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JERRY KILL CONSIDERS himself something of a Mr. Fix-It for programs in need of a serious overhaul, the college football equivalent of an HGTV host who must convince an overwhelmed couple that the crumbling mess they just took out a mortgage to buy can, with a little hard work and the right crew of contractors, become a dream home. He’s renovated places like Northern Illinois and Minnesota before, and he likes the reputation.

Still, when Kill took the job of head coach at woeful New Mexico State last year, it didn’t seem like a renovation job. More like a dare.

“I had coaches tell me I was crazy,” Kill said.

The concern was well-founded. In the previous 60 years, the Aggies made it to exactly one bowl game. The budget, facilities and fan engagement were abysmal. The team was bad — going 3-9 or worse nine times since 2008 — and recruiting to New Mexico was difficult. There were plans to join Conference USA, but at the moment, New Mexico State was muddling through as an independent.

“I was told there’s no way to win there, and this was the worst program in the country,” Kill said. “I thought, ‘Hey, those are the kinds of challenges I like.'”

The funny thing is, Kill isn’t alone. In college football, perhaps more than any other sport, there’s something inexorably alluring about the truly awful. Sure, most fans wouldn’t invest their careers in restoring New Mexico State the way Kill has, but every week, thousands of them invest a few hours into watching — dare we say, enjoying? — truly bad football in the hopes of seeing a miracle unfold or, at the very least, witnessing failure in the most interesting way possible.

Call it bad football, ugly football, sickos football — whatever the name, its charm is undeniable in a way that simply isn’t true of nearly any other form of entertainment. Yes, the cultural zeitgeist might occasionally stumble upon William Hung or Right Said Fred, but those are enjoyed with a measure of ironic detachment. And sure, sports fans have their butt fumbles and, well, pretty much the entire history of the Detroit Lions, but those are as sad as they are funny.

Bad college football, however, is something akin to cult classic movies of the “so bad they’re good” variety, enjoyable on their own merits once you buy into the central conceit. Whether it’s Patrick Swayze earnestly insisting “pain don’t hurt” in “Roadhouse” or Butch Jones announcing his awful 2017 Tennessee Volunteers won the “championship of life,” the line between ridiculous and sublime is effectively nonexistent.

At its heart, the joy of watching bad college football is rooted in the same passion that drove Kill to take the New Mexico State job. For Kill, turning abject failure into something approaching coherence is actually fun. That’s more or less the same reason so many fans tune in for Tuesday night MAC-tion or Pac-12 After Dark. There’s joy in finding something awful and sticking with it long enough to see what happens next because, particularly in college football, the possibilities seem endless. And if, against all odds, something magical does happen, we can say we knew it all along.

Kill’s dream home is still in the early stages of construction, but the job has been unquestionably rewarding. Walls are starting to go up. The foundation has been laid, and he’s starting the frame. He can see the progress.

“Everybody wants to see an underdog get going,” Kill said. “And they’ll watch to see if it can be sustained. You know, it takes a little time to build a house, and we’re planning to build a big one.”

FOR CONNOISSEURS OF bad college football, 2022 has been a revelation.

Think back to the opening week of the season, when Iowa defeated South Dakota State 7-3 on the strength of a field goal, two safeties and an unwavering commitment to avoiding forward progress. It was riveting. At nearly the exact same time, North Carolina and Appalachian State combined to score 62 points in the fourth quarter of their game. Every series was more ridiculous than the last. It was can’t-miss TV because of so many can-miss tackle attempts.

We watched Texas A&M collapse under the weight of Jimbo Fisher’s playbook, Iowa punt its way into the hearts of a nation and Nebraska play so horribly the Huskers even cursed the teams who beat them. We watched TCU keep its bowl hopes alive in what amounted to a game of chicken against the play clock. And those were just the name brands who rewarded us with sicko football performance art.

On the flip side, we had some truly amazing Cinderella stories, too. Three of the four worst teams during the decade from 2012 to 2021 made a bowl this year. The worst team in four of the Power 5 leagues over the previous decade made bowls. Duke, Southern Miss, Rice, Bowling Green and Georgia Southern (combined 14-34 last year) are all in bowls, too. Tulane (2-10 last year) is playing in a New Year’s Six game. It’s been a truly incredible run from utter despair to, well, the upper end of mediocrity, at least.

So why is this all so oddly exciting?

Matthew Stohl is a professor at the University of Montana who explored the paradox of enjoying bad films in his book, “Why It’s OK to Like Bad Movies,” and he sees similar logic in the appreciation of bad football.

First, Stohl said, there’s a critical formula involved in the process, whereby the cost of production must far outweigh the cost of consumption. Movies — even the really bad ones — require a lot of resources to produce. The creators put real effort into making them, even if they turned out horribly. But watching a bad movie? That’s a mere 90 minutes of time for the viewer. It’s a low-cost form of entertainment. The same is true in college football. The games have genuine stakes for the programs involved, but for the fans, it can be a harmless guilty pleasure. If UConn wins or loses by 50, it costs the fan nothing more than a few hours of time.

The second necessary ingredient is the opportunity for chaos. This is where college football truly shines. Why does a movie so utterly incoherent as “The Room” have such a wide audience? Because every scene is somehow a non sequitur. Go back and watch the fourth quarter of that UNC-App State game. It’s the same thing — utter ridiculousness and zero continuity.

“Even the worst NFL isn’t really that bad,” Stohl said. “In college football, there’s so much more chaos and variance.”

Indeed, the best NFL team of all time (say, the 2007 New England Patriots) was only about 36 points per game better than the worst NFL team of all time (say, the 1990 Patriots). This year, Georgia was at least 36 points per game better than 18 college teams. Guys with NFL aspirations play on the same field as guys hoping to start a hedge fund in a few years. The opportunity for chaos is limitless.

