New College Football Head Coaches:

Coaching turnover is and has always been a huge part of the college football offseason. Long before college football free agency and the transfer portal, coaches were using their leverage at a rapid rate to get higher-profile jobs or larger paychecks from the colleges and universities that employed them.

This past offseason was no different. With players and recruits all looking for the highest bidder and the best fit, sideline bosses and their agents were doing the same thing. This year’s coaching cycle was actually one of the most interesting in recent years because some coaches left to be coordinators, both at the NFL and college levels, while others took whatever job was being offered to them.

 

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There are 30 new head coaches for the 2024 college football season. Two head coaches – Spencer Danielson at Boise State and David Braun at Northwestern – had the interim tags officially removed.

Let’s look at all 30 new program leaders and the impacts that those hires may have on the team and the way that they play.

Power Four New Head Coaches

ACC

Bill O’Brien (Boston College): O’Brien went from being Ohio State’s new offensive coordinator to Boston College’s new head coach in the blink of an eye. Former BC HC Jeff Hafley is now the DC of the Green Bay Packers, paving the way for O’Brien to get his first head coaching gig at the collegiate level since 2012-13. O’Brien is likely to look for more out of the Eagles’ passing game led by 1.5-threat QB Thomas Castellanos. He rushed for over 1,100 yards, but had a 15/14 TD/INT ratio as a passer, so it’ll take O’Brien’s tutelage to make him a true dual threat. BC only averaged 182.5 passing yards per game last season. I’d expect that to change this year.

Manny Diaz (Duke): Duke goes from Mike Elko to Diaz, in what looks like a decent step down. Nothing against Diaz, who had mixed returns over three seasons as the head coach of Miami from 2019-21, but Elko got the most out of the Blue Devils during his two seasons in Durham. Diaz, like Elko, is a defensive wizard, but it remains to be seen if Diaz and OC Jonathan Brewer will be able to get the most out of one-time five-star recruit Maalik Murphy at QB.

Fran Brown (Syracuse): Brown was viewed as a surprising replacement to Dino Babers, but his recruiting reputation followed him to upstate New York, where he was very successful in the transfer portal, including the commitment of former Ohio State QB Kyle McCord. Brown is something of an unknown as an X’s and O’s guy. He’s primarily been a defensive backs coach and was only the co-DC for one year at Temple in 2019, but the talent level has instantly improved for Syracuse with his strong recruiting prowess.

Big Ten

Curt Cignetti (Indiana): Realignment isn’t the only big change in the Big Ten this season. Five new head coaches are in the mix, including the architect of the James Madison team that transitioned from FCS to FBS and took the Group of Five ranks by storm. Conventional wisdom would suggest that Indiana is just a springboard for Cignetti into a bigger job, as he went 52-9 at JMU and faces an uphill climb in Bloomington. He raided the Dukes’ roster to infuse more talent into the Hoosiers and also secured dual-threat QB Kurtis Rourke from Ohio to run the offense he wants with offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan (no, not that one).

Sherrone Moore (Michigan): Moore took over for suspended Jim Harbaugh on three Saturdays in November, including the Wolverines’ third straight win over Ohio State. But, it was Harbaugh coaching up his team during the week. Moore was the OC in 2023, co-OC in 2021-22, and has been with the program since 2018. He has a lot to prove and a mass exodus of talent to overcome, but a program with Michigan’s standards deserves the benefit of the doubt.

Jonathan Smith (Michigan State): One of the most heralded hires of this coaching cycle was done by Michigan State to bring Smith from Corvallis to East Lansing. The former Oregon State coach faced countless challenges in the Pac-12, but managed to get a ton out of the QB position and the roster as a whole to fight toe-to-toe with the big boys of the now-mostly-defunct conference. Smith brought QB Aidan Chiles with him in hopes of sparking an offense that has been among the Big Ten’s worst and most inconsistent units. With the additions of former Pac-12 foes USC, UCLA, Washington, and Oregon, Smith’s task is not an easy one, but Sparty has a great chance of returning to relevance under his watch.

