Could we be looking at a less silly “silly season” this fall? There is some optimism within the college football coaching industry that this cycle may be less tumultuous. Heading into the season, there is only one bona fide blueblood job that appears to be in jeopardy (perhaps two, depending on how you view Nebraska). This is fundamentally different from 2021, when head-coaching roles in Miami and USC seemed firmly in play, and an opening at Michigan was also within the realm of possibility.
But, as we know, just because churn isn’t expected doesn’t mean it won’t happen. All coaching hell broke loose when Florida and LSU fired their coaches—which did not seem inevitable last August—and sitting coaches at powerhouses Oklahoma and Notre Dame uprooted stakes, creating unprecedented shifts. The true unpredictability in a coaching cycle seems less about who is going to get fired and more about who is going to be there. Anything seems up for grabs since those power programs can lose coaches to lateral moves. That doesn’t even include a coach moving up to the NFL, where the work-life balance is dramatically tilted in the league’s favor. More and more the league beckons. One newly minted NFL coach described to Sports Illustrated the difference between college and pro off-field responsibilities by simply pointing to his phone, noting it hadn’t dinged once during our June conversation, usually the lowest point of the college offseason.
There will be curveballs in this cycle to be sure. Someone will retire out of nowhere or turn in a dud of a start that quickly puts them out of favor with their program. But for now, here’s what we’re hearing about numerous spots that could be in play by season’s end.
