Ranking the new college football coaching hires for 2023

This is a great hire for Nebraska. The Cornhuskers program has been teetering for two decades and has been nearly irrelevant since joining the Big Ten in 2011. They are coming off their 6th straight losing season (7th in 8 years) and are light years away from their heyday of the 1990s. Rhule has resurrected programs at Temple and Baylor, so the hope is he can do the same in Lincoln. He is an enthusiastic guy who is willing to sell his program -- but remember that his first season at both places were rebuilding years (2-10 at Temple; 1-11 at Baylor) before the program took off. Also, he's not known to stick around for long ... but that may not be an issue at Nebraska, where he could build the Huskers back to a last job kind of program, and his shine from the NFL may be gone after his poor showing with the Carolina Panthers. 

You could argue that Wisconsin has been the third-best Big Ten program over the last 15 to 20 years, though there has seemed to be a ceiling on its success. Luke Fickell broke that ceiling at Cincinnati, becoming the only Group of 5 school to reach the College Football Playoff. Fickell is known for his physical style of running the football and tough defenses, and that will play very well in Madison. He is an excellent recruiter and great at developing talent, which has been missing at Wisconsin. A great hire.

Coach Prime is undoubtedly the splashiest hire of this cycle, and the one most people will keep a close eye on. Sure, Sanders brings the flash and confidence that he exhibited during his college career at Florida State and during his Hall of Fame NFL career. That is much needed at a Colorado program that has struggled to find an identity since the 1990s and especially since the Buffaloes joined the Pac-12. Coach Prime gives them that identity. He also brings success, which is what he had at Jackson State. He went 27-5 over three seasons with the Tigers and won two SWAC championships. 

Auburn hiring Freeze could be a disaster or one of the most brilliant moves in quite a while. Auburn is known for being a tough place to coach, with expectations high and your rival down the road constantly winning -- and outside interference possibly calling the shots. Hugh Freeze was winning games at Ole Miss before scandal brought him down, and he was forced to rehabilitate his career at Liberty. The Freeze hire was met with both disgust from some of the fan base and praise from the other side. If Freeze wins ... and wins a lot ... while keeping a clean program, then the entire base should be pleased. 

It is a rare occurrence when a team watches its coach leave for another job yet sees his replacement as a major upgrade, so what happened in Louisville during early December seems like a huge win. Kenny Satterfield, who was doing well with the Cardinals, wasn't very popular with the fanbase and was teetering on the hot seat for the last two years. He left for the Cincinnati job which allowed Louisville to go after their top choice once again. This time, Jeff Brohm wouldn't turn the Cardinals down. Just like with their men's basketball program, Louisville decided to hire a former Cardinals player to head up their football program. Brohm threw for over 5,400 yards and 38 TDs during his Cards career, which spanned the late 1980s and early 1990s. But it is more about what he did as the head coach of Purdue that makes fans giddy -- he employs a passing attack that will play better in the ACC than in the more traditionally physical Big Ten. 

Liberty is ditching independence and entering Conference USA next season, so hiring Jamey Chadwell from Coastal Carolina is a huge win for the Flames. He will also be able to continue the success that Hugh Freeze brought to Lynchburg since we've seen him do it in Conway, South Carolina. Coastal Carolina went 31-6 over the past three seasons with three bowl appearances, and his coaching career has been spent in the mid-Atlantic/southeast area, so he will be able to recruit well at Liberty. He's also an extremely likable guy which will endear him to the fan base that may not have fully embraced Freeze. 

Florida Atlantic sure has quite a history with head coaches since forming a program in 2001. Howard Schnellenberger, Lane Kiffin and Willie Taggart all came to the Owls after previously running high-profile jobs (Miami, USC, Florida State, respectively). Tom Herman is in that boat after being fired by Texas after the 2021 season. FAU tasted success with two 11-win seasons under Kiffin, but the Taggart era was a dud. Herman's sudden rise up the coaching ranks hit a wall in Texas where he couldn't get the Longhorns "back" to prominence. Florida Atlantic is moving to the AAC, where Herman coached Houston in 2015-2016. He's a great hire for the Owls.

Geoff Collins was a disaster over nearly four seasons in Atlanta, which forced Brent Key into an interim role. Key did a really nice job over his 8 game stretch that instead of attempting a wide coaching search, the school offered him the full-time gig. Key went 4-4 over the final eight games of the season, with wins over North Carolina and Pittsburgh. Sure, they lost some head-scratchers as well (Virginia?), but Key's Yellow Jackets fought much harder and played to their potential more than Collins ever did. He was a guard for the Jackets in the late 1990s and spent time as an assistant at Alabama from 2016-2018. Key understands what comes with Georgia Tech's program and has a clear vision of what he wants this program to look like.

