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College football’s coaching carousel intensifies as postseason looms
As we transition from the regular part of the 2025 college football season into the playoffs, athletics administrations take stock of the success - or lack thereof - of their football teams.
Seventeen FBS football programs have fired their leaders this year to date, with another seven now looking for a replacement after their own head coaches were poached.
With the race on to secure the best developers and recruiters in the game, we check in on the status of college football’s coaching carousel.
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Hirings and firings
Stanford
We begin back in March, when Stanford general manager Andrew Luck - just four months into his own role - relieved Troy Taylor of his duties after multiple reports of inappropriate behaviour towards female colleagues.
Luck turned to his old Indianapolis head coach, Frank Reich, to see the Cardinal through the season. Reich got the program back onto a firm footing with four wins, including beating rivals Cal in ‘The Game’.
Stanford named Washington Commanders QB coach Tavita Pritchard their new head coach on November 28th.
Kent State
The second sacking of 2026 came a month later in April, when Kent State fired head coach Kenni Burns for multiple university policy violations. I’m sure the 1-23 record he compiled the two years prior also didn’t help.
Offensive Coordinator Mark Carney took over in an interim capacity and did so well that he was made permanent head coach before October had finished.
In one of the toughest FBS jobs in the nation, Carney led the Golden Flashes to a 5-7 record in 2025.
Virginia Tech
The first firing since the season began, Virginia Tech parted ways with Brent Pry after a shock 45-26 loss to Old Dominion. The Hokies were 0-3 on the year and 16-24 in the Pry era.
In one of the biggest hires of the season, Virginia Tech lured former Penn State head coach James Franklin to Blacksburg, paying him more than $8m a year through 2031.
UCLA
UCLA found the transition to the Big Ten tough, with Chip Kelly departing to become Ohio State’s coordinator before they began their first season in their new conference.
A dismal start to 2025 saw DeShaun Foster dismissed by the Bruins just three games into his second season. The job seemed too big for Foster from the start.
On Monday, it was reported that James Madison head coach Bob Chesney was all but confirmed as the Bruins’ new head coach after an impressive 20 wins in two seasons with the Dukes.
Oklahoma State
Longtime head coach Mike Gundy was let go by Oklahoma State after 25 years with the school and 21 in the hotseat.
Gundy will go down as the greatest head coach in Cowboys history, with a 170-90 record and eight double-digit winning seasons.
The Pokes dived into the Group of Five to find their replacement, appointing North Texas’ Eric Morris last week. Morris arrives with a reputation for explosive offenses and developing quarterbacks.
Arkansas
Sam Pittman, the nicest man in football, lost his dream job as Arkansas head coach on September 28th. Pittman had some moments of promise during his six years in Fayetteville, but just four SEC wins in his last seventeen games sealed his fate.
The Razorbacks’ protracted search finally ended on Sunday when they appointed Ryan Silverfield as the 34th head coach in Arkansas football history.
Silverfield has an impressive resume from his time at Memphis, and is known for his recruiting ability.
Penn State
James Franklin compiled more than 100 wins in eleven seasons in Happy Valley, but simply couldn’t break the Michigan-Ohio State glass ceiling in the Big Ten.
A 3-3 start to 2025 led to his firing by Penn State. As mentioned above, the hot commodity landed with Virginia Tech.
Penn State has yet to find a replacement, and efforts to prise Kalani Sitake out of BYU have failed after he signed a long-term extension yesterday.
UAB
Super Bowl-winning quarterback Trent Dilfer’s two and a half year stay in Birmingham came to an end after a 53-33 loss to Florida Atlantic in October.
Dilfer never really met expectations in a football hotbed that expects the Blazers to be challenging in the American Conference.
UAB have conducted a relatively quiet recruiting process since then, with no appointment seemingly close. One name to look out for is SMU offensive coordinator Casey Woods, who was tight ends coach at the school between 2017 and 2019.
Oregon State
The Beavers let go of Trent Bray after seven straight losses to begin the season - the worst Oregon State record for almost a quarter of a century. Bray replaced Jonathan Smith in 2024 but won just five games before his dismissal.
Alabama’s co-offensive coordinator JaMarcus Shephard was announced as the Beavs’ new head coach on Monday.
Shepherd is familiar with West Coast football having had success as a position coach and coordinator at both Washington and Washington State.
Florida
Billy Napier’s tumultuous reign in Gainesville finally came to an end on October 19th after a 34-24 loss to Ole Miss. Napier had been on borrowed time for more than a year, having never really matched his roster’s potential with results.
Florida made a run at Lane Kiffin before bowing out and settling on Jon Sumrall. The Tulane head coach has impressed both in New Orleans and previously at Troy, and will be allowed to coach the Green Wave through the postseason, beginning with the American Conference championship game on Friday night.
