ESPN Independents and Others Blog

Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson

Steve Fairchild, Colorado State

Summary: Fairchild turned a three-win team into a seven-win team during his first season with the Rams. And while that's impressive, almost all of his wins came against teams with losing records. There's no doubt the Rams are headed in the right direction, but they still have a ways to go before they can climb back into the Mountain West spotlight.

Key Win: The 40-35 win over Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl. It gave CSU only its second win of the season against a team with a winning record.

Key loss: It's hard to pinpoint a key loss since the Rams beat all the teams they were supposed to, but they could have put up a better fight in the 38-17 loss to Colorado. Still, that was Fairchild's first game of the season.

Defining moment: The Rams' 31-20 win over Wyoming in the final game of the regular season secured them a bowl berth, a six-win season for the first time since 2005 and showed the resiliency of the team as it came back from a 14-3 deficit.

Grade: B

Greg McMackin, Hawaii

Summary: McMackin inherited a tough situation, especially since he didn't have a starting quarterback. His team lived up to expectations on defense, but the offense let the team down. Things started to come together toward the end of the season, but it has a long way to go to get back to 2007 form.

Key Win: The 32-29 overtime win against Fresno State that moved the Warriors to 2-3 overall and gave their season new life.

Key loss: A 49-21 dismantling by Notre Dame in the Hawaii Bowl. It was Hawaii's chance to redeem itself after last year's bowl debacle, but a sub par Notre Dame squad manhandled the Warriors.

Defining moment: During the 29-23 loss to Cincinnati, the Warriors showed there was some fight in them, but it never came to fruition. Part of that was because of inconsistent quarterback and offensive line play.

Grade: B-

Kevin Sumlin, Houston

Summary: Sumlin inherited a talented Houston team and though it struggled at the beginning of the season, it more or less lived up to expectations. The Cougars will be good for the next couple years. It's when Sumlin has to replace Case Keenum that the grade might drop.

Key win: Houston's stunning 70-30 win over Tulsa gave the Cougars hope for a conference title when it looked like the Golden Hurricane had it locked up.

Key loss: The 56-42 loss to Rice in the final conference game of the season cost the Cougars the C-USA West title and a shot at the C-USA championship against East Carolina, a team they'd already beaten.

Defining moment: The 41-24 win over No. 23 East Carolina snapped a 1-3 start and put the Cougars on a path to challenge for the conference championship. Houston lost just two games after that 1-3 start.

Grade: A-

Ken Niumatalolo, Navy

Summary: Of all the new non-BCS coaches this season, Niumatalolo had the biggest advantage because he was the head coach during the Midshipmen's 2007 bowl game and because he inherited quite a bit of talent. Still, winning eight games is quite a feat for an academy coach in his first season.

Key Win: A 24-17 domination at No. 17 Wake Forest. It was Navy's first win over a ranked team in 23 years.

Key loss: A 41-31 loss at Duke, which looked like a decent team early but ended the season 4-8. The Midshipmen's loss to a weak Notre Dame team also could be construed as a bad loss.

Defining moment: During the final two games of the regular season, the Midshipmen posted shutouts of Northern Illinois and Army, the team's first back-to-back shutouts since 1986. It showed that Navy wasn't just about its option offense.

Grade: A

Jerry Kill, Northern Illinois

Summary: Not sure anyone expected much from the Huskies this season, but Kill took them to a bowl game and restored some hope back to the program. It helped that most of the team stayed healthy throughout the year and that he had the Mid-American Conference's best defensive player.

Key Win: The 42-14 win at Kent State gave the Huskies the sixth win necessary for bowl eligibility and NIU went to its first bowl since the 2006 season.

Key loss: There's not one loss that defined the season, but four of Northern Illinois' losses were by four or fewer points. Pull those out and it's a completely different season.

Defining moment: The 31-27 loss at Minnesota to begin the season proved to the team and the Mid-American Conference that this was not going to be another 2-10 team. Kill transformed the team and made it a decent contender in just his first season as coach.

Grade: B

June Jones, SMU

Summary: "June Cometh." That was the theme when Jones took the job at SMU. His first season wasn't quite what was expected or promised especially after Jones was coming off an undefeated regular season with Hawaii. Jones is trying to do away with some of the "bad seeds" on his team in an effort to revamp the commitment to winning in Dallas.

Key win: The 47-36 win over FCS opponent Texas State was the Mustangs only win of the season so that would have to be the key win.

Key loss: Pick one. Although the Mustangs were one of the most dynamic teams in the country with their passing offense, the defense left something to be desired. SMU was outscored by about 17 points per game.

Defining moment: When June Jones announced that his quarterback two-deep would be filled with freshmen, he set the tone that 2008 was going to be a learning season. Just don't know that anyone thought the learning curve would be so steep.

Grade: F

Larry Fedora, Southern Miss

Summary: Few coaching changes were criticized more than the one at Southern Miss, and after the Golden Eagles started the season 2-6, the criticism basically overran the fan base. But something clicked with the team in the final couple months and they turned out to be one of the best teams to end the 2008 season.

Key win: The 70-14 win over UAB kicked off a five-game winning streak to end the season. Southern Miss was one of the hottest teams by the end of 2008.

Key loss: The 34-27 loss to Marshall was a bad one, but understandable considering the Golden Eagles were still learning Fedora's system. Still, a win in that game might have gotten the Golden Eagles to buy in a month earlier than they did.

Defining moment: The win over Troy in the R+L Carriers Bowl was huge, especially since it came in overtime against a team that is regarded as one of the better among the non-automatic qualifying schools.

Grade: A-