The coaching carousel is spinning following one of the wildest college football seasons of the modern era. Does that mean a silly season is upon us as well?
We’re up to 20 changes in the FBS following the regular season, but only four jobs in power conferences are open. It’s expected to be a historically slow cycle for the power conferences, but that isn’t stopping the AAC, arguably the strongest non-power league, from shaking things up. Six programs have made changes at the top to culminate a wild year in the conference where Army and Navy made headlines for their hot starts before first-year coach Jon Sumrall pushed Tulane into the conference title game to face the Black Knights.
On the Sunday after the regular season, there were few head-coaching changes but not many surprises. The biggest shocker was the resignation of UCF head coach Gus Malzahn, who departed to become the offensive coordinator at Florida State. It’s an emergence of a new trend in the sport: head coaches leaving for assistant coaching gigs. Chip Kelly did the same in 2023 when he left UCLA for Ohio State.
Two other coaches have entered retirement with the departures of North Carolina’s Mack Brown and Central Michigan’s Jim McElwain.
The SEC remains the only power conference without a change at head coach, though the coaching carousel has just begun spinning. Does that mean a big churn is coming for the league in 2025?
CBS Sports is tracking every move in the 2024-25 cycle and grading each hire below.
