Ranking all the new FBS head coaches for the 2026 season

Yes, it was a messy circus that got Lane Kiffin out of Ole Miss and into LSU, but this was a massive hire for LSU, and they hope it is one that gets them back to competing for national championships. To move off a guy like Brian Kelly and nail down Kiffin is a big deal. While Kelly seemed out of place in Baton Rouge, Kiffin is an SEC guy (this will be the third SEC program he's run, and he was also Nick Saban's OC at Alabama). His moxy and confidence fit well at a program that thinks of itself as one of the elite in the sport. Now Kiffin needs to deliver. 

This was also a weird hiring story, as Penn State fired James Franklin mid-season to get a jump on hiring a big-name coach to replace him. They missed out on guys like Indiana's Curt Cignetti and Nebraska's Matt Rhule, while also seeing the name Urban Meyer pop up. It wasn't smooth, and people were starting to doubt if Penn State was still a great job.

After all that, hiring Matt Campbell was a fantastic move. Campbell turned Iowa State into a problem in the Big 12 and became a popular name whenever a big-time job opened up. He presided over arguably the most successful era at Iowa State. He is from eastern Ohio, played at Pitt and Mount Union, and was a coach at Bowling Green and Toledo before getting the Cyclones job in 2016. Franklin didn't run a bad program at Penn State -- he just couldn't win important games. Campbell comes into a nice situation. 

Maybe Billy Napier is meant to run highly successful Group of 6 programs. After a great run as head coach of the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns (40-12, three 10-win seasons, 22-1 record in 2021) he left for Florida and struggled. His Gators went 22-23 in Gainesville before getting fired mid-season.

When Bob Chesney left James Madison to take the UCLA job, Napier slid back into a great Sun Belt program. James Madison is the defending Sun Belt champion and reached the College Football Playoff, and it has a great recent history of successful teams and successful coaches. If Napier could tap back into that mindset and keep the Dukes' train rolling along, maybe they can get back to the playoff. 

James Franklin is a great hire for the Virginia Tech 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 did a good job at Penn State, just not a great job.

Virginia Tech can work with that after really struggling to define the post-Beamer era. Franklin knows the mid-Atlantic area well — he was born and raised in Pennsylvania, was the head coach at Penn State and 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). The pressure calms down in Blacksburg, and that may make it a more comfortable fit. 

Considering the Wolverines had a job opening so late in the cycle (and with turmoil surrounding the program), bringing in Kyle Whittingham was a steal. Whittingham is Utah's all-time winningest head coach, known for physical play on both sides of the ball. He will have this program focused on the main thing, after years of scandals and the end of the Sherrone Moore era.

There have been questions about Whittingham's battery. It was his decision to step down as head coach of Utah just weeks before accepting the Michigan job. Whittingham isn't a "Michigan Man", which may give him a short runway for success. Will this new setting recharge his battery? 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. Michigan is an 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. If he's refreshed for this challenge, I have no doubt he will do a fine job. 

We mentioned Billy Napier's trajectory earlier, so it is really interesting to see Florida go to the same well again. Jon Sumrall, like Napier, exploded as a hot coaching candidate for taking a ho-hum program and putting it on the national scene. 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.

Florida clearly wanted Lane Kiffin, though they could land him, then didn't. They pivoted to Sumrall, who is a really good hire in a vacuum, but it might concern fans who are reeling from Napier's time with the Gators. I'm sure seeing another head coach who had sudden success at a Group of 6 school in Louisiana come their way is met with skepticism. 

Charles Huff has been moving a lot of late. After spending four years at Marshall (where he won a Sun Belt championship in his final season), he left to take over a woeful Southern Miss program that finished 1-11. In his lone season in Hattiesburg, he took the Golden Eagles to a 7-5 mark ... a huge improvement that brought a lot of eyes on Huff.

Memphis ended up hiring him away from Southern Miss and hopes he can build on the success that Ryan Silverfield leaves behind as he trots off across the river to Arkansas. Huff isn't just a young coach who found lightning in a bottle. Before he became a head coach, he has worked for Nick Saban at Alabama, James Franklin at Penn State as Saquon Barkley's running backs coach, as well as several other places, including the NFL. Memphis is built to win American Conference championships and views Huff as the man who can take them over the top. The one drawback of hiring Huff is that he doesn't stay in one place for very long. If Memphis has a big year, expect the power schools to come looking for Huff. 

UCLA wants to be the next Indiana, and their first step in doing so is hiring their head coach away from James Madison. The Bruins hired the Dukes' Bob Chesney, who has continued to build upon the success of Curt Cignetti and the Sun Belt champion James Madison program and has led them to the College Football Playoff.  Chesney has paid his dues 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. Then he took James Madison to the College Football Playoff.

One concern is that 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. comes with a learning curve. UCLA has finished 12th in both of 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 while building new connections. Chesney has shown an ability to develop players and programs, so if he can recruit well enough in California, then he will be fine. 

