2015 B1G Coaches Hot Seat - West Division

Previously: East Division

You know the drill. It's May...football is about 100 days away...there's nothing to talk about. So why not speculate about stuff?

The hotness scale, for your reference.

Totally Safe - Can lose every game and still be elected governor.
Safe for Now -  Can have an off-year and still be okay.
Needs a Good Year - Needs to improve from last season.
Needs a Great Year - This could be the end if things don't get better fast.
Dead Man Walking - The end is nigh.

Let's get it on!

Darrell Hazell - Purdue

Source

2014 Record	Purdue Record	Season @ PU/Overall	Career Record	Age	Salary	2014 Hotness	2014 Key Games
3-9 (1-7)	4-20 (1-15)	3rd/5th	20-30 (.400)	51	2.0M	Green	0-4

Okay, first the good news. Purdue's win total increased 300% in year two under Darrell Hazell.

Now the not so good news…it was only 3 wins. 2014 was not much fun. After starting out the season 3-3, Purdue went on to lose 6-straight games to end the season. Some valiant efforts against Michigan State and Minnesota were quickly forgotten as the losses mounted. For the first time since 1993, Purdue finished with the worst record in the Big Ten in back-to-back seasons.

A combined 4-20 record and 1-15 in the Big Ten is far from where the Boilers and their fans want to be. Hazell is in year two of a six year deal which pays him 2 million dollars a year. So another season of moving the win total in the right direction is vital.

Purdue brings back 9 starters on offense and 8 on defense, and the coaching leadership remains intact.

2015 Key games:
9/19 vs Virginia Tech
10/3 @ Michigan State
10/17 @ Wisconsin
10/31 vs Nebraska

Hotness: Needs a Good Year

Tim Beckman - Illinois

Source

2014 Record	Illinois Record	Season @ UI/Overall	Career Record	Age	Salary	2014 Hotness	2014 Key Games
6-7 (3-5)	12-25 (4-20)	4th/7th	33-41 (.446)	50	1.6M	Yellow	1-4

I don't know for sure what's happening with Beckman right now, but this probably isn't good.

Simon Cvijanovic's story isn't unique, as other players have come out to tell similarly unflattering stories of mistreatment under Beckman. But just as you'd expect, there are plenty of current and former Illini players who have come out in support of their coach as the university prepares to investigate Cvijanovic's claims.

Using the hashtag #ProudIllini, several players said Beckman and his staff managed their injuries correctly and didn't push or bully players. Illinois senior Ted Karras, who played alongside Cvijanovic on the offensive line, tweeted that Beckman, offensive coordinator Bill Cubit and offensive line coach Tom Brattan all checked in with him daily after he underwent knee surgery late last fall.

To which Cvijanovic responded via Twitter...

"It's funny how all these guys raising Beckman propaganda are the same guys who have been completely absent in my recovery," he tweeted.

Yeah, he's not a happy camper.

And now he's being named in a reported player hazing incident from his days at Toledo. When it rains it pours.

All of this would likely be a moot point if Illinois was a better football team. It's amazing what kids will tolerate in order to be successful. But when your head coach is 4-20 in the Big Ten over 3 years…expect some backlash. But this backlash is ugly. And it's not going away anytime soon.

Unless things get a TON better in Champaign, both on and off the field...this is it.

2015 Key Games:
10/3 vs Nebraska
10/24 vs Wisconsin
10/31 @ Penn State
11/14 vs Ohio State
11/28 vs Northwestern

Hotness: Dead Man Walking

Kirk Ferentz - Iowa

Source

2014 Record	Iowa Record	Season @ UI/Overall	Career Record	Age	Salary	2014 Hotness	2014 Key Games
7-6 (4-4)	115-85 (68-60)	17th/20th	127-106 (.550)	59	3.65M	Green	1-3

If measured by internet search results alone, Kirk Ferentz is very much on the hot seat. The internet folks in Iowa have had just about enough with the Big Ten's longest tenured coach. They want a change. The problem is, it's going to cost them. Ferentz's infamous buyout is currently $13.3 million.

However, if they cut ties now, it would save Iowa $7.7 million over that time...his buyout is 75% of his salary.

While not exactly a struggling program, Iowa hasn't surpassed 8 wins in a season since 2009. They've been completely absent from the Big Ten title conversation for a few years now. Last year's season-ending collapse against Tennessee in the Taxslayer Bowl set up an offseason that Iowa and Ferentz didn't need.

Nebraska set the bar when they fired Bo Pelini after perpetual 9-win seasons. By doing nothing, Iowa seems to be sliding further and further into mediocrity in a division that could be ripe for the taking.

The question now becomes, if Iowa struggles again, is is worth cutting ties? This blogger thinks so.

2015 Key Games:
9/19 @ Pitt
10/3 @ Wisconsin
10/31 vs Maryland
11/27 @ Nebraska

Hotness: Needs a Great Year

Jerry Kill - Minnesota

Source

2014 Record	Minnesota Record	Season @ UM/Overall	Career Record	Age	Salary	2014 Hotness	2014 Key Games
8-5 (5-3)	25-26 (13-19)	4th/22nd	148-96 (.607)	53	2.1M	Green	2-3

Without much hoopla, Jerry Kill has quietly become one of the premier coaches in the Big Ten. Kill has a reputation of being a tough, hard-nosed coach, and his teams play like it.

Last season, the first back-to-back 8+ win seasons since 2002-03, saw some big moments for the Gophers including winning the Little Brown Jug against Michigan, winning the odd "$5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy" from #21 Nebraska, and winning the Floyd of Rosedale Trophy from Iowa.

