They put Dykes and Helton on the list, which seems surprising, but probably speaks to how good the conference has become:

Avinash Kunnath & Jack Follman ranked the 2015 Pac-12 coaching jobs and combined their rankings to come up with the list.

Let's get started with the worst and stay tuned for the best tomorrow.

12. Gary Andersen Oregon State

AK: Andersen was in a no-win transition situation in Corvallis. However the Beavers did show encouraging signs of life in a few games and might not be too far away from improvement.

JF: Expectations were justifiably low for Andersen's first season and he still came up well short of them. I think he can still really succeed in Corvallis long-term, but that was a really, really rough season. The only game against a power five conference team they truly took to the wire was against Colorado at home.

11. Mike MacIntyre Colorado

AK: So frustrating for Mac. Logged his first Pac-12 win against Oregon State, then had several chances for big wins against Oregon, USC, UCLA and others and messed them all up. This is a big year to change things up.

JF: The Buffs were better under MacIntyre again and even got a Pac-12 win. They are far better off than they were a few years ago before he arrived, but programs aren't judged against past versions of themselves these days, they are judged against the other programs in their conference and unfortunately, it just doesn't look like MacIntyre has gotten the Buffs to where they are running with the pack. This was the last year they can celebrate moral victories in Boulder.

10. Rich Rodriguez Arizona

AK: Regression year for Rich Rod, who could not overcome a deluge of injuries. Still, he's only a year removed from the Pac-12 title game. And his Wildcats did upset Utah, so he wasn't totally punchless. Hung with a bunch of the best teams too.

JF: The Wildcats clawed to a bowl game, but they got a lot of help from a horrible non-conference slate as they only won three Pac-12 games and their only win against a quality team (Utah) required overtime. Worst for RichRod may have been the floundering of QB Anu Solomon who looked to maybe be their quarterback of the future at one point and many speculated his flirtations with other jobs affected the way his team played in at least a couple of games.

9. Todd Graham Arizona State

AK: Up and down year for Todd. Blown out by USC, rally to upset UCLA. Rally to beat Washington, blow the game to Wazzu. Hang tough with Oregon, get nothing done against Utah. Win the Territorial Cup, blow a three score lead to Cal. Til next year.

JF: Horrible year for Graham as his team entered the season as a popular pick to win the South and left with just six wins. The bigger picture issues for Graham in my opinion is teams exploiting his super aggressive defense for a lot of points and the fact that his team barely made a bowl despite having one of the most experienced rosters in the conference.

8. Clay Helton USC

AK: Man, there is still a lot of uncertainty with Helton. Has two good wins against Utah and UCLA that can mainly be ascribed to turnover luck, then struggled to beat Colorado, Cal and Arizona. Totally waxed by Oregon and Stanford. To be continued.

JF: Big jump between nine and eight in my opinion, but I am still pretty shocked USC handed Helton the keys with what he was able to do with USC's talented roster. He got nice wins at home against Utah and UCLA, but the Utes were pretty pedestrian down the stretch and the Trojans were due against an injury-riddled UCLA team with a freshman quarterback. Outside of those two games, Helton's teams' performance is questionable - they barely beat Colorado and reeling Cal and Arizona teams and got absolutely demolished by Oregon. His team/staff also didn't appear to be able to figuring out anything with Stanford as they lost in very similar fashion for the second time in 2015 in the championship game. But hey, they got to the championship game at least.

7.Sonny Dykes Cal

AK: Good for Sonny to get Cal back to bowl eligibility, but there's a lot of question marks surrounding what Dykes can do long-term in Berkeley. The 0-9 mark against California rivals sticks, and has yet to beat a top 25 team. Cal has hitched their wagons to him for a few more years though.

JF: All-in-all, I didn't think Dykes did that bad of a job in 2015. Going into the season, if you would have told me Cal would win seven games, I would think Bearland would be happy, but it didn't work out that way with how the season broke down for Cal. Dykes' Bears never stepped up against better teams, got a lot of breaks in early close games that kept them from losing a lot more games this season and have a cloudy future as Jared Goff likely leaves early after their bowl game.

Avinash Kunnath would be appropriately described as a Nega-bear. No surprise he's down on Dykes. Even so 7 of 12 is not exactly "Worst" anymore than #6 is "Best".

Go!Bears;842618665 said:

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Avinash Kunnath would be appropriately described as a Nega-bear. No surprise he's down on Dykes. Even so 7 of 12 is not exactly "Worst" anymore than #6 is "Best".

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Wait -- didn't he leave this die because he was too much of a posibear?

okaydo;842618742 said:

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Wait -- didn't he leave this die because he was too much of a posibear?

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I don't know when he went to the Dark Side, but this post sorta went over the edge: http://tinyurl.com/zlgmpwv

"The Axe is staying at Stanford. If Sonny Dykes is staying at Cal, I don't know when exactly it's ever coming back."

Go!Bears;842618751 said:

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I don't know when he went to the Dark Side, but this post sorta went over the edge: http://tinyurl.com/zlgmpwv

"The Axe is staying at Stanford. If Sonny Dykes is staying at Cal, I don't know when exactly it's ever coming back."

