Everyone who works in and around college football expects a great deal of coaching turnover this offseason. A crazy coaching carousel appears all but assured after a flurry of midseason firings, as some of the bluest of blueblood programs are already looking for their next head coaches.
Not all head coaching gigs are created equal, though. As we sift through the openings to evaluate which jobs are most compelling, so much of the process is subjective. Obviously, the best jobs are the ones with the most resources to help a coach succeed. But we’ll also factor in the level of expectations a new coach would face, quality of life, historical success and that school’s upside relative to those in its conference.
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(This list will be updated as coaches are hired and/or fired.)
Ranking the open FBS head coaching jobs:
1. Penn State
Last coach (record): James Franklin (104-45)
Conference: Big Ten
Location: State College, Pa.
This is the first time the Penn State job has opened without sanctions or the cloud of scandal hanging over it since 1966. We’ll see just how desirable this job is soon enough, once we know who says yes to Nittany Lions athletic director Pat Kraft — and who says no. This is one of the most high-profile jobs in all of college football, a place that expects excellence and a program that expects not just to reach the College Football Playoff but also to win national championships. Penn State’s last national title came all the way back in 1986, but this program was a few plays away from playing for another just 10 months ago. Money is not an issue, as Penn State just showed it is willing to pay up to $45 million to fire James Franklin while also paying for major stadium renovations (and making defensive coordinator Jim Knowles the nation’s highest-paid coordinator last offseason).
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The next head coach will have whatever resources he needs to compete, easy access to elite talent (per usual) and a direct annual path to the CFP with or without winning Big Ten championships. The pressure will be immense for whoever takes the reins next — fans, donors and the administration will expect the delivery of a national championship — but it is a place that appears poised to break through.
2. Florida
Last coach (record): Billy Napier (22-23)
Conference: SEC
Location: Gainesville, Fla.
This is a very attractive job for two main reasons: It’s in the SEC, and it’s in the state of Florida. There is so much elite talent in the state that should give its head coach an advantage over his peers, even in an increasingly nationalized sport. The Gators won national championships relatively recently (2006 and 2008, during the Tim Tebow era) but haven’t recaptured anything close to that level of success since then-head coach Urban Meyer left town. Somewhat shockingly, Florida has not yet reached the College Football Playoff in either the four-team or 12-team iteration. There’s a great deal of pressure on the next coach to both win big and recruit well — that combination has proved surprisingly difficult to recent hires here — while evaluating, developing and retaining elite players in the new revenue-sharing era. It’s a tall task, and the job is no longer an obvious step up for some head coaches (like Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss) as it would have been in a different era of the sport.
3. Virginia Tech
Last coach (record): Brent Pry (16-24)
Conference: ACC
Location: Blacksburg, Va.
It’s debatable whether this is a better job than literally any job in the SEC — see: Arkansas — but there are two reasons that put it over the top for me: 1) the school’s significant financial investment in the football program; and 2) the path to the College Football Playoff. Last month, the school’s board voted to add $229 million to the athletic department’s budget over the next four years. So, even in the current 12-team CFP era, there’s a very real opportunity for Virginia Tech to become a regular ACC contender again (which will put it in regular CFP contention). Clemson is not what it was during its dynastic years. Florida State face planted after an undefeated 2023 season. Miami is built to be a potential annual contender, but there’s a lot of open space alongside the ‘Canes right now. If the CFP expands to 16 or beyond with either additional at-large spots or more designated places for ACC teams, the Hokies would be even better positioned. Virginia Tech has a winnable conference with a new stream of money flowing toward the football program. This is as attractive as the job has been in recent years, and this next chapter will show us if the Hokies can actually be a player in the current landscape of college football.
4. Arkansas
Last coach (record): Sam Pittman (32-34)
Conference: SEC
Location: Fayetteville, Ark.
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This is one of the toughest jobs in the nation’s toughest conference — which just got more challenging with the additions of Texas and Oklahoma. Simply put, there are a lot of losses to go around in SEC play. Arkansas has finished the season ranked in the Top 25 just once since 2011. The Razorbacks haven’t had a winning record in conference play since 2015, which means it could be quite challenging to win enough games to get into CFP contention. It’s rough sledding for a school that doesn’t have a lot of in-state talent to mine, and an athletic department that is already making a huge financial commitment to John Calipari and his basketball program.
