2022-23 Coaching Carousel

1) Luke Fickell, Wisconsin

• Age: 49
• Hometown: Columbus, Ohio
• Alma Mater: Ohio State
• Previous Job: Head Coach, Cincinnati

It’s been plainly obvious that the Badgers have underachieved in recent years, almost entirely due to offensive woes. Coach Paul Chryst won six out of seven bowl games and won 10-plus games four times, so firing him midseason was certainly a shock.

Equally surprising was the decision to hire Fickell, who had had turned Cincinnati into the ultimate Group of Five Cinderella. He went 63-25 in six years at the helm, winning three AAC championships and going 2-2 in bowl games, but had never left the state of Ohio. However, Fickell’s teams are physical without sacrificing athleticism, and he might bring the offensive jolt of energy that Wisconsin has been lacking in recent years.

Many Badgers fans were irritated that defensive coordinator/interim head coach Jim Leonhard wasn’t given a shot at the full-time gig, but he’s still early in his career and will get his chance again someday. Either way, Fickell got Cincy to the College Football Playoff in 2021, so he can certainly work his magic in Madison. Whether or not they’ll catch Michigan – or Fickell’s beloved Ohio State Buckeyes – in the Big Ten remains to be seen.

2) Matt Rhule, Nebraska

• Age: 47
• Hometown: New York, New York
• Alma Mater: Penn State
• Previous Job: Head Coach, Carolina Panthers

Scott Frost’s tenure at his alma mater was head-scratchingly mediocre. Despite consistently solid recruiting, Frost could never get the Huskers over the hump and get the long-suffering program back to a bowl game.

The Big Ten isn’t getting any easier, but Rhule’s quick turnarounds at Temple (2013-16) and Baylor (2017-19) should give Husker fans hope. He has great nationwide recruiting moxie, and while Rhule flamed out in the NFL (11-27 with the Panthers), so did Nick Saban (15-17 with the Dolphins).

Bright spots? Well, the Huskers have one of the most loyal fanbases in the nation and they’ve been able to drum up support to become major players in the NIL market, so they might not be as far off as people think. Administration gave Rhule a seven-year deal, so he’ll have more than enough time to turn things around.

3) Tom Herman, FAU

• Age: 47
• Hometown: Simi Valley, California
• Alma Mater: Cal Lutheran
• Previous Job: Offensive Analyst, Chicago Bears (2021)

The perennial FBS head coach Willie Taggart (FAU was his fifth stop) was fired after missing out on bowl games in three straight seasons since he took over the Owls in 2019. There’s certainly potential here, as former coach Lane Kiffin proved, and the promotion to the American Athletic Conference will help in recruiting, but the margin for error is also slim. 

Tom Herman may have flamed out badly on the big stage at Texas, but he’s no stranger to the AAC, having directed Houston to New Year’s Six bowl games and national rankings while dominating that conference from 2015-16. 

One positive for Herman’s new staff: with its scenic location and improved facilities, FAU could become a high profile transfer portal destination, and access to the Florida high schools is nothing but a positive as well. There’s no reason to believe they can’t compete right away, but the conference change makes the Owls a bit of an unknown heading into Year One.

4) Deion Sanders, Colorado

• Age: 55
• Hometown: Fort Myers, Florida
• Alma Mater: Florida State
• Previous Job: Head Coach, Jackson State

After a dismal 0-5 start in 2022, Karl Dorrell was dismissed. Was his tenure doomed from the start?

It’s worth asking. After all, Dorrell had a late start when Mel Tucker abruptly left Boulder after only one season, landing at Michigan State and handing the keys to a coach who had to assemble a coaching staff and recruiting class while the COVID pandemic hit the nation. While the Buffs finished with a winning record in the pandemic-altered 2020 season, it was all downhill from there, especially on offense. In the past two seasons, CU has gone an ugly 5-19.

Then came the bombshell: CU hired Deion Sanders, the NFL Hall of Famer and Jackson State head coach, in the first week of December..

While there’s still unknowns regarding the Pac-12’s future following UCLA and USC’s pending defection for the Big Ten, the Buffaloes have shown the ability to recruit talent and have sporadic success in recent years. They just haven’t had stability, with Sanders making it four coaches in the past six years.

With that said, if Buff fans are taking the glass-half-full approach, they’ve shown the ability to surprise people in the past and they’ve had former standouts catch on the NFL, like Packers’ All-Pro offensive lineman David Bakhtiari. Sanders also led Jackson State to unprecedented heights for an FCS program and an HBCU, earning kudos nationally and winning 26 games in three seasons.

