Every season, a bunch of coaches change jobs, whether by choice or not. Each situation they find themselves in now is unique. Here are the new college football coaches in new places for 2025.
ACC
North Carolina Tar Heels: Bill Belichick
One of the NFL’s greatest coaches is trying his hand at college football. While North Carolina lost a lot of talent from last year’s team, they did get plenty of transfers in to help. The expectation with a coach like Belichick will be to compete, and soon, but adjusting to the college game could be hard.
Wake Forest Demon Deacons: Jake Dickert
Dickert won eight games at Washington State last season, which was impressive given that their conference disbanded. He had a 23-20 record at Washington State in 3.5 seasons. Now, he will be tasked with turning around a Wake Forest program that hasn’t gone to a bowl game since 2022 and hasn’t won a league title since 2006.
Stanford Cardinal: Frank Reich
Reich takes over after being hired by his former quarterback Andrew Luck, the new GM of Stanford football. He is only expected to be there for a season while the search for a permanent coach goes on. Troy Taylor was under investigation due to treatment of players, which forced this awkward situation Reich will be in. They are projected to finish near the bottom of the ACC, but Reich’s coaching experience could help.
Big Ten
Purdue Boilermakers: Barry Odom
Odom didn’t work out as Missouri’s coach, but did a fantastic job at UNLV. He went 20-8 over two seasons. He’ll take over a tricky power four job in Purdue, where plenty of their top players decided to leave in the transfer portal. Odom will also be without his offensive coordinator from his time at UNLV, Brennan Marion. It will be an uphill battle for Odom, but so was UNLV.
Big 12
UCF Knights: Scott Frost
Frost decided to return to UCF after his stop at Nebraska was unsuccessful. He went 16-31 at Nebraska, but was 19-7 in his first stint at UCF, which included a 13-0 season. It is a different era of college football, so Frost will have to prove himself again, but his familiarity will help.
West Virginia Mountaineers: Rich Rodriguez
The Big 12 has a couple of coaches taking a job they previously had. Rodriguez posted a 62-20 record during his first time around at West Virginia. He has a 136-92 record overall in his career. This is his first job in a major conference since he led Arizona in 2017, but his knowledge of offense could give him an edge.
SEC
N/A
Group of Five
Appalachian State Mountaineers: Dowell Loggains
Loggains has experience as an NFL assistant and a college one as well. He’ll be tasked with restoring Appalachian State to being a tough group of five team after they won just five games last year.
Ball State Cardinals: Mike Uremovich
After Uremovich did a good job at the FCS level, he is now getting his shot in the FBS. He coached Butler and now will stay in-state to coach Ball State, which should help.
Bowling Green Falcons: Eddie George
The former Ohio State and NFL great Eddie George moved up from Tennessee State to Bowling Green. He takes over a team that made a bowl game last season, but has a lot to replace.
Central Michigan Chippewas: Matt Drinkall
Drinkall has worked his way up as an assistant and should bring some physicality, as he was formerly Army’s offensive line coach. He’ll focus on running the ball and hope that Central Michigan can make their first bowl game since 2021.
Charlotte 49ers: Tim Albin
Albin was the coach at Ohio for the last four seasons. Last season, he won the MAC Championship and will be tasked with a larger rebuild at Charlotte than he had at Ohio.
East Carolina Pirates: Blake Harrell
ECU hired Harrell as a defensive coordinator and then kept him as an interim coach. He had an impressive 5-1 record in that role, so they decided to keep him permanently. Quarterback Katin Houser returns, but Harrell will have a lot of other new players to count on in 2025.
Florida Atlantic Owls: Zach Kittley
Kittley is a Texas Tech alum who spent the last few seasons as the school’s offensive coordinator. He will hope to bring a more explosive offense to FAU after they averaged 25.9 points per game last season.
Florida International Panthers: Willie Simmons
Simmons has some experience as a head coach, with stints at Prairie View A&M and Florida A&M. More recently, he was Run Game Coordinator for Duke last season. Now he gets his shot at the FBS level at FIU, but will have a big rebuild job to do.
Fresno State Bulldogs: Matt Entz
Entz was the head coach of North Dakota State, but left that job to be the assistant head coach and linebackers coach at USC. One year after that, he takes over for Fresno State. The Bulldogs have a lot of new players, but have the infrastructure to help Entz succeed long-term.
Jacksonville State Gamecocks: Charles Kelly
Kelly is a long-time defensive assistant with time spent at Georgia Tech, Florida State, Tennessee, Alabama, Colorado and Auburn. He is finally getting his chance to be a head coach and his experience will help, but it will be a different situation at Jacksonville State than he has seen in recent memory.
Kennesaw State Owls: Jerry Mack
While he had some experience in college, Mack was more recently an assistant in the NFL. Last season, Mack was the running backs coach for Jacksonville. Kennesaw State is still new to the FBS and has a long way to go in terms of being competitive.
Kent State Golden Flashes: Mark Carney
Carney is the interim coach for Kent State after being hired as the offensive coordinator. Kent State has had some rough years recently and the administration might want to clear house if he doesn’t start turning things around this season, despite just getting the job.
Marshall Thundering Herd: Tony Gibson
Gibson was a defensive coach for NC State and West Virginia recently. Marshall had to replace a lot of players who left and followed Charles Huff, making this job a bit harder than it should be.
Massachusetts Minutemen: Joe Harasymiak
Harasymiak was the Rutgers DC last year, but also spent time at Minnesota. He takes one of the toughest jobs in the country, as UMass has had its issues, but at least now he’ll play in the MAC.
New Mexico Lobos: Jason Eck
Eck did a great job at Idaho in the FCS the last few years. That same energy he put into making Idaho great will be needed at New Mexico. The Lobos did win five games last season, but are expected to do a little worse, so it may take a few seasons to find success.
Ohio Bobcats: Brian Smith
Smith has plenty of experience as an offesnive coordinator, with time spent at Hawaii, Washington State and Ohio. He’ll have some remaining talent at Ohio to work wtih, so a bowl game can be achieved early on in his tenure.
Rice Owls: Scott Abell
Abell was the coach at Davidson in the FCS level, but now moves up to the FBS. He won’t have an easy job at Rice, who will have troubles competing in the American.
Sam Houston State Bearkats: Phil Longo
Longo was the offensive coordinator at Sam Houston State from 2014-2016, but now returns as the head coach. There are expectations that the roster can compete in the C-USA and his offensive knowledge could help.
Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles: Charles Huff
Huff left Marshall after he wasn’t extended. He brings a lot of his former Marshall players with him, which gives Southern Miss a decent chance of making a bowl game, though it won’t be easy.
Temple Owls: KC Keeler
Keeler did a good job at Sam Houston State the last 11 years, but now moves over to Temple. The Owls have had some good seasons, but haven’t been great as of late and need a kickstart.
UNLV Rebels: Dan Mullen
Mullen was working on TV since being let go by Florida. He seems re-energized and has a solid roster to work with in his first year back as head coach. Competing in the Mountain West should come as early as this season.
Utah State Aggies: Bronco Mendenhall
Mendenhall was at New Mexico last season and won five games in a tough situation. He had some time off before that after coaching at Virginia and BYU. Coaching in Utah seems to be the most up his alley, but he’ll have another tough situation to start his tenure, as Utah State won just four games last season.
Washington State Cougars: Jimmy Rogers
Rogers was a successful coach at South Dakota of the FCS level. He now moves up to Washington State, where he will coach a program that is going through a lot with all of the conference realignment.
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