Thanks to one coach who will get to in short order, there’s been a lot of focus in the news with the ACC this off-season. With a couple schools going through a transition period, and surely a couple more not far away from making that decision on a new coach, today’s article might prove the ACC is quietly doing a pretty good job after a surprising 2024 season. Previous articles:

Big 12
Big 10

New Coaches

Bill Belichick – North Carolina
Frank Reich – Stanford
Jake Dickert – Wake Forest

Yes, the off-field issues with Belichick’s relationship with his girlfriend and her apparent meddling with North Carolina business is highly concerning. All that aside, I’m not convinced Belichick will stick around UNC or college football longer than one season. Maybe two seasons at the absolute max. His buyout drops to a paltry $1 million next month and odds have to be pretty damn high that some NFL team throws him a Hail Mary deal or the Tar Heels administration gets tired of the drama and moves on. His deal was for 5 years at $10 million per year with only the first 3 seasons guaranteed. North Carolina football has a history of teasing success only to be let down in massive fashion–this feels like a terrible mix with Belichick at his age and, ahem, attention.

Frank Reich is supposed to be an interim head coach at Stanford and is making substantial buyout money from the Colts and Panthers from the NFL so he’s sitting pretty either way this situations turns out. This means the Cardinal are potentially as little as 6 months away from hiring a new program leader. I only see downside with this plan, at least for the next 2-3 seasons. It’ll be tough for current players and recruits to buy in to the future and what happens if Reich actually impresses in 2025?

No more Clawson absolutely losing it on the sidelines. 

Dave Clawson resigning in mid-December only to stay at Wake Forest as an advisor was one of those really weird stories from 2024 that flew under the radar. He was becoming an institution at the school and if he was resigning I’m really surprised the school didn’t turn to someone from within Clawson’s circle as his successor. Instead, they reached all the way across the country to Jake Dickert who turns 42 this summer, had been Washington State’s defensive coordinator, moved into their interim head coach following the Nick Rolovich COVID-19 drama, and was the full-time head coach since 2022. A quick note that Dickert has a defensive background which could be a big change from Wake Forest under Clawson. Terms of his deal were not disclosed but he’s reported to be making over $3 million and more than his previous job with the Cougars.

Hanging Around

Justin Wilcox – California
Brent Key – Georgia Tech
Dave Doeren – NC State
Pat Narduzzi – Pittsburgh

I’ve been putting Justin Wilcox on the hot seat for years and he continues to survive in Berkeley. He has been the very definition of hanging around at the FBS level. This past season, as Cal made their transition to the ACC, it became Wilcox’s 5th straight season under .500 leading this program and they were tied for the 3rd worse record in league play. Amazingly, he signed a contract extension in 2022 that runs through 2027. However, his salary is pretty low for the Power 4 level and after this upcoming season his buyout should be under $10 million, should California decide to go down that route.

This shouldn’t be the spot for Brent Key but I didn’t have another section that fits him better. He’s definitely brought Georgia Tech to life even if his overall record (18-16, 14-9 in the ACC) doesn’t scream that. They nearly beat Syracuse and Georgia last year, plus they did topple Miami. Once a crumbling football program, they are a much bigger problem now. He just signed a new 5-year deal back in December that runs through 2029 and Key should be in Atlanta for a good long while.

Dave Doeren has the 2nd longest tenure in the ACC right now–he’ll be entering year 13 with the Wolfpack this season. I get the sense most NC State fans are fine with the way things are right now. Doeren has finished ranked 3 times and his 2020-2023 run with a 34-16 record moved the program up a couple notches in the national pecking order. Yet, a fall back to 6-7 last year has slowed progress. Doeren signed an extension just over a year ago that runs through 2029.

What NC State does to you. 

The Nard Dog is the 3rd longest serving head coach in the ACC right now. His first 6 seasons (41-34 overall record) were fine but not distinguishable. Then, going 20-7 over 2021-22 opened a few eyes only to see Pitt and Narduzzi slump back to 10-15 over the last 2 seasons. He hasn’t signed an extension in a while but the last one came off that brief run of success and runs through 2030.

Wheel Spinning

Bill O’Brien – Boston College

I wasn’t sure where to put O’Brien and I didn’t have anyone for this section, so he goes right here. He’s doing fine at BC so far. They seem perennially stuck at 6 or 7 wins like some sort of purgatory for the lowest tier bowl rights. He’s making $5 million per year, pretty standard stuff for a head coach in the ACC, and reportedly has a clause in his contract that prevents him leaving for the NFL. I’m not sure about that contract language but we may never find out anyway because O’Brien isn’t coveted like that anymore.