In the transfer portal era, the potential for winning seasons and bowl games is certainly there, especially with the energy and recruiting prowess of the so-called “Coach Prime.” After inheriting a 1-11 team, Sanders will have his work cut out for him. The first order of business is breathing life into one of the nation’s worst offenses, and Sanders made headlines by hiring Kent State boss Sean Lewis, a fast-paced spread offense guru, to Boulder.

5) Jeff Brohm, Louisville

• Age: 51
• Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
• Alma Mater: Louisville
• Previous Job: Head Coach, Purdue

Scott Satterfield never seemed like he was on the same page as university leadership at Louisville, and although he got the Cardinals back to the postseason with a 7-5 record in 2022, overall consistency was lacking. He also expressed interest in the South Carolina job that eventually went to Shane Beamer, leaving Louisville fans and administration annoyed. 

Brohm, on the other hand, is a Louisville alum and former QB, a Louisville native, and a terrific offensive mind who got Purdue to consistently compete and win in the Big Ten. He’s got a fun offense and a good track record with QBs, and he should improve the Cardinals’ chances to contend in the ACC, and at age 51, he could afford to stick around awhile if it all goes well. 

6) Eric Morris, North Texas

• Age: 37
• Hometown: Littlefield, Texas
• Alma Mater: Texas Tech
• Previous Job: Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach, Washington State

This was a super smart hire for brand-new North Texas athletic director Jared Mosley. Morris has been a hot name in the coaching community for years as an Air Raid offense disciple who played receiver at Texas Tech for the late Mike Leach in the early 2000s. 

Morris returned to TTU and mentored Patrick Mahomes for several years, then went 24-18 at the University of the Incarnate Word, with two FCS playoff berths in four seasons before moving to Pullman last fall to call plays for Washington State’s Jake Dickert. That’s a fantastic resumé for someone on the right side of 40.

UNT parted ways with Seth Littrell, who got them to the Conference USA championship game last fall, but still went only 44-44 in seven seasons. The Mean Green have excellent facilities and a fantastic recruiting footprint, although they’re leveling up in competition as they join the American Athletic Conference in 2023. 

7) Ryan Walters, Purdue

• Age: 36
• Hometown: Los Angeles, California
• Alma Mater: Colorado
• Previous Job: Defensive Coordinator, Illinois

Walters worked his magic on defense for Illinois in 2022, helping them get back to a bowl game for only the second time in the past decade. Still just 36, he’s also worked six years at Missouri, and now he takes over a Boilermaker squad that’s loved playing spoiler in the Big Ten the past few seasons.

However easy Jeff Brohm made it look, Purdue is far from an easy job, and actually might be one of the Big Ten’s hardest. Now they’re undergoing a polar opposite philosophy shift, from Brohm’s high-powered offenses to Walters’s stingy defenses. Year One of the new regime might produce some growing pains, but Walters has some talent and experience to work with in West Lafayette. And since he was just at Illinois, he knows the conference well.

8) Zach Arnett, Mississippi State

• Age: 36
• Hometown: Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Alma Mater: New Mexico
• Previous Job: Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers Coach/Interim Head Coach, Mississippi State

Sometimes, a coach gets fired and you have to search for another one. Sometimes, a veteran coach steps down due to underachieving, or for personal reasons.

And then sometimes there are complete tragedies, such as when Mike Leach, the legendary Bulldogs head coach, passed away suddenly on December 12th, two days after suffering a massive heart attack in his home. 

Emotional gut-punch aside, school administration absolutely did the right thing in elevating Arnett to the full-time coaching gig. He learned his 3-3-5 defense under Rocky Long at both New Mexico and San Diego State, and Leach’s hiring of Arnett when he took over Mississippi State in 2020 was seen as a major coup at the time. True enough, the 3-3-5 scheme has confounded SEC offenses and contributed to the Bulldogs becoming major factors in the ultra-competitive SEC West. 

More importantly, this promotion is what Leach would have wanted, as Arnett was widely considered a head coaching candidate for other jobs and yet chose to stay loyal to a defense that has numerous returning starters coming back in 2023. He’ll be looking to honor his late mentor in the most emotional Year One in school history.

