Maybe it was the pandemic and general weirdness of the 2020 college football season as it was a pretty quiet off-season for new coaches across America. A lack of money for many programs across the country also played a major factor in the lack of coaching changes. Not everyone decided to save money, though.

Here are the new Power 5 college football head coaches for 2021:

Texas
Steve Sarkisian
Experience: Washington (34-29) & USC (12-6)

The positive outlook here would be Sark got a raw deal at both previous head coaching stops, has now cleaned up his personal life, and has proven himself to be an elite coordinator again. In a way, it’s a feel-good story coming off the disappointment of the Tom Herman era. Negative outlook, Texas paid nearly $16 million to fire the previous staff for a pretty underwhelming hire.

Grade: B-

Sarkisian has a high ceiling if he can get the Horns offense humming but doesn’t feel all that much different than Herman in that regard, plus they may find themselves in the SEC soon! So, best of luck.

Kansas
Lance Leipold
Experience: Wisconsin-Whitewater (109-6) & Buffalo (37-33)

Shades of Turner Gill, oh no! However, Gill’s best run at UB came in 2007-08 (13-13 overall, 10-6 in the MAC) and in hindsight he was not that impressive. In contrast, Leipold is coming off a 24-10 overall/17-4 MAC run with the Bulls over the last 3 seasons and was quietly one of the more out-of-the-box ready coaches for a lower Power 5 job.

Grade: A

Maybe Kansas wants someone younger (Leipold is 57) to inject some life into the program. Yet, if Leipold builds modest success he’s probably likely to stick around for a while and see things through.

Illinois
Bret Bielema
Experience: Wisconsin (68-24) & Arkansas (29-34)

That face is back! After making the decision to leave Wisconsin over issues of pay for assistants and voluntarily sign up for Arkansas, things in the SEC didn’t go so well for Bert. Three years removed following some NFL assistant gigs the big guy is back in the Big Ten.

Grade: C+

If you believe Wisconsin kind of runs itself Bielema isn’t a very inspired hire. Then again, what else is Illinois supposed to do these days?

Arizona
Jedd Fisch
Experience: N/A

Fisch did take over at UCLA for 2 games following the firing of Jim Mora, Jr. but has never been a head coach at any level nor did he play college football. He comes directly from the NFL where he’s spent the last 3 seasons.

Grade: D

Going from Mike Stoops to Rich Rodriguez to Kevin Sumlin to Fisch, who I honestly couldn’t pick out of a lineup, has to be humbling for Arizona. Not that it can’t work out but there’s no way this deserves a solid grade.

Auburn
Bryan Harsin
Experience: Arkansas State (7-5) & Boise State (69-19)

After paying a $21.45 million buyout to fire Gus Malzahn the Tigers went out west and grabbed Harsin who’d spent the previous 7 seasons at his alma mater. He was successful with Boise (unbeaten in his final 13 conference games and won 27 out of his last 29) but struggled somewhat outside the Mountain West bubble.

Grade: B

It’s easy to forget Malzahn’s lack of head coaching experience prior to coming to Auburn. Harsin is at least a step up in the experience department. During an off-season with few rising star coaches, Harsin was a decent pick up even if it feels like a bit of an awkward fit.

South Carolina
Shane Beamer
Experience: NA

Some may argue anyone besides Will Muschamp is an instant upgrade. Following 5 seasons in Columbia, and losses in 16 out of his final 25 games, the Gamecocks pulled the trigger on a replacement. Beamer, the son of former Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer, comes over from Oklahoma where he was an assistant for the Sooners since 2018.

Grade: C+

Beamer has no head coaching or coordinator experience so this is an admitted flyer for South Carolina. Beamer has spent time with the Gamecocks in the past and they’re hoping his recruiting chops (he was formerly the school’s recruiting coordinator) give the team a boost for the future.

Tennessee
Josh Heupel
Experience: UCF (28-8)

Heupel took the UCF job from Scott Frost after being the offensive coordinator at Missouri for 2 seasons. He proceeded to go backwards as the program went from undefeated in Frost’s last year to 12-1, 10-3, and 6-4. For his efforts, Heupel was given a SEC job.

Grade: B

The Vols don’t have much pull these days, none of Kiffin, Dooley, Jones, or Pruitt could put together a season with fewer than 4 losses and they haven’t finished in the top 20 as a program since 2007. Perhaps the thinking is that you can’t knock Heupel too much for the weird Covid year, most of his losses at UCF were super close, and you’re banking on his offensive chops improving the program.

Vanderbilt
Clark Lea
Experience: N/A

Our former defensive coordinator begins his head coaching journey in the SEC. His tenure began by removing the player numbers from jerseys (while keeping their names) because they need to earn them. Well, okay. People forget this is a fairly quick rise for Lea who back in 2016 was the unknown linebackers coach at Wake Forest.

Grade: B

Hiring a former player from your university who was one of the most well-respected coordinators has to be considered a good hire, especially at Vanderbilt. We’ll see how much of a ceiling Lea will have working in the cutthroat SEC. Hopefully he does well and isn’t too weird (put the numbers on the jerseys, Clark!).