Wilson is known for working with quarterbacks, with the most notable being Sam Bradford and Justin Fields. He was the architect of Ohio State's offense over the last six years and coached two Heisman trophy winners during his stay at Oklahoma (Bradford and Jason White). At Ohio State, he developed Dwayne Haskins, Fields, and C.J. Stroud. Wilson is instantly respected in the state and will immediately get the Golden Hurricane's offense back on track. 

Newberry was promoted from Navy's defensive coordinator to the head coach job after the service academy dismissed Ken Niumatalolo, who ran the program for 15 years. Newberry was brought on in 2019 and he instantly turned one of the nation's worst defenses into one of the best in the AAC. It will be interesting to see if he decides to change the offense from a triple-option to a more updated scheme. 

Kent State wanted a coach who has ties to the Midwest (Burns was P.J. Fleck's assistant at Western Michigan and Minnesota), one who is familiar with the MAC (as mentioned, he worked at Western Michigan) and someone who understood the challenges of coaching at a non-power. Burns played at Indiana and before joining Fleck's staff had coached at Wyoming, South Dakota State and Southern Illinois. But can he coach? He specialized as the Gophers' running backs coach and Minnesota was one of the better rushing teams in the Big Ten and he's one of the most prepared coaches you can find. This is a solid hire for a program that wasn't expecting to need a new head coach.

Kinne is yet another young head coach (34) who has quickly risen up the coaching ranks. He spent time bouncing around jobs for just one season each -- SMU, Arkansas, Philadelphia Eagles, Hawaii, and UCF before becoming the head coach at Incarnate Word last year. He took the Cardinals to an 11-1 record behind a national-best 53 points per game, as such a high riser who hasn't really put roots down anywhere, who knows how long Kinne will stay if he finds success with the Bobcats. 

Dillingham is a local guy who was born in Phoenix, went to high school in Scottsdale, and attended Arizona State University. He's been around the block -- offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Memphis, Auburn, Florida State, and Oregon before being hired by the Sun Devils. At only 32 years old, there are some concerns about if he's able to helm a program at this level, though others like the fact that he runs a modern, dynamic offense and understands how NIL can help build a program via recruiting and the transfer portal. This clearly is a departure from their last coaching hires like Dennis Erickson and Herm Edwards.

This is a very interesting hire. For one, it follows trends of going young (Walter is 36 years old) and hiring a defensive-minded coach. That second point is very interesting since Purdue is known for their high-flying passing attacks, and this hire isn't what they normally do. Walters isn't just a defensive coach, but one who keeps things close to the vest and plans on being the guy making all the defensive calls. So what will that mean for the Boilermakers' offense? Well, Walters is saying all the right things -- he used words like "explosive" and "creative" to describe how the offense will continue to run. 

Golesh has gained attention for orchestrating Tennessee's offense this season, and it netted him the South Florida head coaching gig. In his three seasons as Josh Heupel's offensive coordinator (one season at UCF; two at Tennessee), he has overseen electric offenses that have given fits to defenses. While the talent at South Florida won't be what he had in Knoxville or Orlando, USF is still capable of getting guys who can play in Golesh's offenses. He is a stand-up coach who has an outstanding work ethic and demands the same of everyone around him. This has the be the potential to be a home-run hire.

One thing is for certain: Western Michigan is going to run the football. Taylor is known as a strong recruiter and a very good running backs coach. He coached Christian McCaffery and Bryce Love at Stanford and Kyren Williams at Notre Dame. In addition to Stanford and Notre Dame, Taylor began his coaching career under Nick Saban at Alabama (where Dabo Swinney was his position coach) and Appalachian State, and he spent time in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers under Ron Rivera and the New York Jets. Last year he was the offensive coordinator at Louisville, where he guided the Cardinals to the ACC's third-best rushing attack. Western Michigan is one of the better jobs in the MAC where Taylor can have success.

Who knew that Incarnate Word was the hotbed for developing head coaches? Texas State hired G.J. Kinne from Incarnate Word, while North Texas hired the guy he replaced. Morris led the Cardinals to a 10-3 record in 2021 before leaving to become the offensive coordinator at Washington State. He will be tasked with moving the Mean Green to the American Athletic Conference next year and living up to his reputation as a quarterback guru. Morris played receiver at Texas Tech for the late Mike Leach. 

