college coaches probably much more open to the idea in today's world due to all the headaches of CFB.Seems like a lot of pro teams are going through the college ranks to fill staff right now. Wonder if there will be any major ripple effects
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college coaches probably much more open to the idea in today's world due to all the headaches of CFB.Seems like a lot of pro teams are going through the college ranks to fill staff right now. Wonder if there will be any major ripple effects
We did it!Indiana held onto its coach and is now paying Cignetti $13.2 million per year. Clark Lea signed an extension to stay at Vanderbilt after winning 10 games for the first time in school history. SMU fought off suitors to keep Rhett Lashlee. Nebraska kept Matt Rhule. Louisville didn’t let alum Jeff Brohm get away. Kenny Dillingham isn’t leaving Arizona State. Kalani Sitake passed on Penn State to stay at BYU.
I know I’m risking opening up a can of worms here and maybe should take it to the parking lot but I have a hard time believing only 40 percent of players are black. Also I don’t know why they need to keep track of this kind of stuff. I think we would all agree that we don’t care what color the coach or players are we just want our team to be successful. Next thing you know, they will be requiring teams to have the same number of black and white players on their roster. 🤦♂️![]()
College football had 34 head coaching changes. Here are 10 lessons from a bizarre carousel
What coaches, agents, athletic directors and search firms are taking away from one of the busiest college football coach carousels ever.www.nytimes.com
College football had 34 head coaching changes. Here are 10 lessons from a bizarre carousel
By Chris Vannini and David Ubben
Feb. 23, 2026 5:15 am CST
One of the most expansive coaching carousels in college football history is nearing its end, and this year’s cycle illustrated how the changing landscape of the sport changes what schools — and coaches — want.
There were 34 total changes, including firings by Kent State and Stanford before the season and Thomas Hammock’s late departure from Northern Illinois last week, with 17 coming at the Power 4 level. One year ago, there were just six Power 4 changes, when uncertainty around revenue sharing saw many schools hold off.
The carousel always moves through trends and adapts to a changing sport. After talking with coaches, agents, athletic directors and search firms, some of whom were granted anonymity to speak candidly, here are 10 lessons learned from the 2025-26 carousel.
1. Cignetti is becoming a four-letter word in coaching searches
Athletic directors making hires don’t want to say it too loudly. But they feel it.
“One word created this much churn: Indiana,” said one Power 4 athletic director. “If you’re established like Florida or LSU or even at places like Penn State or Arkansas, you’re asking, ‘If Indiana can do it, why the hell can’t my place do it?’”
ADs are hearing it from their constituents and donors. It adds pressure to get hires right, and Indiana making the impossible look easy has convinced people at campuses across America that the same thing is possible for them.
It has intensified the type of hope and belief that, in more cases than not, is probably unrealistic. And it’s hurried the clock on every coach taking over a new job, too.
“(Cignetti) is a unicorn. But because Indiana showed so much so fast, there’s a ton of hope and belief that, ‘Hey, if we just find the right guy we can turn it around like that,’” the athletic director said. “It’s like, ‘Why not us?’”
2. Sitting head coaches have become more appealing, in part because they bring players with them
The unlimited transfer portal has reshaped what is considered in making a hire, and it’s clearly made sitting head coaches more appealing than they used to be, especially from the Group of 6 level, after the market had moved toward Power 4 assistants with NIL experience. Now, a coach can bring a deluge of players, as we saw at several schools.
Virginia Tech also had 12 players follow James Franklin after he was fired by Penn State. This doesn’t even account for recruits who switch their commitment to follow the coach, and it comes on the heels of Cignetti taking many key JMU players with him to Indiana. That math is factoring into the decision-making process of who schools hire.
- Penn State: Matt Campbell + 24 Cockeye State transfers, including QB Rocco Becht
- Oklahoma State: Eric Morris + 18 North Texas transfers, including QB Drew Mestemaker
- Auburn: Alex Golesh + 13 USF transfers, including QB Byrum Brown
- Memphis: Charles Huff + 17 Southern Miss transfers
- UCLA: Bob Chesney + 10 JMU transfers
- Arkansas: Ryan Silverfield + seven Memphis transfers
“Now, not only are you thinking about acquiring a coaching staff, you’re thinking about what players are coming with,” said Chad Chatlos, managing director of Turnkey ZRG, a search firm that assists schools in the hiring process.
3. Coaches are redefining what it means to climb. The grass isn’t always greener anymore
The story of this carousel wasn’t really who moved. It was who stayed. There weren’t any blue bloods trading coaches like in 2021 when Brian Kelly left Notre Dame for LSU and Lincoln Riley left Oklahoma for USC. Lane Kiffin going to LSU, it turned out, was the outlier.