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not exactly sure what's wrong with that statement. when is it coming back?

Go!Bears;842618665 said:

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Avinash Kunnath would be appropriately described as a Nega-bear. No surprise he's down on Dykes. Even so 7 of 12 is not exactly "Worst" anymore than #6 is "Best".

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How about 0-12 in 3 seasons against Stanford, USC, UCLA, and Oregon? How do Dykes apologists spin that turkey?

They don't. 0-12. Can't coach, can't hire, can't recruit. Extend.

Go!Bears;842618751 said:

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I don't know when he went to the Dark Side, but this post sorta went over the edge: http://tinyurl.com/zlgmpwv

"The Axe is staying at Stanford. If Sonny Dykes is staying at Cal, I don't know when exactly it's ever coming back."

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I just watched a pac-12 network special on the rise of Stanfurd football and I am convinced that Cal will not beat furd with the brand of football Cal plays under Dykes.

There was a very specific understanding at furd about how to build a program and it started with a power run game and recruiting OLs. Cal can't compete with that in their current incarnation. In fact, Cal's scheme encourages OLs to go to furd.

BTW, say what you want about Harbaugh, but Cal would have been much better off with him at HC.

heartofthebear;842619331 said:

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BTW, say what you want about Harbaugh, but Cal would have been much better off with him at HC.

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No kidding!

If you want the best players, you have to at least cater to where many want to be - the NFL - and that means pro set, regular reps in systems that give them the best chance to advance, not the vertical set and not a gimmick offense. Yes, there are exceptions to this but generally a wide net works best with recruiting. Furd has great free education and chance at the NFL. Cal has great but not easy education and use to have a chance at the NFL.

If you want an analogy, look at Cal MBB. Hired a former NBA'er from a good coaching tree and respected...and BAM, you get top recruits. Oh sure more has to happen for that to be the long term but as Coach Martin said, "why not?"

Well it'll warm your heart that the vertical set has been gone for at least the past three games in favor of the kick step (conventional technique)

^^^ I thought the kick step was a DB thing, replacing the bump. Any way, you still step back and "pull out" and that's just not natural. Maybe an OLinman can explain the advantages because I don't know it.

heartofthebear;842619331 said:

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BTW, say what you want about Harbaugh, but Cal would have been much better off with him at HC.

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after all these years, the best response ppl have come up with to wishes that we had Harbaugh is "he's a dick" or "why do you have Furd envy?"

no, I just want a coach who can win without getting his school sanctioned. don't care where he coached previously. also don't care about his personality or how you feel about him.

win-win for the nega-neener lads
If we beat AFA, a win for the team, but not the coaches.
If we lose to AFA, a defeat for the coaches, but not the team
Enjoy your win, kids.

beelzebear;842619365 said:

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^^^ I thought the kick step was a DB thing, replacing the bump. Any way, you still step back and "pull out" and that's just not natural. Maybe an OLinman can explain the advantages because I don't know it.

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Spread Os (or at least elements of the spread) and 2 point stances are pretty normal even in the NFL. Shoot I would venture that outside of the furd and probably Utah most the PAC teams probably use two point stances at least 1/3 if not more often. The vertical dance thing though....definitely not a fan and glad to see it gone

FremontBear;842619285 said:

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How about 0-12 in 3 seasons against Stanford, USC, UCLA, and Oregon? How do Dykes apologists spin that turkey?

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It's called patience. The kind you develop being a Cal fan for 50 years. Gotta crawl before you walk, gotta walk before you run.

Go!Bears;842618665 said:

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Avinash Kunnath would be appropriately described as a Nega-bear. No surprise he's down on Dykes. Even so 7 of 12 is not exactly "Worst" anymore than #6 is "Best".

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Avinash is neither a pumper nor a nega. He's a crappy analyst who has a blog. His writing and thinking isn't any better than the average poster here, and considerably worse than BI's top talent. Could say the same thing about all the writers at CGB. It's a bunch of hot takes, overly-emotional-bordering-on-creepy writing and gossip. They had a (very) weird attachment to Tedford, right up to the end and they've been sad-sack ever since he was canned. (FiatLux would be the lone exception, but he's more of a super-fan cameo while the other dbags actually think they're qualified to analyze athletics and not just hacks with too much time on their hands.)

If you enjoy watching a handful of self-important and supposedly grown men work through their troubled emotional issues and obviously sparse personal lives while gossiping about Cal sports and repeating the same "DOOM" joke like the idiot friend who keeps repeating "Caddyshack" lines, CGB is the place to go. But at least CGB keeps these disturbed guys busy and off the streets so they don't have time to do any damage to society.

Uthaithani;842619537 said:

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Avinash is neither a pumper nor a nega. He's a crappy analyst who has a blog. His writing and thinking isn't any better than the average poster here, and considerably worse than BI's top talent. Could say the same thing about all the writers at CGB. It's a bunch of hot takes, overly-emotional-bordering-on-creepy writing and gossip. They had a (very) weird attachment to Tedford, right up to the end and they've been sad-sack ever since he was canned. (FiatLux would be the lone exception, but he's more of a super-fan cameo while the other dbags actually think they're qualified to analyze athletics and not just hacks with too much time on their hands.)