DeShaun Foster (UCLA): When O’Brien took the BC job, Chip Kelly was hired by Ohio State as the offensive coordinator. With the program scrambling a little bit, Foster, the former running backs coach, emerged as a first-aid kit. Late switches like this force athletic departments to do whatever they can to plug holes in the boat, especially to keep recruits from leaving en masse, as the transfer portal opens up when a coach leaves. Perhaps I’m underselling Foster, who was a Bruin from 1998-01 and a seven-year NFLer, but he’s never been more than a running backs coach and thus faces a lot of question marks.

Jedd Fisch (Washington): When Kalen DeBoer bounced for ‘Bama, Washington moved quickly on Fisch, who was in the midst of a thoroughly impressive turnaround at Arizona. Fisch has seen and done a lot of things over his 27-year career and has assisted some of the sport’s biggest sideline legends, including Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll, not to mention the time he spent with Jim Harbaugh. 

Amazingly, his three years in Arizona were his first as a full-fledged head coach and he immediately put his stamp on the program. While he wasn’t able to bring budding star Noah Fifita to Seattle, he did get Mississippi State transfer Will Rogers to hang around.

Big 12

Brent Brennan (Arizona): Fisch’s replacement in Tucson is Brennan, whose career comes a little bit full-circle. Brennan was a GA at Arizona in 2000 and is now the head coach after seven seasons at San Jose State. He inherits a really special offense and has way more resources than he had at SJSU. That should breed a lot of confidence in the Wildcats, who move from the Pac-12 to the Big 12 at a pretty good time. Expectations are high out of the gate for Brennan and my belief is that this hire works out really well right away.

Willie Fritz (Houston): Fritz goes from the AAC to the Big 12 to coach a former member of the AAC, as college football realignment has opened up a lot of these potential quirks. Fritz was wildly successful at Tulane and is headed to a Houston program dying to get back on track. The Green Wave won 23 games over the last two seasons, as Fritz had to bottom out to get back on top. Houston has to level up in the Big 12, as evidenced by last season’s 2-7 conference record, so we’ll see how quickly Fritz can retool the program on the fly. Expect more running from this year’s team.

SEC

Kalen DeBoer (Alabama): Few agents cash in on the coaching chaos like Jimmy Sexton, who just so happens to represent both Nick Saban and DeBoer. That isn’t the only reason why DeBoer is in Tuscaloosa, but it didn’t hurt with the expediency of the process. Personally, I think DeBoer is a top-five coach in the country. He’s a brilliant offensive mind who brought Washington back to prominence and placed the building blocks for Michael Penix Jr. to be a first-round pick while serving as the OC at Indiana. DeBoer has dramatically improved the offense everywhere he’s been and now he has a recruiting pipeline the likes of which he has never seen. This should work out just fine.

Jeff Lebby (Mississippi State): Former Bulldogs head coach Zach Arnett was placed into an impossible situation after the death of Mike Leach. His head coaching tenure lasted just one season, as the Bulldogs made the switch to an offensive mind once again by bringing in Lebby. He was most recently the Oklahoma OC and also served as OC at Ole Miss and UCF. Expect the tempo to jump at Mississippi State. Also, if this goes poorly, expect some heat on the administration, as Lebby was at Baylor when the program was embroiled in scandal.

Mike Elko (Texas A&M): The Jimbo Fisher tenure in College Station was an abject failure. Fruitful recruiting classes were wasted and high expectations were never met. So, in comes Elko, who was a longtime DC before getting his first crack as head coach at Duke. He did an incredible job in Durham and parlayed that into a very well-paying gig with a booster base well-versed in handing out blank checks. Elko is a defensive mastermind and that side of the ball should be great, but it is OC Collin Klein who is the most important figure on this coaching staff.

Pac-2

Trent Bray (Oregon State): While neither Power Five, nor Group of Five, I figured I’d give a nod to the Pac-2 under the Power Five heading. Bray takes over for Smith and the 41-year-old walks into a pretty low-stress situation. The Beavers don’t really have expectations after elevating Bray from DC to HC and this was a move designed to keep as many players in-house as possible, since spending money wasn’t really in the cards for Oregon State. Bray played in Corvallis from 2002-05 and has been with the program since 2018.

