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Sam Houston fires head coach Phil Longo
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- Sam Houston fires head coach Phil Longo
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The College Football coaching carousel is spinning for 2026. Already Baylor created an opening by firing Dave Aranda . But now, Sam Houston just opened the second Texas collegiate coaching opening, by firing Phil Longo Monday.
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Longo's dismissal became confirmed by college football insider for The Athletic Chris Vannini.
"Bearkats are 1-7 and lost to Missouri State 24-3 last night. Associate head coach Eric Raisbeck and defensive coordinator Freddie Aughtry-Lindsay will serve as interim co-head coaches," Vannini posted on the social media website X, formerly Twitter.
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SHS became Longo's second head coaching opportunity in 2025. He previously led La Salle 2004 to 2005. Longo also brought over SEC, ACC and Big Ten experience into taking over the Bearkats back in '25.
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He coordinated the offense and coached quarterbacks at Ole Miss between 2017 to 2018. Matt Corral and Shea Patterson were two QBs he coached in Oxford. But he later molded a future Super Bowl contending quarterback named Drake Maye while at North Carolina, serving on the UNC staff from 2019 to 2022.
Longo coached at Wisconsin from 2023 to 2024 where Tanner Mordecai and Tyler Van Dyke were his passers. He ultimately accepted the Conference USA program's opening but went 2-10 in year one, then lost their first seven of eight games.
Who Sam Houston could pursue
Sam Houston has operated as a Football Bowl Subdivision program for the last four seasons. So this opening could attract either a fast-rising assistant seeking their first head coaching job, or a former coach.
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Perhaps SH could reach out to Aranda, which hands the Bearkats a switch to a defensive coach. Aranda's Baylor's teams underachieved in the end, but owns a respectable 40-40 record.
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Oklahoma offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle is another rising name in the profession. He knows CUSA well as a past Western Kentucky co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Kentucky OC Joe Sloan is one more with a CUSA connection from his Louisiana Tech days. But Sloan is best known for helping create Jayden Daniels' Heisman Trophy run of 2023 while at LSU.
Or SH can pursue a familiar face: Josh McCown, who's currently the passing game coordinator and QB coach for the Minnesota Vikings. McCown shattered school records behind center for the Bearkats in 2001 before his NFL career began.
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Related: TCU football rumors: 1 sneaky X-factor that could decide Sonny Dykes' fate