9) Kevin Wilson, Tulsa

• Age: 61
• Hometown: Maiden, North Carolina
• Alma Mater: North Carolina
• Previous Job: Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends Coach, Ohio State

Philip Montgomery had basically done all he could in eight years on the job here, but he was let down by a lack of year-to-year consistency and constant coaching staff turnover. There’s certainly potential to contend at Tulsa thanks to a good recruiting base and the ability to strategically use the portal to address immediate depth needs.

Kevin Wilson was forced out under controversial circumstances at Indiana in 2016 following allegations of player abuse, but he rebuilt his reputation under Ryan Day as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator, becoming one of the nation’s best recruiters in the process. At 61, he’s got enough time to give it another shot behind the head coach’s desk, but Tulsa needs someone in it for the long haul.

The Hurricane could rebound quickly, but they need new energy. Wilson provides that, and Tulsa should at least be fun to watch under his leadership.

10) Kenny Dillingham, Arizona State

• Age: 32
• Hometown: Phoenix, Arizona
• Alma Mater: Arizona State
• Previous Job: Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach, Oregon

Although plenty of observers ridiculed the hire at the time, Herm Edwards had some early success in Tempe before a combination of inconsistencies, an NCAA investigation, and massive transfer portal defections derailed a program that can’t seem to ditch the underachiever label. After a home loss to Eastern Michigan last September, Edwards was dismissed.

Given the current state of the Pac-12, it’s unforgivable that ASU couldn’t rise up and challenge Utah while USC and UCLA were rebuilding. Now, they’re at the bottom staring up—the Sun Devils haven’t made the Rose Bowl since 1997. 

Dillingham is 32, making him the youngest head coach in the FBS, but he’s got a very solid resumé. He served as Oregon’s offensive coordinator last year, mentoring QB Bo Nix into a Heisman contender. He’s a Phoenix native and an ASU alum. And he’s shown the ability to be a top-notch recruiter.

The good news is that there’s never been a lack of talent in Tempe, Dillingham’s offenses can typically pile up yardage and points, and there’s the ability to engineer a quick rebound. A lot hinges on what Dillingham can do to engineer immediate results after a 3-9 season. Fan apathy is high, and boosters are keeping their distance due to the threat of sanctions. ASU will have to weather the storm while Dillingham restocks the roster with youth.

11) Hugh Freeze, Auburn

• Age: 53
• Hometown: Senatobia, Mississippi
• Alma Mater: Southern Mississippi
• Previous Job: Head Coach, Liberty

Only two years after firing the underachieving Gus Malzahn, the Tigers made a move yet again. On the same day that John Cohen took the vacant athletic director job at Auburn, Bryan Harsin was fired after a 9-12 record in only a year and a half on the job.

Yes, Harsin was an odd fit in the SEC—a Boise State lifer who grew up there, played QB there and served as an assistant and later head coach, racking up a 69-19 record in seven total seasons on the Smurf Turf. 

He drew criticism for his recruiting misses and his turnover with assistant coaches, but there’s certainly a case to be made that Auburn administration sabotaged Harsin from the get-go. After a wave of transfers, Harsin was subjected to an offseason investigation amidst allegations of player abuse. That negatively affected recruiting, and combined with competing in the meat grinder that is the SEC West, the situation became untenable.

After his tumultuous tenure at Ole Miss, Freeze won 34 games in four seasons at Liberty, steering them towards better facilities and a permanent conference home in C-USA, but he remains a polarizing name across the SEC thanks to the off-field misconduct and recruiting violations at Ole Miss. Given the way the Harsin situation unfolded, Freeze needs to win right out of the gate, handle the demanding Auburn fans and boosters, and avoid controversy. 

12) Tim Beck, Coastal Carolina

• Age: 56
• Hometown: Youngstown, Ohio
• Alma Mater: UCF
• Previous Job: Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach, NC State

The Chanticleers moved swiftly after Jamey Chadwell moved north to Liberty, bringing in former NC State offensive coordinator Tim Beck. This looks like a sneaky good hire, even if there’s little margin for error in the ultra-competitive Sun Belt. 

Beck has an excellent résumé: he won a national championship as an assistant at Urban Meyer’s Ohio State juggernaut in 2014. He’s coached at Texas, Nebraska and Kansas, and  he’s also been a high school coach in the talent rich Dallas and Phoenix areas. 

The offense will need some retooling as it moves away from Chadwell’s hybrid pistol-option scheme to Beck’s new scheme, but the Chanticleers shouldn’t fall too far thanks to a solid recruiting base and a loyal batch of fans. 

