Ranking college football's 30 coaching changes in the 2023-24 cycle (2024)

The 2023-24 coaching carousel technically began in July, when Northwestern fired Pat Fitzgerald following allegations of hazing in his program, and did not conclude (we think) until mid-February when UCLA hired DeShaun Foster to succeed Chip Kelly. In the end, 30 programs changed coaches, the most in the FBS since the 2011-12 cycle (31).

Nick Saban’s unexpected January retirement alone led to five other schools losing their coach.

Here are my grades for the 2023-24 coaching hires.

Power conferences

Alabama (A): Washington coach Kalen DeBoer. I’m still of the opinion that no one is likely to live up to the absurd expectations Saban leaves behind. But AD Greg Byrne hired the best guy he could have landed. Between three NAIA national championships and an incredible 25-3 tenure at Washington, DeBoer knows how to win. Losing his trusted offensive coordinator, Ryan Grubb, to the Seattle Seahawks was a blow, though.

Indiana (A): James Madison coach Curt Cignetti. Great coaches can win at any level, and that’s exactly what Cignetti has done over the past 13 seasons. He led Indiana (Pa.) to the Division II quarterfinals, Elon to consecutive FCS playoffs, and James Madison to an FCS national championship game and, upon the program’s move up to FBS, a Top 25 season in Year 2. The Hoosiers are in great hands.

Michigan (A): Offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore. Though there’s no certainty about how the 38-year-old will perform as a head coach, he was still the only logical hire for Michigan to make. Moore played an integral part in the Wolverines’ rise to become national champions under Jim Harbaugh and inspired confidence with his stint as the interim coach last season. His promotion ensures Michigan won’t have to blow it up and start over.

Houston (A-): Tulane coach Willie Fritz. Much like Cignetti, Fritz has won at every step up the food chain during his 27 years as a head coach. He went 97-47 at DII Central Missouri, took Sam Houston State to consecutive FCS national championship games and posted a 14-2 Sun Belt record at Georgia Southern before leading Tulane to a New Year’s Six bowl win in 2022. Houston seems like an ideal fit for him.

Michigan State (A-): Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith. Mark Dantonio’s Hall of Fame run in East Lansing (three Big Ten titles, six double-digit-win seasons) was built on developing two- and three-star prospects into future NFL players. Smith did much the same at Oregon State with even less-heralded talent. He’s also one of the sport’s most creative offensive minds and will invariably develop a power-rushing attack.

Washington (B+): Arizona coach Jedd Fisch. There was a case to be made for promoting Grubb, but athletic director Troy Dannen opted to go outside the program. Fisch’s three-year turnaround at Arizona — from 1-11 to 10-3 — was remarkable. He’s a great recruiter, knows the West Coast and brings considerable NFL experience. He should be able to build on the momentum from the Huskies’ run to the national title game.

Arizona (B): San Jose State coach Brent Brennan. Brennan nearly got the job in 2021, when Arizona hired Fisch, so it made sense to bring him in this time. He led a downtrodden SJSU program to three bowl games in four years and has spent his entire two-decade career on the West Coast. He inherits a 10-win team but a challenging situation as the Wildcats transition to the Big 12.

UCLA (B): Former running backs coach DeShaun Foster. AD Martin Jarmond talked with more experienced candidates like Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck, but Foster makes more sense for this specific job. The former Bruins star running back will galvanize UCLA fans who had checked out on Chip Kelly. The current players love him. UCLA lags far behind in name, image and likeness; he should be able to convince some donors to open their checkbooks.

Texas A&M (B-): Duke coach Mike Elko. A&M seemed poised to hire Kentucky’s Mark Stoops but pivoted because of considerable fan backlash. Elko, a successful defensive coordinator for four seasons in College Station, was far better received. Yet Stoops, who holds Kentucky’s highest win percentage (.533) since Bear Bryant, is arguably a far more proven head coach than Elko, even with his impressive 16-9 stint in two seasons at Duke.

Duke (B-): Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz. Diaz is unquestionably a great defensive coach, and he arguably got a raw deal at Miami, where the school openly lured Mario Cristobal while Diaz was still on the job. But Diaz’s three-year stint there was underwhelming (21-15, one No. 22 poll finish). Expectations are more realistic in Durham, although David Cutcliffe and Elko showed that Duke can at least be a consistent bowl team.

Northwestern (C+): Interim coach David Braun. Braun, initially hired last year as the defensive coordinator, earned deserved acclaim for leading the Wildcats from 1-11 to 8-5. But his promotion might prove shortsighted, as he did it with someone else’s roster and staff. It’s an indictment of AD Derrick Gragg that he couldn’t convince an established Power 5 head coach to go to a Big Ten program with deep pockets and modest expectations.

Syracuse (C+): Georgia secondary coach Fran Brown. Syracuse AD John Wildhack might prove to be an outside-the-box genius, but it’s hard to give a high grade for such a complete unknown. Brown has just six years of experience at the power-conference level, all as a secondary coach. But the New Jersey native has made a splash in the portal, most notably landing Ohio State starting quarterback Kyle McCord.

Mississippi State (C): Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby. Lebby has been part of some great offenses at Baylor, UCF, Ole Miss and Oklahoma, but it’s unclear what made him the right choice in Starkville besides having coached at State’s rival for two seasons. If nothing else, he should get the Bulldogs back to playing the type of wide-open offense they enjoyed under the late Mike Leach.

