Power 5 coaches’ backgrounds show there’s no ‘right’ way to hire a coach

Mid-May means the dog days of summer already have arrived for college football. Spring practice is over and the season still is 3½ months away. Still, the season is drawing closer and part of the time waiting on the first kickoff will be spent discussing which Power 5 coaches are on the hot seat.

Last year at this time, there were rampant discussions about the futures of Jim Harbaugh at Michigan, Chip Kelly at UCLA, Clay Helton at USC and Ed Orgeron at USC. As it turned out, Harbaugh went to the College Football Playoff, Kelly had his best season with the Bruins and Helton and Orgeron were fired before the season ended.

We’re not discussing who’s on the hot seat today or who is best-positioned to move into a Power 5 job; that comes later. Instead, we looked into the background of the 65 Power 5 coaches – specifically, what they were doing before they were hired for their current job.

Monday, we pointed out that – as a whole – the Power 5 coaches haven’t been in their jobs all that long. Part of that is because there is no tried-and-true method to hiring a successful Power 5 coach. Some takeaways from our research:

+ Almost 30 percent of the Power 5 coaches (19 of 65, 29.2 percent) were Group of 5 coaches when they were hired. But just four of the 19 have coached at their current schools longer than five seasons, and three of those are in the ACC (Syracuse’s Dino Babers, Wake Forest’s Dave Clawson and NC State’s Dave Doeren); the other is Iowa State’s Matt Campbell.

+ The second-most prevalent former job was Power 5 defensive coordinator, with 15. Interestingly, six of the 15 are first-year coaches, and three others have coached two or fewer seasons at their current school.

+ Eight of the 65 current FBS coaches moved from one Power 5 job to another, including three hired this cycle (Miami’s Mario Cristobal, LSU’s Brian Kelly and USC’s Lincoln Riley).

+ Seven are former Power 5 offensive coordinators, with three of those being promoted from within and one a new hire.

+ The fifth-most prevalent former job was college position coach, with five. And two of the five – Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald – are among the 10 longest-tenured coaches in the FBS ranks.

+ Speaking of the longest-tenured coaches, their backgrounds vary wildly in terms of previous jobs. The longest-tenured coach is Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, who was an NFL offensive line coach when hired. Tied for second-longest are Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy and Utah’s Kyle Whittingham, who were promoted from within after serving as offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator, respectively. The fourth-longest is Fitzgerald, a former position coach. And the fifth-longest tenure belongs to Alabama’s Nick Saban, who was an NFL coach when hired by the Tide. See, wildly varying backgrounds, though three of the five are “defensive guys.”

+ The background of the coaches in last season’s College Football Playoff? Two former Power 5 defensive coordinators and two former NFL head coaches (coincidentally, the only two former NFL head coaches currently in the FBS ranks). One of the former P5 DCs, of course, now coaches at a Group of 5 school.

Here’s a look at the 65 FBS coaches, grouped by the job they had before being hired by their current employer. At the bottom is a look by league.

NOTE: New coaches are denoted with an asterisk (14 of the 29 new coaches this season took over at Power 5 programs)

Group of 5 coach (19)

Auburn: Bryan Harsin (from Boise State)
Florida: Billy Napier* (from Louisiana)
Florida State: Mike Norvell (from Memphis)
Georgia Tech: Geoff Collins (from Temple)
Iowa State: Matt Campbell (from Toledo)
Kansas: Lance Leipold (from Buffalo)
Louisville: Scott Satterfield (from Appalachian State)
Minnesota: P.J. Fleck (from Western Michigan)
Missouri: Eli Drinkwitz (from Appalachian State)
Nebraska: Scott Frost (from UCF)
NC State: Dave Doeren (from Northern Illinois)
Ole Miss: Lane Kiffin (from FAU)
Purdue: Jeff Brohm (from Western Kentucky)
Syracuse: Dino Babers (from Bowling Green)
TCU: Sonny Dykes* (from SMU)
Tennessee: Josh Heupel (from UCF)
Wake Forest: Dave Clawson (from Bowling Green)
Washington: Kalen DeBoer* (from Fresno State)
West Virginia: Neal Brown (from Troy)

Longest tenured of the group: Doeren, going into his 10^th season
Number in job four or fewer seasons: 13, including the new hires

Defensive coordinator (15)

Baylor: Dave Aranda (from LSU)
Boston College: Jeff Hafley (from Ohio State)
California: Justin Wilcox (from Wisconsin)
Duke: Mike Elko* (from Texas A&M)
Georgia: Kirby Smart (from Alabama)
Indiana: Tom Allen (promoted from within)
Kentucky: Mark Stoops (from Florida State)
Notre Dame: Marcus Freeman* (promoted from within)
Oklahoma: Brent Venables* (from Clemson)
Oregon: Dan Lanning* (from Georgia)
Pitt: Pat Narduzzi (from Michigan State)
Utah: Kyle Whittingham (promoted from within)
Vanderbilt: Clark Lea (from Notre Dame)
Virginia Tech: Brent Pry* (from Penn State)
Washington State: Jake Dickert* (promoted from within)

