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College football coaches on the move: Carousel in overdrive, keep up with hirings, firings
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- College football coaches on the move: Carousel in overdrive, keep up with hirings, firings
Hang on! The college football coaching carousel is spinning in hyper-speed. Three SEC schools wasted no time in hiring replacements as Arkansas , Auburn and Florida all beat Lane Kiffin and LSU to the altar Sunday morning. ( Lane finally made his move Sunday afternoon .)
Here's a look at the FBS openings and who is on the move:
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College football coaching carousel: Grades for each hire, how they fit
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Arkansas hires Ryan Silverfield
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IN:Ryan Silverfield
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OUT:Sam Pittman
Silverfield, 45, just wrapped up his sixth full season at Memphis. The Tigers went 8-4 and upset the Razorbacks in late September. Memphis went 50-25 during Silverfield's tenure, winning at least six games and obtaining postseason eligibility in every season. He produced back-to-back double-figure winning seasons from 2023-24, going 21-5 in the two-year stretch.
Grading the hire: Arkansas picking Ryan Silverfield not a splashy choice
Auburn hires Alex Golesh
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IN:Alex Golesh
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OUT:Hugh Freeze
Golesh led the Bulls to a 9-3 mark this season, the program's most wins in eight years. Over his three-year tenure at the school, Golesh went 23-15. He took over a South Florida program that had gone just 4-29 in the three seasons before he was hired. Under the 41-year-old Golesh, the Bulls didn't just rack up wins, but points. South Florida finished among the top 35 FBS teams in scoring offense in each of Golesh's three seasons. This season, it averaged 43 points per game, the fourth-best mark in the FBS.
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Grading the hire: Auburn bets on Alex Golesh fixing Tigers' offense
Cal fires Justin Wilcox
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IN:
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OUT:Justin Wilcox
Wilcox was fired following a 31-10 loss to rival Stanford on Nov. 22. The loss dropped Cal to 6-5 on the season, though the Bears would beat SMU in the regular-season finale to finish 7-5. Wilcox had been the coach for the Bears since 2017 and has posted a 48-55 record over his nine seasons leading the program. His best season came in 2019, when he led the team to an 8-5 record.
More: How Cal firing its coach could send a top QB into transfer portal
Coastal Carolina fires Tim Beck
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IN:
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OUT:Tim Beck
Beck went 20-18 in three seasons leading Coastal Carolina. He led Coastal to bowl games in each season (assuming the 6-6 Chanticleers get the call this postseason).
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Colorado State hires Jim Mora
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IN:Jim Mora
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OUT:Jay Norvell
Mora turned UConn into a winner. Before Mora took the UConn job in 2022, the Huskies had not won nine games since 2007. Following a 9-16 mark in his first two seasons, Mora has led UConn to back-to-back nine-win seasons in 2024 and 2025. In 2025, the Huskies went 9-3, which included wins over ACC foes in Boston College and Duke. All three of UConn's defeats this season came in overtime.
Colorado State ― which fired Jay Norvell on Oct. 19 ― is joining the Pac-12 next season and looking for stability after cycling through three different head coaches since 2019 in Mike Bobo, Steve Addazio and Norvell.
Grading the hire: Colorado State hires Jim Mora to usher in Pac-12 era
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Florida hires Jon Sumrall
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IN:Jon Sumrall
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OUT:Billy Napier
Sumrall, in his second season at Tulane, has the Green Wave at 10-2 this season and in contention for a College Football Playoff berth . No. 23 Tulane (No. 24 in CFP) plays No. 22 North Texas in the American Conference championship game on Dec. 5, with the winner having a strong shot at reaching the 12-team bracket.
Grading the hire: No love from Lane, Florida pivots to Jon Sumrall
'We've been so terrible for so long.' Florida fans vent about missing out on Lane Kiffin
Kentucky hires Will Stein
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IN:Will Stein
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OUT:Mark Stoops
A day after saying there was "0% chance" he would walk away from Kentucky, the school gave Mark Stoops a push. The school fired Stoops after 13 seasons with the school on Nov. 30. The move comes one day after the Wildcats finished their season at 5-7 with a 41-0 loss to rival Louisville.