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Weber State is on the wrong end of the record books as it surrenders four safeties on errant special teams snaps.

From there, Stohl said, we can split “so bad it’s good” into two categories.

The first is the point-and-laugh group, which typically sees a once-powerful figure stripped of its cache. Think of the movie “Cats,” which was based on a long-running Broadway musical, had a massive budget and an all-star cast and yet, it was horrendous. In college football parlance, it was this year’s Texas A&M team.

The second is the lovable underdog story, the misfit auteur working on a shoestring budget, trying and often failing miserably, but at least doing it in a memorable way. Think “Plan Nine From Outer Space” or UMass‘ entire FBS history.

And tying it all together is a sense of community. Why do fans line up for midnight showings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” or quote lines from “Point Break” in casual conversation? The same reason the 2018 Cheez-It Bowl was arguably the pinnacle of college football Twitter. It says we’re all in on the same joke — a joke that has long since ceased to be funny and, instead, evolved into a sort of personal identity. Bad football brings us together.

Think of it in those terms — applauding sincere effort, craving the unexpected, reveling in upended power dynamics, bonding over shared misery — and bad college football is something more than just sport. It’s the very heart of being an American.

Or, maybe it’s just funny to see how many times Iowa can punt in one game.

JORDAN EDMONSON AND George Smith have never met in real life, but they’ve become something like the dynamic duo of bad football over the past two seasons.

The two first crossed paths in 2020 on the social media app Discord, where groups of fans would chat about games during the course of a Saturday slate. Edmonson went to Dartmouth and, for grad school, North Texas, while Smith once considered himself “the internet’s only ULM fan,” and since they were so familiar with relatively bad football programs, they actually loved watching smaller schools and bad games.

“We found ourselves watching things like UTEP and New Mexico State and we were having so much fun with those games,” Edmonson said.

From there, the Sickos Committee was born.

The name comes from the popular meme, in which a man wearing a shirt reading “Sickos” peers through a window, while chanting, “Yes … Ha ha ha … Yes!” It’s an avatar for Edmonson, Smith and their now nearly 80,000 Twitter followers’ obsession with bad football — or, as Smith calls it, “unconventionally appealing football.”

Yes, Smith knows this makes him sound like a hipster, but there’s nothing ironic about the Sickos, he said. The goal is to give a little shine to the teams that never quite muscle their way into the spotlight on their own.

“Our motto here is all football is good football,” Smith said. “This is not something to punch down. We do the meme thing when someone does something silly, but we’re trying to find joy in [the ridiculous] and — like the Iowa fans really embraced us.”

Ah, yes, Iowa — a team that found new ways to not score points on a weekly basis. The Hawkeyes were an absolute delight.

To say there is genuine excitement for Iowa’s date with Kentucky in this year’s TransPerfect Music City Bowl would be a massive understatement. The Hawkeyes’ hapless offense will face off against a Kentucky team that was held to 21 points or less in six of its past eight games — and both teams will play without their starting quarterbacks. The over/under is currently 31, and even that seems like a long shot.

Of course, any true fan of sickos football can tell you the Music City Bowl has a long way to go to eclipse the biggest train wreck in bowl history.

Jason Benetti called the 2018 Cheez-It Bowl for ESPN and he struggles to decide his favorite moment. On one hand, TCU’s sports information director got called for a penalty, “and that should be the most ridiculous thing that happens in a game,” Benetti said. But then how can he overlook the fact that two — two! — interceptions were overturned because the quarterback was beyond the line of scrimmage when he threw the pass?

Oh, and the game still had nine interceptions.

At the end of regulation, Cal and TCU were tied at 7. Of course this game needed overtime.

Benetti said he’s used to getting texts from a few friends during games, “but by the end of this one, like half my phonebook had texted me asking, ‘What the hell was that?'”

Benetti chalked it up to a thesis he once heard on an episode of “This American Life” titled “Fiasco.” It states that at the beginning of a performance, the audience is rooting for the performers. They want a good show. But as more and more things go wrong, a Rubicon is crossed, and soon, the audience is simply rooting for more chaos.

The Onion didn’t design the Sickos meme for this game, but it fits perfectly.

And here’s the thing Benetti has realized about that game — and about the genuine love of bad football. It’s a contradiction that feels natural on a college campus. When we’re young, we can thumb our noses at authority and defy the tropes of everyday life and do something dumb just for laughs and never give a second thought to the larger repercussions. After college, the real world narrows our focus and insists we strive toward success.

Bad college football, Benetti said, isn’t just bad. It’s subversive, and it offers a small taste of a time when we were too.

SOMEWHERE DEEP WITHIN the bowels of Bottom 10 Headquarters, past the cardboard cutout of Charlie Weis, the shattered remnants of the Civil ConFLiCT trophy and the boxes of Florida State‘s unused turnover backpacks, Ryan McGee has been studying awful college football for — well, it’s hard to keep track of time after sifting through UMass game tape. It’s been a while though.

McGee authors ESPN’s weekly Bottom 10 rankings, which rewards — is that the right word? — the worst 10 teams in the country for their ongoing efforts to escape their miserable lots in life. It is, he swears, an act of love.

Well, maybe not for places like Nebraska or Texas A&M. They’re more like the jocks who are forced to play Dungeons & Dragons with the AV Club kids. They’ll learn to love it, but those initial weeks are uncomfortable, to say the least.

For everyone else, however, there’s a strange honor in being part of the Bottom 10. Anyone can have a bad season, after all, but 4-8 is forgettable, while 1-11 is an all-out, hair-on-fire joyride. There’s a real logic in the notion that, if you’re going to be bad, at least be bad enough to be interesting.

