Ranking every new college football coaching hire for 2026

Put aside the circus on Kiffin's end that led up to the hiring -- LSU hit a home run with this move. While he hasn't won anything of note yet in college football, he's a great coach who will transform the Tigers offense while adding some excitement and buzz to the program. His personality may rub some the wrong way, but if he's your guy, he certainly makes a positive impression. Just ask ... well, maybe don't, since everywhere that loved him once now despises him.

Kiffin knows the SEC (this is the third program there he's helmed, and that doesn't mention his time as Nick Saban's OC at Alabama) and has shown he is capable of building a playoff team. While you can debate about how great he is, the fact is that Kiffin will do well in Baton Rouge. However long he stays there. 

Like the LSU-Lane Kiffin hire, this process wasn't very smooth. Unlike LSU, it was more the university than the coach. Penn State fired James Franklin mid-season, seemingly to get a jump on hiring a big-name coach to replace him. Names like Indiana's Curt Cignetti and Nebraska's Matt Rhule were the front-runners, while names like Urban Meyer were rumored to have interest. The fact that it took all this time to land Matt Campbell is also a bit puzzling.

Pushing that aside, Campbell is a great hire for the Nittany Lions. He brought a ton of success to Iowa State, including posting an 11-3 record in 2024, which is the most wins in a season in program history. Campbell is from eastern Ohio, played at Pitt and Mount Union and was a coach at Bowling Green and Toledo before netting the Cyclones job in 2016. Campbell has been sought after by other schools and the NFL over the last decade, yet Penn State was finally the one to pull him away from Ames. He takes over a program that was in the College Football Playoff semifinals last year and was ranked No. 2 in the AP preseason poll this year.   

Maybe this is Napier's sweet spot. While head coach at Louisiana, Napier's Ragin' Cajuns went 40-12, including three 10-win seasons and a 12-1 record in 2021. He left for Florida and struggled to get the Gators program going. He was 22-23 in Gainesville before getting fired during the 2025 season.

When Bob Chesney left James Madison to take the UCLA job, Napier slid back into a great Sun Belt program. JMU is the Sun Belt champions and reached the College Football Playoff, but it could lose some of its top players in the transfer portal (especially those who follow Chesney to Los Angeles). If Napier can get back to the magic he had in Louisiana, James Madison will continue to thrive. 

James Franklin is a great get for the Hokies. Sure, the ending at Penn State went sideways, but Franklin's Nittany Lions went 24-8 over the last three seasons and reached the Big Ten championship game and College Football Playoff semifinals last year. He won 10 or more games six times during his 12 seasons in Happy Valley and finished in the Associated Press' top ten five times.

He knows the mid-Atlantic area well — he was born and raised in Pennsylvania, and not only was he the head coach at Penn State but also an assistant at Maryland and James Madison. Building back Virginia Tech's program in the ACC will be a bit easier than competing in the Big Ten or the SEC (when he was at Vanderbilt). He won a ton of games at Penn State, but the knock on him was his inability to win the big ones. There won't be anywhere near the pressure in Blacksburg like there was at Penn State ... at least not yet. The university is making a huge investment in Franklin and in the football program. Both are great starts. 

Considering the Wolverines had a job opening so late in the cycle (and with turmoil surrounding the program), netting Kyle Whittingham is a steal. Whittingham is Utah's all-time winningest head coach behind physical play on both sides of the ball. He was a defensive player at BYU (winning WAC DPOY) and a defensive coach before taking over at Utah. He will have this program focused on the main thing, after years of scandals and the end of the Sherrone Moore era.

One question is Whittingham's battery. He has stated that it was his decision to step down as head coach of Utah just weeks before accepting the Michigan job. He was head coach in Salt Lake City for 22 seasons after a decade as an assistant, and has spent his entire coaching career in Utah and Idaho. This is a major step up for a 66 year old that may have been burnt out in Utah. Michigan is a elite level job but comes with a lot of pressure, especially two seasons after winning a national title. While the program needs stability, the fans expect playoff appearances. Whittingham isn't a "Michigan Man", which gives him a short runway for success. Will this new setting recharge his battery?