If you enjoy watching a handful of self-important and supposedly grown men work through their troubled emotional issues and obviously sparse personal lives while gossiping about Cal sports and repeating the same "DOOM" joke like the idiot friend who keeps repeating "Caddyshack" lines, CGB is the place to go. But at least CGB keeps these disturbed guys busy and off the streets so they don't have time to do any damage to society.

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not any weirder than the Aaron Rodgers obsession here? or there, too, actually. the constant solicitous "tell me how you feel about Aaron Rodgers not visiting Cal" tweet gets real old.

beeasyed;842619548 said:

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not any weirder than the Aaron Rodgers obsession here? or there, too, actually. the constant solicitous "tell me how you feel about Aaron Rodgers not visiting Cal" tweet gets real old.

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It's bizarre but driven by a very small minority of the fanbase. Most people don't scout AR's travel schedule, don't scour the internet to determine how often he reps us and just enjoy watching him sling the football around the field. Unfortunately, as we've seen around the world and across BI, a vocal minority can drown out the masses with their noise in the right environment and Growls is a petri dish for this behavior.

beeasyed;842619548 said:

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not any weirder than the aaron rodgers obsession here? Or there, too, actually. The constant solicitous "tell me how you feel about aaron rodgers not visiting cal" tweet gets real old.

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My god A Rodg said BUTTE again!!! Deploy the nukes now!

Go!Bears;842619519 said:

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It's called patience. The kind you develop being a Cal fan for 50 years. Gotta crawl before you walk, gotta walk before you run.

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Or you just hire Harbaugh...

Uthaithani;842619537 said:

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Avinash is neither a pumper nor a nega. He's a crappy analyst who has a blog. His writing and thinking isn't any better than the average poster here, and considerably worse than BI's top talent. Could say the same thing about all the writers at CGB. It's a bunch of hot takes, overly-emotional-bordering-on-creepy writing and gossip. They had a (very) weird attachment to Tedford, right up to the end and they've been sad-sack ever since he was canned. (FiatLux would be the lone exception, but he's more of a super-fan cameo while the other dbags actually think they're qualified to analyze athletics and not just hacks with too much time on their hands.)

If you enjoy watching a handful of self-important and supposedly grown men work through their troubled emotional issues and obviously sparse personal lives while gossiping about Cal sports and repeating the same "DOOM" joke like the idiot friend who keeps repeating "Caddyshack" lines, CGB is the place to go. But at least CGB keeps these disturbed guys busy and off the streets so they don't have time to do any damage to society.

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Internet tough guy, your sad tirade makes you way more pathetic than the people you have such an issue with.

Like if we run a pro set, recruiting will suddenly improve. Four and five star guys will be lining up in droves. I mean how many teams really run a pro set. It has nothing to do with it. The so called "gimmick" offenses are standard now and they're even finding there way into the NFL. Teams dominate with gimmick offenses. Oregon runs a gimmick offense. They beat Stanford with a gimmick offense. If Adams stayed healthy they would have won the north, destroyed USC a second time, and been crowned Pac 12 champs. All with a gimmick offense and a boat load of NFL talent.

The list of worst coaches is predictable. It's really all about talent. The Pac is loaded with pretty good coaches. There are some exceptions but the teams with the best talent win the most games. Whittingham and Leach bucked that trend. Andersen will look dumb again next year. Everybody looks pretty dumb at Oregon State. Utah and Whittingham will fall back next year. I'm not so sure about Leach. He really did the best job. He won the most games with the least amount of talent. But I think there is a ceiling at WSU. They are never going to attract top talent. Unless.......unless they go to the "pro set, regular reps in systems that give them the best chance to advance" to NFL. That's funny.

CaliforniaEternal;842620782 said:

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Internet tough guy, your sad tirade makes you way more pathetic than the people you have such an issue with.

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Amen. He just Internet Tough Guy'd me on an unrelated thread. I'm starting to see his schtick.

beelzebear;842619365 said:

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^^^ I thought the kick step was a DB thing, replacing the bump. Any way, you still step back and "pull out" and that's just not natural. Maybe an OLinman can explain the advantages because I don't know it.

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Kick step is standard pass pro in the NFL. Coach M taught the kick step. Watch any left tackle going against a speed rusher (especially from 9 tech; the Eagles are notorious for this, they will line up outside shoulder of an imaginary tight end to get a severe angle). It's kick step the whole way to cut down on the angle, then plant and engage.

Wow 7th is way generous. Graham and Rich Rod have accomplished a lot more than Dykes ever has. Is this just based on this year in a vacuum or overall?

PDXCalFan;842621389 said:

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Wow 7th is way generous. Graham and Rich Rod have accomplished a lot more than Dykes ever has. Is this just based on this year in a vacuum or overall?

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Based on the commentary, seems like it's just this year.