Top 3 Coaches Cincinnati Could Target to Replace Wes Miller
Wes Miller is out at Cincinnati, and the Bearcats are moving fast to find their next head coach. Miller's dismissal came on the heels of a gut-punch exit from the Big 12 Tournament.
A 66-65 overtime loss to UCF at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. Athletic director John Cunningham made the call shortly after. The formal split is expected to be made official on April 1, which is when Miller's buyout drops from $9.9 million to $4.7 million, per CBS Sports' Matt Norlander.
Miller spent five seasons with the Cincinnati Bearcats, finishing with a 100-74 overall record. He arrived with some real excitement. But the program never hit 24 wins in a single season under his watch, and an NCAA Tournament appearance never came. For a program with Cincinnati's history, that was not going to cut it.
Now the Bearcats are looking for their 29th head coach, and here are three genuinely interesting names that could be in the mix.
Jerrod Calhoun, Utah State
If Cincinnati is being smart about this, Calhoun is probably at the top of the list. In two seasons at Utah State, he's gone 52-14 in the Mountain West, won a conference championship, and has the Aggies on track for back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances.
That is 30-10 in league play across those two years. What makes him a particularly compelling fit is the personal angle. Calhoun graduated from Cincinnati in 2004, so this would not just be another job.
Before Utah State, he spent six seasons rebuilding Youngstown State, eventually delivering a Horizon League title. His first head coaching stop was Fairmont State in West Virginia. Calhoun knows how to build programs. He has done it more than once. And Cincinnati is exactly the kind of challenge he is built for.
Bryan Hodgson, South Florida
Hodgson is 38, and he's already drawing serious attention. In his first season at South Florida, he led the Bulls to a 23-8 record and a regular-season title. Before that, he won a Sun Belt regular-season crown at Arkansas State. Two different programs, two different conferences, but the result was winning.
He comes from the Nate Oats coaching tree and runs a similar system: up-tempo, spaced out, and built to pressure opponents. He has also handled the transfer portal well and built a reputation as a strong recruiter, which matters enormously in today's college basketball landscape.
The questions about his experience could be deemed fair. Cincinnati is a premier opening, and Hodgson has not run a program at this level yet. But his track record is hard to ignore, and the upside is real. He started as a junior college assistant before joining Oats' staff at Buffalo in 2015, and the rise since then has been steady and consistent.
Travis Steele, Miami (Ohio)
Steele's story is one of the more interesting ones in college basketball at the moment. He got the Xavier job in 2018 when Chris Mack left for Louisville, and four seasons of hovering in the middle of the Big East was not the resume builder anyone hoped for. But what he has done at Miami (Ohio) over the past four years has been genuinely remarkable.
The RedHawks finished the regular season undefeated, something only seven teams have managed since Bob Knight's 1976 squad did it. At 44, Steele has rebuilt his reputation and updated his approach. His teams now play with more pace and shoot a lot of threes, built around perimeter talent he has identified and recruited.
Talent evaluation has always been a strength, and it shows in how Miami (Ohio) has been constructed. Cincinnati is the kind of high-major opportunity Steele did not quite stick the first time around.
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This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Mar 13, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Basketball section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