This is an interesting hire for Florida, considering where they've been the last few years. Jon Sumrall has been a target for various programs over the last two years, but Florida was the school that got him to make the leap to a power program. Sumrall went 23-4 over two seasons with Troy, before going 20-7 in two years at Tulane. He finished 7-1 in conference play in each of his four seasons as a head coach, reaching his conference's championship game each season and winning three league titles. This year, he got the Green Wave into the College Football Playoff, an achievement Florida hasn't done in its 12-year history of the CFP.

The interesting part is both the process and who they ended up with. Florida clearly wanted Lane Kiffin and felt they had a great chance to land him. That didn't happen as Kiffin went to SEC rival LSU instead. They pivoted to Sumrall, who is a really good hire. But it is interesting that they went with another hot G5 coach when the Billy Napier era never got going. Hopefully, for Gator fans, Sumrall is the right hire.  

Huff has been on the move quite a bit in his career, but he's left a lasting impression everywhere he goes. Huff spent four years at Marshall, where he won 10 games and a Sun Belt championship in his final season. He left over to Southern Miss, where he transformed a 1-11 program to a 7-5 mark this year. Now he heads up to Memphis, where he takes over a Tigers program that was ranked for a time this season and has the ability to win American championships. Huff has worked with Nick Saban at Alabama, coached Saquon Barkley at Penn State, and even spent a season with the Buffalo Bills. 

UCLA sure hopes that this former James Madison head coach will make the same splash in the Big Ten as the last one did. The Bruins hired the Dukes' Bob Chesney, who has continued to build the Sun Belt champion James Madison program and has led them to the College Football Playoff.  Chesney has certainly grinded for this opportunity, with stops in Division II and III, FCS's Holy Cross and JMU. He took Assumption to three D-II playoffs in his five seasons there and Holy Cross to four playoffs in six years. Now he has the Dukes in the CFP.

This will be a major change for Chesney -- his playing and coaching career has primarily been in the New England and mid-Atlantic area -- so a move to L.A. is a bit jarring. The Bruins have been middling of late and are rumored to be ditching the Rose Bowl for SoFi Stadium next season. UCLA has finished 12th in both its seasons in the Big Ten and he will have to go up against USC, Oregon and a rebuilt Pac-12 in recruiting the SoCal area with basically no connections to the area. There will be a learning curve, but Chesney has shown an ability to develop players and programs. It won't be an instant success like Curt Cignetti, but UCLA is getting an outstanding coach. 

I really love this hire for Colorado State. Remember that the Rams will be going to the new look Pac-12 next season and would like to put their best look together. Mora has been a lot of places. He's been a head coach in the NFL (Falcons, Seahawks) and in college (UCLA, UConn) and an assistant for three other NFL teams. He's a West Coast guy for much of his life (born in Los Angeles and played college at Washington), and he's built up a UConn program that was plummeting into one that has back-to-back 9-win seasons.

Colorado State would kill for that right now. The Rams' last 9+ win season was in 2014 and they've had one winning season over the last eight years. They were an awful 2-10 this year and an intriguing decision for Mora to take this job and this time. Of all the G5 (or soon-to-be G6) hires this cycle, this may be the most impactful for the program. 

Let's just start by saying this: if Ole Miss wasn't in the College Football Playoff this year I'm pretty sure Golding would not be the head coach of the Rebels. That's not a knock on Golding nor his ability to be a solid head coach moving forward. But Ole Miss is in one of the weirdest situations this coaching cycle. Unlike Tulane or James Madison, Ole Miss' outgoing coach isn't going to be around to coach the team in the playoffs. Familiarity with the roster was paramount for the university, so Golding skipped past the interim tag and got the full-time job.

