FIU fires head football coach Mike MacIntyre

Florida International University fired head football coach Mike MacIntyre on Sunday, according to On3’s Pete Nakos. His firing comes on the heels of a 4-8 season in 2024. The team finished 6th in C-USA. During his tenure at FIU, the Golden Panthers went 4-8 for three straight seasons. His initial contract he signed with the school paid him a base salary of $750,000 annually.

He also recently made some comments in a press conference that were not well received by the FIU fan base on November 19th. MacIntyre was asked whether the 2025 season was a “make or break year” for him and the Golden Panthers. He responded by saying, “this program hasn’t had a good history at all since the beginning of it.”

He received plenty of backlash for those comments and MacIntyre was ultimately forced to apologize. FIU defensive coordinator Jovan Dewitt has been named the interim coach for the time being.

MacIntyre took over the program in 2021, after Butch Davis led the Golden Panthers to a 1-16 overall record in his final two seasons there. Before joining FIU, MacIntyre spent time as the defensive coordinator for the Memphis Tigers (2020-2021) and Ole Miss (2019).

In December of 2022, MacIntyre signed a contract extension with FIU that was supposed to keep him in Miami through the 2027 football season. FIU’s back-to-back wins over Charlotte and Louisiana Tech midway through the 2022 season was the first time the program had won two straight games since October of 2019. The team didn’t have a victory over a Division I-A opponent since 2019 and MacIntyre guided the Golden Panthers to three of those in 2022 (New Mexico State, Charlotte, and Louisiana Tech).

MacIntyre went 16-21 at San Jose State, guiding them to 10 wins and a No. 21 finish in 2012. He was born in Miami, Florida, where his father, George MacIntyre, scouted for the University of Miami.