13) Alex Golesh, USF

• Age: 38
• Hometown: Brooklyn, Ohio
• Alma Mater: Ohio State
• Previous Job: Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends Coach, Tennessee

This long-underachieving program desperately needs a shot in the arm, especially with the American Athletic Conference reshaping itself. The Bulls haven’t been to a bowl game since 2018, and ballyhoed ex-Clemson assistant Jeff Scott was supposed to the be the savior. He did what he could, helping raise funds for a much-needed indoor practice facility as well as a new on-campus stadium. But he also went 4-26 overall and USF was bled dry by the transfer portal. 

While the Bulls won’t have to deal with the likes of rival UCF, Cincinnati or Houston once they jump to the Big 12, this still won’t be a quick fix. USF still has yet to win a conference championship since moving from the former Big East in 2013.

New head coach Alex Golesh is another former OC, this time under Josh Heupel at both UCF and Tennessee. The 38-year-old was a Broyles Award finalist last season and has apprenticed under the likes of Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell. He’s been considered a high-riser in the business and has shown the ability to crank out high-scoring, fast-paced offenses. Fun fact: Golesh was born in the former Soviet Union in 1984, and immigrated to Ohio as a child with his family. 

14) Scott Satterfield, Cincinnati

• Age: 49
• Hometown: Hillsborough, North Carolina
• Alma Mater: Appalachian State
• Previous Job: Head Coach, Louisville

It was inevitable that Luke Fickell would move on, and he was an absolute home-run hire for this program as it rose up to be a Group of Five juggernaut. Satterfield already has Power Five experience as the Bearcats rise up to join the Big 12 this year, and although he was in a tough situation at Louisville, he still got them back to the postseason in 2022—where they faced Cincinnati. 

Satterfield’s bringing most of his staff with him, so they’ll know what to expect, and Fickell consistently reeled in high-quality recruiting classes, so there’s a good base of talent. But the Big 12 is competitive, and they’ll need to adjust quickly. 

15) Barry Odom, UNLV

• Age: 46
• Hometown: Ada, Oklahoma
• Alma Mater: Missouri
• Previous Job: Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator/Safeties Coach, Arkansas

How can a Vegas team have such bad luck?

No, not the Raiders, although they’ve certainly tried. 

Marcus Arroyo did his best at the long downtrodden UNLV Rebels program—they’ve only made four bowl games in 30 years and can never seem to play quality defense. Arroyo, a former Oregon and Oklahoma State assistant, made some strides in recruiting and the transfer portal, as well as in the classroom. The Rebels improved every year under his watch, with a winless pandemic campaign in 2020 followed by a 2-10 record in 2021 and then 5-7 in 2022. But athletic director Erick Harper didn’t hire Arroyo originally and decided to move in a different direction only two days after the Rebels beat rival Nevada for the first time in three seasons.

Hiring someone like Odom should help. Yes, he went .500 in the SEC at Missouri, but that’s the SEC. He’s a reliable recruiter and has a solid pedigree as a defensive mind. And yes, UNLV is historically a basketball school, but they play football at sparkling new Allegiant Stadium and their on-campus facilities have improved dramatically in recent years. Can the Rebels finally get over the hump and become relevant in the Mountain West?

16) Jamey Chadwell, Liberty

• Age: 45
• Hometown: Caryville, Tennessee
• Alma Mater: East Tennessee State
• Previous Job: Head Coach, Coastal Carolina

What a difference a month makes.

Sure, it may have been unrealistic to expect Hugh Freeze to stay in Lynchburg forever, and three straight bowl wins was huge for this program. 

But who are the Flames? Are they the hotshot underdogs who jumped off to 7-1 start, upsetting BYU and Arkansas along the way? Or are they the sloppy team that limped to the finish line amidst QB issues and speculation about Freeze leaving for the SEC again?

Freeze did, in fact, leave for the SEC—specifically Auburn—only a month after he was given an extension and raise through 2030. It also came only days after a shocking home loss to New Mexico State. Then a lame-duck coaching staff struggled to get things going in a bowl loss to MAC champion Toledo.

Jamey Chadwell, meanwhile, won 39 games in five seasons at Coastal Carolina, and his unique offense—a mishmash of pistol, spread and triple option concepts—proved to be both effective and entertaining. With that said, Chadwell never scheduled any Power Five programs during his tenure, and the Flames want to be a program that can upset those types of programs.

LU certainly has the talent and overall program investment to be highly competitive in Conference USA, but they’ll be looking for Chadwell to view it as more than a stepping stone job. This fast-rising program will be tested as it enters a new era in more ways than one, and the Flames will be hoping for more consistency against a non-independent schedule.