Golding's first games as a new head coach don't come after an offseason of building a staff, recruiting and installing his culture. It is during the playoffs. He's never been a head coach previously, though he's was on Nick Saban's staff at Alabama from 2018 to 2022. So those are his challenges, but what does he bring to the table? He's a defensive guy who has worked extensively in the Gulf States. He also brings stability, which is what the school wants not only for the next two months but for the next few years. He's shown an ability to rally his team in the CFP despite the chaos around the program and win some playoff games.

He's been very impressive so far. But what will it look like once the season ends, his assistants move on the LSU and he has to flesh out his staff and rebuild his roster?

Oklahoma State ended the Mike Gundy era and looked to make a relative splash with his replacement. While Eric Morris may not be a big name to most people, he's got an impressive resume he brings to Stillwater. He played and coached at Texas Tech, coached at Houston, and coached at Washington State while also a head coach at Incarnate Word and North Texas.

He's known as a guy who can develop quarterbacks. He was Patrick Mahomes' position coach at Texas Tech and was with Cam Ward at Incarnate Word and Washington State. His quarterback at North Texas, Drew Mestemaker, leads the nation in passing. He's coached under Mike Leach and Kliff Kingsbury, so he knows how to run an offense. In his three years at North Texas, he's turned around the program, going 11-2 this season and reaching the American championship game. They were ranked in the Associated Press poll for the first time since 1959. He knows the area and has a great coaching pedigree that he can resurrect a stale Cowboys program in the very near future. 

I really like this hire. Yeah, Fitzgerald's time at Northwestern came to an end due to a hazing scandal and hopefully he has learned from that. It is a bit of a red flag since the Mel Tucker saga is still fresh in the minds of the people in East Lansing.

On the field, it works. Fitzgerald is a Big Ten guy from his time as a player and coach at Northwestern. He has obvious ties to the Chicagoland era and his recruiting net becomes wider due to less restrictive admission standards and better resources. There is also an opportunity to pounce locally with their rivals in Ann Arbor having a difficult December. The concern comes from not only the hazing scandal, but how poorly the Wildcats played over his last few years there (3-9 in 2021 and 1-11 in 2022). His handling of his staff was criticized and, it seemed, the program was getting away from him.

He's also walking into one of the worst periods in Michigan State history. Under Jonathan Smith, the Spartans won just one Big Ten last season as the program has dealt with the fallout of the Tucker regime. If Fitzgerald (who was a high school volunteer assistant over the last few years) shows growth, this will be a fantastic hire for Sparty. 

Well, it finally happened. After years of seeing other colleges and NFL teams trying to pry Matt Campbell away from Iowa State, Penn State finally was able to do it. Enter Jimmy Rogers who has been on quite a meteoric rise. After two years at South Dakota State (27-3 and a National Championship) and one at Washington State (6-6), Rogers has now moved into a nice job in Ames. His time in South Dakota where he played and was an assistant and head coach gives him the knowledge of recruiting and navigating the upper midwest and plains.  The only issue for pause is this is now his third head coaching job in just three seasons as a head coach. Will he be a Cyclone for the long haul like Campbell, or will he jump at the next opportunity that comes his way?

Alex Golesh is a very intriguing hire for a program like Auburn. He had a really good season at South Florida last year -- opening the season beating Boise State and Florida -- but he's only 23-15 in his three years with the Bulls. His strengths are his ability to communicate in recruiting and with all the handshaking that goes along with dealing with boosters and the like in the NIL era. He's hands-on with his program, which should endear him at a place like Auburn, especially if he can land better talent than they've been getting recently. He's also going to pump up the offensive production with the Tigers. His Bulls averaged 43 ppg in 2025 and he's coached under Matt Campbell at Iowa State and Josh Heupel at UCF and Tennessee. 

Getting a guy like Jason Candle is a sneaky good move by UConn. Candle is a model of consistency during his time at Toledo. For starters, he was there for 11 seasons as head coach and 18 years total, so he's been a very loyal guy (yes, I'm aware that his loyalty there is ending with this move). He was 81-44 during those 11 seasons, reaching nine bowls, winning two MAC titles, and never finishing with a losing record.