Here is a hire that kind of surprised me. I really love this hire for Colorado State -- it's that Mora would take this job that caught me off guard. 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's program has been on the skids for the better part of a decade. The Rams have had one winning season over the last eight years and were an awful 2-10 last season. Mora has the ability to turn this around and be a factor in the Pac-12.

No other coach on this list has entered their new job like Pete Golding. Lane Kiffin was being openly wooed for other jobs as Ole Miss was wrapping up a College Football Playoff berth, and when he left, it began a weird sequence during one of the most important moments in the program's history. Golding navigated it well, advancing all the way to the national semifinals before losing a close game to Miami.

Now we are here. Golding was named Kiffin's successor even before he won those playoff games, and no open search was made. Assistant coaches who take over in a pinch like this typically don't last long even if there is an "interim bump" in the first few games. That isn't to say that Golding cannot keep the Rebels at a playoff level -- Ole Miss welcomes back a slew of starters, including QB Trinidad Chambliss. This list isn't just about who they hired but the circumstances surrounding the hiring. You can make the argument that if Ole Miss wasn't preparing for the CFP, they wouldn't have hired Golding. The reality is they did, and he started with a bang. Now it is his program, and we shall see if he can keep up with the lofty expectations. I'm rooting for him to do so. 

Oklahoma State ended the lengthy 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 brings an impressive resume to Stillwater. He played and coached at Texas Tech, coached at Houston, and coached at Washington State while also being 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 use to resurrect a stale Cowboys program in the very near future. 

While there are some that aren't into it, I really like this hire. Sure, Fitzgerald's time at Northwestern came to an end due to a hazing scandal, and 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.

Fitzgerald is a Big Ten guy, having played and coached at Northwestern. He has obvious ties to the Chicagoland era, and his recruiting net widens due to less restrictive admissions standards and better resources. There is concern not only from the hazing scandal, but also from how poorly the Wildcats played over his last few years there (3-9 in 2021 and 1-11 in 2022). The 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 game last season as the program has dealt with the fallout of the Tucker regime. If Fitzgerald shows growth, this will be a fantastic hire for Sparty. 

After years of seeing 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 to get to this point. 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 was a player, an assistant, and a head coach, gives him the knowledge of recruiting and navigating the upper Midwest and plains.  The only issue for pause is that 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?

South Florida certainly has a type, as they have had an interesting list of head coaches in its history, and Brian Hartline is the latest. After watching offensive-minded Alex Golesh leave for Auburn, USF feels it has landed the next "it" guy to lead its program. Golesh resurrected the Bulls from the awful Jeff Scott years and got them back to respectability in the American Conference. Hartline is expected to keep building on that.

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. He is an outstanding recruiter and has been a key force in developing one of the greatest stretches of top receivers in years.  

Alex Golesh had a really good season at South Florida last year -- opening the season by beating Boise State and Florida -- but he was only 23-15 in his three years with the Bulls. His strengths are his ability to communicate in recruiting and his people skills when dealing with all the moving parts of the NIL era. He's hands-on with his program, which should endear him at a place like Auburn. He's also going to pump up the offensive production with the Tigers. His Bulls averaged 43 ppg last season, and he's coached under offensive minds like Matt Campbell at Iowa State and Josh Heupel at UCF and Tennessee. Ultimately, winning and winning consistently is paramount at Auburn, and if Golesh can recruit the talent to come there, he could get the Tigers turned around. 

Getting a guy like Jason Candle is a sneaky good move by UConn. Candle was a model of consistency during his time at Toledo. He stuck with the Rockets 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 exactly that -- consistency in the program. 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.  

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 hopefully means continued success in northwest Ohio. 

Mike Jacobs has paid his dues and 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 is one of the most consistently good Group of 6 programs out there -- their last losing record was back in 2009. This is a great job for Jacobs to get his feet wet in the FBS ranks.

Neil Brown is the latest example of a head coach getting hot with a Group of 6 program, then moving on to a power-conference program and struggling to get it off the ground. 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.

North Texas nearly found itself in the College Football Playoff this season, and because of that, Oklahoma State hired away their coach. 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 seasons as a defensive line coach in the NFL with the Browns, Falcons and Jags before coming back to college with Dan Lanning and Oregon in 2022.

He is a defensive guy, which is what fired head coach Justin Wilcox was trying to get going at Cal. Lupoi obviously knows the area well, including how to recruit there, and believes he can sell that they have an opportunity to compete in the always wild ACC. He's done a great job in his first off-season, especially convincing QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele to stay at Cal (something Wilcox was unable to do with Fernando Mendoza).

Kirby Moore certainly has the upbringing and the local flair to do this job. He 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 program needs stability in the worst way and is hoping that 2026 is the season where it all starts to come together. Former head coach Nick Rolovich was fired during the pandemic; his replacement, Jake Dickert, left for Wake Forest after three seasons; and now Jimmy Rogers lasted just one year before leaving for Iowa State. During that time, the Cougars have watched the Pac-12 shatter into twelve pieces, and their program lose its power-conference status. They, along with Oregon State, 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. 

