5 takeaways from the 2022 coaching carousel

The 2022 coaching carousel has reached its complete cycle. For now at least. 

All 24 FBS openings have been filled, though this season’s carousel could start spinning again depending on what happens when the NFL firing/hiring cycle heats up.

This fall’s cycle certainly started with a bang — Nebraska firing Scott Frost in Week 2 — but the silly season wasn’t quite as dizzying as last year’s bonkers coaching carousel. 

Still, several marquee programs were looking for a new head coach, and as CBS Sports noted recently, “more than 40% of available jobs have changed hands in the last two years alone.”

So with a pause in the action, here are five takeaways from the 2022 coaching carousel:

LET’S GET OFFENSIVE 

In today’s modern game of spread offenses and pass-happy schemes, ADs continue to prioritize candidates with offensive backgrounds. 

Hot-shot Illinois DC Ryan Walters was a surprise hire by Purdue and Colorado’s Deion Sanders and Charlotte’s Biff Pogi kind of belong in their own categories, but otherwise, the majority of first-time FBS head coaches this cycle went to candidates whose resume read: “I score points.”

We’re talking Oregon OC Kenny Dillingham to Arizona State, Tennessee OC Alex Golesh to USF, NC State OC Tim Beck to Coastal Carolina, Washington State OC Eric Morris to North Texas, Incarnate Word HC GJ Kinnie to Texas State, former NFL QB Trent Dilfer to UAB, Sacramento State HC Troy Taylor to Stanford and Louisville OC Lance Taylor to Western Michigan. 

Though not “first-time” FBS coaches, obviously Hugh Freeze, Tom Herman, Jeff Brohm, Scott Satterfield and Jamey Chadwell were all hired partly because of their offensive acumen, too. 

Two other outliers this cycle were the final two jobs that came open — both eventually going to the interim head coaches who were previously DCs. Mississippi State promoted DC Zach Arnett following Mike Leach’s tragic death, and in a strange situation where details remain sparse, Navy DC Brian Newberry replaced the school’s all-time winningest coach Ken Nimuatalolo.

RETREADS REMAIN IN VOGUE

While not all ex-head coach hires are equal, it’s becoming more common in recent years for ADs to circle back toward candidates who have previous head coaching experience.

With all the changes in the sport — NIL, transfer portal, multiple signing periods — it’s not nothing to have someone who’s sat in the big-boy chair before. 

A year ago, there were six retread hires, and Jim Mora, Jeff Tedford, Jerry Kill and Clay Helton all had teams who exceeded expectations (with either good or decent seasons) in 2022. This fall’s cycle nearly produced as many (5) retread hires despite far fewer openings. 

Matt Rhule flunked his NFL audition, but the former Baylor head coach has an impressive college coaching resume, especially giving life to moribund programs, so Nebraska is hoping he pulls off the same magic trick in Lincoln. 

FAU (Tom Herman), Tulsa (Kevin Wilson) and UNLV (Barry Odom) all opted for coaches with a more proven track record compared to a first-time coordinator or lifelong assistant. 

Hugh Freeze is semi in his own category here, but he is a retread hire in name, too, getting freeze’d out of a Power 5 job for six years before Auburn brought him back to the SEC. 

There was the potential for several other retread hires, too, as former Florida coach Dan Mullen turned down multiple opportunities to return to the sidelines, opting instead to collect his nice buyout check and stay on TV.

Meanwhile, Bronco Mendenhall was interested in getting back into the game for next season, as was recently-retired UAB coach Bill Clark.

THE WE NEED AN UPGRADE/FRESH FACE/BIG-NAME HIRE BEFORE JOINING A NEW CONFERENCE CLUB

With conference realignment constantly shifting the tectonic plates within the sport, ADs seem more apt to pull the trigger for a new coach before their school changes leagues. 

There were four such instances in 2022: Charlotte, North Texas, FAU and UAB. All four schools are leveling up next fall, and they opted for a fresh start amid the transition. 