The Huskies have been trying to find consistency in the program since Randy Edsall's first term as head coach in the 2000s. Jim Mora Jr. -- who left for Colorado State -- was starting to build that in Storrs and it is up to Candle to expand on it. UConn football has its unique challenges, but its athletics program has been about winning, especially in basketball. Candle is a great fit for what they are trying to do.  

South Florida has an interesting list of head coaches in its history, and Brian Hartline is the latest. After watching Alex Golesh leave for Auburn, USF feels it has landed the next "it" guy to lead its program.

Hartline played receiver at Ohio State before embarking on a 7-year NFL career (all but one with the Miami Dolphins). He has spent the last nine years back at Ohio State as an assistant coach, ascending to offensive coordinator in 2023 (in 2024, he shared that duty with Chip Kelly). He is an outstanding recruiter and has been a key force in developing one of the greatest stretches of top receivers in years.  

Mike Jacobs had climbed the ladder. He had a successful career in the Division II ranks, going 81-17 over eight seasons at Notre Dame (Ohio) and Lenoir-Rhyne. He won three conference titles and reached four D-II playoffs during that time. He moved up in class to Mercer for the last two seasons, going 20-6 and winning two SoCon titles and reaching the FCS postseason both years.

Toledo has a history of finding solid coaches. They gave Nick Saban his first head coaching job in 1990, then had guys like Gary Pinkel, Tim Beckham, Matt Campbell and Jason Candle running the program. Jacobs seems to be on the same plane as those coaches when they got their first taste of FBS coaching, which means continued success in northwest Ohio. 

North Texas nearly found itself in the College Football Playoff this season, and because of that, Oklahoma State hired away their coach. In comes Neal Brown, who has been here before. Brown was the head coach of Troy from 2015-2018 and produced three 10-win seasons before leaving for West Virginia. His Mountaineers never broke through during his six seasons in Morgantown, so he was let go in 2024.

That experience at a power program will serve him well here. North Texas has moved up in class to the American and has shown they can compete for championships. Brown showed he can win championships in the Sun Belt with Troy, and his experience running a Big 12 organization will help him keep pushing the Mean Green into a G6 powerhouse. 

Tosh Lupoi was born in the Bay Area and was a defensive lineman at Cal in the early 2000s. Since then, he has put together an impressive resume of assistant coaching gigs. He was an assistant at Cal and Washington before spending five seasons on Nick Saban's staff at Alabama. He would then spend three season as a defensive line coach in the NFL before coming back to college with Oregon in 2022.

He hangs hit hat on defense, which is what fired head coach Justin Wilcox was attempting to do at Cal. He knows the area well, including how to recruit there and knows that despite the blandness of the program of late, they have an opportunity to compete in the ACC. 

Kirby Moore grew up in southeastern Washington, played at Boise State, and had coaching jobs at Idaho and Washington before moving on to Fresno State and Missouri. His father was a high school football coach, and his brother, Kellen, is the head coach of the NFL's New Orleans Saints. Coaching is in his blood.

This is also an important hire because this program needs stability. Nick Rolovich was fired during the pandemic, Jake Dickert left for Wake Forest after three seasons, and Jimmy Rogers lasted just one year before leaving for Iowa State. In that time, the Cougars have watched the Pac-12 shatter and their program lose its power-conference status. They, along with Oregon State (who are also breaking in a new head coach), are picking up the pieces to form a rebuilt Pac-12 with various Mountain West schools. Moore loves that area and (hopefully) will stick around to build Washington State back to what it once was. 

Will Stein is a Kentucky guy. He was born and played at Louisville, but learned how to be a coach in Texas -- both on the high school and college stages. His time at Oregon is where he really shone. He worked with Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel and Dante Moore (all transfers) and got the most out of them. He should make Kentucky a much better offensive team than they were under Mark Stoops and quarterbacks who want to be developed for the NFL will take a long look at the Wildcats going forward.