Group of Five New Head Coaches

These are in alphabetical order by program:

Tim Skipper (Fresno State; Mountain West): This was a late one, as Jeff Tedford stepped down due to health reasons in mid-July. He took a leave of absence prior to the 2023 New Mexico Bowl, which Fresno State won 37-10 under Skipper as the interim head coach. The 46-year-old Skipper was the linebackers coach and assistant head coach prior to the bowl game and will serve as the interim HC for this season. Tedford, long viewed as an offensive genius, has not announced any plans to still be around the team, but there is now a lot of pressure on second-year OC Pat McCann, who came over from Eastern Washington for the 2022 season.

Dell McGee (Georgia State; Sun Belt): There are a lot of good football players in Atlanta and throughout the southeast. Georgia State is hoping that McGee can recruit them. He has no coordinator experience and has been Georgia’s running backs coach, but now he has a program of his own. McGee was a top-tier recruiter for Kirby Smart and he’ll hope to bring some more talent to the Panthers, while relying heavily on 40 years of coaching experience from OC Jim Chaney and over 25 from longtime defensive assistant Kevin Sherrer.

Bob Chesney (James Madison; Sun Belt): The Sun Belt will be a popular conference in this section. Chesney has the immense shoes of Curt Cignetti to fill as he makes the leap from Holy Cross of the FCS ranks. The Crusaders won five straight league titles and the 46-year-old Chesney is 111-46 as a head coach. The Crusaders rushed for over 2,900 yards last year, so expect Chesney to focus heavily on the offensive line and the ground game.

Bryant Vincent (Louisiana-Monroe; Sun Belt): The UAB players lobbied very hard for Vincent to take over for the retiring Bill Clark, but the Blazers went in a different direction with Trent Dilfer. Vincent went to New Mexico and served as OC, but now gets to put his own stamp on a program with the Warhawks. He is a great offensive mind and took New Mexico from 131st to 35th in yards per play last season. ULM was 106th last season. I don’t know how the defense will look, but the offense should improve by leaps and bounds, making the Warhawks a good Over bet on totals.

Derek Mason (Middle Tennessee; Conference USA): After doing fairly well under extremely tough conditions at Vanderbilt, Mason is back in the Nashville metro area with the Blue Raiders. Longtime head coach Rick Stockstill parted ways with the program after going 113-111 over 18 seasons. Mason is a top-notch defensive mind and it will be up to former Northern Iowa OC/QB Coach Bodie Reeder to get the offense going. MTSU has seven bowl appearances in the last 11 years, but they haven’t won more than eight games since Stockstill was an assistant elsewhere.

Jeff Choate (Nevada; Mountain West): It feels like forever ago that Jay Norvell left Reno for Fort Collins. That’s probably because Nevada has been quite bad in that span. Choate comes over from Texas where he was the co-DC and might be a tremendous asset in the transfer portal after spending five seasons with Montana State. The Bobcats went from 4-7 in Year 1 to 11-4 in Year 4, losing in the semifinals in 2019. This is a full-fledged rebuild with a brutal schedule, so the team may look better, but the results may not be.

Bronco Mendenhall (New Mexico; Mountain West): It felt like Mendenhall was ready to be done coaching after a long stint at BYU and a not-as-long stint at Virginia. Apparently he was really eager to get back to it because he moved the family to Albuquerque to take over a Lobos program that has won at least five games only twice since 2007. It is hard to see the upside here for Mendenhall. While aforementioned Bryant Vincent fixed the offense, the defense is still awful and the resources and recruiting pipeline are very thin. But, this should be a tougher team.

Tony Sanchez (New Mexico State; Conference USA): Speaking of names we hadn’t heard in a while, former UNLV head coach Tony Sanchez has a new gig with the Aggies. Sanchez went from Bishop Gorman HS to UNLV and had twice as many losses (40) as wins. New Mexico State’s recent resurgence under Jerry Kill was remarkably impressive, but Sanchez has a better chance of taking the program back to where it was than upholding a new standard.

