College football programs pull coaches from many different places. There are the conventional routes, like poaching a sitting FBS coach or sticking with an interim or hiring a coordinator. Schools have gotten a bit creative in the last few years, like Texas Tech hiring Baylor assistant coach Joey McGuire or Arkansas hiring Georgia offensive line coach Sam Pittman. There was also North Carolina running it back with Mack Brown, who was 68 when the Tar Heels hired him for the second time. But it has been four coaching cycles since the last time an FBS team hired a coach directly from a lower level.
Following the 2018 regular season, three were hired: at East Carolina (Mike Houston, from then-FCS James Madison), Kansas State (Chris Klieman, from North Dakota State) and Charlotte (Will Healy, from Austin Peay). Klieman’s hire has unquestionably been a success, although it certainly raised eyebrows at the time as he followed legend Bill Snyder. The 55-year-old has maintained stability for the Wildcats and kept them in Big 12 contention. Houston earned a 7–5 record in 2021 and is 6–3 in ’22. Healy was unable to deliver in the win column and was fired with four games left in ’22. The question as the coaching cycle heats up is if an FBS program will take a look at the FCS level this year even though the highest level of the sport has never looked different?
Consider how seismic it would feel if one of the bluest of bluebloods hired an FCS coach today. That’s exactly what happened in 2001 when Jim Tressel was hired by Ohio State from (then Division I-AA) Youngstown State. The Buckeyes were in their version of a bad way after going 6–6 in 1999 (the program’s third .500 or below record since ’47) and 8–4 in 2000. John Cooper got the program away from its Woody Hayes era ties in 1988 when he was hired, but he was 2-10-1 against hated Michigan, and that cardinal sin damned his tenure.