Boston College (C-): Ohio State offensive coordinator (briefly) Bill O’Brien. I get the appeal: He’s a former Big Ten and NFL head coach with extensive New England history. But I’m skeptical that the recent journeyman can energize a low-resourced ACC program with significant disadvantages. Save for two seasons at Alabama (where he helped turn Bryce Young into a Heisman winner), he primarily has been an NFL coach for the past decade.

Oregon State (D): Defensive coordinator Trent Bray. Facing an unprecedented challenge in trying to preserve a successful Power 5 program that will no longer have a Power 5 home, AD Scott Barnes got too caught up in the moment. He promoted Bray to stave off transfers, but many of the Beavers’ key players left anyway. An experienced head coach like Brennan or Bronco Mendenhall would be better prepared to handle the massive challenge ahead.

Group of 5

Tulane (A+): Troy coach Jon Sumrall. It was a matter of when, not if, someone hired away the rising star, who went 23-4 with consecutive Sun Belt titles in his first head-coaching gig. Sumrall might have a short stay, but he’ll keep the upstart Green Wave winning.

James Madison (A): Holy Cross coach Bob Chesney. The Dukes should be able to keep a good thing going with the highly successful Chesney, who led Assumption to three straight Division II playoffs and then Holy Cross to five straight Patriot League titles and an FCS quarterfinal.

San Diego State (A): Former Kent State coach Sean Lewis. Unlike Deion Sanders, who demoted Lewis as the offensive coordinator last season, San Diego State recognized that the 37-year-old remains a rising star. He was 18-10 in MAC play during his last four seasons at Kent State while producing exciting offenses.

Middle Tennessee State (A-): Former Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason. What a coup for the Blue Raiders to land a former SEC head coach and renowned defensive coordinator back to his time at Stanford. Granted, Mason went just 10-46 in SEC play, but Vandy has broken many a good coach.

Buffalo (A-): South Carolina special teams coach Pete Lembo. Known more recently as a special teams guru, Lembo was previously a head coach for 15 seasons at Lehigh, Elon and Ball State. Now he returns to the MAC, where he went 23-17 in league play and had a 10-win season with the Cardinals.

Nevada (B+): Texas co-defensive coordinator Jeff Choate.Choate has a variety of experience. He had a hand in Chris Petersen’s amazing run at Boise State, became Montana State’s head coach, where he produced an FCS semifinal team, and most recently was part of Texas’ rise under Steve Sarkisian.

UTEP (B): Austin Peay coach Scotty Walden. After bombing with retread Dana Dimel, UTEP went the complete opposite direction with the 34-year-old Texas native, whose stock was rising after leading Austin Peay to nine wins and an FCS playoffs appearance last season.

New Mexico (B): Former BYU and Virginia head coach Bronco Mendenhall. This one makes sense given Mendenhall’s sustained success at BYU, the first half of which came in the Mountain West. The only question is whether Mendenhall still has the drive after a two-year hiatus from coaching.

Louisiana-Monroe (B): New Mexico offensive coordinator Bryant Vincent. Before one season at New Mexico, Vincent was an offensive coordinator at UAB during Bill Clark’s successful run there. After Clark stepped down in June 2022, Vincent went 7-6 as the interim coach. He has his work cut out at ULM, which hasn’t reached a bowl since 2012.

Boise State (B-): Interim coach Spencer Danielson. Like Northwestern’s Braun, Danielson made it hard not to promote him after leading the Broncos, 5-5 at the time, to a Mountain West title. A big difference, however, is he has been at Boise State since 2017, helping Bryan Harsin win two league crowns.

Wyoming (B-): Defensive coordinator Jay Sawvel. The Cowboys opted for continuity in promoting the 52-year-old Sawvel upon longtime coach Craig Bohl’s retirement. It should pay off in the short term, as a 9-4 team lost no notable transfers, but there’s no predicting how Sawvel will fare once the existing roster turns over.

San Jose State (C+): Former Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo. Coach Ken had tremendous success for more than a decade at Navy but finished with four losing seasons in five years. And it’s a mystery how he’ll fare running offensive coordinator Craig Stutzmann’s wide-open passing offense rather than his trademark Navy flexbone.

South Alabama (C+): Offensive coordinator Major Applewhite. Though his Houston head-coaching tenure abruptly ended after just two years (mainly due to a 70-14 bowl loss to Army), Applewhite ran Kane Wommack’s offense the past three seasons, including a 10-win campaign in 2022.

Troy (C): Notre Dame offensive coordinator Gerad Parker. This one feels random. The 43-year-old bounced among various Power 5 staffs before joining the Irish as tight ends coach in 2022. Notre Dame ranked No. 9 nationally in Parker’s lone season as OC. Now he’s charged with a program that expects conference titles.

New Mexico State (D): Receivers coach Tony Sanchez. This one was a head-scratcher. Though it’s understandable to want to promote from Jerry Kill’s staff following the Aggies’ breakout 10-win season, Sanchez bombed as UNLV’s head coach from 2015 to 2019, going 20-40.

(Photo of Kalen DeBoer, Sherrone Moore and Curt Cignetti: Brandon Sumrall, Luke Hales, Brian Spurlock / Getty Images)