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Stoops, the school's all-time winningest coach with 72 official victories, brought unprecedented success to the Kentucky program with eight consecutive bowl appearances from 2016-23. Ten of his victories in 2021 were vacated due to NCAA rules violations . The Wildcats have gone 9-15 the past two seasons and did not qualify for a bowl game.
In his place, UK has turned to a Louisville grad, Will Stein. Stein has been the offensive coordinator at Oregon the past three seasons.
Grading the hire: Will Stein offers Kentucky hope of fresh air
LSU hires Lane Kiffin
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IN:Lane Kiffin
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OUT:Brian Kelly
Kiffin, who is replacing Brian Kelly in Baton Rouge, made his decision two days after winning a third straight Egg Bowl , securing the Rebels' first College Football Playoff berth and setting a program record with 11 wins. He will not coach Ole Miss' CFP game.
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Grading the hire: LSU landed its white whale in Lane Kiffin
TOPPMEYER: Lane Kiffin torches Ole Miss legacy for renegade's exit to LSU
Memphis
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IN:
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OUT:Ryan Silverfield
Silverfield is on his way to Arkansas .
Who should Memphis hire? 9 options to replace Ryan Silverfield
Michigan State hires Pat Fitzgerald
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IN:Pat Fitzgerald
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OUT:Jonathan Smith
Michigan State fired coach Jonathan Smith on Sunday, after going 9-15 in just two seasons with the Spartans , including a 1-8 Big Ten record this past season.
Smith, who signed a seven-year contract worth nearly $53 million when he was hired, is due to receive 85% of his remaining base pay and supplemental income. MSU owes him approximately $33.5 million of the $39 million-plus remaining on the deal, plus three months of continuing health care benefits.
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Fitzgerald went 110-101 over 17 seasons with his alma mater Northwestern from 2006-22, the entirety of his head coaching career and the Wildcats' longest-tenured coach in school history.
As a coach, Fitzgerald won the Big Ten West title in 2018 and was named Big Ten coach of the year, and he won a second West division title in 2020 and earned the national Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award.
Grading the hire: Pat Fitzgerald gets second act with Michigan State
Pat Fitzgerald wins Day 1 with MSU: 'There will be no more motivated coach'
North Texas hires Neal Brown
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IN:Neal Brown
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OUT:Eric Morris
Morris was hired at Oklahoma State, while the Mean Green prepare for the American Conference Championship game.
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Brown has been out of college football season Dec. 1 of 2024 when he was fired at West Virginia following a 6-6 finish. He has served as the special assistant to the head coach at Texas this past season under Steve Sarkisian, where he has been able to work with Arch Manning and the Longhorns' offense.
In his six seasons in Morgantown with the Mountaineers, Brown led West Virginia to a 37-35 overall record and three bowl game appearances. The Mountaineers finished with just two winning seasons under Brown, including a 9-4 record in 2023 that was capped off with a win in the Duke's Mayo Bowl against North Carolina.
Oklahoma State hires Eric Morris
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IN:Eric Morris
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OUT:Mike Gundy
The hire of Morris has created a bit of history for Oklahoma State. As noted by its news release, Morris is the first sitting head coach that Oklahoma State has hired since 1969, while it is the first time in program history that the Cowboys have hired a sitting head coach from a school that is in the Division I FBS level.
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A former wide receiver for Texas Tech, Morris comes from the Mike Leach and Kliff Kingsbury coaching tree. He is in his third season at North Texas, where he has built the Mean Green program into one of the top programs in the American Conference and within the Group of Five.
Grading the hire: OK State goes with QB guru Eric Morris
Ole Miss promotes Pete Golding
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IN:Pete Golding
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OUT:Lane Kiffin
Ole Miss promoted defensive coordinator Pete Golding to permanent head coach after Kiffin left for LSU. Golding signed a three-year contract extension this past offseason that pushed him up the ladder among the highest-paid assistants in the SEC with a salary of $2.55 million this season. The third-year defensive coordinator previously held the same position at No. 10 Alabama, helping the Crimson Tide run the table for the 2020 national championship.
