2025-26 College Football Coach Fired/Hired Thread

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LeftofThaDial said:
Kelly is the first LSU coach since Dinardo in ‘99 to leave without a National Title. Saban, Miles and Eddy O all got one.
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Shoot. Does that mean Kelly will be part of BTN broadcasts now?
 






More on LSU From CBS Sports

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry says LSU AD won't hire next football coach: 'We are not going down a failed path'
Landry took an apparent shot at LSU AD Scott Woodward's hiring history during a meeting with the press on Wednesday

By Cameron Salerno
LSU will conduct its second coaching search in four years after firing Brian Kelly last weekend. Don't expect the person who helped poach Kelly from Notre Dame in 2021 to make the next hire. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry told reporters Wednesday that the LSU Board of Supervisors will form a committee to find the school's next coach, rather than leaving the decision to athletic director Scott Woodward.

"We are not going down a failed path," Landry said. "And I wanted to tell you something. This is a pattern. The guy that wrote [Kelly's] contract cost Texas A&M $70-something million. We have a $53 million liability. I believe that we are going to find a great coach … the board of supervisors are going to come up with a committee and they're going to find us a coach."

Woodward has been responsible for two of the largest buyouts in college football history. Before arriving at LSU in 2019, he orchestrated one of the sport's most stunning hires as Texas A&M's athletic director, landing Jimbo Fisher from Florida State.

The Fisher era at Texas A&M fell short of expectations, and the school fired him before the conclusion of the 2023 season. Fisher had signed a 10-year, $95 million extension in 2021, leaving Texas A&M on the hook for a buyout exceeding $76 million.

Kelly is also due a massive payout following last weekend's loss to Texas A&M. His 10-year contract, signed in 2021, paid him $9.4 million this season and still had six years and $58.2 million remaining. His buyout calls for 90% of the remaining salary, totaling $52.38 million.
 

Tech Machine said:
More on LSU From CBS Sports

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry says LSU AD won't hire next football coach: 'We are not going down a failed path'
Landry took an apparent shot at LSU AD Scott Woodward's hiring history during a meeting with the press on Wednesday

By Cameron Salerno
LSU will conduct its second coaching search in four years after firing Brian Kelly last weekend. Don't expect the person who helped poach Kelly from Notre Dame in 2021 to make the next hire. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry told reporters Wednesday that the LSU Board of Supervisors will form a committee to find the school's next coach, rather than leaving the decision to athletic director Scott Woodward.

"We are not going down a failed path," Landry said. "And I wanted to tell you something. This is a pattern. The guy that wrote [Kelly's] contract cost Texas A&M $70-something million. We have a $53 million liability. I believe that we are going to find a great coach … the board of supervisors are going to come up with a committee and they're going to find us a coach."

Woodward has been responsible for two of the largest buyouts in college football history. Before arriving at LSU in 2019, he orchestrated one of the sport's most stunning hires as Texas A&M's athletic director, landing Jimbo Fisher from Florida State.

The Fisher era at Texas A&M fell short of expectations, and the school fired him before the conclusion of the 2023 season. Fisher had signed a 10-year, $95 million extension in 2021, leaving Texas A&M on the hook for a buyout exceeding $76 million.

Kelly is also due a massive payout following last weekend's loss to Texas A&M. His 10-year contract, signed in 2021, paid him $9.4 million this season and still had six years and $58.2 million remaining. His buyout calls for 90% of the remaining salary, totaling $52.38 million.
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It seems that a good start would be to fire the AD.
 






Rhule signs 2 year extension, which more importantly leads to his buyout going up 15 mil which means he's going to be staying put I'd say. That being said, they're also paying him 11mil a year which rises to 12.5 by the end of the deal with additional $1mil bonuses to the rest of his contract if he makes the playoff at any time. that is complete insanity for a resume that looks worse than PJ Flecks and really the only job he'd be a "candidate" for would be PSU. Great job by his agent lol

www.espn.com

Sources: Nebraska signs Rhule through 2032

Nebraska has signed coach Matt Rhule to a two-year contract extension which will take him through the 2032 season, sources told ESPN.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 



upnorthkid said:
Rhule signs 2 year extension, which more importantly leads to his buyout going up 15 mil which means he's going to be staying put I'd say. That being said, they're also paying him 11mil a year which rises to 12.5 by the end of the deal with additional $1mil bonuses to the rest of his contract if he makes the playoff at any time. that is complete insanity for a resume that looks worse than PJ Flecks and really the only job he'd be a "candidate" for would be PSU. Great job by his agent lol

www.espn.com

Sources: Nebraska signs Rhule through 2032

Nebraska has signed coach Matt Rhule to a two-year contract extension which will take him through the 2032 season, sources told ESPN.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
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That begs the question: What will PJ's extension and raise look like this year?
 