Indiana held onto its coach and is now paying Cignetti $13.2 million per year. Clark Lea signed an extension to stay at Vanderbilt after winning 10 games for the first time in school history. SMU fought off suitors to keep Rhett Lashlee. Nebraska kept Matt Rhule. Louisville didn’t let alum Jeff Brohm get away. Kenny Dillingham isn’t leaving Arizona State. Kalani Sitake passed on Penn State to stay at BYU.
History and tradition mean less in recruiting than ever. There’s mostly one question that matters to coaches: Do you have the money to pay for a big-time roster or not? If the answer is yes at places enjoying newfound success, like Texas Tech, SMU, Vanderbilt and Indiana, why does a coach need to leave? Ceilings are being redefined and schools can pay to keep their winner.
“You’d pay anything. You don’t want to go back. You can’t go back,” Chatlos said. “And if you’ve got a guy and you know the candidate pool is going to be thin and expensive, you pay. You just can’t let a guy leave. You don’t care. An eight-year deal and 80 percent guaranteed is better than the unknown. We know this guy can do it here.”
4. The coordinator head coaching market was weak
Of the 17 new Power 4 head coaches, only six were hired from coordinator jobs, and all six had previous ties to the school. Collin Klein (Kansas State), Tosh Lupoi (Cal) and Tavita Pritchard (Stanford) were former players and assistants at their schools, while Morgan Scalley (Utah) and Pete Golding (Ole Miss) were promoted from within. Will Stein is a Kentucky native and the son of a former UK player.
It’s not necessarily a surprise. The Athletic wrote heading into last season that the coordinator-to-P4-head-coach pipeline was drying up and not expected to be deep in the carousel, but it was especially evident in the final numbers.
We did see some unconnected P4 coordinators land Group of 6 head jobs, like Brian Hartline (Ohio State OC to USF), Kirby Moore (Missouri OC to Washington State) and Casey Woods (SMU OC to Missouri State). But a weak market coupled with the ability to bring players through the portal made sitting head coaches more appealing candidates.
The G6 head coaching pool is going through a bit of a reset after this cycle, which could open up more coordinator opportunities next year. Perhaps hoping that trend shifts back, LSU defensive coordinator Blake Baker opted to stay and work for Kiffin rather than take the Tulane head coaching job.
5. Timing is key — and unpredictable
Three weeks into the season, UCLA and Virginia Tech both fired their coaches. By Week 9, Penn State, Florida and LSU also had openings.
“The earlier you can make a change, the more thorough and comprehensive your search can run,” UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond said. “You can get more input. You can study candidates much better.”
But that head start doesn’t always work. In Penn State’s case, it swung and missed early. It couldn’t lure Pennsylvania native Mike Elko from Texas A&M or Sitake from BYU, and coaches like Cignetti and Rhule received extensions amid Penn State speculation. It eventually came all the way back around on Campbell.
If the Nittany Lions had waited until later, would Rhule, a former Penn State linebacker, have received an extension at Nebraska? The Huskers started 5-1 but finished 7-6. Texas A&M started 11-0 but lost to rival Texas for a second consecutive season and lost a home Playoff game to Miami, ending on a two-game losing streak.
“If you’re trying to talk to coaches who are 6, 7, 8-0, it’s gonna be tough,” Chatlos said. “People are not willing to let them leave.”
6. Coaches juggling jobs is going to happen more than ever
Kiffin’s public dispute over his desire to coach Ole Miss through the Playoff after taking the LSU job made all the headlines, but he wasn’t alone in that tension. Jon Sumrall coached Tulane in the Playoff after taking the Florida job and Chesney did the same at James Madison after moving on to UCLA.
“We respected Coach’s desire to coach his team,” Jarmond said. “We wanted him to. To me, if you have empathy, I wouldn’t want my coach to leave when I’m having a historic season. That loyalty and commitment was something we valued.”
But it also meant sorting through the logistics. Oregon coordinators Stein (Kentucky) and Lupoi (Cal) noted the sleep deprivation involved in coaching during the Playoff while trying to establish their own programs.
At UCLA, Chesney and the Bruins worked through a plan to allow him to coach his Dukes against Oregon while recruiting and working for UCLA.
“I said, ‘You gotta give me two or three people on your staff that can help us with logistics and personnel things we have to work through,’” Jarmond said. “We needed someone who could represent Coach Chesney and his desires.”
7. Buyouts aren’t always what they seem, but they also aren’t changing
Much was made of the large buyouts in this cycle of fired coaches, with Franklin’s nearly $49 million at Penn State and Kelly’s nearly $54 million at LSU. But they rarely end up at the top-line number because most include an offset from another job. Franklin instead settled for a $9 million buyout from Penn State because he’ll make head coach money at Virginia Tech.
