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The college football coaching carousel is always turning season after season. So far in 2021, we’ve seen a total of nine jobs open up in the FBS, including high-profile positions like LSU and USC.
The other Power Five jobs that were vacated were TCU, Texas Tech, which hired Baylor assistant Joey McGuire earlier this week, and Washington State after the Cougars fired Nick Rolovich for failing to comply with the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Elsewhere, UConn announced the hiring of former UCLA head coach Jim Mora on Nov. 11, replacing Randy Edsall, who stepped down as the Huskies head coach in early September. Georgia Southern fired Chad Lunsford in September, but has since replaced him with ousted USC head coach Clay Helton. The other jobs that are still vacant include Akron and UMass.
Let’s run through the remaining head coaching vacancies and pick which candidate might be the best fit. We’ll go in alphabetical order.
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While Tom Manning is only 38 years old, he has been on Akron’s radar for quite some time, per Bruce Feldman of The Athletic. Manning has been working with current Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell since their time at Toledo together and even played with Campbell at Mount Union in the early 2000s.
Manning spent most of his coaching career at Toledo, so he has plenty of experience in the MAC. He started there as a graduate assistant and director of football operations in 2009 and 2010. Following a stint at his alma mater in 2011, he returned to the Rockets in 2012, joining his former teammate Campbell’s staff. Manning’s offensive line performed well in Campbell’s system. In 2013, the Rockets led the nation in sacks allowed, giving up just six all season. He also coached All-MAC offensive linemen Zac Kerin and Greg Mancz, the latter of whom is still in the NFL.
In 2016 and 2017 at Iowa State, Manning served as the offensive line coach and offensive coordinator under Campbell. He helped the Cyclones offense break a handful of school records before leaving to become the tight ends coach for the Indianapolis Colts during the 2018 season.
He returned to ISU in 2019 and helped break the Cyclones record for total offense (444.3 yards per game) that season. In 2020, his offense helped lead Iowa State to the Big 12 Championship Game and a Fiesta Bowl win over Oregon.
Manning’s experience running prolific offenses and coaching in the MAC would make him a perfect fit as Akron’s next head coach.
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Yes, Jimbo Fisher seems like the obvious choice here. But is Fisher really willing to walk away from his current $9 million annual salary just to start over in the same SEC West?
That’s why Mel Tucker would be an excellent choice for the LSU job. In his second season at Michigan State, Tucker has Sparty at 8-1—still with a chance to make it into the College Football Playoff. Per The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman, some LSU insiders are “enamored” with Tucker.
He has plenty of SEC and big-time NFL experience, too. In 2000, Tucker was on Nick Saban’s LSU staff, coaching the defensive backs. After one year there, he spent four seasons on Jim Tressel’s Ohio State staff before moving on to the NFL for 10 seasons. He was a defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars and Chicago Bears.
Tucker then returned to college football in 2015, rejoining Nick Saban at Alabama as an assistant head coach and defensive backs coach. The Tide won the national title in 2015, and Tucker coached the likes of first-round draft picks Marlon Humphrey and Minkah Fitzpatrick, as well as Eddie Jackson, who all went on to become first-team All-Pros and multiple-time Pro Bowlers.
He then spent the next three seasons (2016-2018) at Georgia as the Dawgs defensive coordinator. His unit was top-20 in total defense all three years in Athens, and he helped recruit Georgia’s No. 3-ranked recruiting class in 2017 and the No. 1 overall 2018 class, per 247Sports. In 2017, Georgia made it to the national title game, while Tucker’s defense featured future first-round NFL draft picks like Roquan Smith and Deandre Baker. His defense finished sixth nationally in scoring and total defense that season, too.
The one knock against Tucker is he may not have as much head coaching experience as some of LSU’s other possible candidates, like Oregon’s Mario Cristobal, Louisiana’s Billy Napier, Fisher or Penn State’s James Franklin. His first season as a head coach came in 2019 with Colorado, where he went 5-7 before leaving for Michigan State. During his first season in East Lansing, the Spartans finished 2-5, but he clearly has MSU on the right track in 2021. However, Tucker’s experience coaching—and especially recruiting—in the SEC gives him a big edge.
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Mark Humphrey/Associated Press
All signs appear to be pointing toward this happening. Sonny Dykes has emerged as the top candidate to replace Gary Patterson, who is out after over 20 years as the Horned Frogs head coach. Per CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodds, Dykes is TCU’s primary target. Even SMU recognizes this; the school reportedly offered Dykes an extension that would make him one of the highest-paid Group of Five coaches in an attempt to persuade Dykes to stay put.
It looked as though Dykes might also end up at Texas Tech, where Dykes’ father coached for 14 seasons and Dykes played baseball and later coached for seven seasons under Mike Leach from 2000 to 2006. But Tech’s hiring of Joey McGuire makes it all the more likely that Dykes will depart for TCU.
Dykes spent three seasons as Arizona’s offensive coordinator between 2007 and 2009 before landing his first head coaching job at Louisiana Tech. He compiled a 22-15 record as the Bulldogs head coach, including a 9-3 record in 2012. In 2011, Louisiana Tech won a WAC title, the program’s first conference title in 10 years.