Cam Warner has been a Kansas fan his entire life, and he’s all too familiar with the Bottom 10. For more than a decade, it was home. Was he happy about it? It’s complicated.

“Even just seeing Kansas on a list for being bad was better than not being on anything,” Warner said, “because it’s recognition. It’s seeing what you identify with out in the public, and I think that’s always cool — like, I identify with that, with being one of the Forgotten Ones. I mean, I think about Bowling Green more than I think about Wake Forest.”

(Note to Dave Clawson, who coached at both of those schools: Warner’s examples are purely his own, and any and all complaints should be directed to him.)

To be truly at the bottom — rock bottom — offers a lot of freedom to accept failure and find joy in even the smallest success.

Once, in the 2015 opener against South Dakota State, Kansas flubbed an attempt to spike the ball and stop the clock on a potential game-tying drive because the center snapped the ball over the quarterback’s head, and the QB’s knee touched the ground as he recovered the errant snap.

It was misery — but it was memorable.

Twice during Kansas’ decade of misery, the Jayhawks managed to knock off big, bad Texas.

Those wins were memorable because of all the misery that preceded them.

The enjoyment of college football isn’t measured linearly. It’s actually a circle, whereby the distance between abject failure and transcendent joy can be covered by just one small step.

McGee remembers watching New Mexico State play Idaho in 2015, when the Aggies were riding a 17-game losing streak — the nation’s longest at the time. New Mexico State, leading 55-48, survived a final Idaho drive when a Vandals pass was deflected by one defender then intercepted by another, who used his feet to corral the pick. It was sheer lunacy.

After the game, at nearly 2 a.m. on the East Coast, McGee’s phone rang. It was the Aggies’ sports information director with a message.

“You need to know,” the SID said, “that as we were celebrating in the locker room, I had a player ask me, ‘Do you think this gets us out of the Bottom 10?'”

WARNER GAINED FAME when a camera caught him in the stands during another ugly Kansas loss in 2017. He was holding a sign — white paper with three words printed on it: I am sad.

This is the part of bad football no one likes to talk about. It may be fun or exciting or hilarious for the casual observer, but for those who live with it week after week, year after year, it is also a little sad. It is sad because, for some small group of die-hards, Stohl’s formula is off. The cost of consumption is actually quite high. They’re bought in. They have hope. They’re Charlie Brown thinking maybe this time, Lucy won’t pull the ball away at the last second.

Warner’s moment of infamy only told half the story, after all. He had a second sign, too, on which he’d printed a different message: I am happy. He planned to hold that one up when Kansas made a big play. Poor fool.

If that’s the burden for fans, it can feel like an absolutely crushing weight for the coaches and players, UConn athletics director David Benedict said.

“[Head coach] Jim [Mora] came in and changed the mindset of our student-athletes and instilled a confidence and an expectation on how they have to work to be successful,” Benedict said. “That’s one of the most difficult things to do in coaching. When you come into a program that hasn’t won for a decade, it’s tough. It’s really tough.”

And yet, sometimes the hope is rewarded. Sometimes, the stars align. Sometimes bad football is just the long, grueling precursor to something better.

This season, ESPN’s College Gameday came to Lawrence, Kansas.

This season, Tulane is headed to the Goodyear Cotton Bowl.

This season, UConn won six games — a total Benedict fully believed could happen, “even if it might’ve seemed delusional.” He now views this as just a starting point.

“It’s easy for people on the outside to crush your program when you’re not having success,” Benedict said. “But the bottom line is it was a hard program to root for over the past decade, but that’s what’s so fun right now.”

At New Mexico State, Kill was more subdued in his optimism. Six wins never crossed his mind. In fact, he set eight goals for his team — things like reliability, accountability and respect for authority that he had displayed on the video board during every practice. None mentioned winning.

Still, on his first day at New Mexico State, Kill told his players to practice celebrating. It must have sounded like dialogue from “The Room,” completely detached from the plot. But for Kill, it was the only way to start a new story.

“The first day I took the job, I made them take a victory lap,” Kill said. “Because every time we win, you’re going to take a victory lap and thank the fans. So we practice it.”

A funny thing happened after that. New Mexico State started winning — six of its last eight games to end the 2022 season. The Aggies will play in a bowl, just their second since 1960. And their fans — the ones in Las Cruces and the ones who’d watched out of morbid curiosity — can finally take a victory lap, too.

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Grading coaching hires: Kiffin to LSU, Sumrall to Florida and more

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November 30, 2025

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Grading coaching hires: Kiffin to LSU, Sumrall to Florida and more

  • Adam RittenbergNov 30, 2025, 03:38 PM ET

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      College football reporter; joined ESPN in 2008. Graduate of Northwestern University.

The wildest college football coaching cycle — perhaps ever — has reached the hiring phase.

Schools around the Power 4 that fired their coaches in the first two months of the season — or, in Stanford’s case, way back in late March — are targeting candidates and finalizing deals. Interestingly enough, one of the first major coaches to lose his job, Penn State’s James Franklin, was the first noninterim coach to be hired, as he is headed to Virginia Tech.

New hires always come with hope and optimism, grand proclamations and the chance to get programs on the right track. But not all hiring processes are the same. The financial component with jobs is essential — what schools are willing to spend not just on their head coach, but the assistants and support staff and, perhaps most important, the team roster.

We will be reviewing all of the major coaching hires in the 2025-26 cycle, evaluating how each coach fits in the job, their major challenges and what it will take to be successful. We will also assign an initial letter grade for each hire.

Jump to: LSU | Ole Miss | Florida | Arkansas | Auburn
Stanford | Oklahoma State | Virginia Tech

LSU hires Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin

Why is this a good fit?