This a very solid hire for Kentucky. Will Stein is a Kentucky guy, born and bred in Louisville, but learned how to coach in Texas -- both at the high school and college levels. His time at Oregon working with quarterbacks is where he really made a name for himself. 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 brings hope to a fanbase that grew kind of bored with the Stoops regime.

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 this year), but you will see it in the effort and the preparation. That will set a new culture in Lexington that hopefully lifts the Wildcats to being actual contenders in the SEC. 

Morgan Scalley has been training for the moment Kyle Whittingham retired from the Utah football program, which finally happened after last season. 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. He seems to be an extension of Whittingham in every way.

However, 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. 

Like Morgan Scalley, Collin Klein was training to be the next head coach of Kansas State. K-State is a unique place for college football: Bill Snyder built a solid program that he oversaw for 27 years. Then 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. 

Unlike Scalley, Klein left for a couple of years, which has given him different perspectives on how a program is run. It will be interesting to see how he integrates what he learned from Elko into the Wildcats program. 

When Arkansas hired Ryan Silverfield away from Memphis, Tigers fans weren't exactly sad to see him leave. 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 previous head coaches Justin Fuente or Mike Norvell. Even the AD gave a jab at Silverfield by saying, "We lost some meaningful games, and he moved on.”

Those two former coaches' names should also cause pause for Razorbacks fans as they were the last two Memphis head coaches to make the jump to a power program. Fuente was fired at Virginia Tech last season, and Norvell has had some of the worst seasons in Florida State history. Neither of those coaches entered the SEC as Silverfield is doing, and neither took over a program that has sunk as Arkansas has.

On the plus side is that Silverfield certainly 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. 

A recurring theme in this coaching cycle was Stanford's choice of familiarity in hiring its new head coach. Tavita Pritchard was the Cardinal's quarterback just before the Andrew Luck (who is now Stanford's GM) era began. Pritchard played for Jim Harbaugh during one of the best runs in program history, and he's a popular name to the fanbase. 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 was an assistant at Southern Miss last year and was an assistant under Larry Fedora for four seasons before following Fedora to North Carolina. He brings extensive experience as a head coach in the Group of 6 ranks. He had a successful run at Arkansas State, going 51-37 over seven seasons in Jonesboro; he had a fantastic debut season at  Utah State in 2021 before tailing off. Two 6-7 seasons and a scandal led to his firing before the 2024 season.

He's been successful at this level, winning three conference championships in ten years. 

Casey Woods is a nice hire by Missouri State. He was a receiver at Tennessee during the final years of the Phillip Fulmer era before becoming a grad assistant under Fulmer in 2008. Since then, Woods has served a lot of different roles at other stops. He has been a wide receivers coach, a recruiting coordinator, a director of player personnel, a run game coordinator, a 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, which 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 Group of 6 program in that region. His time in potent offensive systems should make the Bears a lively program going forward. 

Oregon State is trying to reinvent itself. The Beavers made the rare demotion from a power program down to a G6 one, and they really struggled on the field. Meanwhile, their rival is now in the powerful Big 12 and has immense resources to dominate recruiting in the Pacific Northwest. The new-look Pac-12 is welcoming in Mountain West and Sun Belt schools to fill the league, and some are just better than they are.

JaMarcus Shephard is the coach willing to take a chance on taking over this program 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 jobs 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 Alabama, so he knows what it looks like to run a program. 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 a 19-16 mark and the transition from FCS to FBS this past season (7-5).  The good news for Coastal fans is that Beard is bringing many coaches and players with him from Missouri State.

Coastal Carolina has done a good job since its inception in 2003. It is near Myrtle Beach, and the program has won 64% of its games. Jamey Chadwell had the Chanticleers at an extremely high level, but 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 firing of Sherrone Moore at Michigan captured national attention, but Michigan wasn't the only school to undergo 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 and on a permanent basis. He has been with the program for four seasons, working his way up from safeties coach to defensive coordinator 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.  

UAB has been a strange program of late. 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. Yet that was apparently 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 Conference championship and an appearance in the College Football Playoff -- a season so successful that Florida came along to hire away their head coach. So giving the program to Will Hall seems like a missed opportunity. Nothing against Hall, but one would think this would be an attractive job that deserves a coaching search. 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. Over a decade ago, he did an outstanding job in D-II with West Alabama and West Georgia, but that Southern Miss run really sticks out. 

I usually rank interim coaches who take over their programs late in the coaching cycle low on these lists. I'm sure Rob Harley is a fine coach (he's made the rounds as an assistant at D-II Ohio Dominican, Michigan State, FIU, Pitt and Arkansas State before coming to Northern Illinois, but he has no head coaching experience and takes over for Thomas Hammock, who left to be the running backs coach for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks.

Hammock's Huskies went an awful 3-9 last season and just 35-47 in his seven seasons with NIU. This was a program that won four MAC titles in the eight years before he got there. So Harley now inherits a team that not only has been bad but is now leaving the MAC for the Mountain West. One bright spot is hiring Tony Petersen, who ran Illinois State's elite offense last season, as an OC.