Sean Lewis (San Diego State; Mountain West): The wunderkind has resurfaced as a head coach after one tumultuous year with Colorado. Lewis has to be excited to get away from the shadow of Deion Sanders and starts anew with an Aztecs crew that desperately needs an infusion of offensive creativity. Year in and year out, SDSU is very solid defensively, but this offense has been offensive more often than not. The 38-year-old Lewis went 24-31 at Kent State, but went from 2-10 in Year 1 to 7-6 in Year 2 and actually had two bowl game appearances, so it may not take long with better pieces in place.

Ken Niumatalolo (San Jose State; Mountain West): A year really does feel like a lifetime in college football, doesn’t it? Niumatalolo’s last season at Navy was 2022 after 20 years of service to the program. He was UCLA’s TE coach and “Director of Leadership” last season, but the Spartans came calling when Brent Brennan took the Arizona job. Most importantly for bettors, Niumatalolo is NOT bringing the triple-option to SJSU, rather building an offense to fit the personnel and the system already in place. They’ll certainly look to run the ball more, but it will not be the option.

Major Applewhite (South Alabama; Sun Belt): Kane Wommack went to Alabama to be the defensive coordinator for Kalen DeBoer and South Alabama promoted Applewhite from OC to HC. I happen to think Wommack is an excellent coach, so this feels like a big downgrade. The Jaguars did have a record-setting offensive season last year, but Wommack is a defensive guru and DC Corey Batoon also bailed for the SEC. This is Applewhite’s second kick at the can after three unremarkable years at Houston. I think this is a team poised for a tumble.

Gerad Parker (Troy; Sun Belt): Troy has been a feeder system for bigger programs on the coaching front and Jon Sumrall is the latest to move on. Others include Neal Brown (West Virginia) and Chip Lindsey (UNC OC). Parker has been a longtime offensive assistant and actually coached for the two COVID years with Brown at WVU before being demoted for Graham Harrell. He was Notre Dame’s OC last season and coached six games as Purdue’s interim back in 2016, losing all six of them. Troy has been one of the most consistent Group of Five programs, but the transfer portal took away a lot of talent heading into Parker’s first year.

Jon Sumrall (Tulane; AAC): Speaking of Sumrall, he’s now at Tulane to fill the impressive shoes of Willie Fritz. I think the 41-year-old is an excellent coach with a tremendous grasp of the defensive side of the ball. He was terrific at Kentucky for three years, including one as the co-DC, and did very well at Troy with back-to-back double-digit winning seasons. He brought OC Joe Craddock with him and this should be a top G5 team again.

Scotty Walden (UTEP; Conference USA): This is arguably the hardest job in the country. Texas is a hotbed for high school football, but getting kids to El Paso is tricky. Dana Dimel never found a way to have success and now it is up to Walden, who comes in from Austin Peay. The 34-year-old Texas native served as the interim HC for Southern Miss for four games and then got the Austin Peay gig. They were a FCS playoff team last season. Expectations are so low for the Miners on an annual basis, but Walden is a fast riser in the coaching ranks and could breathe life into the program.

Nate Dreiling (Utah State; Mountain West): There are a ton of changes in the Mountain West, including this late one. Former head coach Blake Anderson was fired for several violations of the terms of his contract, leaving Dreiling to pick up the pieces in mid-July. Dreiling is in his first season at Utah State after serving as New Mexico State’s defensive coordinator the last two years, so we’ll see what he picked up from Jerry Kill about being a head coach.

Jay Sawvel (Wyoming; Mountain West): With the retirement of legend Craig Bohl, Sawvel gets his first crack as a head coach. He’s been the Cowboys DC for the last four seasons and was a DC at Wake Forest and Minnesota previously. Coaching under Jerry Kill, Dave Clawson, and Bohl has left Sawvel with no shortage of experience. The new DC is actually Craig’s son, Aaron. Expect another hard-nosed Cowboys crew, but new OC Jay Johnson will spread things out more, so we’ll see if that has an impact on both the offense and the defense.

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