LSU got the coach it wanted ahead of other suitors, further confirming that its coaching job, despite the drama and dysfunction, remains one of the best in college football. Kiffin left a great situation at the height of his powers because he knows that LSU can consistently compete for national titles in ways that other programs simply cannot. In Kiffin, LSU gains a coach accustomed to the bright lights and the big stadiums, who can attract and develop talent and potentially restore the program to national powerhouse status. LSU can offer the big stage Kiffin lacked at Ole Miss, and wanted again.

Kiffin hasn’t worked at LSU but knows the SEC well after stops at Ole Miss, Alabama and Tennessee. Like Kiffin did at Ole Miss, he should put together an excellent staff that can scour Louisiana, Texas and the surrounding areas for top talent. He certainly will try to bring some of Ole Miss’ top players with him. Kiffin brings the offensive chops that LSU lacked at the end of Kelly’s tenure. He’s one of the nation’s best at identifying and developing quarterbacks, and the emergence of running back Kewan Lacy and others underscores that the Kiffin plan works on offense. — Adam Rittenberg

Biggest challenges Kiffin will face

LSU has a reputation as a place where it is possible to win championships, and that expectation will be placed on Kiffin immediately – especially with the money he is being paid. The Tigers pride themselves on this fact as Nick Saban, Les Miles, then Ed Orgeron all won national titles. Brian Kelly was an awkward fit from the start and never truly got the vibe down on the Bayou. Kiffin has his own unique way of running a program, but he has to find a way to work with all the different “cooks in the kitchen” so to speak. The entire state is heavily invested in LSU football, and though Kiffin has an extremely high profile, he is moving to an even bigger spotlight in Baton Rouge — the only Power 4 school in the state. Kiffin must embrace that, and everything that comes with it. As coveted as he was in this cycle, Kiffin has never won a conference title and finding a way to get over the hump at a school like LSU has to happen. This will be his best shot to get it done, and the clock will start ticking as soon as his first press conference ends. — Andrea Adelson

Grade: A-

The fixation around Kiffin the past few weeks would normally be attached to a multi-time national championship winner, or at least a coach who has won a Power 4 conference title. Kiffin did tremendous work at Ole Miss but still needs to show he can win the biggest games consistently. LSU is a national championship-or-bust type of program, and Kiffin will be judged at the very highest level, which he craves. He brings the right ingredients to get it done in Baton Rouge, especially his work with quarterbacks. — Rittenberg

Ole Miss makes DC Pete Golding new head coach

Why is this a good fit?

Under normal circumstances, Ole Miss could run a complete coaching search, thoroughly assess candidates currently in head-coaching roles, and others who might help build on the historic success under Lane Kiffin. But these are the strangest of times in Oxford, as Kiffin exits for LSU, a College Football Playoff first-round game looms for the Rebels, and emotions are running extremely high. Kiffin certainly will try to poach the roster for top pieces, and Ole Miss must do what it can to protect as many players as possible. Golding was the lead recruiter for many of them. He’s well-liked by players and won’t need to familiarize himself with Oxford, the administration and how Ole Miss is set up to compete.

Golding, 41, might not have been on the wish list for other SEC jobs just yet, but Ole Miss found itself in a unique situation. He’s a Louisiana native who has spent his entire career in the region, first at his alma mater Delta State and other smaller programs, and then Southern Miss and UTSA before getting his big break with Nick Saban at Alabama in 2018. Golding spent five seasons as a coordinator under Saban, and helped the Crimson Tide to a national title in 2022, before joining Kiffin at Ole Miss. He gives Ole Miss a chance not only for success in this year’s CFP, but can minimize disruptions during a very bumpy coaching transition.

What will be Golding’s biggest challenge?

Golding should be able to handle the next few weeks, but his true readiness for the enormity of the job is unclear. Again, he didn’t emerge as a candidate for the other SEC openings in this cycle, which suggests some external concern about his ability to handle such a role. Any first-time coaching job brings its challenges and even though Golding knows Ole Miss, he hasn’t been the face of the program. He’s also replacing a coach who put together the team’s most successful run since John Vaught in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Although Golding has shown his talents in recruiting and with schematics, how will he handle the media? How does he do in front of donors and other key stakeholders with the university? Perhaps he just needed the chance, which he now has, but assistant coaches that are shielded from the media often take some time to get fully comfortable.

Grade: B

Coaching hires can’t be evaluated in a vacuum, and Golding’s ultimate success or failure at Ole Miss will be judged by what he accomplishes beyond the 2025 season. But what happens in Ole Miss’ first CFP appearance, after losing Kiffin to a rival SEC school, absolutely does matter, too, and Golding gives Ole Miss a chance to prolong a really special season. There’s little doubt he will continue to compile strong rosters. He will need a strong supporting staff, especially a talented offensive coordinator hire, to ultimately sustain and even elevate the program. The key question here is whether other SEC programs missed out on a great candidate in Golding, or will Ole Miss suffer for making an in-the-moment decision that could backfire long-term? — Rittenberg

Why is this a good fit?

Florida fans: Sumrall isn’t Billy Napier. Yes, he’s another promising Group of 5 coach from a program in Louisiana, just as Napier was when he came to Gainesville. But Sumrall is a different personality who comes from the opposite side of the ball and has more ties to the SEC, where he both played (Kentucky) and coached (Ole Miss, Kentucky). He’s more comfortable than Napier was in being the face of a major program and will delegate to his coordinators while compiling a strong staff. Although Auburn seemed like a more natural spot for Sumrall because of his connections to the state, Florida gives him an even bigger platform at the lone SEC program in one of the nation’s top talent-producing states.

