Cristobal leads ranking of college coaching hires
College football had 29 head-coaching changes for the 2022 season. That’s the most since 29 for the 2016 season.
Some of the changes included big names. Lincoln Riley. Mario Cristobal. Brian Kelly. Some were not. Don Brown. Ken Wilson. Stan Drayton.
But some will be home-run hires. Some will be strikeouts. Check back in five years from now.
There are ways to guess, though. Experience. Track record. Regional ties. Program awareness.
Here are the 29 coaching changes, ranked from best to worst:
1. Mario Cristobal, Miami: Cristobal left a better job, Oregon, for the Hurricanes. And that’s because he’s a fabulous fit in Miami. Cristobal, 51, grew up in Miami, the son of Cuban-Americans, and played football at the U. from 198992.
His brother is a Miami police officer. Cristobal coached six years on the Miami staff, then became head coach at Florida International, where he twice took the Golden Panthers to bowl games, 2010-11.
2. Lincoln Riley, Southern Cal: Hate him or loathe him, Riley is a perfect fit for USC. Offensive-minded in a league that’s not all that tough, able to attract quarterbacks to glitzy Los Angeles and a big name, which is needed in SoCal.
He has no California ties, but USC is like Oklahoma, a national brand. The only question about Riley is, can he build a program? OU was a turnkey operation.
3. Don Brown, Massachusetts: Believe it or not, UMass football once was successful. In 2006, the Minutemen made the NCAA Division I-AA championship game. UMass’ coach then was Don Brown. His five-year record of 43-19 with the Minutemen is a far cry from the current state of Massachusetts football.
In the 10 years since the Minutemen ascended to Division I-A, UMass is a combined 20-92. Brown left in 2009 to become defensive coordinator at Maryland.
4. Brent Venables, Oklahoma: The OU model is to hire a youngish assistant coach, preferably with Sooner ties, and it worked swimmingly with Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer, Chuck Fairbanks, Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley.
Venables is youthful in appearance and attitude, but he’s 51. The aforementioned coaches were all in their 30s when handed the Schooner reins. But Venables has incredible pedigree, working for Bill Snyder, Stoops and Dabo Swinney.
5. Mike MacIntyre, Florida International: MacIntyre, 57, has done well in difficult situations. He was 16-21 in three years as head coach at San Jose State, a winning percentage of .432 that is the Spartans’ best in the last 30 years.
MacIntyre also was 30-44 in six years at Colorado (2013-18), which doesn’t sound great, but all five Buffalo coaches since Gary Barnett’s 2005 firing have had losing records.
6. Mike Elko, Duke: Elko, 44, has been living the high life as defensive coordinator at Notre Dame and Texas A&M in recent years, but Elko worked three seasons (2014-16) as defensive coordinator at Wake Forest, the closest likeness to Duke football as you can get.
Elko worked 12 years for Wake head coach Dave Clawson; now they’ll be Atlantic Coast Conference rivals.
7. Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame: In the Fiesta Bowl, Oklahoma State fans got a sneak preview of Freeman, who was Brian Kelly’s defensive coordinator and was promoted after Kelly left for LSU.
Freeman is just 35, and he played at Ohio State from 2004-08, so Freeman’s experience is limited. But he zoomed up the ladder, serving four years as Cincinnati’s defensive coordinator (2017-20) before joining the Notre Dame staff.
8. Joe Moorhead, Akron: The Zips went 3-24 in three seasons under Tom Arth, a youngish coach. Akron has gone the other direction and seems to have struck gold with the 48-year-old Moorhead.
Moorhead, born in Pittsburgh, spent five years on the Akron staff (2004-08) and has been head coach at Fordham (38-13 record, 2012-15) and Mississippi State (14-12, 2018-19).
9. Dan Lanning, Oregon: Lanning was the nation’s hottest assistant coach in 2021. He prominently was mentioned as a potential OU candidate.
Lanning, 36, was Georgia’s defensive coordinator the past three seasons. As recently as 2010, Lanning was specialteams coordinator at Park Hill South High School in suburban Kansas City.
10. Jay Norvell, Colorado State: CSU made an intraconference hire, getting Norvell from Nevada, where he went 3326 in five seasons as head coach.
Norvell, 59, is a former Bob Stoops assistant at OU. Norvell’s Mountain West Conference experience should come in handy with the Rams; CSU is considered a better job than is Nevada.
11. Sonny Dykes, Texas Christian: Dykes, 52, isn’t a perfect fit in Fort Worth, only because he seemed an even more perfect fit in Lubbock. Texas Tech, where Spike Dykes (Sonny’s father) was a popular and successful 13-year head coach, was looking for a coach. But TCU is a great spot for Sonny Dykes, too.
12. Brian Kelly, Louisiana State: Kelly is a world-class coach. He’s won big everywhere he’s been, most recently returning Notre Dame to its previous status as a traditional power.
The Fighting Irish have made the national championship game or the College Football Playoff thrice in the last 10 years.