Poor Early Returns

Tony Elliott – Virginia
Brent Pry – Virginia Tech

I’m stretching the meaning early here but someone has to fill out these sections. Tony Elliott has been at Virginia for 3 seasons and despite a small step forward last year this is still a program that hasn’t finished over .500 in 6 years with Elliott going 0-7 against ranked teams during his time on campus. Unlike so many other coaches we’ve covered, Elliott has not signed an extension to date. A foreboding sign. He has 3 years remaining on his original contract and really needs to do something in 2025 to suggest he’s sticking around in Charlottesville.

Pretty decent odds the Virginia job is open soon. 

The situation to the west for Pry at Virginia Tech isn’t all that different. He’s 5 games under .500 through 3 seasons and had one of the more disappointing campaigns in 2024 with 7 losses, including defeats in 4 out of their last 5 games. Also like Elliott, there’s been no extension signed so far. With 3 years left on his original deal, the buyout drops to a very manageable $6.6 million after the conclusion of the 2025 season. There may be some jobs opening up in the Commonwealth next year.

The Headline Grabbers

Manny Diaz – Duke
Mike Norvell – Florida State
Mario Cristobal – Miami
Rhett Lashlee – SMU
Fran Brown – Syracuse

We’ve got a lot of ground to cover! I’m not sure many expected Manny Diaz to bounce back so quickly after a really mediocre tenure with Miami (21-15 overall) but a quick rehabilitation with Penn State as DC for a couple seasons ended up leading to the Duke job in the wake of Mike Elko’s departure. This brought him a very nice 9-4 season with the Blue Devils in 2024, matching the best record of the Elko era. Diaz is making “only” $4 million which is a great value so far for Duke–he was making almost as much as Penn State’s defensive coordinator.

Mike Norvell has been grabbing headlines for the past year and a half for all the wrong reasons. It’s been a wild ride in Tallahassee starting things off 8-13, turning things around to 23-4 and a 13-0 run in 2023, only to faceplant to a wretched 2-10 campaign last year. In February 2023, Norvell signed a contract extension through the 2031 season. After this past season, Florida State restructured his deal committing $4.5 million of his salary to a school fundraising program with less money each season coming out of his pocket for this initiative. His buyout is still estimated be north of $60 million–one of the biggest albatross’ in the sport.

Early November last year things were looking prime for Mario Cristobal. The Hurricanes had just moved to 9-0, they were ranked 4th nationally in the polls, and a playoff appearance seemed likely. They finished 1-3 and only 18th in the AP Poll with no wins against ranked opponents. Still, Cristobal has improved by 2 wins each and then 3 more wins in his first 3 seasons with Miami and 2024 definitely bought him plenty of time. He has that in terms of a contract with 7 years and $56 million remaining.

Lashlee’s rise isn’t exactly out of nowhere but it’s not that far off now that he’s squarely in the Power program public eye following a playoff appearance in SMU’s first season among the ACC. Following a decent 7-6 debut season in Dallas, Lashlee has put together back-to-back undefeated regular seasons in league play (first in the AAC and then the ACC) with an impressive overall 22-6 record since 2023 began. He’s only been a head coach for 3 years and is just 41 years old, too. Lashlee was making a rather paltry $2.4 million last year and while financials of a new extension signed 7 months ago aren’t available it is good for the next 6 seasons and should double his salary to a more appropriate ACC level.

Lashlee has the look of Florida’s next head coach IMO.

Fran Brown’s debut as a head coach in 2024 went way beyond expectations. Once upon a time, previous Orange coach Dino Babers had a 10-3 season like Brown just achieved, except Babers surrounded that with 53 more losses across 7 additional seasons. It’ll be difficult for Brown to avoid that mediocrity at a place like Syracuse but for now the vibes are excellent. His deal with Syracuse was believed to be for just 4 seasons and about $3.5 million per year–an extension could come this season if things go pretty well on the field.

The Proven Crew

Dabo Swinney – Clemson
Jeff Brohm – Louisville

While it appears Dabo Swinney may be past his peak (a run of 79-7 from 2015-2020 with 2 National Championships would be tough for anyone to replicate) his time at Clemson is far from over. The Tigers have fallen back to 40-14 over the last 4 years, plenty great at most schools, although they haven’t been too much of a threat nationally lately. Swinney is only 55 and his contract runs through 2031 at a hefty $11.1 million per year. That recently signed extension back in 2022 continues his Alabama clause which would force Swinney to pay 150% of his buyout to Clemson if he left for the Crimson Tide.

I hesitate to put Brohm in this category but I think he’s done just enough to make it okay. He finished 17-9 at Purdue and given the current state of that program his time there is looking better and better. Through a pair of seasons with Louisville he’s 19-8 and a very solid 12-4 in the ACC. The school signed him to an extension at the end of 2023 that takes his deal through 2029 and he’s making nearly $7 million per season. This is where he played in college and it might be a long-term situation where Brohm remains at Louisville for 10+ years or longer.