The other thing Sumrall brings is wins. He won Sun Belt titles in both of his seasons at Troy and went to the American Conference title game in his first year at Tulane. Sumrall has succeeded in different ways and with different types of quarterbacks. He hasn’t won in the Power 4 or at a program like Florida, which is an understandable concern. But Sumrall is ready for the opportunity and should be able to foster the consistency Florida has lacked for far too long. Florida didn’t have a talent problem under Napier, and Sumrall should continue to excel in personnel while translating it better on the field. — Rittenberg

Biggest challenges Sumrall will face

Where do we start? First and foremost, Sumrall has to find a way to win over a fan base that thought it had a shot at landing Lane Kiffin. Whether that was a reality or not, Gators fans had their hopes up that Kiffin would choose them. With that, Sumrall has to convince fans he is not another version of Napier. Once Sumrall has done that, he has to find a way to win at what has proved to be one of the hardest jobs to crack in the SEC. Florida has not won an SEC title since 2008, and while there remains a belief it is one of the best jobs in the country, Florida goes through coaches at a fairly frequent clip. If past is precedent, Sumrall will be given a year or two to find success before the fan base starts to turn on him; four years max to compete for a championship. Expectations are sky high, and Sumrall will be given no leeway to learn on the job. — Adelson

Grade: B+

Sumrall has the ingredients to become the next great SEC coach. He’s an excellent communicator who connects with a range of people and should get Florida fans excited about the future, even if they might be skeptical at first because of his background. Florida isn’t where I initially saw him ending up in a wild coaching cycle, but if the school gives him some time, he should stabilize and elevate the Gators’ on-field performance and start getting more out of very talented rosters there. — Rittenberg

Why is this a good fit?

Silverfield has quietly become a really successful coach in the region, and certainly seems ready for a Power 4 opportunity like Arkansas. Although he hasn’t generated as much buzz as Tulane’s Jon Sumrall and other American Conference coaches, he has beaten many of them in head-to-head matchups and boasts a 29-9 record since the start of the 2023 season, including an AP Top 25 finish last fall. Silverfield led Memphis to a win against Arkansas earlier this season and has beaten four consecutive Power 4 opponents, including West Virginia and Iowa State in bowl games the past two seasons.

He has led Memphis since late 2019 but been at the program since 2016, so he understands the recruiting landscape and where Arkansas must look for players. Arkansas’ location can be a challenge for acquiring talent, but Silverfield shouldn’t be intimidated by it. He also brings a strong background on offense to Fayetteville and should compile a staff that has similar knowledge to the area and possibly the SEC.

What are the biggest challenges for Silverfield?

The SEC is only getting tougher with the additions of Texas and Oklahoma, the emergence of Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt, and the pressure on a traditional heavyweight like Florida to start making the CFP. Where does Arkansas really fit in the SEC pecking order? Silverfield likely will have to do more with less initially and win games against programs that have been on steadier footing. His real challenge will be trying to energize and unite the financial hubs around the Arkansas program, which give the program a chance to accelerate but haven’t always been harnessed.

Athletic director Hunter Yurachek was blunt earlier this year about the increased resources needed to better compete in the SEC. Arkansas seemingly could access those individuals and corporations with the right coach and vision. That’s where Silverfield comes in, as Arkansas can use those relationships to overcome some of its baked-in obstacles. Silverfield will need a strong introductory period, as Arkansas fans might not know him that well and need to embrace his personality and leadership style. The first offseason will be critical to make sure the program doesn’t fall further behind.

Grade: B

Silverfield’s consistency and success tended to go under the radar at a program like Memphis, where people have grown accustomed to really strong seasons. But his steady leadership style, shown in 2023, 2024 and most of this year, should help an Arkansas program that needs clear direction. He hasn’t coached in the SEC, and there could be a learning curve, but he shouldn’t be surprised walking in the door at Arkansas after spending so much time with Memphis. — Rittenberg

Why is this a good fit?

Every SEC school asks its head coaches to be engaged in recruiting, and Auburn is no exception. Although Auburn never got the results it wanted with Hugh Freeze, the school’s approach toward NIL and acquiring talent — a major draw when it tried to lure Lane Kiffin from Ole Miss — showed up on the roster. Golesh is the type of head coach who could harness Auburn’s established personnel apparatus and really maximize things going forward. He’s about as hands-on in the recruiting space as head coaches get. When Golesh was offensive coordinator at Tennessee, I remember sitting in his office and seeing him monitor all the recruiting transactions from social media on a giant screen. Golesh will get after it to upgrade Auburn’s roster and use all the resources available to him. He won’t be intimidated by the SEC recruiting scene and has ties to multiple states, including Florida and Ohio.

Golesh also brings an offensive background that should energize Auburn fans, especially after how poorly things went on that side of the ball under Freeze. He spent time with Matt Campbell early in his career, and then with Josh Heuepel at both UCF and Tennessee. South Florida ranks in the top five nationally in both scoring and total offense this season, and its defense shined in wins against Boise State and Florida.

What will be Golesh’s biggest challenge?

The challenge at Auburn is almost always the same. Can the head coach truly capitalize on the best parts of the place — an advantageous recruiting location, strong financial resources and a large and extremely devoted fan base — while navigating the big donors and other significant forces that have clashed too often over time and ultimately held back the program’s progress? Golesh is a strong communicator and brings a good mix of experience to the Plains, most notably his two seasons as an SEC coordinator at Tennessee.

He hasn’t been an SEC head coach, though, and he will need to show he won’t be pushed around or swayed by the forces that have doomed Auburn in the past. Golesh’s staff hires at Auburn will be especially important on defense, as South Florida made strides on that side this season but also struggled in key losses to Memphis and Navy. The other element worth watching is how Golesh balances the personnel element, undoubtedly his passion, with some of the other key responsibilities that come with managing an exciting but complicated program like Auburn.

