The coaches these five schools should have hired this offseason

When the college football world endured its annual coaching shakeup after last season, several schools went against the grain and made hires that were not the most logical. Granted, several factors -- including mutual interest, athletic department budget, timing, fan base desire, etc. -- remain private during the hiring process, so it's impossible to say whether the seemingly obvious choice was even feasible.

Still, the offseason hires at several BCS schools were head scratchers. Here are five schools that should have gone a different direction with their coaching hires ... and a sixth that should have made a move, but didn't.
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Fired: Phil Fulmer

Hired: Lane Kiffin

Should have hired: David Cutliffe

As 2008 progressed, it became clear the Phil Fulmer era had run its course. The Vols had seen a noticeable drop-off in talent since their glory days in the mid-to-late '90s. Making a change was smart; tabbing someone who had never been a college head coach was not. Kiffin's bizarre 20-game tenure as Raiders' head coach did not prepare him for running an SEC program, and his prior stint as a USC assistant didn't exactly teach him to survive in the dog-eat-dog world of SEC recruiting. The SEC is an entirely different animal, and a head coach needs to have experience to thrive in it. Duke coach David Cutcliffe, who spent 17 years in Knoxville as an assistant, was as familiar with Tennessee as any available candidate. He also already ran an SEC program at Ole Miss, where he earned SEC Coach of the Year honors in 2003. Cutcliffe isn't young, energetic and edgy like Kiffin, but he was the better choice to right the UT ship in every other way.

Fired: Tommy Tuberville

Hired: Gene Chizik

Should have hired: Will Muschamp

After 10 years, Tuberville's time on the Plains ended. Gene Chizik had plenty of success as Auburn's defensive coordinator from 2002-04, but after he only managed a 5-19 record in two seasons as Iowa State's head coach, his hiring came as a huge disappointment to Auburn fans. Chizik has run a BCS program and has experience in the SEC, so the hire has merit. But with the Tide rising in Tuscaloosa and history saying both programs are rarely good at the same time, Auburn really needed a home run hire and may have only hit a double. Texas' Will Muschamp, however, would have cleared the fences. Texas thought enough of him to name him Mack Brown's coach-in-waiting, and he has eight years of experience as an assistant in the SEC at Auburn and LSU. Muschamp was the young, hot assistant who would have energized the masses and stared down Nick Saban. Yes, it was reported Muschamp wasn't interested in Auburn, but surely booster Bobby Lowder could have flown to Austin with a plane full of dough and gotten him to sign on the dotted line.