Colorado State
Colorado State are looking to throw money at their football program as they head to the Pac-12 next season. So a 2-5 record was never going to be good enough for Jay Norvell, who was on the hot seat before the year began.
The Rams turned some heads by enticing Jim Mora Jr. to leave UConn and head back West. Mora has extensive head coach experience in both the NFL and on the West Coast, but leading the Huskies to back-to-back 9-win seasons might be his biggest achievement.
LSU
What a circus.
LSU made Lane Kiffin one of the top two highest-paid head coaches in college football, paying $13m a year to pull him out of Oxford.
It got messy, and Kiffin probably lost all the respect he had earned through six years at Ole Miss. He also had to sacrifice coaching the Rebels in their first-ever college football playoffs.
Kiffin replaces Brian Kelly, the previous head coach in Baton Rouge to be handsomely rewarded. Kelly won 29 games his first three seasons, but 2025 was probably as poor as his Louisiana accent and he was hastily dismissed in late October.
Auburn
Hugh Freeze ran out of excuses as to why he couldn’t fashion any offense on the Plains and was fired on November 2nd after a meek loss to Kentucky.
The Tigers looked immediately better under interim HC DJ Durkin, further validating Auburn’s decision to move on.
Durkin got serious consideration for the role and will still stick around as defensive coordinator. Ultimately, Alex Golesh was the man chosen; the former USF head coach is a relentless recruiter and had one of the best offenses in the country with the Bulls in 2025.
Cal
Justin Wilcox seemed to be on borrowed time ever since Ron Rivera was announced as Cal’s general manager this offseason. A thumping by Stanford in the rival game was the final straw, and Wilcox departs with a 48-55 record through nine seasons.
Every sign points to the Golden Bears appointing Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi as their next head coach.
Lupoi is a former Cal player who has earned a reputation as a fierce recruiter and has one of the best young quarterbacks to work with in Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele.
Coastal Carolina
Tim Beck had big shoes to fill, replacing Jamey Chadwell in 2023. Eight wins weren’t a bad start, but the Chanticleers expect to be perennial challengers for the Sun Belt, and two six-win seasons fell short of the standards in Conway.
Early in the coaching search, there are no clues as to who Coastal Carolina is targeting. But this is a school that can win and be a coaches’ launchpad to a Power 4 job; names like Ryan Beard (Missouri State) and Jerry Mack (Kennesaw State) might be candidates looking for their next home.
Michigan State
Jonathan Smith showed he was a program builder in Corvallis, leading plucky Oregon State to 18 wins in his last two years there. But he was given short shrift by new Michigan State AD J Batt, who didn’t hire him and didn’t want him.
Smith won just 9 games in East Lansing and was fired despite beating Maryland on Saturday. The move was premeditated; Batt had already lined up former Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald to fill the role.
Fitzgerald left Evanston under a cloud but the legal troubles have been settled; his work with a smaller program in the Big Ten was impressive. Can he repeat it with the Spartans?
Kentucky
Mark Stoops spent thirteen years as Kentucky’s head coach, elevating the program from SEC makeweights to a competitive opponent.
Perhaps a victim of his own success, the Wildcats found it difficult to maintain that level for the last two years. Stoops was let go on Monday, leaving Lexington with a creditable 82-80 record.
The Wildcats moved fast to secure the services of Oregon OC Will Stein. Stein was probably the hottest up-and-coming coordinator on the market and is a Bluegrass State native; if Kentucky get thirteen years out of their new coach like they did the last one, this will be a very impressive hire.
Ole Miss
As mentioned earlier, Ole Miss were left by Lane Kiffin for the younger model over in Baton Rouge. The Rebels were forced into a soap opera they really wanted none of, but that’s Lane for you.
Almost certain to be in the playoffs, they needed to move fast to preserve as much stability as possible. They decided to look in-house. Defensive coordinator Pete Golding was vocally against Kiffin’s departure and will have made plenty of friends in the boardroom and the locker room.
They opted to offer him a permanent promotion rather than bestow the interim tag - Golding has signed a two-year deal.
North Texas
Eric Morris’ departure will be delayed as the Mean Green battle for the American Conference title on Friday. Should they win, he’ll also stick around for the college football playoffs, a fitting way to end an impressive tenure at UNT.
Neal Brown will be the next head coach in Denton. The former Troy and West Virginia coach brings 10 years of top-level coaching experience to North Texas.
Openings
Five other schools have suffered attrition due to the coaching carousel. UConn, Memphis, South Florida, Tulane and James Madison have all begun the search for their next head coach, five programs who routinely challenge the Power 4 - Group of 5 status quo.
With each one being an attractive opportunity for ambitious leaders, it will be fun to see where the music stops.
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