Grade: B+

Despite no Power 4 head-coaching experience, Golesh checks a lot of boxes with his background, having worked in the Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC, and in the Midwest, South and Southeast. His time at Tennessee should really help him at a program like Auburn, which has a chance to move up in the SEC pecking order but will need a smart, aggressive approach. Golesh’s record of 23-15 doesn’t really jump off the page, and he hasn’t been part of a conference championship just yet. But his assertive vision as a recruiter gives Auburn a chance to quickly improve its roster and win more in an increasingly difficult SEC. — Rittenberg

Why is this a good fit?

Pritchard understands Stanford — its advantages, limitations and possibilities — better than most. He played quarterback for the Cardinal from 2006 to 2009, ahead of Andrew Luck’s run, and then spent the first 13 years of his coaching career with his alma mater, until joining the Washington Commanders‘ staff in 2023. He won’t be blindsided by what he’s walking into at Stanford. He also has a very close relationship with Luck, who is truly directing the program. There will be no feeling-out period between head coach and general manager.

Pritchard, 38, was part of Stanford’s seismic shift under Jim Harbaugh, quarterbacking the team to a signature win against USC in 2007. He then witnessed Stanford’s rise to a consistent contender and, more importantly, saw how things went downhill so quickly after COVID and in the portal/NIL era. His ability to learn from those difficult times and ensure Stanford avoids them will be important. But again, he’s not doing this alone, as he comes in immediately aligned with Luck. — Rittenberg

What will be Pritchard’s biggest challenge?

Generating momentum. Few people share as close an association with some of the biggest moments in Stanford history as Pritchard, but during those heights, the Cardinal never truly resonated broadly within a competitive San Francisco Bay Area sports market. With the collapse of the Pac-12 and six losing seasons in the past seven years, Stanford football has essentially become irrelevant locally. Building a program under those circumstances is difficult.

The academic side of things will always be a draw and should, in theory, help the program limit excessive outgoing transfers, but there also needs to be a robust NIL program. At Stanford that doesn’t have to be a problem. The university’s alumni base is notably wealthy, but it also has not proved to be a group eager to part with large sums of money to help field a better football team. That’s perhaps more of an issue that Luck will be responsible for dealing with, but it is very much part of the hand Pritchard has been dealt.

Beyond the structural challenges, this is just a team that needs a talent upgrade. They don’t have the players right now to compete at a high level. — Kyle Bonagura

Grade: C+

Luck didn’t make the most imaginative hire here. He went with a close friend who needs no introduction to Stanford and the vision for success there. But Pritchard hasn’t been a head coach before and wasn’t mentioned as being on the radar for many other college or NFL jobs. Stanford is really betting on potential here. He only really knows Stanford, which might work out in this case, but he also must learn from what happened toward the end of David Shaw’s tenure and chart out a new path. — Rittenberg

Why is this a good fit?

Oklahoma State needed a coach who knew the Big 12 and the region, and someone who could bring a clear vision, especially on offense. Quarterback play was central to Oklahoma State’s identity under Mike Gundy, and Morris has become one of the best talent identifiers in recent years. Oklahoma State needs to accelerate its recruiting, but likely won’t have the first choice for players, and Morris has repeatedly shown the ability to find and develop under-the-radar players. Ideally, he can bring quarterback Drew Mestemaker and others to Stillwater, and perhaps more importantly, make Oklahoma State an attractive destination for top offensive performers again.

Morris played and coached in the Big 12 at Texas Tech and spent time at Houston early in his career, so he won’t be unfamiliar with the key characteristics of a program like Oklahoma State. He’s not a Gundy disciple, but he can respect what Gundy did to elevate the program, while implementing his own vision, which worked both at Incarnate Word and at North Texas. — Rittenberg

What will be Morris’ biggest challenge?

The answer here is twofold: 1) Morris must live up to the unprecedented levels of consistent success his predecessor brought Oklahoma State; 2) Morris will also have to figure out exactly how to take the Cowboys’ football program to the future.

On the first point, whomever Oklahoma State chose to hire this cycle was going to be replacing a coach who won more — and more consistently — than any other figure in program history. Before 2023, the Cowboys made 18 consecutive bowl appearances under Gundy, winning eight or more games in 13 of those seasons. Past leading Oklahoma State to the very top of the sport and turning the program into a national brand, Gundy’s greatest achievement was transforming a school that had registered back-to-back 10-win seasons only once before he took over in 2005 into a perennial winner. Morris, who made two playoff appearances at Incarnate Word and has North Texas contending for the American this fall, has a history of producing quick turnarounds. Getting Oklahoma State upright — which will likely require a massive roster and staff overhaul — should be his first objective. From there, Morris will be judged on the expectations set by Gundy before him.

How does Morris take Oklahoma State into the future? Gundy’s initial, outspoken reluctance, then too-little, too-late embrace of college football’s NIL/transfer portal era hurt the Cowboys on the field and laid the groundwork for his unceremonious departure earlier this fall. Oklahoma State has fallen behind in terms of roster budgeting compared to its Big 12 counterparts, and industry sources suggested that the Cowboys’ ability to present improved resources would be a key piece of the hiring process. Morris has built a career on making more out of less, and that will serve him well in Stillwater. He has also proven capable of navigating the transfer portal and the current complexities of the sport. With help from Oklahoma State (and its boosters), Morris must take steps to modernize the program. If he can, a Big 12 conference landscape that remains wide open outside of Texas Tech could once again be Oklahoma State’s for the taking. — Eli Lederman

Grade: A-

Morris is only 40 (cue the Gundy memes), hasn’t been a Power 4 head coach, and before this season had only middling results with North Texas. His quarterback track record is his superpower, though, and Oklahoma State needs a renaissance at the position after things fell off too sharply. Morris can recruit Texas and build up the roster. Time will tell if he has the expertise to win one-score games in a league where programs are extremely similar. — Rittenberg

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Paul Finebaum: Is Virginia Tech an upgrade for James Franklin?