swede2 said:
That begs the question: What will PJ's extension and raise look like this year?
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tbh idk if he gets one. Rhule I think only did because of panic about PSU. His name has been brought up but feels like that's only because no one views MN as a destination job and he's young enough. Maybe someone will throw the bag at him, but I think there are farrr more guys who are going to get looked at aggressively before PJ such as Golesh USF, Sumrall Tulane, Morris UNT and Silverfield Memphis who carry a little more pep/hype from the G5 and then guys like Lashlee SMU, Drinkwitz Mizzou, Campbell ISU, Lea Vandy or Franklin who all have better resumes than PJ and are at best viewed as at an equal level as MN.
PJ is so damn boring it probably hinders him getting hired at some places. Maybe if they run the table and finish 10-3 sure, but another 7-8 win season I don't think is going to make PSU, Florida, LSU want to pay him the 10+mil a year it will take to get him to move.
That said since it seems PJs agent owns Coyle, I'm sure PJ will get another 1-2mil/year for some random reason lol
 
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The Athletic: perfect coaching fits?​

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6758442/2025/10/29/james-franklin-lane-kiffin-coaching-fits/

Eight Power 4 jobs are open right now. Seven are up for grabs because of in-season firings, and one will be because Stanford is doing the Frank Reich thing for a year. More are coming, perhaps some or all of these five among them: Auburn, Kentucky, Florida State, Michigan State and Wisconsin.

Since this is all so much fun — agents schooling schools on these contracts, schools quickly giving up on coaches and paying enormous sums for them to go away, then hitting up the donors for even more to help pay off the last coach and give the new coach a better shot at winning — let’s just go with the baker’s dozen and match 13 jobs with 13 ideal new coaches.

We’ve got different buckets when it comes to potential matches. First, to be clear, the absence of “slam-dunk” candidates for these jobs does not mean there’s a shortage of good candidates. Given the trends, it might actually (and accidentally) result in more successful hires.

Sitting Power 4 head coaches who may be enticed to move: Kiffin, Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham, Cal’s Justin Wilcox, Cincinnati’s Scott Satterfield, Duke’s Manny Diaz, Georgia Tech’s Brent Key, Houston’s Willie Fritz, Iowa State’s Matt Campbell, Louisville’s Jeff Brohm, Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz, Nebraska’s Matt Rhule, SMU’s Rhett Lashlee, Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea, Washington’s Jedd Fisch
If Oklahoma were one of our hypothetical openings, Tennessee’s Josh Heupel would be on here, too.

Group of 5 head coaches: Army’s Jeff Monken, James Madison’s Bob Chesney, Memphis’ Ryan Silverfield, North Texas’ Eric Morris, San Jose State’s Ken Niumatalolo, South Florida’s Alex Golesh, Texas State’s GJ Kinne, Tulane’s Jon Sumrall, UNLV’s Dan Mullen, UTSA’s Jeff Traylor

Just-fired (or hypothetically fired for this exercise) head coaches: Kelly, Luke Fickell, James Franklin, Hugh Freeze, Billy Napier, Mike Norvell, Jonathan Smith, Mark Stoops

We can’t consider Sam Pittman, Mike Gundy, DeShaun Foster or Brent Pry as viable Power 4 candidates at this point.

Hot coordinators: Georgia Tech OC Buster Faulkner, Miami OC Shannon Dawson, Ohio State OC Brian Hartline, Oklahoma OC Ben Arbuckle, Oregon OC Will Stein, Atlanta Falcons OC Zac Robinson, Baltimore Ravens OC Todd Monken, Buffalo Bills OC Joe Brady, Cleveland Browns OC Tommy Rees, Denver Broncos defensive pass game coordinator Jim Leonhard, Detroit Lions DC Kelvin Sheppard

Other: Pat Fitzgerald, Jon Gruden, Urban Meyer

That’s 46 coaches for 13 jobs. Other names could be in the mix, but I’ll bet the actual 2026 possessors of those jobs are among the 46. Also, we’re going to create more Power 4 openings as we go, and we’ll fill those too. Let’s get to matchmaking, in order of job attractiveness.

LSU: Lane Kiffin​

Florida: Eli Drinkwitz​

Penn State: Bob Chesney​

Auburn: Alex Golesh​

Florida State: Will Stein​

Wisconsin: Jeff Monken​

Michigan State: Pat Fitzgerald​

Ole Miss: Dan Mullen​

Arkansas: Ryan Silverfield​

Virginia Tech: James Franklin​

Missouri: Mike Norvell​

Kentucky: Jon Sumrall​

UCLA: Eric Morris​

Oklahoma State: Zac Robinson​

Stanford: Todd Monken​

 

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