A head coach experiencing a jump in Year 2 is so common in college football that even guys who end up getting fired soon after often enjoy them. From Mike Shula at Alabama to Will Muschamp at Florida to Will Muschamp at South Carolina, it’s trivially easy to think of examples of subpar head coaches who nonetheless produced second-year surges. They’re not ubiquitous for a variety of reasons, but incredibly disparate programs and individuals still see this effect happen.
Having observed the phenomenon for more than a decade-and-a-half at this point, I’m reasonably convinced that an intangible factor is the one common thread: culture.