Paul Finebaum weighs in on James Franklin reportedly being hired as Virginia Tech’s next coach.

Why is this a good fit?

When Franklin was fired and almost immediately announced his intentions to coach in 2026, Virginia Tech emerged as a natural landing spot for the 53-year-old. He has spent most of his career near the mid-Atlantic region, twice serving as a Maryland assistant, leading programs in Vanderbilt and Penn State and even working within the state at James Madison in 1997.

He understands the key recruiting areas extremely well. Franklin ultimately was fired for not winning the biggest games at Penn State, but he still won a lot of them (104) and understands how to build a consistently successful program. Virginia Tech ultimately had to do more of the selling here and convince a veteran coach that it was financially serious enough to contend in the ACC. Franklin isn’t shy about asking for what he needs, and he wouldn’t take the job if he didn’t feel that Virginia Tech’s investments are sufficient to compete for ACC championships. — Rittenberg

What will be Franklin’s biggest challenge?

This hire would not have happened without the financial investment Virginia Tech is about to make in football. The Hokies have languished behind their ACC counterparts in nearly every area — from staffing to salaries to NIL — and some of that has to do with an outdated way of thinking. The one through line has been the thought that the Hokies could win the way Frank Beamer won. That is a big reason why they hired Brent Pry, who served as Franklin’s defensive coordinator, as head coach in November 2021. That clearly did not work, as Pry never won more than seven games in a season. Virginia Tech pledged to add $229 million to its overall athletics budget over the next four years — a huge concession that the old model no longer works in this new era of college football.

But Franklin has to get the entire athletic department to believe the old Beamer days truly are over and things must be done his way. That is challenge No. 1. The second challenge is to restore Virginia Tech’s prowess in recruiting its home state. Franklin had success taking players out of Virginia Tech’s backyard and turning them into stars at Penn State. Will he be able to do the same now at Virginia Tech, which has lost an enormous amount of ground to powers outside the state? The high school players being recruited now were toddlers the last time Virginia Tech was a nationally respected program playing in BCS games. They don’t remember the Hokies being elite. Convincing players to stay in state will be a challenge, but one that Franklin can achieve given his track record. — Adelson

Grade: A

Virginia Tech’s two post-Frank Beamer hires were a coach who had not led a Power 4 program (Justin Fuente) and a first-time head coach (Brent Pry). In Franklin, Virginia Tech gets a proven winner from the Big Ten and SEC, who knows the region extremely well and will be extremely motivated to compete for league titles and CFP appearances.

Franklin’s big-stage shortcomings are a concern but perhaps not as much for a program like Virginia Tech, which is seeking to become a consistent conference title contender again. — Rittenberg

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Kiffin takes LSU job, won’t finish year with Rebels

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November 30, 2025

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Kiffin takes LSU job, won't finish year with Rebels

  • Mark Schlabach

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    Mark Schlabach

    ESPN Senior Writer

    • Senior college football writer
    • Author of seven books on college football
    • Graduate of the University of Georgia

Nov 30, 2025, 03:23 PM ET

LSU‘s courtship of Lane Kiffin has come to an end, as he’s leaving the school to take the job in Baton Rouge and will not coach Ole Miss in the College Football Playoff.

He announced both things Sunday afternoon, the culmination of a weeks-long saga that hung over the sport, prompted viscous debate and puts Kiffin in the unprecedented position of a head coach leaving his team and not coaching them in the College Football Playoff.

“After a lot of prayer and time spent with family, I made the difficult decision to accept the head coaching position at LSU,” Kiffin said in a statement Sunday.

His deal with LSU is for seven years and is worth approximately $12 million annually, with the potential for bonuses, a source told ESPN’s Pete Thamel. That would make him one of the highest-paid coaches in the sport.

Kiffin, 50, and the Rebels just wrapped up an 11-1 regular season with a 38-19 win over rival Mississippi State, all but assuring them a berth in the 12-team College Football Playoff.

After saying he would decide Saturday whether he’ll coach at Ole Miss or LSU in 2026, Kiffin met with Rebels athletics director Keith Carter and chancellor Glenn Boyce for a couple of hours at the chancellor’s home in Oxford.

He also sought the advice of former Alabama coach Nick Saban and Las Vegas Raiders coach Pete Carroll, his former boss at USC, over the past few weeks.

Kiffin expressed his appreciation for his time at Ole Miss in a statement released on social media. He also took issue with Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter, who Kiffin said “denied” his request to coach in the College Football Playoff.

“I was hoping to complete a historic six season run with this year’s team by leading Ole Miss through the playoffs, capitalizing on the team’s incredible success and their commitment to finish strong, and investing everything into a playoff run with guardrails in place to protect the program in any areas of concern,” Kiffin said in his statement.

“My request to do so was denied by Keith Carter despite the team also asking him to allow me to keep coaching them so they could better maintain their high level of performance. Unfortunately, that means Friday’s Egg Bowl was my last game coaching the Rebels.”

Ole Miss responded quickly, as sources told ESPN that they’d promoted defensive coordinator Pete Golding to the school’s full-time coach soon after Kiffin left the football building for LSU.

Kiffin’s decision was supposed to come Saturday, and there was a delay in part because the result of the Iron Bowl late Saturday impacted whether or not Ole Miss would have played this week. He met with Rebels athletics director Keith Carter and chancellor Glenn Boyce for a couple of hours at the chancellor’s home in Oxford on Saturday.

Kiffin also met with some players in the football building on Sunday, and he pointed out in his statement that the players wanted him to coach in the CFP.

