Coaching Carousel: ESPN ranks every College Football head coach hire from best to worst

After arguably one of college football’s craziest coaching carousel in years — when more than two dozen coaches changed jobs over the past month, including a couple with College Football Playoff games to play — it took a solid week to properly evaluate all the movement.

And while there are still a handful of openings — including a major one at Michigan following Sherrone Moore’s dismissal earlier this month — ESPN‘s Bill Connelly took the opportunity to hand out grades for each of the 30 head coaching hires already made over the past several weeks. Connelly is an admittedly “pretty easy grader” and handed out all passing marks, with individual grades ranging from from “A+” for “probably the best job availabile, filled by the best available coach” for LSU landing former Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, to “C” for “are you sure about this?” for more questionable hires, with most of them falling somewhere in between.

In fact, Connelly gave more than 20 of the 30 hires a grade of B or better, including 13 hires receiving an A, even if several fall somewhere in between with an A- or B+, which Connelly described as “perfectly sensible. Check out Connelly’s friendly grading of this year’s crazy coaching carousel below:

1. Lane Kiffin, LSU — A+

Kiffin was by far the most coveted coaching candidate in years, with reportedly four different Power Four colleges vying for his services. Ultimately, the 50-year-old Kiffin opted to spurn Ole Miss after six seasons — including four with 10 or more wins — to chase national titles in Baton Rouge. Only time will tell if he actually achieves it, but Kiffin will take his seven-year, $91 million deal all the way to the bank regardless.

ESPN: “We won’t overthink this one. Everything about the run-up to Kiffin’s departure from Ole Miss was dramatic and strung out, and it will forever be part of his coaching biography that he left an active playoff team for a school he had beaten weeks earlier.”

2. James Franklin, Virginia Tech — A

After entering the 2025 season as the nation’s No. 2-ranked team, Franklin was the second coaching heads to roll this year when Penn State fired him on Oct. 12, six games into the regular season after three consecutive losses. After a one-month hiatus, Virginia Tech started this year’s coaching carousel off by landing Franklin — who went 104-45 in 12 years in Happy Valley — on Nov. 17.

ESPN: “(Franklin) oversaw five top-10 finishes in a nine-year run (at Penn State). No matter how the run at PSU ended, for Tech to land someone with that type of résumé was an absolute coup.”

3. Eric Morris, Oklahoma State — A

The second hiring of this year’s carousel went to the Cowboys, who lured Morris away from North Texas on Nov. 25 after parting ways with longtime head coach Mike Gundy three games into the regular season. Morris has a history of developing underrated players into elite QBs, beginning with Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech and Cam Ward at Incarnate Word, and looks to do the same thing in Stillwater.

ESPN: “Morris might have the best quarterback-development track record in the sport at the moment, and in both of his head coaching stops he led historically unsuccessful programs to new heights. It’s hard to ask for much more.”

4. Jon Sumrall, Florida — A

The former Group of Five head coach was the second-most coveted coaching candidate on the market, behind only Kiffin, after notching double-digit win seasons in three of the last four years at Troy and Tulane. That included leading the 20th-ranked Green Wave to the American Conference title and the 11th seed in this year’s College Football Playoffs.

ESPN: “Through sheer will and adaptability, (Sumrall’s) team won 11 games and an American Conference title. That’s three conference titles for Sumrall in four years as a head coach. He can put together teams and units with outstanding talent, but even when he doesn’t, he finds a way to win.”

5. Jim Mora, Colorado State — A

While it might have come as a bit of a surprise to some, Mora landed at Colorado State after four seasons with UConn, where he went 27-23 overall, but 18-7 over the past two years with back-to-back bowl appearances. Meanwhile, the Rams have just one bowl appearance in the past eight seasons, in 2024 under now-former coach Jay Norvell, who was fired Oc.t 19.

ESPN: “After a couple of iffy seasons (at UConn, Mora) produced something brilliant: The Huskies won 18 games in 2024 and 2025 after winning just 19 in the previous seven seasons.”

6. Mark Carney, Kent State — A

Kent State fired former coach Kenni Burns in April after going 1-23 the past two seasons, and promoted Carney from offensive coordinator to interim head coach. Once in that role, Carney guided the Golden Flashed to a 5-7 season in 2025, its most wins since 2022.

ESPN: “The best Kent State could have hoped for when firing Kenni Burns in mid-April … was that Carney, the offensive coordinator and new interim head coach, would do enough to earn the job permanently. Man, did he do so.”

7. Matt Campbell, Penn State — A

After seemingly striking out with several of its preferred targets, the Nittany Lions lucked out by landing Campbell from Iowa State, who produced eight winning seasons and seven bowls in his nine seasons in Ames. The 46-year-old Campbell is as close to a James Franklin clone as available this year.

ESPN: “The problem for almost anyone Penn State hired was going to be that he wouldn’t have a résumé that stacked up with that of the guy it just fired (Franklin). Campbell comes about as close as one can get.”

8. Charles Huff, Memphis — A

A coaching disciple of both Nick Saban and James Franklin, Huff is on his second job in two years after four successful years at Marshall, where he went 32-20 between 2021-24. In his lone season at Southern Miss, Huff went 7-5 this past season before jumping to Memphis.

ESPN: “Huff was an assistant for Nick Saban and James Franklin, he went to four bowls and won a Sun Belt title in four years at Marshall. … He has built teams around potent offenses and strong defenses. Another hire who checks lots of boxes.”

9. Bob Chesney, UCLA — A-/B+

The third coach on this list to take a new job after qualifying for the College Football Playoffs, Chesney — like Sumrall — returned to lead James Madison in the CFP vs. Oregon last weekend. The 48-year-old Chesney went 21-6 in two seasons with the Dukes after notching 88 combined wins in 11 seasons at Assumption and Holy Cross.

ESPN: “Chesney is 132-51 as a head coach, and while he took over a great situation at JMU, he handled the jump in competition with as much ease as one could have hoped for.”

10. Will Stein, Kentucky — A-/B+

The 36-year-old Stein is a Kentucky native who played QB at rival Louisville (2008-12) and comes to Lexington after three years leading Oregon’s high-powered offense (2023-25). The up-and-coming first-time head coach is hoping to infuse some life into a UK program that stalled out after 13 seasons under Mark Stoops.

ESPN: “What better candidate for that title might there be than Stein, the guy who has operated a ruthlessly efficient offense for (Oregon head coach Dan) Lanning for three years and has ties to the state of Kentucky as well (albeit mostly at Louisville)?”

ESPN ranks college football’s 2026 coaching carousel hires, Nos. 11-30:

11. Collin Klein, Kansas State — A-/B+
12. Alex Golesh, Auburn — A-/B+
13. Jimmy Rogers, Iowa State — A-/B+
14. Mike Jacobs, Toledo — B
15. Pete Golding, Ole Miss — B
16. Morgan Scalley, Utah — B
17. Tosh Lupoi, Cal — B
18. Kirby Moore, Washington State — B
19. Billy Napier, James Madison — B
20. Neal Brown, North Texas — B
21. JaMarcus Shephard, Oregon State — B
22. Brian Hartline, South Florida — B
23. Jason Candle, UConn — B
24. Ryan Silverfield, Arkansas — B
25. Ryan Beard, Coastal Carolina — B
26. Tavita Pritchard, Stanford — B-/C+
27. Alex Mortensen, UAB — B-/C+
28. Will Hall, Tulane — B-/C+
29. Blake Anderson, Southern Miss — C
30. Pat Fitzgerald, Michigan State — C