Every season the topic of coaching carousel comes up. Usually there are a half dozen or so coaching changes each season, and most of the time they don’t have much effect on one another. But with the addition of NIL and billion-dollar television contacts things have drastically changed. This year 16 of the 68 power four schools will have new head coaches and several are due to a domino effect. The firing of coaches started as early as the third game of the season and several schools fired their coaches during the season thinking they would get a jump on things. However, with all the openings some found themselves playing a game of musical chairs and left standing. As of now, other than Michigan, things appear to have come to a halt. But then again, with what we’ve seen, the hiring of the right guy could open things up and again set things off to two or three more hires.
It’s one of the reasons multiple head coaches received extensions from their schools since it was clear they were potential targets. A few of those receiving extensions during the season were Curt Cignetti (Indiana), Matt Rhule (Nebraska), Jason Eck (New Mexico), Rhett Lashlee (SMU), Eli Drinkwitz (Missouri), Jeff Brohm (Louisville), Kalani Sitake (BYU), and Clark Lea (Vanderbilt).
But even then, the extensions don’t seem to have scared everybody off, as names like Cignetti’s still come up.
Below is a list of schools who have hired a new head coach in this cycle.
Virginia Tech – James Franklin (Penn State HC)
LSU – Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss HC)
Auburn – Alex Golesh (USF HC)
Florida – Jon Sumrall (Tulane HC)
Ole Miss – Pete Golding (Ole Miss DC)
Arkansas – Ryan Silverfield (Memphis HC)
Michigan State – Pat Fitzgearld (Former Northwestern HC)
Kentucky – Will Stien (Oregon OC)
UCLA – Bob Chesney (JMU HC)
Oklahoma State – Eric Morris (North Texas HC)
Oregon State – Ja Marcus Shepard (Asst HC/Co-OC Alabama)
Colorado State – Jim Mora (UConn HC)
Stanford – Travis Pritchard (NFL)
Kansas State – Collin Klein (Texas A&M OC)
California – Tosh Lupi (Oregon (DC)
Penn State – Matt Campbell (Iowa State HC)
Memphis – Charles Huff (Southern Miss HC)
Tulane – Will Hall (Asst Tulane)
North Texas – Neal Brown (Texas Consultant)
USF – Brian Hartline (Ohio State OC)
UConn – Jason Candle (Toledo HC)
Coastal Carolina – Ryan Beard (Missouri State HC)
James Madison – Billy Napier (Florida HC)
Iowa State – Jimmy Rogers (Washington State HC)
Washington State – Kirby Moore (Missouri OC)
Utah – Morgan Scalley (Utah DC)
Michigan – Open
There have been several names floating around for Michigan’s opening, the top one being Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer. DeBoer has come out and said he’s not talking to anyone and is happy in Tuscaloosa, but next week’s playoff game against Oklahoma will tell us a lot about the potential of this hire being a possibility. If DeBoer loses in the first round of the CFP, things could escalate quickly, but a win probably locks him in at Bama.
Another name to watch is Washington’s Jed Fisch who was once an assistant at Michigan under Harbaugh. Fisch has shown the ability to be successful wherever he’s gone.
A third name that has been mentioned is Jesse Minter. He is currently on Jim Harbaugh’s staff with the Chargers and was the DC in Michigan’s national championship season. The question here is does Michigan want to reunite with someone who was part of the sign stealing scandal.
And finally, another popular name is Clevland Brown’s OC Tommy Reese. Wrapping your head around a former Notre Dame player and OC as Wolverine’s next head coach is surreal, but not unrealistic. Reese seems like a good fit to me.
Curt Cignetti’s name has also popped up, but his name has been associated with every opening out there. I don’t see him going to Michigan. A more likely scenario would be DeBoer going to Michigan and Cignetti jumping to Alabama.
With so many openings and limited candidates, some schools elected to give coaches one more season and perhaps try finding the right guy in the next cycle. Coaches who were thought to be on their way out only to find themselves safe were:
Luke Fickell (Wisconsin 4-8)
Mike Norvell (Florida State 5-7)
Mike Locksley (Maryland 4-8)
Bill Belichick (North Carolina 4-8)
Bill O’Brien (Boston College 2-10)
The coaching changes and money being thrown around have changed how we look at things. It’s no longer a merry-go-round of a few coaches coming and going. The stakes are much bigger now, making it a roulette wheel, with only two possible outcomes, winning big or losing with big payouts.
It’ll be interesting to see where Michigan goes, and even more interesting in the next hiring cycle. Will we again see fifteen to twenty schools with openings or was this a one year thing?
GO BIG RED!!