Part of the drama unfolding Saturday revolved around Ole Miss staff members and who would end up going with Kiffin. The Rebels’ brass wanted to protect their staff to keep things as normal as possible for the postseason. Kiffin would obviously take some of his staff with him, and the timing of those departures came into focus as discussions went on during the day.

Ole Miss officials are being aggressive with staff salaries, as there’s a high focus on retention, sources told ESPN.

On the offensive side for Ole Miss, quarterback coach Joe Judge, a longtime NFL coordinator and head coach, has agreed to stay on staff, sources told ESPN. Judge’s role hasn’t been formalized yet, but Ole Miss officials and Golding made clear early on he was a priority staff member to stay in Oxford. He coached Trinidad Chambliss and Jaxson Dart while in Oxford.

The naming of Golding as the head coach will lead to continuity at Ole Miss in 2026 and beyond, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

A former Ole Miss player himself, Golding is in his third season on the Rebels’ staff after serving five years as a top defensive assistant at Alabama under Saban.

Kiffin’s decision included an only-in-the-SEC drama that ensnared three prominent schools, as Florida had expressed interest in Kiffin earlier in their search. When that wasn’t reciprocated, they hired Tulane coach Jon Sumrall.

Kiffin has guided the Rebels to a 55-19 record in his six seasons — only Alabama (67-12) and Georgia (71-8) have more wins in the SEC since the start of the 2020 season. The Rebels have the eighth-most wins among power-conference teams during that stretch.

LSU has a championship brand in multiple sports; state-of-the-art facilities; a rabid, regional fan following; and a legendary, historic home football venue in Tiger Stadium (nicknamed Death Valley), which towers over the banks of the Mississippi River and holds 102,000 spectators — 38,000 more than Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

The lone football coach of LSU’s past four who did not win a national championship was Kelly. He was fired in late October during his fourth season — a seismic development that also led then-athletic director Scott Woodward to resign under pressure from Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Iowa’s Black Friday-themed troll tops best jabs from Week 14 of college football

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November 30, 2025

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Iowa's Black Friday-themed troll tops best jabs from Week 14 of college football

There aren’t many givens in a sport as chaotic as college football, but rivalry week coming with a wide array of trolls was probably as assured of a bet as you’d find this week.

Per tradition, the final week of the college football regular season paired a number of local and long-distance rivals alike, with trophies and bragging rights being bestowed to the winner. One additional — if admittedly minor — benefit of claiming a rivalry week victory? The ability to troll your opponent on social media afterward.

Take Iowa for instance.

The Hawkeyes earned a win over their rivals to the west, Nebraska, on Friday, and had a simple but timely jab at the ready. Playing into the Black Friday game-day theme, Iowa posted a photo of a receipt between a Hawkeyes football helmet and the Heroes Trophy, with the text “the trophy’s not moving — again” just above Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz’s signature. The Hawkeyes have now won three straight, and 10 of the past 11, in the rivalry on the gridiron.

Iowa also added a post asserting the superiority of Iowa’s corn to Nebraska’s corn.

Iowa wasn’t the only team with jokes this week, though. Here are all the top trolls from around the college football world in Week 14.

Texas A&M entered Austin for its rivalry week matchup with Texas undefeated in its first 11 games and with a No. 3 national ranking. The Longhorns survived a slow first half to come out on top at home, winning their third consecutive Lone Star Showdown, and their second straight edition of the rivalry since it was brought back to the gridiron.

Unsurprisingly, Texas had a barrage of trolls for its in-state rivals — sending out posts that included a series of thumbs down emojis (flipping Texas A&M’s ‘gig em’ thumbs up gesture) as well as one with an Aggie-themed line from “Texas Fight” (“and it’s goodbye to A&M”). And as the final seconds ticked away, the Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium took the opportunity to play an edited video — opening with a clip of Aggies head coach Mike Elko asserting that his squad represents the state’s flagship program.

Air Force‘s offense was stellar in the Falcons’ dominant rivalry win over Colorado State, posting 420 total yards and scoring at least one touchdown in every quarter to pull away from the Rams. Conference re-alignment played a central role in Air Force’s troll of their rivals, which featured a pair of suitcases set to either side of a ram next to a Pac-12 road sign, captioned “Sent them packing.” Colorado State will officially join the Pac-12 in 2026.

This season marked Northern Illinois‘ final campaign in the MAC, a fact that Kent State was happy to recall as the Golden Flashes tallied a season-ending victory. With the Huskies heading to the Mountain West next season, Kent State’s social media team also took a realignment-themed approach, noting that its final game in its soon-to-be former football conference came with a loss.

For the second straight year Navy will finish its regular season with at least nine wins, dispatching Memphis in a Thanksgiving matchup. The Midshipmen held the Tigers scoreless in the second half after trailing 17-14 at halftime, with a pair of rushing touchdowns by Alex Tecza and Blake Horvath making the difference for Navy in the final 30 minutes.

The Midshipmen took to social media after the game to opt for a mascot-oriented troll, posting an image of Navy’s goal symbol proudly standing atop a vanquished tiger.

The Falcons and Minutemen aren’t exactly traditional rivals — their Tuesday meeting was the first time the two schools faced off on the gridiron in a decade — but Bowling Green made sure to offer its opponents a solid ribbing after its midweek triumph.

A detailed graphic did the trick for the Falcons’ troll with a number of elements taking aim at Massachusetts‘ colonial nickname. A pocket watch featuring Bowling Green’s unofficial Pudge the Cat mascot sits below an old wooden rifle, with the caption “time’s up” completing the jab.

This was one of those games that was a lot closer than it looked — USC only had a four-point lead over UCLA going into the fourth quarter. The Trojans bore down, however, scoring twice in the final frame, capped off by a 41-yard King Miller score.

After the game, USC kept it simple, reminding UCLA that it would be ringing the rivalry’s Victory Bell this time around.

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