5. UCLA
Last coach (record): DeShaun Foster (5-10)
Conference: Big Ten
Location: Los Angeles
This should be a more attractive job than it is currently. It’s in the Big Ten now, which should mean that it should be able to afford whatever is necessary to compete at the highest level of college football. But UCLA has had money problems for years, and the Bruins have had to pay Cal $10 million a year for their first three years in the Big Ten as penalty for leaving the Bears behind in the Pac-12. So, there’s not as much money as you’d like to see for a job like this. Then, there are the questions about university leadership, which could give potential candidates pause here. Fans have also been apathetic, which leads to very sad half-empty stadium photos from the Rose Bowl on a regular basis. The Bruins’ last conference title came in 1998. The next coach should be able to recruit well — he’ll be right in the thick of one of the hottest recruiting areas in the country — but the other pieces of the puzzle to build a top-25 program may not be there.
6. Oklahoma State
Last coach (record): Mike Gundy (170-90)
Conference: Big 12
Location: Stillwater, Okla.
Some may quibble with the Cowboys’ placement on this list. Yes, Oklahoma State did just play for a Big 12 title as recently as 2023. And in a league that is now without Texas and Oklahoma, anyone who invests significantly in big-time college football should be able to contend for titles and CFP bids. But this is also a league without Texas and Oklahoma; it does not have an anchor like they were, bluebloods that were perennially ranked and served as opportunities for big wins for their opponents. Though the Big 12 may be more wide-open than ever before, it also may have the narrowest path to the Playoff. You might have to win the Big 12 to get there (at least in the current 12-team format) because there aren’t a lot of opportunities for second- or third-place teams to build the kind of resume needed for at-large inclusion. Still, though, this should be a regular Big 12 contender with easy access to Texas for recruiting. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of candidates this opening attracts.
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7. Stanford
Last coach (record): Troy Taylor (6-18, fired after multiple investigations into his workplace behavior)
Conference: ACC
Location: Palo Alto, Calif.
General manager Andrew Luck is running the show at Stanford, which should be a strong selling point for potential candidates. He knows where the Cardinal falls short and seems dead-set on attacking those issues to improve both the roster and the state of the program at large. Frank Reich is currently serving as the full-season interim head coach, but he will hand things off to whoever comes next at season’s end. Though life in the ACC is difficult as a West Coast team (particularly one not near a recruiting hotbed and with strict academic standards), there are some signs of optimism here: 1) it should be easier to go from the bottom or middle of the ACC to the top than in other leagues; and 2) Stanford just received a $50 million gift that will go to the football program. We’ll see if the Cardinal can recapture its place among national title contenders like it had in the early 2010s … or we’ll find out if that was an aberration. But either way, Stanford does seem more committed to football right now than it’s been in recent years.
NCAA Football: Boston College at Stanford
8. Oregon State
Last coach (record): Trent Bray (5-14)
Conference: Pac-12
Location: Corvallis, Ore.
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Even before conference realignment killed the Pac-12 as we knew it, this was one of the toughest jobs in the country. Then, Oregon State and Washington State got left behind after a seismic round of realignment. Leaders at both schools have done a good job trying to stabilize things, and the new-look Pac-12 filled with Mountain West teams will begin competition next year. But it’s still tough going from being a Power 5 program to what will be known as the Group of 6. That negatively affects both media rights revenue and fundraising dollars, and it’s obviously more challenging when searching for a new head coach as well.
9. Colorado State
Last coach (record): Jay Norvell (18-26)
Conference: Mountain West (but will be in the Pac-12 next season)
Location: Fort Collins, Colo.
Whoever takes this job next will get to live in one of the most picturesque college towns in the country. Facilities will be great and so will fan support. But, for some reason, this job is a lot harder than it looks like it should be. There have been NFL-caliber players that have come through this program in recent years, it hasn’t won its conference since 2002. It can regularly make bowl games, but even that is going to be more difficult in the new Pac-12 than it is in a league with the Mountain West’s bottom-feeders. There is a lot of potential at Colorado State; we just haven’t seen a coach really unlock it.
NCAA Football: Hawaii at Colorado State
10. UAB
Last coach (record): Trent Dilfer (9-21)
Conference: American
Location: Birmingham, Ala.
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The Trent Dilfer era was disastrous. There’s no other way to say it, and everyone saw it coming. That was a hire that was rightly criticized way back when it happened! And it set the program back after all the success it had under Bill Clark (the second time, after the program came back to life in 2017). This hire will need to reset the football program and its culture quickly, because the American is the strongest of the Group of 5/6 leagues right now — and it looks to remain so.
11. Kent State
Last coach (record): Kenni Burns (1-23, fired for violating the terms of his contract)
Conference: MAC
Location: Kent, Ohio
Kent State went winless last year and got its first FBS win of the season this year in mid-October. This is a place that has not been very good over the course of its football history, with a all-time record of 366–609–28 (.379), one conference title (1972) and two division titles (2012, 2021). It will be hard to find on-field success here, but it will be even harder to sustain it. Sean Lewis, who took Kent State to two bowl appearances during his five-year tenure (including the program’s first bowl win), left to become an assistant coach at Colorado.