17) Brent Key, Georgia Tech

• Age: 44
• Hometown: Birmingham, Alabama
• Alma Mater: Georgia Tech
• Previous Job: Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Line Coach/Interim Head Coach, Georgia Tech

The Yellow Jackets knew what they were in for as they transitioned away from Paul Johnson’s triple-option. And Collins seemed like a good fit on paper when he was hired in 2018—a defensive guru with deep roots in the South who proved his head coaching credentials at Temple and was committed to bringing Georgia Tech into the 21st century. Now, three-plus years and a 10-28 record later, he’s gone. 

Either way, after initially making a run at Tulane’s Willie Fritz, Georgia Tech made a smart decision by promoting offensive line coach/interim coach Brent Key after he went .500 down the stretch. He’s a GT alum who’s worked under Nick Saban and had a lengthy run at UCF as well, and he’s still fairly young (44).

There’s no reason that a Power Five program in Atlanta should be this bad. Can the Yellow Jackets finally become a threat again in the increasingly mediocre ACC? Perhaps the removal of the conference’s divisions will help them become more competitive. Duke’s instant turnaround in 2022 under first-year coach Mike Elko could be an ideal blueprint as the Jackets rebuild again.

18) Lance Taylor, Western Michigan

• Age: 41 
• Hometown: Mount Vernon, Alabama
• Alma Mater: Alabama
• Previous Job: Offensive Coordinator, Louisville

Taylor just became the highest-paid coach in WMU history after the school dismissed Tim Lester, an alum, a year after extending him. Taylor has coached at winning programs like Notre Dame, Appalachian State and, most recently, Louisville. He’s a quality recruiter and should be able to give a stagnant Broncos program a jolt. WMU hasn’t played in a conference title game since 2016, when P.J. Fleck was head coach.

19) Troy Taylor, Stanford

• Age: 54
• Hometown: Rancho Cordova, California
• Alma Mater: Cal
• Previous Job: Head Coach, Sacramento State

Call this one a high-risk, high-reward hire. Taylor, 54, has long been rumored for several Pac-12 vacancies in recent seasons, and his resume is Northern California through-and-through, giving him strong regional ties as Stanford rebuilds in an increasingly top-heavy conference.

David Shaw resigned after four straight bowl-less seasons, and the transfer portal has arguably impacted Stanford more than any other program. It’s already tough to recruit there due to the academics, they can’t bring in transfers as well as other schools can, and the program’s talent pipeline to the NFL has dropped considerably in recent years. 

With that said, Taylor was born in LA and raised in Sacramento. He played and coached as an assistant at rival UC-Berkeley, giving their rivalry even more spice. He coached in the Sacramento high school ranks for nine years before becoming offensive coordinator at FCS power Eastern Washington and then two years at Utah before heading to Sac State. While there, he led the Hornets to 30 wins in three seasons – including an undefeated 12-0 regular season mark in 2022 that ended in a 66-63 thriller of a loss to Incarnate Word in the FCS playoffs. 

Taylor is experienced, both in the high schools that Stanford must re-establish strong recruiting links with, and with the Pac-12 schools like Utah that they’re trying to chase. Stanford will eventually regain relevance under Taylor’s watch, but it’s a marathon, not a sprint, so Cardinal fans hoping to buy bowl game tickets in year one might be let down.

20) Kenni Burns, Kent State

• Age: 39
• Hometown: Springfield, Illinois
• Alma Mater: Indiana
• Previous Job: Assistant Head Coach/Running Backs Coach, Minnesota

Despite never even being a coordinator at the college level, Burns has a pretty solid pedigree. He grew up in the Midwest and played at Indiana in the early 2000s, but his coaching career didn’t truly take off until he was snatched up by Craig Bohl in 2010 to be the receivers coach at FCS powerhouse North Dakota State. 

When Bohl left for Wyoming in 2014, Burns followed, and he later did the same for P.J. Fleck at Western Michigan, following him to Big Ten country – the Minnesota Golden Gophers – in 2017. All he’s done since is mentor Mohamed Ibrahim to become the Gophers’ all-time leading rusher. Kent State is a historically tough job, but Burns could be an underrated hire. 

21) Biff Poggi, Charlotte

• Age: 63
• Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland
• Alma Mater: Duke
• Previous Job: Associate Head Coach, Michigan

Will Healy was hired to be a young, energetic coach at a young, energetic program (their first FBS season was 2013). And he had captured a lot of attention with his hot start at Charlotte, leading to the program’s first bowl game in 2019, but the results got steadily worse and the recruiting misses and bad defenses didn’t help. 