Coastal Carolina waves goodbye to a wildly successful head coach and now hopes they've hired someone who can keep it going. Tim Beck has been around and spent his last three seasons as NC State's offensive coordinator and QBs coach. He seems to really be able to get the most out of his signal callers, even if his offenses weren't the most popular in Raleigh. It will be interesting to see how much time Coastal Carolina will give Beck, a first-time head coach if he does pick up where Jamey Chadwell left off.

This is one of the most interesting job changes of the offseason. Cincinnati lost its all-time winningest coach, Luke Fickell, to Wisconsin and then replaced him with Scott Satterfield, a guy Louisville fans weren't really sad to see go. Satterfield oversaw Appalachian State's transition from FCS power to an FBS program and had the Mountaineers winning 10 or more games in three of his final four seasons there. He moved on to Louisville where it just ... well ... just didn't work. He went 25-24 with the Cardinals and was on the hot seat before Cincinnati hired him away. Satterfield is a good hire due to his experience in transitions (Cincinnati will jump to the Big 12 next year), his experience as a Power 5 head coach, his experience in the area, and his experience in general. Of course, he's taking over a program that reached unthinkable heights in 2021, and there is no way to think Satterfield will be able to replicate that success in the Big 12 ... even if the fans expect it. 

Taylor has only been a college head coach for three seasons before taking the Stanford job, but he's been around the block and knows the area. He's been a high school head coach in Orangevale, Sacramento and Folsom, was an assistant coach at Cal-Berkeley, and just led Sacramento State to an undefeated regular season before losing in the FCS playoffs. His specialty is offense, where his teams have typically led their leagues in yards and scoring (Sac State's playoff loss was 66-63 to Incarnate Word). Stanford has run a pro-style offense for years so Taylor will be tasked with overhauling the Cardinal offense without the ability to navigate the transfer portal as other schools can.  

The sudden passing of Mike Leach on December 12th stunned the college football world. The reality of the situation for Mississippi State is that they had to replace their head coach and are doing so with defensive coordinator Zach Arnett. Arnett was key to the Bulldogs' success, as Leach's offenses had an equally powerful defense balancing out the roster. Arnett had been sought after for other defensive coordinator jobs but stuck with Leach and Mississippi State, and the way he's been a leader for the players during this difficult time has been extremely impressive. Having said that, this is a SEC program that is hiring a coordinator who is making his coaching debut -- that is a big ask with names like Saban, Kelly, Kiffin, Fisher and Freeze in the same division. 

Barry Odom went 25-25 in four years as head coach at Missouri, his alma mater, and has spent the last three years as Arkansas' defensive coordinator. Odom brings to UNLV an experienced FBS head coach, something they haven't had in Vegas since John Robinson roamed the sidelines in the early 2000s. Odom has spent his football career in the same part of the country -- he played at Missouri, and coached at Missouri, Arkansas and Memphis -- so it will be interesting to see how he fares out in Las Vegas. Reports are that the Rebels made Odom the highest-paid coach in the Mountain West.

Now we are reaching the riskiest hires on our list. Trent Dilfer was certainly a surprise hire -- his coaching experience is a four-year stint at Lipscomb Academy, a prep high school. Lipscomb did win Tennessee's Division II Class AA title for the last two years, but jumping from a prep high school to an FBS job is quite a move. Dilfer obviously played at the highest level of football (winning Super Bowl XXXV), and his time at ESPN allowed him the ability to break down film as well as being media savvy. But coaching comes down to coaching. It will be interesting to see how he handles all that comes with being a Division I head coach.

Poggi is a very interesting hire for a school that just finished its 10th season as a program. Even Poggi said at his introductory press conference that his hiring was "a little bit outside the box." Poggi was Jim Harbaugh's right-hand man at Michigan and is known as a motivator and who is great with player relationships. His path to Charlotte isn't typical. Prior to his three years at Michigan, he was a hedge fund manager and a high school football coach in Baltimore, where he led the Gilman School to 13 Maryland state titles. He also helped start football at Saint Frances Academy, which was featured on HBO's "The Cost of Winning." Charlotte is a program that was started from scratch, reached one bowl game during its decade run, and will now be entering the AAC next season. Thinking outside the box may be the answer in the Queen City.