Stein wants to be at Kentucky for more than just the opportunity. He wants this job because he wants to be the Wildcats' head coach. You may not see it in Kentucky's record in 2026 (check out their schedule next year), but you will see it in the effort and the preparation. 

Morgan Scalley has been grooming for the moment Kyle Whittingham retired from the Utah football program. Scalley played for Whittingham's Utes in the early 2000s and has been on the coaching staff ever since. When he took over as defensive coordinator in 2016, the Utes' defense was known for its physicality and scheme, and even made Scalley a finalist for the Broyles Award for the nation's top assistant.

It is a mixed bag when an assistant who is a head-coach-in-waiting takes over the top job when the top guy hangs it up, but Scalley seems to have better footing than most. He has huge shoes to fill --the last two Utah coaches were Whittingham and Urban Meyer -- but if anyone understands this program and how to succeed, it's Scalley. 

Kansas State is a unique place for college football. Bill Snyder built a solid program that he oversaw for 27 years. Chris Klieman was a worthy steward of the Wildcats program over the past seven seasons before retiring. Collin Klein was seemingly groomed for the K-State job as a Snyder and Klieman assistant for seven seasons before going off to Texas A&M to be the OC on Mike Elko's staff in 2024. Klein has played there, coached there and seems to be the perfect guy to keep the culture in Manhattan going into the future. 

Whenever a coach gets hired away from a place and that place's fans are gleefully watching him leave, that's a problem. That's sort of the case when Arkansas hired Ryan Silverfield away from Memphis. He hasn't been bad -- a 50-25 record over six-plus seasons with the Tigers -- but is coming off a down 8-4 year and fans didn't feel that he was as good as Justin Fuente or Mike Norvell. Even the AD gave a jab on Silverfield by saying,"we lost some meaningful games, and he moved on.”

Those two former coaches' names should also cause pause for Razorbacks fans. Those were the last two Memphis head coaches to make the jump to a power program: Fuente was fired at Virginia Tech already and Norvell has had some of the worst seasons in Florida State history. Neither of those coaches entered the SEC, which has gotten more brutal with the additions of Oklahoma and Texas and the ascension of some of the other programs in the league.

On the plus side is that Silverfield knows the area. Memphis is an important recruiting area for Arkansas. He's also a steady hand, and this program really needs that right now. He also knows how to compete in the SEC -- his Tigers beat Arkansas this past season and they've been able to knock off power programs that dare schedule them. 

In a recurring theme, Stanford went for familiarity in hiring their new head coach. Tavita Pritchard was the Cardinal's quarterback just before the Andrew Luck (who is Stanford's GM) era began. Pritchard played for Jim Harbaugh during one of the best runs in program history. He then stuck around and was on the coaching staff for 13 years (eventually becoming the QB coach and offensive coordinator) before moving on to the Washington Commanders. With the Commanders, he has worked with former Heisman winner Jayden Daniels and under OC Kliff Kingsbury.

He brings experience with the program and a wealth of knowledge as an understudy for guys like Harbaugh, Kingsbury, Dan Quinn, Ron Rivera and David Shaw and working with Luck and Daniels. He understands the school's challenges in the portal and NIL era, but also knows that this program can succeed and be a contender in a wide-open ACC. 

Blake Anderson brings a little bit of continuity after Charles Huff left for Memphis after one season. Anderson has been an assistant at Southern Miss for just one year, but he brings extensive experience as a head coach in the G5 (now G6) ranks. He had a successful run at Arkansas State, going 51-37 over seven seasons in Jonesboro. He left for Utah State in 2021 and made a splash with an 11-3 mark his first year. Two 6-7 seasons and a scandal led to his firing before the 2024 season. 