Two other schools changing conferences (Liberty is moving into the C-USA and Cincinnati joins the Big 12) needed to fill open vacancies this December, and both opted for candidates with prior experience navigating conference realignment. 

Chadwell helped Coastal Carolina transition into the Sun Belt, while Cincy reportedly valued Scott Satterfield — otherwise a very odd choice as Luke Fickell’s replacement with the Bearcats — due to his time navigating Appalachian State from the FCS to the Sun Belt. 

THE LACK OF DIVERSITY HIRES ISN’T GOING AWAY 

College football continued a troubling trend this coaching cycle, seeing a select few minorities get head coaching opportunities. 

In last season’s cycle, six minorities were hired out of 30 openings. That’s around 20%. That figure dropped to just over 16% in 2022, as only four minorities were hired for head coaching jobs: Deion Sanders, Ryan Walters, Lance Taylor and Kenni Burns. 

Walters and Taylor were the lone two black coordinators to earn promotions this cycle. 

Colorado has been an outlier in hiring minorities, hiring three connective black coaches in Sanders, Karl Dorrell and Mel Tucker. Kent State also has a strong track record of minority hires, as Burns is the Golden Flash’s third black coach (Darrell Hazell and Paul Haynes) since 2010. 

But this year’s coaching carousel actually produced a net negative for diversity hires, as five coaches of color were fired this cycle (Arizona State’s Herm Edwards, Dorrell at Colorado, UNLV’s Marcus Arroyo, FAU’s Willie Taggert and Navy’s Ken Nimuatalolo) and another resigned (Stanford’s David Shaw) on his own accord. 

FINAL THOUGHTS 

Of the 24 openings, the following hires made complete sense: Rhule to Nebraska, Dillingham taking over his alma mater at Arizona State, both Group of 5 Texas vacancies going to successful Texas play-callers (Kinnie to Texas State and Morris to North Texas), Freeze returning to the SEC at Auburn, Walters taking his Big Ten West boa constrictor  defense to Purdue, Taylor getting a MAC job, Zach Arnett earning a promotion following the tragic death of Mike Leach, Furman getting back in the game in a spot he can win and then getting anther P5 job, Luke Fickell jumping to Wisconsin, Jeff Brohm going home to Louisville, Chadwell taking the cash at Liberty and Deion to Colorado. 

While many were initially confused by Sanders landing in Boulder, the Buffs’ program has been among the most popular teams in all of college football since he was hired. 

Now, I have no idea if any of these hires will ultimately work out, which is why I’m not doing grades here, but the marriages at least check out. 

There are at least reasons for skepticism with some of the other hires, though. 

Golesh was a terrific offensive mind at UCF and Tennessee, but we’ll see if he can succeed at USF — which doubled down on hiring an up-and-coming coordinator with no HC experience in two straight cycles.  

I have no idea what to think of Poggi at Charlotte (who essentially hired a fund-raiser as a football coach), Dilfer at UAB (they went for a splashy name over more seasoned candidates) or Odom at UNLV. 

Beck at Coastal and Key at Georgia Tech weren’t the most inspiring hires but I could see both working out in the short term. 

Then there’s Satterfield to Cincy. 

Fickell shocked much of the industry when he bounced for the Badgers’ opening — not because people were surprised he would eventually leave the Bearcats’ program. But that it would be for a job like Wisconsin — and that Wisconsin was interested in anyone not named Jim Leonhard. 

Fickell seemingly believed he’d max’d out what he could accomplish at Cincy and moved on now before the job got harder playing mostly against teams within the Texas footprint of the Big 12. 

That Fickell’s decision created an escape route for Satterfield to bolt up I-71 and find a reset after wearing out his welcome in Louisville was quite entertaining. Satterfield pounced on a fresh start, and don’t be shocked to see more coaches chase similar parachute exits in next year’s coaching cycle with the churn unlikely to slow down.