Coach Duggs is a Barstool institution at this point. What started during COVID as Big Cat messing around in NCAA 14's Dynasty Mode has turned into a full-blown bit that got him and PFT Commenter written into EA's actual game as a coaching duo. EA Sports College Football 27 dropped its full release on July 9, and it took Big Cat almost no time to fire up a fresh Duggs save, live, with Pardon My Take running the broadcast.
About to be live. Apologies for being late Duggs rides again. Tune in —> https://t.co/jMr2u3UBcC
The dynasty always starts the same way: a wheel spin to decide the school. This time it landed on North Carolina, and Big Cat leaned all the way into it, shouting out a "Let's go Jordon!" as he took the job.
Spinning a wheel to see our first team https://t.co/0bLIKQKZNZ
Week 1 was a grind. UNC scraped by Bowling Green in a game that came down to the final half-minute, with Big Cat opting to take an intentional safety rather than risk giving the ball back with a lead to protect. It worked. Final was UNC 14, Bowling Green 11, and Duggs lived to coach a Week 2.
The late-game sweat against Bowling Green, saved by the defense after some shaky clock management.
The good times didn't last. Akron came into Chapel Hill in Week 2 and ran UNC off the field, erasing a fourth-quarter deficit to steal it late. Big Cat even copped to throwing his first pick of the new season along the way. That's two games into a brand-new dynasty and the Coach Duggs era at North Carolina was already over — fired before he could even learn where the tunnel exits were.
Akron's comeback ends the UNC chapter of the dynasty after just two games.
That's the whole appeal of the Duggs format: no mercy, no reset button. Get fired, spin again. So the wheel came back out, and this time it landed on Western Kentucky, which is now officially the flagship of Big Cat's chase for a National Championship. It's a real step down in name recognition from a blueblood like UNC, but the Coach Duggs legend has never cared about pedigree — Tennessee was the program that made him famous in the first place.
Whatever program is under him, the schedule doesn't get easier. Clemson is on deck next week, a marquee name that'll be a serious test for a coach who's still cramming the playbook after getting run out of his last job in a hurry. Given the track record so far — one win, one loss, one firing, all inside a single week — nobody should assume Western Kentucky is safe either.