Following the 2012 season with Tech, Dykes was named Cal’s head coach. His tenure with the Golden Bears wasn’t as successful as what he accomplished at Tech, however. Cal’s lone winning season in four years under Dykes was capped off with an Armed Forces Bowl victory in 2015. After a 5-7 record the following season, the school fired Dykes in January 2017. He then joined none other than TCU as an offensive analyst for the 2017 season.
At SMU, Dykes has had a lot of success. Following a 5-7 record in 2018, SMU went 10-3 in 2019 as the program earned its most wins since 1984 and its highest ranking in the AP poll (15th) since 1985. SMU went 7-3 last season, and Dykes became just the fourth Mustangs coach to reach 20 wins in his first three seasons.
Leaving for TCU means Dykes could keep coaching in Texas and recruiting within the state, too. This hire makes plenty of sense, so don’t be surprised if we see Dykes back in the Power Five with TCU sometime soon.
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Michael Clubb/Associated Press
Liam Coen has been floated as a popular candidate for the UMass job, and he just might be the young up-and-coming coach that UMass needs. Not to mention, he is kind of a big deal within the program. Coen is a former UMass quarterback himself, playing under center for the Minutemen from 2004 to ’08. Former UMass head coach Don Brown called Coen the best quarterback in UMass history.
He holds numerous school records, including most yards from scrimmage (11,031), highest passing efficiency (152.92), completion percentage (63.9) and touchdowns (90). He led UMass to the FCS National Championship Game in 2006 in addition to two conference championships during his time as a player.
Coen started his coaching career at Brown in 2010 as the Bears quarterbacks coach and then went to Rhode Island for a season before coaching at Brown again (2012-13). He returned to UMass as the Minutemen’s passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach (2014-15) prior to heading to Maine for the next two seasons.
His most impressive coaching accolade has to be with the Los Angeles Rams. He was the wide receivers coach (2018-19) and named the assistant quarterbacks coach in 2020 before returning to the collegiate level at Kentucky. He was part of the Rams’ Super Bowl team of 2018 that featured the league’s No. 2 scoring offense. At Kentucky, the Wildcats offense has thrived in Coen’s pro-style scheme. Wildcats quarterback Will Levis ranks fifth in the SEC in passing touchdowns (17) and 10th in the conference in total offense, accounting for 229.4 yards per game.
Coen may not have head coaching experience, but he has risen in the coaching ranks quickly. Having the former UMass signal-caller come home to coach his alma mater would be pretty cool.
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While there are bigger names like Mario Cristobal and Luke Fickell who are viable candidates for this job, this is the perfect time for James Franklin to make a change. It seems like Franklin is weighing his options, too: In late October, the Penn State head coach switched agents to Jimmy Sexton. Sexton represents coaches like Nick Saban, Lane Kiffin, Kirby Smart and several other high-profile clients.
Although Franklin, a Pennsylvania native, doesn’t have direct ties to USC or the state of California in general, his name has been linked to the job since it opened in September. And for good reason—he’s had success virtually everywhere he’s gone as a head coach.
It started at Vanderbilt, where he went 24-15, including a school-record-tying nine wins in back-to-back seasons, as well as three consecutive bowl games, which the program had never done before. Franklin was hired by Penn State in January 2014. There, he led PSU to New Year’s Six bowl game appearances on three occasions between 2016 and 2019. Over that same period, Penn State won 28 Big Ten games, a school record for a four-year span.
Currently 6-3, the Nittany Lions are having a relatively down year, but PSU still has games remaining against Michigan and Michigan State to thwart both teams’ playoff chances. Franklin also has a current buyout of $4 million, which may be cheaper than some other candidates USC is considering.
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Darryl Webb/Associated Press
Last but certainly not least, we’ll address the head coaching search in Pullman, Washington. Wazzu likely wasn’t anticipating having to begin its search midway through the 2021 season, having just hired Nick Rolovich before the 2020 season. But thanks to Rolovich’s failure to comply with the state of Washington’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, he was fired last month.
Interim head coach Jake Dickert, who had been Rolovich’s defensive coordinator, has gone 1-1 since being named the interim head coach. His team barely lost to BYU 21-19 on Oct. 23 and then went on the road to defeat a solid Arizona State team 34-21 a week later. It’s obvious to assume that Wazzu Director of Athletics Pat Chun is considering hiring Dickert full time, and Dickert isn’t shying away from that.
“We’ve had some conversations about it,” Dickert said on KJR950 Radio (h/t Barry Bolton of 247Sports) of possibly becoming Wazzu’s permanent head coach. “I think there’s no question Pat knows where I stand [and] what I can do for Washington State and this program—and where I think I can take it. So he’s well aware of what I’d like to do.
“And I know they call me the acting head coach but I always say I’m the interviewing head coach. Every day I’m getting evaluated and I think that’s a great place to be. [A head coaching job] is something I’ve wanted for a long time.”
The job Dickert has done with Wazzu’s defense alone certainly helps his chances. The Cougars defense leads the nation in forced fumbles (17) and has nine interceptions on the season.
The remaining three games for Wazzu include: at Oregon on Nov. 13, vs. Arizona on Nov. 19 and at Washington on Nov. 26. If Dickert can win two out of those three along with a successful bowl outing, he should be a serious candidate to take over the program.
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