Last off-season was a quiet market for new head coaching candidates at the power program level with only 6 new jobs filled, and the focus largely spent on Bill Belichick’s sucking media attention away from everyone else. Heading into 2026 we have 16(!) new head coaches at power programs, which doesn’t include the resurrected Pac-12 which has lost its powers and does not carry an automatic bid to the College Football Playoff. If it did, you could add 3 more coaches to today’s list with Oregon State (JaMarcus Shephard via assistant at Alabama), Colorado State (Jim Mora via UConn), and Washington State (Kirby Moore via OC at Missouri) all welcoming new leaders.

Now, let’s grade the 4 big conference hires.

ACC

Tosh Lupoi – California
Career Record: 0-0
Grade: B+

I kind of love this hire for Cal after the milquetoast 9 years under Justin Wilcox that saw a ceiling of 8-5 back in 2019 and 6 seasons under .500 in total. Lupoi feels like he’s been an assistant with mega recruiting chops for a long time and maybe that head coaching gig just wasn’t going to ever come around. He gets his chance now, finally.

He’s back home.

Now 44 years old, he gets to return to his alma mater and where he first got his coaching career started. Sure, he didn’t leave on great terms back in 2012 when he fled to Washington. Maybe this will be a fun redemption arc, though? Maybe Lupoi’s talents for attracting skill in the NIL era is exactly what this program needs? The program continues to be a poor fit in the ACC and will provide long and short-term challenges, the bar is pretty low here. Still, Lupoi is already recruiting really well, 19th in the current Composite team rankings.

Tavita Pritchard – Stanford
Career Record: 0-0
Grade: D

This always felt like the move for Stanford–someone with ties to the school and a close relationship to GM Andrew Luck. I don’t think this moves the needle at all for a Cardinal program that has been drowning in the NIL era. They needed a swing at someone like Lupoi above, a coach who could fail quickly but offers an enticing higher ceiling. Stanford also being in the ACC makes this job so unappealing and the recent history on the field (24-53 since 2019) is going to be this a big dig out for anyone who is starting out their head coaching journey. Unlike California above, Stanford recruiting is in the dumps.

James Franklin – Virginia Tech
Career Record: 128-60
Grade: A-

This is a great hire for Virginia Tech but that says more about Virginia Tech as a football program in 2026 than it does James Franklin. Remember when Franklin was rumored to be going to USC, among other places? He’s like a poor man’s Brian Kelly, and instead of bolting to the bright lights of LSU, Franklin gets modest expectations with the Hokies and enough patience to go through a multi-year rebuild process.

Big 12

Jimmy Rogers – Iowa State
Career Record: 33-9
Grade: B+

The more I look into Rogers the more I like. This Iowa State team without Matt Campbell feels super weird but good on them for swinging on a younger coach again instead of trying for someone a little more proven or over the hill for stability sake.

Another curved brim coach!

Rogers took over an extremely strong South Dakota State program, led them to a repeat National Championship in 2024 out of an overall 27-3 record, and then (outside of two early ugly losses) had Washington State pretty scrappy in one season last year. Sure, he’s not proven and there will be plenty of questions about his lack of experience. I think he can get back to Campbell-type seasons eventually.

Collin Klein – Kansas State
Career Record: 0-0
Grade: B+

In February of 2023, Klein interviewed at Notre Dame for the vacant offensive coordinator position. He stayed at Kansas State, then fled to A&M for a couple seasons in that assistant role. With the surprise retirement of Chris Kleiman, it’s Klein who gets the call up to lead his alma mater K-State again at just 36 years old–that’s just a touch older than Marcus Freeman’s age when he took over at Notre Dame. Klein had done a pretty good job of maximizing resources for the Aggies and Wildcats over the last several years so this feels like the decision Kansas State had to make to bring him back home.

Eric Morris – Oklahoma State
Career Record: 46-34
Grade: B

Things got dark real quick in Stillwater after 2023. They finished 2024 with 9 straight losses and will head into this fall on an 11-game losing streak. This will be a fascinating situation for Morris who has gone through a pair of slow burns at Incarnate Word and North Texas where he did not start winning until several years into each tenure. But, the Cowboys brought in a million transfers, including the young quarterback Drew Mestemaker, and there’s enough clay to turn things around quickly, certainly within the Big 12 conference. Some skepticism that things have been too rotten at Okie State is warranted, as well as Morris stepping up to the major conference level.

Morgan Scalley – Utah
Career Record: 0-0
Grade: C

I’m sure Utah fans have rallied around Scalley who has been coach in waiting for approximately seventeen years and saw Kyle Whittingham scurry off to Michigan instead of retiring as a Ute. My grade here is based largely on the belief that Utah just isn’t going to stay in house and essentially strike gold again with a long-term solution. It’s that simple.

Big Ten

Kyle Whittingham – Michigan
Career Record: 177-88
Grade: C+

Perhaps Michigan will be fine on the national scene and Whittingham will bring an air of respectability to Ann Arbor–if that is humanely possible. Just like I don’t think his former home is going to keep the ball rolling, I refuse to believe this 66 year old fish out of water now working in the Midwest is going to be a difference maker. It’s a weird fit and a weird time in Whittingham’s career to be doing this. I bet he retires within 2-3 years.

