Taylor in December of 2022.
No, Linguist’s next stop isn’t to be a head coach. It’s to be the Tide’s new co-defensive coordinator.
Kalen DeBoer, who spent three years as Eastern Michigan’s offensive coordinator, carved his own path to end up as the replacement hire for Nick Saban, whose retirement will continue to shock the college football world for the foreseeable future. Linguist was the second sitting mid-major head coach to be plucked from his current position to become an assistant at Alabama. DeBoer’s first swipe was Kane Wommack of South Alabama, Bama’s other, new defensive coordinator.
As Buffalo’s head coach, Linguist started with a base salary of $675,000/year. I haven’t seen a hard figure yet, but we can assume he’ll make $200k/year more than that at Alabama, right?
More?
How much of this is about the money?
How much of this is about simply wanting to compete at the highest level?
How much of this is about not wanting to get stuck in the MAC?
How important is it to be a head coach and not a coordinator?
I’m not really talking about Linguist anymore, though we can put a pin in his name now and pick back up on him again later. I’m really talking about where MAC head coaches see themselves right now. There’s been a Toledo-sized cog in the system for a number of years now, and nobody wants to say this, but it’s not a great look for the conference.
The old line of thinking is, as a MAC coach, you could succeed there, and be able to tell schools hiring head coaches that they obviously won at a very tough FBS-level environment, and are capable of a bigger stage.
Saban played a Kent State and coached one year at Toledo in 1990 — his first head coaching job (9-2 record).
Urban Meyer’s first head coaching job came in Bowling Green (17-6 record) before he became a powerhouse-driving coach at Utah, Florida, and Ohio State.
Heck, Miami’s known for its Cradle of Coaches — young, proven football guys there are enshrined forever — which has memorialized guys like Ara Parseghian, Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, Dick Crum, John and Sean McVay, and John Harbaugh.
But the traditional line of thinking was never universal for decision-makers at the top. No matter what you might’ve thought about reading coaches’ resumes and what they could be capable of even 15 years ago, the calculus for all considering minds have drastically changed lately.
Ring culture is very much a thing, and only two conferences can confidently say they have the best hands entering this new era of college football. Not only will there be 12 teams to make up the playoff, but the Big Ten will be adding USC, UCLA, Washington, and Oregon, while the SEC will be adding Texas and Oklahoma. On paper, they’re two strongest leagues in college football, and have the most potential to fill the playoff field with at-large bids.
Bowl game culture used to be different, conferences used to look different, the transfer portal wasn’t a thing yet, and FBS football has yet to shrink in size. Saban’s first year at Alabama — after he already won a BCS national title with LSU — was in 2007. There were 119 FBS-level programs with 11 conferences. This year, 18 years later, Kennesaw State will be the 134th FBS program, and the Pac-12 has only two teams in it. Delaware State’s on-deck in 2025, that’ll make it 135.
They still only give out one national title trophy per year.
The race to be the last team standing, though, has drastically changed over the years.
The national championship used to be a headline-given crown by media outlets before the BCS came decided the sport’s final stage from 1998-2013; they trophy was a cool-looking crystal football. Then in 2014, FBS football recognized the College Football Playoff’s 4-team bracket as the height of the sport. With the playoff now expanding to 12; the trophy is a boring, ugly gold rod.
Coaches used to come into the MAC — with or without experience as a head coach — and sort of pick their own adventure should they succeed enough. Or that’s what I assumed the conventional wisdom was, at least.
MACtion’s a land of opportunity for some no-names to become somebodies in the middle of the week. Nobody said this was surefire operation across the board.
Nobody said all these MAC schools were going to have the same hiring practices either.
Since 2000, 18 former *MAC head coaches have been plucked to be head coaches at other schools. Since 2020, there has been just one MAC coach to leave for another head coach opening: Lance Leipold from Buffalo to Kansas after the 2020 season.
