The 2021 college football coaching cycle had a few oddities underlying much of the movement. On one end, there was the fact that the sitting coaches of both Notre Dame and Oklahoma left for new jobs of their own volition without being fired. There were also the jobs that opened and filled before the season ended (Texas Tech, UConn and Georgia Southern), in large part to give their programs a jump on roster-building due to the transfer portal. All three coaches were gettable hires, too (Joey McGuire was an assistant coach; Jim Mora and Clay Helton didn’t have coaching jobs at the time), which is something to note when it comes to whether that trend could continue this year.
For September openings, there’s a perceived first-mover advantage to survey the entire landscape (UConn and Southern both opened in September, while Tech didn’t open until near the end of October). The first two programs were able to use it to their advantage, but it did not happen overnight. Helton wasn’t hired until Nov. 2, followed by Mora on the 11th. Tech moved relatively rapidly, hiring McGuire on Nov. 8 after firing Matt Wells on Oct. 25. So could any of the currently open Power 5 jobs do the same?
We have five technically open right now, but in different situations than what we saw last year.