Poggi is a polarizing choice, since he’s never even been a coordinator at the FBS level, but he’s got solid credentials as a former Jim Harbaugh assistant at Michigan and helped turn St. Frances Academy and the Gilman School into Maryland prep powerhouses.

With the Charlotte program moving to the American Athletic Conference in 2023, there’s no time to mope around, and they’ll need to make further investments to make the 49ers relevant again. A good place to start is the assistant coaches salary pool, which will be over $2 million for Poggi, and the administration also needs to get higher-level facilities for a program that has the smallest stadium in the FBS (capacity 15,000). 

22) G.J. Kinne, Texas State

• Age: 34
• Hometown: Gilmer, Texas
• Alma Mater: Tulsa
• Previous Job: Head Coach, Incarnate Word

Why is Texas State football so bad? 

It’s a genuinely mystifying question. They’re located in prime real estate: San Marcos, Texas, a stone’s throw away from Austin and one of the fastest-growing cities in the country—in Texas football heartland no less. And yet, the Bobcats have a mere 40-91 record and have never gone bowling since joining the FBS in 2014. What gives? 

Jake Spavital, a young hotshot at Power Five programs like Texas A&M, Cal and West Virginia, took over the struggling Bobcats and managed only 13 wins in four seasons. Their status as a perennial doormat is reinforced by the fact that the Bobcats own a 20-59 record against current Sun Belt schools. Spavital was dismissed after the season finale, later landing back at Cal as the offensive coordinator.

Enter G.J. Kinne, a high-riser in the business and former Tulsa quarterback who is now the youngest head coach in the country, with experience at UCF, Hawai’i and Arkansas under his belt. Last year, he took over an Incarnate Word team and went 12-2 in his first year, reaching the FCS playoff semifinals. Teaching a team how to reject moral victories in favor of actual ones is a big priority for Kinne and his new staff, as is injecting energy into a skeptical Bobcat fan base. 

23) Trent Dilfer, UAB

• Age: 50
• Hometown: Aptos, California
• Alma Mater: Fresno State
• Previous Job: Head Coach, Lipscomb Academy (Nashville, TN) 

And now for something completely different.

A full eight years after killing and then resurrecting one of the worst football programs in the FBS, UAB is suddenly in the driver’s seat. 

They have a brand-new off-campus stadium that replaced the decrepit Legion Field. 

They’ve won and competed for multiple bowl games and conference championships. 

And they have a new conference home as they move from C-USA to the American in 2023. 

What they don’t have is Bill Clark, the architect of the UAB renaissance who went 49-26 in six seasons before stepping down last summer due to chronic back issues that required surgery. Players lobbied for interim head coach Bryant Vincent to take the full-time gig after he went 7-6 in a challenging year, but school administration went outside the box with the hire of Super Bowl-winning quarterback Trent Dilfer. The 50-year-old has never lived in Alabama and has only coached high school football, going 42-10 at Nashville’s Lipscomb Academy from 2018-22. 

But Dilfer does have national name-brand recognition, he’s been regularly featured as a co-host and analyst on ESPN, and he could make a big splash in recruiting. And you can’t take that Super Bowl from him, no matter how mediocre his NFL stats were. 

The Blazers have proved the world wrong before. Can they do it again with a much less experienced coach?

24) Brian Newberry, Navy

• Age: 46
• Alma Mater: Baylor
• Previous Job: Defensive Coordinator, Navy

After three straight losing seasons, plus a double-overtime loss to rival Army, Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo finally called it quits. However mediocre the Midshipmen have been in the past few years, it certainly won’t be easy to replace the winningest coach in academy history. 

Knowing how challenging it is to win consistently in Annapolis – especially now with the transfer portal – athletic director Chet Gladnuck took the conservative route and promoted from within, letting defensive coordinator Brian Newberry take over the full-time head coaching gig, while retaining a commitment to the triple-option offense on the other side of the ball.

Navy has been in the American Athletic Conference since 2015 and has won or shared three divisional titles. However, they’re only 11-23 in the past three seasons and have faced struggles to retain talent. The COVID waivers that allowed athletes at other schools to get an extra year of eligibility thanks to the virus’s impact in 2020 don’t apply to the service academies. At the end of the day, Newberry did just fine as a DC, and Navy was never going to make a splashy hire.