Longest tenured of the group: Whittingham, going into 18^th season
Number in job four or fewer seasons: Nine, including the new hires

Power 5 coach (8)

LSU: Brian Kelly* (from Notre Dame)
Miami: Mario Cristobal* (from Oregon)
Michigan State: Mel Tucker (from Colorado)
Mississippi State: Mike Leach (from Washington State)
Penn State: James Franklin (from Vanderbilt)
Texas A&M: Jimbo Fisher (from Florida State)
USC: Lincoln Riley* (from Oklahoma)
Wisconsin: Paul Chryst (from Pitt)

Longest tenured of the group: Franklin, going into 9^th season
Number in job four or fewer seasons: 6, including the new hires

Offensive coordinator (7)

Maryland: Mike Locksley (from Alabama)
Ohio State: Ryan Day (promoted from within)
Oklahoma State: Mike Gundy (promoted from within)
Oregon State: Jonathan Smith (from Washington)
Stanford: David Shaw (promoted from within)
Texas: Steve Sarkisian (from Alabama)
Virginia: Tony Elliott* (from Clemson)

Longest tenured of the group: Gundy, going into his 18^th season
Number in job four or fewer seasons: Five including Elliott.

College position coach (5)

Arkansas: Sam Pittman (offensive line coach at Georgia)
Clemson: Dabo Swinney (wide receiver coach promoted from within)
Northwestern: Pat Fitzgerald (linebacker coach promoted from within)
South Carolina: Shane Beamer (tight end coach at Oklahoma)
Texas Tech: Joey McGuire* (outside linebacker coach at Baylor)

Longest tenured of the group: Fitzgerald, going into 17^th season
Number in job four or fewer seasons: 3, including McGuire

NFL position coach (4)

Arizona: Jedd Fisch (New England quarterback coach)
Colorado: Karl Dorrell (Miami wide receiver coach)
Illinois: Bret Bielema (New York Giants outside linebacker coach)
Iowa: Kirk Ferentz (Baltimore offensive line coach)

Longest tenured of the group: Ferentz, going into 24^th season
Number in job four or fewer seasons: 3

Out of coaching (4)

Arizona State: Herm Edwards (hired in December 2017; had last coached in 2008 season in NFL)
North Carolina: Mack Brown (hired in November 2018; had last coached in 2013 season at Texas)
Rutgers: Greg Schiano (hired in December 2019; had last coached as assistant in 2018 season at Ohio State)
UCLA: Chip Kelly (hired in November 2017; had last coached in 2016 season in NFL)

Longest tenured of the group: Edwards and Kelly both going into 5^th season
Number in job four or fewer seasons: 4

NFL coach (2)

Alabama: Nick Saban (from Miami Dolphins)
Michigan: Jim Harbaugh (took job two days after being released from San Francisco 49ers contract)

Longest tenured of the group: Saban, going into 16^th season; Harbaugh is going into his 8th

FCS coach (1)

Kansas State: Chris Klieman (from North Dakota State)

Note: Klieman going into his 4^th season

League-by-league look

ACC

+ 6 Group of 5 coaches
+ 4 Power 5 defensive coordinators
+ 1 Power 5 coach
+ 1 Power 5 offensive coordinator
+ 1 Power 5 position coach
+ 1 out of football

Big Ten

+ 3 Power 5 coaches
+ 3 Group of 5 coaches
+ 2 NFL position coaches
+ 2 Power 5 offensive coordinators
+ 1 NFL coach
+ 1 Power 5 defensive coordinator
+ 1 Power 5 position coach
+ 1 out of football

Big 12

+ 4 Group of 5 coaches
+ 2 Power 5 defensive coordinators
+ 2 Power 5 offensive coordinators
+ 1 FCS coach
+ 1 Power 5 position coach

Independents

+ 1 Power 5 defensive coordinator

Pac-12

+ 3 Power 5 defensive coordinators
+ 2 Power 5 offensive coordinators
+ 2 NFL position coaches
+ 2 out of football
+ 1 Power 5 coach
+ 1 Group of 5 coach
+ 1 Group of 5 defensive coordinator (Utah was a G5 school when Whittingham was promoted)

SEC

+ 5 Group of 5 coaches
+ 3 Power 5 coaches
+ 3 Power 5 defensive coordinators
+ 2 Power 5 position coaches
+ 1 NFL coach