Casey Woods is a nice hire by Missouri State. He was a receiver at Tennessee before becoming a grad assistant, and then served a lot of different roles at other stops. He has been a wide receivers coach, a recruiting coordinator, a director of player personnel, run game coordinator, tight end coach, and has spent the last four years as the offensive coordinator at SMU. His recruiting acumen will help at a place like Missouri State who has just made the jump to FBS play and will need to find the right guys to build out the Bears program. He was Gus Malzahn's assistant at Arkansas State for a brief time, so he has been introduced to life at a G6 program in that region. His time in potent offensive systems should make the Bears a lively program going forward. 

Oregon State is a really tough job. The Beavers made the rare demotion from a power program down to a G6 one. Meanwhile, their rival is now in the powerful Big 12 and has immense resources to dominate recruiting in the Pacific Northwest. And now Oregon State -- and Washington State -- are welcoming in Mountain West schools to fill their new Pac-12 and could fall down the ladder even further.

This is a tough job. JaMarcus Shephard is the one willing to take a chance on it and may have the perfect mindset for this gig. He played at DePaw, coached high school football in Indiana, and had a variety of quality and coaching jobs at Western Kentucky, Washington State, Purdue, Washington, and ... for the last two years ... Alabama. His last four seasons have been spent as Kalen DeBoer's assistant head coach at both Washington and Bama, so he knows offense and what it looks like to run a program. The thinking here is that Oregon State and Shephard will get a chance to grow together. Shephard isn't a splashy hire and the Beavers aren't a splashy job, but this may be the perfect marriage. 

Ryan Beard has been a good defensive coach at numerous spots, including at Missouri State where he has spent the last six seasons. The last three seasons he was the Bears' head coach, leading the team to 19-16 mark and the transition from FCS to FBS this past season (7-5).

Coastal Carolina has been a good job since its inception in 2003. You are near Myrtle Beach and the program has won 64% of their games. Jamey Chadwell had the Chanticleers at an extremely high level and his replacement, Tim Beck, struggled to keep that going. So it is interesting that Coastal Carolina went with Beard, a Midwest guy who isn't coming off a big season. That isn't to say that he isn't a great coach or that this won't work out, but just that the hiring doesn't seem as great as you'd think for this program. 

The Sherrone Moore firing at Michigan captured the national spotlight, but Michigan wasn't the lone school to have an abrupt coaching change due to improper conduct. Ohio fired Brian Smith after just one season and named assistant John Hauser coach for the Bobcats' bowl game. Like Smith, Hauser won his bowl and was given the permanent job. He has been with the program for four seasons, working his way up from safeties coach, to DC, to assistant head coach in such a short time. Hauser's defenses have been elite in the MAC in his time there and should continue. Ohio has had two sudden coaching changes in as many years, so stability is a major need for this program.  

I'm not sure what's going on at UAB. The hiring of Trent Dilfer from the high school ranks a couple of years ago puzzled many. They moved on from Dilfer after a 2-4 start to the 2025 campaign and gave Alex Mortensen, son of the late ESPN reporter Chris, the interim job. Mortensen's Blazers upset Memphis in his first game at the helm, but would lose the next four games. In their last two losses, they gave up 53 and 48 points ... at home ... to North Texas and South Florida, respectively.

That was good enough to give Mortensen the permanent position. He has an interesting resume, with coaching stops at D-II (New Mexico Highlands), AAF (Birmingham Iron), SEC (Alabama) and NFL (St. Louis Rams).  You'd think an open job in the American Conference would be attractive enough to lure in a more experienced coach, but UAB does things a little differently. 

This is a puzzling hire. Tulane is coming off an American championship and an appearance in the College Football Playoff -- a season so successful that Florida came to hire away their head coach. So giving the program to Will Hall is strange.

Hall brings ... continuity? He was the passing game coordinator for the Green Wave for just one season before getting this promotion. In the previous four years, he was going 14-30 as head coach of Southern Miss. Ugh. Over a decade ago, he was outstanding in D-II with West Alabama and West Georgia, but that Southern Miss run really sticks out. Tulane seems to be a desirable job for coaches who want to use it as the final step before getting a power conference job, but Tulane opted to stay in-house.