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Grading the hire: Ole Miss promotes Pete Golding to replace Lane Kiffin
Oregon State hires JaMarcus Shephard
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IN:JaMarcus Shephard
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OUT:Trent Bray
The 42-year-old Shephard is currently Alabama's wide receivers coach and assistant head coach under Kalen DeBoer. Shephard was also on DeBoer's staff at Washington , serving as the assistant head coach, passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach.
Shephard replaces Trent Bray, who was fired last month after the Beavers started this season with seven straight losses and posted a 5-14 record in his two seasons at the school. Shephard has also coached at Western Kentucky, Washington State, and Purdue.
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Penn State fires James Franklin
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IN:
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OUT:James Franklin
Franklin was fired by Penn State on Oct. 12 after the Nittany Lions dropped three consecutive games to Oregon, UCLA and Northwestern. The Nittany Lions entered the 2025 college football season as the No. 3 team in the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll and were considered national championship contenders after bringing back several of their offensive players. Terry Smith has gone 3-3 in his six games as interim coach after Penn State fired Franklin.
'It's my locker room.' Terry Smith makes case for Penn State job, players show support
South Florida hires Brian Hartline
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IN: Brian Hartline
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OUT:Alex Golesh
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Hartline has been at Ohio State since 2017 and has been instrumental in the Buckeyes ' rise as an offensive powerhouse centered around college-turned-NFL stars at wide receiver. Among the players Hartline has coached are Jeremiah Smith, Marvin Harrison Jr. , Chris Olave , Jaxon Smith-Njigba , Emeka Egbuka and Garrett Wilson . Over the past four years, five wide receivers that Hartline coached have been taken in the first round of the NFL draft.
Grading the hire: South Florida doubles down with Brian Hartline hire
Stanford hires Tavita Pritchard
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IN:Tavita Pritchard
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OUT:Frank Reich (interim)
Stanford hired Washington Commanders quarterback coach Tavita Pritchard to be the Cardinal 's next head coach. He will take over for Frank Reich, who has been serving as interim coach this season after Stanford fired Troy Taylor in March. Pritchard is expected to start at Stanford following the Commanders' game on Sunday, Nov. 30 vs. the Denver Broncos .
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UAB fires Trent Dilfer
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IN:
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OUT:Trent Dilfer
Dilfer, a former NFL quarterback and Super Bowl champion, went 9-21 with the Blazers , never winning more than four games in a season. He was an out-of-the-box hire at the time, having only coached at the high school level before getting the job.
UCLA to hire Bob Chesney
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IN:Bob Chesney
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OUT:DeShaun Foster
The Bruins fired its second-year coach on Sept. 14, two days after they took a 35-10 drubbing of New Mexico at home to start the season with three consecutive losses, two of which came against Group of Five opponents. Tim Skipper was named interim coach for the rest of the season.
Since being hired by the Dukes after Curt Cignetti left for Indiana, Chesney is 20-5 in this two seasons, including an 11-1 record this season that has James Madison in the Sun Belt championship game and in contention for the Group of Five spot in the College Football Playoff. The Dukes are No. 19 in this week's US LBM Coaches Poll .
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Grading the hire: UCLA hopes JMU lightning strikes twice with Bob Chesney
Virginia Tech hires James Franklin
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IN:James Franklin
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OUT:Brent Pry
Franklin was 104-45 overall in 12 seasons at Penn State and led the program to its first trip to the College Football Playoff berth last season. One area where Franklin struggled with at Penn State was against top-10 ranked opponents, as he led the Nittany Lions to a 4-20 record against top-10 opponents.
The Hokies will be the third stop of Franklin's head coaching career, with his first stop coming at Vanderbilt from 2011-2013.
USA TODAY Sports reporters John Leuzzi, Craig Meyer, Ehsan Kassim and Austin Curtight contributed to this story.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College football coaching hires: Which coaches are on the move? Keep up