Since 2000, four former MAC head coaches were plucked away to be assistants elsewhere — two since 2020. Since the Leipold change at Buffalo, Sean Lewis left Kent State after five years to be an offensive coordinator at Colorado (now the head coach at San Diego State), and Linguist, of course, is now helping lead Alabama’s defense.
(*Note: I’m only considering the 12 full-member schools that have stuck with the conference this entire time; no Marshall, UMass, UCF, or Temple coaches.)
MAC HEAD COACHES PLUCKED AS HEAD COACH, SINCE 2000
2020- Lance Leipold (Buffalo), hired away by Kansas.
2018- Rod Carey (Northern Illinois), hired away by Temple.
2016- P.J. Fleck (Western Michigan), hired by Minnesota.
2015- Dino Babers (Bowling Green), hired away by Syracuse.
2015- Matt Campbell (Toledo), hired away by Iowa State.
2013- Dave Clawson (Bowling Green), hired away by Wake Forest.
2012- Dave Doreen (Northern Illinois), hired away by NC State.
2012- Darrell Hazell (Kent State), hired away by Purdue.
2011- Tim Beckman (Toledo), hired away by Illinois.
2010- Michael Haywood (Miami), hired away by Pitt.
2010- Jerry Kill (Northern Illinois), hired away by Minnesota.
2009- Turner Gill (Buffalo), hired away by Kansas.
2009- Butch Jones (Central Michigan), hired away by Cincinnati.
2006- Brian Kelly (Central Michigan), hired away by Cincinnati.
2004- Terry Hoeppner (Miami), hired away by Indiana.
2002- Urban Meyer (Bowling Green), hired away by Utah.
2000- Jim Grobe (Ohio), hired away by Wake Forest.
2000- Gary Pinkel (Toledo), hired away by Missouri.
MAC HEAD COACHES PLUCKED AS ASSISTANT, SINCE 2020
2023- Maurice Linguist (Buffalo), to Alabama as co-defensive coordinator.
2022- Sean Lewis (Kent State) to Colorado as offensive coordinator.
2015- Pete Lembo (Ball State), to Maryland as special teams coordinator.
2014- Dan Enos (Central Michigan), to Arkansas as offensive coordinator.
Linguist had a weird start to his head coaching life.
Prior to taking Buffalo’s sudden head-coach opening in May 2021, Linguist was recently hired to be the co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach for Michigan. Didn’t even make it to the season. Kansas fired Les Miles after sexual assault allegations came out in April 2021, then pulled Leipold from Buffalo after he led the Bulls to the MAC title game two times (no wins). Linguist, 39, was a defensive backs coach and reliable recruiter at James Madison, Iowa State, Mississippi State, Minnesota, Texas A&M, and the Dallas Cowboys before he got the call to go to Buffalo. He gave head coaching a shot and went 4-8 in his first year without a spring season to prepare with his team. The next year, the Bulls went 7-6 after a bowl win. The 2023 season finished with just a 3-9 record, and that whole time he’s watched Lewis bounce from Kent State to Boulder to, now, San Diego.
Maybe Linguist wants to be a head coach again one day.
Maybe Linguist got the experience he was looking for.
Maybe Linguist and Buffalo were on the same page here.
Maybe not.
Buffalo’s in a spot, though. The Bulls are conducting their national search for its second, new head coach since the pandemic. The last two coaches UB hired were on total opposite ends of the spectrum. Leipold, a proven winner at the Division 3 level with just as many national championships as he had losses (6) over eight seasons who knows how to build a program. Linguist, a first-time coach who knows how to recruit — Buffalo finished with the MAC’s highest-ranked recruiting class in 2023 (but the lowest-ranked class this year).
While Buffalo probably doesn’t want to keep hiring new coaches at this rate, I have to think that having coaches be hired away is still a much better sign overall as a program than feeling the need to fire a coach. But which end of the spectrum will Buffalo’s 27th head coach lean? Will Buffalo try to hire a Leipold or a Linguist?