Kentucky owed Mark Stoops almost $38 million within 60 days of firing him, without an offset, but the sides negotiated to pay that out annually into 2031, which helps the Wildcats’ budget.
And despite Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry railing against large buyouts, he had no problem with LSU delivering Kiffin a giant contract with no buyout offset. The buyout if Kiffin is fired without cause is 80 percent of the remaining annual salary, meaning it starts the 2026 season at $62.4 million.
“Marquee talent is still going to get what they want,” Chatlos said.
Multiple athletic directors pointed to Landry’s big talk at the start of the search as naiveté about the market and what securing a coveted coach requires.
“The visceral reaction from those who hadn’t been following contracts might be unique, but it’s not really surprising to those that are involved in the hiring or retention of coaches,” said longtime Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione, who retired this month after 28 years at his post.
8. Interview questions are changing — on both sides of the table
Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor remembered his search from 2018, when his finalists were then-North Texas coach Seth Littrell, Memphis coach Mike Norvell, Troy coach Neal Brown and North Dakota State coach Chris Klieman, who he eventually hired. Taylor had three weeks.
This time, he quickly zeroed in on Klein, the Texas A&M offensive coordinator and former K-State quarterback, to replace a retiring Klieman. But it wasn’t just the timeline that was different. Just as important as staff salaries were pressing questions about how much money would be available for the roster. It came up early in most searches.
“That stuff just wasn’t in the conversation the last time we were in the market,” Taylor said.
“Two years ago, agents might ask about your NIL. Now, every candidate asks about your NIL,” an anonymous P4 athletic director said. “And there’s way more emphasis being put on the front office. That wasn’t there two years ago. What is front office support financially? That wasn’t as important two years ago. That market is exploding.”
Candidates are also posing questions with another key word to prospective athletic directors.
“The new buzzword is alignment,” said Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock, who hired Franklin in November, a month after Penn State fired him. “How is it from the president to the AD and down?”
One head coach told The Athletic he elected to halt negotiations with an SEC program explicitly because he didn’t sense that alignment.
Coaches need a lot more money for a program than they did just a few years ago. It’s often a question of whether a president is willing to sign off on what an athletic director may promise.
9. The American remains a step up from much of the rest of the Group of 6, in the eyes of coaches
The American’s resources and success as a stepping stone have made it appealing for coaching candidates. Four American coaches moved up to Power 4 jobs in this cycle, including three to the SEC (Sumrall, Golesh, Silverfield). Sumrall had gone to Tulane on the heels of consecutive Sun Belt championships at Troy. A similar move happened in this cycle, as Huff moved from Southern Miss in the Sun Belt to Memphis, two years removed from winning a Sun Belt championship at Marshall.
The conference has several of the most-resourced G6 schools. USF, Memphis and Tulane were among the highest spenders on rosters, each with a budget over $5 million last season. In coaching salaries, the American had at least five coaches earn at least $2 million last year. The rest of the Group of 6 had five combined.
10. The number of Black head coaches decreased
Coming off an NFL coaching carousel with zero Black head coaches hired, the FBS had its own decrease, down to 14 for the upcoming season. Five were fired in this cycle: Franklin (Penn State), Deshaun Foster (UCLA) and Jay Norvell (Colorado State) for on-field performance, while Sherrone Moore (Michigan) and Kenni Burns (Kent State) were fired for off-field actions. Thomas Hammock (Northern Illinois) left for an NFL position coach job.
In the class of hired coaches, Franklin landed at Virginia Tech, Oregon State hired JaMarcus Shephard from Alabama and Huff moved from Southern Miss to Memphis, meaning the number of Black head coaches decreased by three. Sacramento State, which is moving up from the Football Championship Subdivision this year to play in the MAC, saw head coach Brennan Marion leave to become Colorado’s offensive coordinator and replaced him with Arizona assistant head coach Alonzo Carter. The only other minority hired was Stanford’s Tavita Pritchard, who is of Samoan descent.
In a sport where more than 40 percent of the players are Black and there is no equivalent to the NFL’s Rooney Rule, the topic remains front of mind for minority coaches. Several organizing groups prepare Black coaches for interviews and get them in front of athletic directors, but there continues to not be enough from the people who recommend coaches and make the final decisions.
I'm sure it's asst to the HC. Sark regularly hires experienced guys like Stoops to be, in effect, high-level analysts.Assistant to the Head Coach or Assistant Head Coach?
I'm sure it's asst to the HC. Sark regularly hires experienced guys like Stoops to be, in effect, high-level analysts.