13. Kalen DeBoer, Washington: DeBoer, 47, has tremendous offensive pedigree and some promising head-coaching experience, at NAIA Sioux Falls and the last two years at Fresno State.
DeBoer’s Bulldogs in 2021 beat UCLA and almost beat Oregon.
14. Ken Wilson, Nevada: Wilson, 58, grew up in the Midwest and played at North Central College in Illinois.
But Wilson arrived in Reno, Nevada, in 1989 and stayed 24 years, with two stints on the football staff with a fiveyear run in the middle as an associate athletic director.
15. Jerry Kill, New Mexico State: Kill, 60, is a football lifer. His most notable stretch was five years at Minnesota, where he went 29-29 from 2011-15. But he also was head coach at Saginaw Valley State, Emporia State, Southern Illinois and Northern Illinois, and as recently as last autumn was TCU’s interim coach after Gary Patterson’s departure.
16. Jake Dickert, Washington State: Dickert, 38, was Nick Rolovich’s defensive coordinator. Dickert took over after Rolovich was fired in mid-season for not getting the COVID vaccine. The Cougars were 4-3 under Rolovich, then 3-3 under Dickert.
The players rallied around Dickert, who brought much-needed stability. Think about it. Mike Leach left WSU after the 2019 season. Rolovich took over, and Covid hit.
17. Jon Sumrall, Troy: Mark Stoops’ co-defensive coordinator at Kentucky, Sumrall, 39, has Troy experience — he was the Trojans’ assistant head coach 2015-17 and reportedly was a finalist when Chip Lindsey was hired as head coach for 2018.
18. Jeff Tedford, Fresno State: The Bulldogs know exactly what they’re getting in the 60-year-old Tedford, who was a star quarterback at Fresno State in the 1980s and who coached the Bulldogs to a 26-14 record from 2017-19 before resigning due to health reasons.
19. Stan Drayton, Temple: Drayton, 51, was Steve Sarkisian’s running backs coach at Texas last season. But most of his career has been spent in the upper Midwest, and Drayton spent five years on the staffs of either Penn or Villanova, so he knows Philadelphia.
20. Jim Mora Jr., Connecticut: Mora, 60, is a big name for most any school, much less Connecticut. Mora has been head coach at UCLA, the Seattle Seahawks and the Atlanta Falcons.
Mora was 31-33 in the National Football League and was 46-30 at UCLA; the latter is the best Bruins’ record since Terry Donahue’s 1995 retirement.
21. Billy Napier, Florida: Napier, 42, was a big winner at Louisiana-Lafayette, going 40-12 in four seasons. And he’s got experience as an assistant at big-time programs Clemson and Alabama.
But Southeastern Conference schools hit about .500 hiring mid-major head coaches.
22. Michael Desormeaux, Louisiana-Lafayette: Desormeaux, 36, is all Cajun and Ragin’ Cajun. Born and raised in New Iberia, Louisiana, Desormeaux played quarterback at ULL.
Then he coached high school at his alma mater, New Iberia Catholic, and in Lafayette.
23. Brent Pry, Virginia Tech: An 11year James Franklin lieutenant, first at Vanderbilt and then at Penn State, the 51-year-old Pry has limited Hokie ties.
He was a Virginia Tech graduate assistant from 1995-97, working for retired, legendary defensive coordinator Bud Foster.
24. Clay Helton, Georgia Southern: Georgia Southern gets Helton on the rebound; he was fired by Southern Cal last September, two games into his seventh season as the Trojan head coach.
Helton’s records of 46-24 overall and 36-13 in the Pac-12 were not up to USC’s standards, but no SC coach since Pete Carroll has come close to the Trojan standard.
25. Tony Elliott, Virginia: Venables was not the only long-time Clemson coordinator to leave after the 2021 season.
Elliott, 42, played at Clemson, then coached at South Carolina State and Furman before joining Dabo Swinney’s staff in 2011.
26. Rhett Lashlee, Southern Methodist: Lashlee was a high-school quarterback at Shiloh Christian in Springdale, Arkansas, where his head coach was Gus Malzahn.
27. Sonny Cumbie, Louisiana Tech: Cumbie, 40, quarterbacked Texas Tech under Mike Leach, then got into coaching and has coordinated offenses at Texas Christian and Texas Tech. But Cumbie never has been part of a mid-major operation. That’s always dicey.
28. Joey McGuire, Texas Tech: A little more than five years ago, McGuire had just completed his 22nd season as a Texas high school football coach.
Then he joined Matt Rhule’s Baylor staff and immediately was hailed as an up-and-comer.
29. Timmy Chang, Hawaii: Chang, 40, returns to his alma mater, where as a quarterback he set the NCAA record for passing yards.
But Chang was not the Rainbow Warriors’ first choice. Hawaii wanted Chang’s Hawaii coach, June Jones, but Jones publicly rejected the job, saying the Rainbow Warriors were offering just a two-year contract, with stipulations on who had to be on the staff.