For his efforts, Kill received a raise in 2014 to go from 1.2M to 2.1M. Coupled with an promise from the department to refurbish Minnesota's dilapidated facilities, it is clear that they'd like to keep Kill in Minneapolis as there was some speculation back in December that Kill would be an attractive coach for multiple openings.

But Jerry is set in Minneapolis for now and it will be interesting to see just how far he can take the Gophers. Can they continue to make progress and become a legit contender in the west? I do not look forward to Michigan traveling there on Halloween night this season.

2015 Key Games:
9/3 vs TCU
10/17 vs Nebraska
10/31 vs Michigan
11/7 @ Ohio State
11/28 vs Wisconsin

MBN Hotness: Safe for Now

Mike Riley - Nebraska

Source

2014 Record	Nebraska Record	Season @ NEB/Overall	Career Record	Age	Salary	2014 Hotness	2014 Key Games
5-7 (2-7)	0-0	1st/22nd	93-80 (.538)	61	2.7M	N/A	N/A

Forgive me, but I don't get it.

I don't really get why you fire Bo Pelini either. Sure he was a very combative and polarizing figure who is successful, but might rub people the wrong way...which he probably did. But success is tough in this business and Pelini was good at it.

So out with the old and in with Mike Riley from Oregon State. A quick look at his last 5 years or so in Corvallis can leave you scratching your head...5-7, 3-9, 9-4, 7-6, 5-7. Sure he had some mild success back in the mid-2000's with a 10-win season a couple 9-win seasons...but there's no championships to speak of.

He's basically like Kirk Ferentz but without those two good years.

At 61 and in his 22nd season coaching, it's tough to make the argument that there's still a lot left in the tank. Seven straight losses to Oregon in the Civil War don't exactly exude confidence.

Personality-wise, he's the opposite of Pelini, which was probably his biggest selling point. Maybe he'll really find his stride in Lincoln? Maybe I don't know anything? Call me crazy, but couldn't Nebraska find someone a little more, shall we say...better?

This will be interesting to watch.

2015 Key Games:
9/19 @ Miami (YTM)
10/10 vs Wisconsin
10/17 @ Minnesota
11/7 vs Michigan State
11/27 vs Iowa

MBN Hotness: Safe for Now

Pat Fitzgerald - Northwestern

Source

2014 Record	N'Western Record	Season @ NU/Overall	Career Record	Age	Salary	2014 Hotness	2014 Key Games
5-7 (3-5)	60-53 (30-42)	10th/10th	63-50 (.558)	40	2.2M	Blue	2-3

I use the pic of Fitz when he was a player because, apparently, that's all NW fans see too.

Northwestern has decided that it's worth paying a guy 2.2 million dollars a year in the hopes that he somehow stumbles into a successful team every once in a while. And the way Northwestern defines success is winning more games than you lose.

From my blurred perspective, watching Michigan own the Wildcats during Hoke's career has been something even I have trouble understanding, especially the last 2 years when all it took to beat us was a middle-of-the-road defense and a field goal kicker.

Every time Northwestern has a moderately successful year, everyone jumps on the bandwagon like it's 1995 all over again.

It's not.

What the Wildcats pulled off in the mid-90's was a once-in-a-lifetime achievement that Pat Fitzgerald, the poster-boy for the high water mark of Northwestern Football, has been cashing in on ever since.

Fitz is the winningest coach in Northwestern history with 60 wins...which basically means, the bar is low. If he were the head coach anywhere else in the Big Ten he'd have been shown the door by now. But he's not. He's at Northwestern...where logic and common sense take a back seat to reliving the glory days with Uncle Fitz.

2015 Key Games (like it matters):
9/5 vs Stanford
10/10 @ Michigan
10/24 @ Nebraska
11/21 @ Wisconsin
11/28 @ Illinois

MBN Hotness: Totally Safe

Paul Chryst - Wisconsin

Source

2014 Record	Wisconsin Record	Season @ UW/Overall	Career Record	Age	Salary	2014 Hotness	2014 Key Games
6-6 (4-4)	0-0	1st/4th	19-19 (.500)	49	2.5M	N/A	N/A

Paul is a familiar name and face in Madison. And why not...he just looks like a Big Ten coach. He was Bret Bielema's offensive coordinator and QB coach from 2006-2011 before leaving to take the head spot at Pitt, where he managed a .500 record in the ACC.

For Chryst, the decision to return was simple.

Chryst was the sensible hire for Wisconsin after Andersen shockingly left for Oregon State on Dec. 10. Alvarez's search essentially boiled down to one thought: Call Paul. After being jilted for the second time in three years, Alvarez needed a coach who knew exactly what he was stepping into and who wouldn't look for the first path out.

The idea here is to keep the winning formula in place that has worked for Wisconsin since the days when Alvarez was calling the plays. Chryst gives Wisconsin that opportunity. For whatever reason, it wasn't clicking for him at Pitt.

Michigan fans know this formula well. We just tried it with Brady Hoke. Sometimes it doesn't work out the way it should on paper. Chryst has his work cut out for him, but he also inherits a weak division that Wisconsin is used to owning.

Don't expect Wisconsin to look or feel different under Paul Chryst. He wants to do things the same way they've been done for over 20 years. And I'm sure Wisconsin fans feel the same way. Wisconsin is unique in the western division if for no other reason that it seems like the school and the fans actually care about the product on the field the same way their counterparts in the eastern division do.

They demand results. It all starts on September 5th against Alabama in Dallas.

Welcome home Paul.

2015 Key Games:
9/5 vs Alabama
10/10 @ Nebraska
11/7 @ Maryland
11/28 @ Minnesota

MBN Hotness: Safe for Now