As college football becomes more competitive, the brains behind the game have received as much attention as some of the sport’s top players, and schools are going deep-into their pockets-to attract the profession’s top gameplanners.

Coaching salaries have shot into the stratosphere-a 2007 USA Today study found that the average Division I Football Bowl Subdivision head coach made more than $1 million-and so have expectations at the hiring schools.

Needless to say, million-dollar coaches need to make million-dollar first impressions.

Two first-year coaches gave fans just what they hoped for last season, leading their teams to bowl games in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Both emerged victorious.

University of Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin guided the Cougars to their first bowl victory in 28 seasons, 34-28 over Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl at TCU’s Amon G. Carter Stadium. Two days later, University of Mississippi head coach Houston Nutt led his Rebels to an upset of the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the Cotton Bowl. And those were just a couple of success stories.

Of 18 first-year head coaches in Division I FBS last year, nine finished with a .500 or better record. University of Nebraska’s Bo Pelini (10-4) was the only coach to finish with 10 wins.

Then there’s the other end of the spectrum-the one that comes full circle in the Dallas metro area. The only coach to finish with only one win was SMU head coach June Jones. The Mustangs entered 2008 with great expectations, despite finishing 1-11 in the previous season, but the enthusiasm fizzled after embarrassingly lopsided early losses to rivals Texas Christian University and Rice University.

So what ingredients go into a successful season for rookie coaches? A look at the seasons of Houston, Ole Miss and SMU could reveal a few answers.

Houston: Adjustments and experience are the key

Out of the three coaches, Sumlin walked into arguably the best situation. He was hired in the offseason as a replacement for Art Briles, who departed to Baylor University. Briles had guided the Cougars to three straight bowl appearances, and the team returned 14 starters in 2008, including star quarterback Case Keenum.

But the Cougars’ season got off to a rocky start. After beating Southern University in the opener, Houston dropped three straight, which included a loss to Air Force at Gerald J. Ford Stadium. The game was supposed to be played in Houston, but Hurricane Ike forced the game a few hours north on I-45.

In addition to the difficulties that Hurricane Ike posed, Houston was hampered by injuries to key seniors. It looked unlikely that Sumlin’s bunch would be able to navigate its way to a bowl game after the devastation of the early season minefield.

“There was a phrase I eliminated from my vocabulary after this year,” Sumlin said after his team’s victory in the Armed Forces Bowl. “It was, ‘What worse can happen?'”

But Sumlin and the Cougars made brilliant mid-season adjustments and won six of their next seven games, including a nail-biter at SMU.

One of the biggest reasons for the rebound was an adjustment made by Sumlin to put freshman running back Bryce Beall in the starting lineup. In the first three weeks of the season, he carried the ball only 19 times for 124 yards. But Beall amassed six 100-plus-yard games in the last 10 contests, and the Cougars went 7-3 in that span. He racked up 135 yards on 22 carries in the Armed Forces Bowl and was named the team’s MVP in the game.

“Bryce would have had a lot more yards this season if I had been a little smarter and played him in the first three games,” Sumlin said. “We’re two different teams. We’re a lot different right now than we were in week three.”

So what was the key to Sumlin’s success in year one? Ten senior starters-seven on defense-who motivated the team to finish strong, and an adjustment to put in a 5-foot-11 freshman running back,

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who sparked the team’s miraculous finish.

Ole Miss keyed by big victories

Like Houston, Ole Miss’ season got off to a rocky start, but a big mid-season win gave Nutt’s team confidence that it could compete in the nation’s toughest conference, the Southeastern.

The Rebels finished 3-9 overall and 0-8 in the SEC in 2007. After losing last season’s SEC opener to the

University of Vanderbilt, the Rebels snapped the streak with a 31-30 road victory over eventual national champion Florida. It was the kind of victory that a first-year coach dreams of.

The Rebels lost their next two games, but finished the season on a six-game winning streak, which included wins over defending national champ LSU and Big 12 powerhouse Texas Tech. Nutt was rewarded with a big postseason bonus, and his team is positioned for a run at the SEC title in 2009.

“I knew that there was some talent in spots when I came in,” Nutt said after his team finished practice Dec. 30 in preparation for the Cotton Bowl. Ole Miss practiced at Gerald J. Ford Stadium. “Change is hard for everybody, but attitude and commitment is big.”

The team returned 14 starters in 2008 and returns 14 again in 2009, including starting quarterback Jevan Snead, a transfer from the University of Texas. With the sophomore Snead leading the way, the key to Ole Miss’ run in 2008 was capturing a couple big victories, which ignited an enthusiastic squad with a rebel attitude.

SMU couldn’t get it done

Unlike the pack of young Rebels in Oxford, Miss., the inexperienced Mustangs, led by freshman quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell, couldn’t get the job done in big games. The result was another disappointing season.

Jones brought his high-octane passing attack, but SMU simply had no running game. The Mustangs managed only 490 yards on the ground all season. To put that in perspective, the top rushing team in the country, Navy, averaged nearly 300 yards rushing a game. In addition, the Mustangs were the worst scoring defense in Conference USA, giving up 38 points a game.

The Daily Campus was not able to get in touch with Jones.

Despite its shortcomings, SMU had a chance to throw a coming-out party mid-season against the two top teams from the conference’s West Division.

The first opportunity was in Week 7 against the eventual West Division champion Tulsa Golden Hurricane. The Mustangs led 31-24 going into the fourth quarter, but squandered 13 unanswered Tulsa points and ended up losing 37-31. They allowed the Golden Hurricane to convert a fourth-and-21, and a Mitchell pass to the end zone in the last minute went off the hands of a receiver.

The next week, SMU clashed with a Houston team that was just hitting its stride. Jones’ squad held a 35-23 lead at the end of three quarters, but the Cougars barnstormed their way to three fourth-quarter touchdowns and escaped with the victory.

Had the Mustangs pulled out the victory, perhaps the story would have been different for Sumlin and his Cougars and Jones’ Mustangs. But it goes to show that the best thing a first-year coach can do is win big games. Houston and Ole Miss did it; SMU did not.