Pat Fitzgerald – Michigan State
Career Record: 110-101
Grade: C

If this were 2017-18 and Fitzgerald was called upon to replace Mark Dantonio (who would retire after 2019) you could make the case the Spartans did a good job bringing in a proven Big Ten head coach. Almost a decade later though? Eh, this doesn’t look nearly as good. Fitzgerald left Northwestern amidst controversy, spent 3 seasons out of college football, and now Michigan State is in bad, bad shape as a program. If he’s still got it, this rebuild could take 4 or 5 seasons and I doubt MSU has the patience for that in the NIL era.

Matt Campbell – Penn State
Career Record: 107-70
Grade: B

Penn State was probably hoping for a better and more flashy hire–their ham-fisted approach to eventually landing on Campbell seemed to show that their administration certainly felt that way and were initially looking in different directions. Campbell should do pretty well and have a nice record at Penn State, but so did James Franklin. I like Campbell and think things will be fine for a while but there’s a real possibility the Nittany Lions backslide into a definitive 2b type of program in the Big Ten.

Bob Chesney – UCLA
Career Record: 132-52
Grade: A

I think Chesney has star potential and a sneaky ton of experience at 48 years old makes him an excellent fit for a school like UCLA where he can string together some 7 and 8-win seasons with regularity. Will that be good enough for the Bruins?

A vibe shift in Westwood.

I don’t love the long-term fit of the Bruins in the Big Ten, but Chesney has Hollywood good looks with plenty of experience coaching and recruiting back in the East. Watch out for Nico Iamaleava to have a bounce back year and UCLA to surprise some people in 2026.

SEC

Ryan Silverfield – Arkansas
Career Record: 50-25
Grade: B

I’ve seen this hire receive some pretty poor grades, but I don’t get it. Last time around, Arkansas hired a freaking offensive line coach to run the program and they’ve been losing two-thirds of their SEC games for a number of years. Silverfield comes from the solid Memphis coaching pipeline, and while he didn’t light the world on fire, 29 wins over the last 3 seasons is nothing to dismiss. I still think this is maybe the hardest job in the SEC so I don’t think things will end great here. Still, it’s more exciting than Sam Pittman.

Alex Golesh – Auburn
Career Record: 23-15
Grade: D+

I don’t see this hire at all from Auburn’s perspective. Golesh is a disciple of Josh Heupel at Tennessee so his OC days with the Vols have a bit of an asterisk. He had one marginally decent season at USF and suddenly he’s the head man at Auburn. Those first 2 seasons at South Florida were horrendous offensively, as well. He’s bringing quarterback Byrum Brown with him from the Bulls and he did a good job developing him. Still, I get the feeling Auburn could have a nice 2026 but continue to struggle under Golesh further down the road.

Jon Sumrall – Florida
Career Record: 43-12
Grade: B+

Florida’s status as a blue blood isn’t on life support but it’s prestige has taken quite the hit in recent years. A departing head coach just finished his tenure under .500! At Florida! They haven’t been relevant nationally for 6 seasons! The Gators weren’t in a big position of strength here and still grabbed a head coach in Jon Sumrall who has shown flashes of a really high ceiling even if he’s not particularly experienced. What we’ve seen from him at 2 separate schools is damn good though–3 combined conference championships, 28-6 in league play, and one playoff appearance.

Sumrall coached in the playoffs last year. 

However, the schedules at Florida are so brutal and this remains a super tough turnaround job for anyone. It’ll be difficult to win now and any growing pains from Sumrall could really derail progress and keep the Gators away from SEC contention.

Will Stein – Kentucky
Career Record: 0-0
Grade: C

I’d imagine any change is good change following the approximately three decades long reign of Mark Stoops, or so it felt. The average Stoops team was so poor on offense and hoping to strike gold with a young OC whiz makes sense for the Wildcats. Why not, at this point? Stein is really young though, currently the 5th youngest FBS head coach (just younger than Collin Klein above) and realistically this is a tough job that could see Stein overwhelmed pretty quickly. No head coaching experience and being in high school back in 2019 to leading a SEC team now is a tough ask.

Lane Kiffin – LSU
Career Record: 116-53
Grade: B

Kiffin really did an amazing job at Ole Miss, after just 6 seasons (which includes the shortened Covid year beginning) he finished 3rd all-time in wins with the program. Over the last 3 seasons, the Rebels went 32-6. Surely, with an increase in talent things will be just as good if not better at LSU? Well, maybe. Kiffin seemed to fit in so well in Oxford where he was just enough outside the pressure cooker to do his thing. Everything changes now with LSU, a place that makes his stops at Tennessee and USC look like casual ACC football, in terms of expectations.

A buyout of $54 million plus a new 7-year contract totaling $91 million is dealing in some crazy money, even in these crazy NIL times. Objectively, this could become a renaissance for LSU although I deeply mistrust Kiffin in this crawfish boil of an intense program.