Coaching Stock Watch: 2015 Week Four

After a crazy week in college football, the landscape is both more certain and more unsettled. Good places to be: Salt Lake City. Ann Arbor. Fort Worth. Not so good? Knoxville. Austin. And, well, Charlottesville.

As we do each week, it's time to look around and see who's rising and who's falling among the college football coaching ranks. And remember this IMPORTANT NOTE: This feature is NOT—we repeat, NOT—rating who might be the next head coach at Virginia (or any other school).

Stock Rising

Dino Babers, head coach, Bowling Green

Babers' Falcons are only 2-2. But those two wins are both over Big Ten teams. Coach Babers tore things up at Eastern Illinois in the FCS ranks, including a 12-2 season in 2013. His first year at Bowling Green, he racked up an 8-win season and won a bowl game. He's got major school pedigree (offensive coordinator at Arizona and Texas A&M, assistant head coach at UCLA) and a smart offensive mind. Don't be surprised to see Babers follow former BGSU coach Dave Clawson's path into a Power 5 conference coaching gig.

Jeff Brohm, head coach, Western Kentucky

WKU beat a Vanderbilt team that is looking better every week and lost by three on the road to an increasingly impressive Indiana squad. Like Babers, Brohm led his team to a bowl win in his first year. Brohm built his career as an offensive assistant under Bobby Petrino, and spent six years as an NFL journeyman. He is another strong candidate for any school looking to inject its offense with some energy and smart coaching.

Aaron Roderick and Jim Harding, co-offensive coordinators, Utah

The Utes' skyrocket rise into the AP top 10 has been one of the biggest surprises of the early season, capped by the 62-20 drubbing they handed Oregon in Eugene on Saturday night. Roderick and Harding have shown just about the platonic ideal of how to use a mobile QB in tandem with a bruising RB. Both are young (Roderick is 42, Harding only 37) and in their first year sharing the reins of Utah's offense. One negative for Roderick, though: He's never coached outside the state of Utah. If Matt Wells leaves Utah State, don't be surprised to see one of these two considered for that gig.

Stock Falling

Mike DeBord, offensive coordinator, Tennessee

UT's stunning loss to Florida marked the second time this season that the Vols' offense has completely sputtered out in the second half (the other being Oklahoma). DeBord came to Tennessee off a two-year absence from coaching, but has a strong pedigree: He was the head man at Central Michigan for four seasons, coached for three years in the NFL, and almost took over Michigan on Lloyd Carr's retirement. He'll need to get UT to show some life after halftime before he's considered for any top jobs in the near future.

Chad Morris, head coach, SMU

So remember last week, when I had to say P.J. Fleck's star has dimmed since week 1? Yea, same thing here. Morris's Mustangs hung tough with Baylor and TCU and properly dispatched North Texas without much difficulty. And then they lost to JMU. That's a bad look. In a surprisingly robust AAC, there are probably five more losses on SMU's schedule. Any chance of going bowling may have left Gerald Ford Stadium with the Dukes.

Robert Anae, offensive coordinator, BYU

The Cougars had stayed on the right side of the win column for two weeks despite losing their starting QB, Taysom Hill. Anae's offense hung tough against a top-notch UCLA defense. Then they went to Ann Arbor and ... oof. BYU punted 11 times Saturday, on 11 possessions. That's consistency Steve Fairchild can only dream of. The Wolverine defense may be one of the best in the country this year, but BYU made them look like the 1985 Bears.