With Dana Holgorsen heading to Houston, here are other coaches who have made similar moves

Dana Holgorsen’s move from West Virginia to Houston looks like a curious one on the surface. After all, Holgorsen is leaving a Power Five school for a school in the American Athletic Conference.

Dig a little deeper, however, and it makes some sense. Holgorsen is returning to a school where he was an assistant and a state where he has a ton of recruiting familiarity. He’s making $4 million a season at Houston and is leaving a program that will need to replace a star quarterback and two star receivers along with its best offensive lineman and best defensive player in 2019.

Holgorsen isn’t the first coach to leave a Big 12 school for a school in the American Athletic Conference either. In the wake of Holgorsen’s move to Houston, here are a few other college football coaches who have left good jobs for others that may not be necessarily considered to be upgrades.

Tommy Tuberville leaves Texas Tech for Cincinnati

Tuberville replaced Mike Leach at Texas Tech and was in Lubbock for three seasons. Tuberville’s team went 7-5 in the 2012 regular season, a year where he slapped a graduate assistant on the sideline during a game against Kansas.

As Cincinnati looked to replace Butch Jones (who left for Tennessee), the Bearcats found a candidate in Tuberville, who resigned at Tech in December to join Cincinnati, a school located not far from his wife’s hometown.

Tuberville’s Cincinnati tenure started off with two nine-win seasons and then tailed off. The former Ole Miss and Auburn coach resigned following a 4-8 season in 2016.

Gary Andersen leaves Wisconsin for Oregon State

Andersen replaced Bret Bielema at Wisconsin after Bielema went to Arkansas. While Bielema left the Badgers for a school that had won 25 games over the previous three seasons, Andersen left Wisconsin for a program that won 12 games in 2013 and 2014. Andersen won 19 games at Wisconsin in those two seasons.

Andersen said his reason for leaving Wisconsin was related to the school’s high academic standards. But Wisconsin was still getting better players than Oregon State. Andersen’s tenure with the Beavers was nothing short of disastrous and he resigned after his teams won seven games in two-plus seasons as Wisconsin has hummed along under Paul Chryst. After spending the 2018 season out of coaching, Andersen returns to Utah State, the place where he coached before heading to Wisconsin.

Dennis Franchione leaves Alabama for Texas A&M

It’s unfathomable to think of an Alabama coach leaving willingly for a job at any other school in the country. But Franchione’s decision to leave the Crimson Tide for a Big 12 school at the time came in the face of looming NCAA sanctions.

Franchione took over at Alabama in 2001 but the school was hit with a two-year bowl ban for recruiting violations under previous coaches Gene Stallings and Mike DuBose. Instead of taking a contract extension with Alabama, Franchione decided to take over for the retiring R.C. Slocumb at Texas A&M.

As he did at TCU, Franchione didn’t make a graceful exit from Alabama. He didn’t tell his players he was leaving in person. He did it via a video conference.

Things have worked out pretty well at Alabama since Franchione’s exit. They have at TCU as well, as Gary Patterson, the man who succeeded Franchione, has established himself as one of the winningest active coaches in college football.

Tim Murphy leaves Cincinnati for Harvard

Yes, this is the story of a guy who left an FBS job for an Ivy League program. And Murphy is still at Harvard!

Murphy was the coach at Cincinnati from 1989-93. His Bearcats teams won two games combined in his first two seasons before steadily improving and peaking with an eight-win season in 1993. That was his last season at Cincy, as Murphy took the job at Harvard for the start of the 1994 season.

Murphy explained his decision at the time as the one that was the best for his family. He also said that “Harvard is a unique place. The stability is very appealing. The buildings there have been there for 300 years and they will be there 300 years after Tim Murphy leaves.”

Well, Murphy hasn’t left yet. He’s gone 171-73 in his time with the school. And, at 62, may still be coaching for a while.

Paul Dietzel leaves LSU for Army

Dietzel became just the second coach in LSU history to win 10 or more games in a season. His 1958 team went 11-0 and then his Tiger team went 10-1 in 1961. In seven years with the Tigers, Dietzel turned in a record of 46-24-3.

Army’s head coaching position came open at the end of that 1961 season and Dietzel couldn’t say no. The Knights hadn’t won nine games in a season since 1949 and looked to Dietzel to revive the program. He became the first coach in school history who wasn’t a West Point graduate.

Dietzel’s LSU success didn’t follow him to New York, however. His teams failed to win more than seven games in any of his four seasons with the school and he went to South Carolina before the 1966 season.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

Follow @NickBromberg on Twitter

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