What is a home-run hire in the college football world? Besides a mixed metaphor and an educated guess that sometimes turns out to be not so informed.

Those buzzwords have been applied by different observers in the last week to Kalen DeBoer, Kane Wommack and Maurice Linguist. Raise your hand if, eight days ago before the college football world as we knew it changed forever, you could pick DeBoer, Wommack and Linguist out of a lineup.

Liars.

I’ll give you DeBoer because you saw him on the Washington sideline during the Sugar Bowl semifinal win over Texas and the National Championship Game loss to Michigan. You might even be telling the truth about Wommack because he spent the last three years doing a nice job as the South Alabama head coach.

Chip Kelly and Mike Gundy are all too familiar with Wommack. South Alabama had Kelly and UCLA beat in 2022 before a late-game decision went wrong. It was men against boys in Stillwater last season as the Jaguars took down Gundy and Oklahoma State 33-7.

But Linguist? The head coach at Buffalo for the last three seasons? If you tell me you know all about him, you’re either a hardcore football fan, or you fit right in living in a post-truth society.