Connect with us

Published

on

As sure as autumn fades into winter, as the college football season winds down, the coaching carousel starts to crank up.

The biggest early name to lose his job was Jimbo Fisher, who was fired at Texas A&M during his sixth season leading the Aggies. Since then, several Power 5 jobs have opened including at Houston, which is moving on from Dana Holgorsen, and Indiana, which fired Tom Allen.

As the list continues to grow, we’ll track all the comings and goings of head coaches and prominent coordinators, along with insights and intel on searches for replacements and who might be on the hot seat.

Jump to a vacancy:
Houston | Indiana
Duke | Oregon State
Syracuse | Middle Tennessee
UTEP | New Mexico
San Diego State | Boise State
Notable coordinators
Filled jobs

Holgorson out after five years at Houston

Houston dismissed coach Dana Holgorsen, who had three losing seasons in his five years as the Cougars’ head coach.

Houston went 4-8 in its inaugural Big 12 season, which included a loss at Rice early in the season and three straight losses to end the year. The Cougars finished 2-7 in the Big 12, with their wins coming in overtime against Baylor and on a last-second 49-yard touchdown against West Virginia.

The Cougars owe Holgorsen nearly $14.8 million in buyout money, but his contract includes a mitigation clause that could lower the amount if Holgorsen gets another job.

More: Holgorsen had 31-28 record with Cougs


Indiana moves on from Allen

Indiana fired football coach Tom Allen a day after the Hoosiers completed their third consecutive losing season.

Allen, who had led Indiana since 2017 after spending a season as the team’s defensive coordinator, finished 33-49 as Hoosiers coach. Indiana dropped its final three games, including Saturday’s rivalry contest at Purdue, to finish 3-9. It had gone 9-26 overall and 3-23 in Big Ten play since the 2020 season, when it was 6-2 in the COVID-shortened season.

More: Allen in line for $15.5 million buyout


Duke has big shoes to fill with Elko gone

Mike Elko, who engineered an impressive turnaround at Duke, has left to be head coach at Mississippi State, leaving the Blue Devils searching for a successor who can build off Elko’s momentum.

Duke was 16-9 in two years under Elko after going 3-9 the year before he arrived.

More: JMU’s Cignetti a candidate to watch


Oregon State needs to replace Smith

With Jonathan Smith leaving his alma mater for Michigan State, Oregon State will be looking for a new coach amid an uncertain future regarding the school’s conference affiliation.

Smith, a former Beavers quarterback, was 34-35 in six seasons at OSU, but 18-7 since the start of the 2022 campaign.

More: Bronco Mendenhall a candidate to watch


Babers out at Syracuse after eight seasons

Syracuse fired football coach Dino Babers on Nov. 19, ending his tenure at the university with a 41-55 record over the past eight seasons.

Syracuse tight ends coach Nunzio Campanile was named interim coach.

Under Babers, the Orange lost six of its past seven games, marking the second consecutive year that featured a precipitous slide to end the season. Last year, Syracuse lost six of its last seven games. His ACC record is 20-45.

More: Babers has just two winning seasons at Syracuse


Middle Tennessee fires longtime coach Stockstill

Middle Tennessee fired longtime coach Rick Stockstill following the team’s third losing season in the past five years.

Stockstill had led Middle Tennessee since December 2005 and was 113-111 in 18 seasons with the program, but the Blue Raiders went 4-8 in 2023.

More: Stockstill was fourth-longest-tenured coach in FBS


Dimel fired by UTEP

UTEP fired coach Dana Dimel after a 3-9 season.

Dimel, 61, went 20-49 in six seasons with the Miners, including a New Mexico Bowl appearance in 2021, UTEP’s first since 2014. UTEP went 2-6 in Conference USA play this season.

More: Dimel out after six seasons at UTEP


Gonzales out at New Mexico

New Mexico fired head coach Danny Gonzales on Nov. 25 after a four-year stint in which he went 11-32 at his alma mater.

The school announced the move in the wake of a 4-8 season, which was his highest win total in Gonzales’ tenure.

More: Lobos haven’t played bowl game since 2016


San Diego State’s Hoke set to retire

Hoke, who is in his second stint as San Diego State‘s head coach, announced he will retire at the end of the season. Hoke took over before the 2020 season after having led the program from 2009 to ’10. He has a combined 39-31 record over those two stints and has twice been named Mountain West coach of the year.

SDSU will finish this season with its first losing record — both overall and in Mountain West play — since 2009. In 2021, Hoke led the Aztecs to a school-record 12 wins.

More: SDSU’s Hoke to retire at end of season


Boise State fires Avalos after 22-14 record

Boise State fired football coach Andy Avalos on Nov. 12, with the Broncos at 5-5 and in danger of the program’s first losing season since 1997.

Avalos went 22-14 in three seasons at Boise State, including a 10-4 record that resulted in him being named 2022 Mountain West coach of the year. At no point during Avalos’ two-plus seasons was Boise State ranked in the Associated Press poll; the Broncos’ 19-year streak of being ranked ended during his first season in 2021.

Defensive coordinator and longtime Boise State assistant Spencer Danielson is serving as the interim coach.

More: Avalos out as Boise State can’t match past success


Penn State fires OC Yurcich

Penn State fired offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich on Nov. 12, a day after the unit struggled in a high-profile loss for the second time this season.

The Nittany Lions scored only 15 points and managed just 238 yards of offense (74 through the air) in a 24-15 loss to Michigan. Penn State’s offense also struggled in a 20-12 loss to Ohio State on Oct. 21, finishing with 240 yards and not reaching the end zone until the game’s final minute.

Yurcich, 48, has been the team’s offensive playcaller and quarterbacks coach since 2021.

More: Franklin hears boos: ‘Not good enough’ | Yurcich fired


Grinch gone as USC’s defensive woes continue

After USC surrendered 101 total points in two games, defensive coordinator Alex Grinch was relieved of his duties, Trojans coach Lincoln Riley announced Nov. 5.

Grinch, who was Oklahoma’s defensive coordinator from 2019 to 2021 before leaving for USC alongside Riley, led a unit that allowed an average of 34.5 points per game this season and was in the bottom 30 in the country in nearly every statistical category, including 120th in rushing defense and 107th against the pass.

More: USC defensive coordinator Grinch let go


Brian Ferentz won’t return as Iowa’s OC

Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, the son of longtime coach Kirk Ferentz whose contract amid the offense’s historic struggles drew national attention, will not return for the 2024 season.

Brian Ferentz, a former offensive lineman at Iowa, has served as the team’s offensive coordinator since 2017 and has been on his father’s staff since 2012. In February, Iowa announced contract amendments for him that included an unusual points-per-game provision — the team would need to average 25 points per game during the 2023 season and win at least seven games for Ferentz’s two-year rolling contract to be reactivated beyond June 30, 2024. The Hawkeyes have fallen well short of that average.

More: Iowa falls short in ‘Drive for 325’ | Brian Ferentz out

FILLED JOBS

A&M hires Duke’s Elko to replace Fisher

Duke coach Mike Elko is leaving the Blue Devils to become head coach at Texas A&M.

Elko is a former Texas A&M defensive coordinator who left there two years ago to take the Duke head-coaching job. Since Elko’s departure after the 2021 season, A&M’s performance has dipped on the field. The Aggies went 12-12 the past two years, which is why the school paid a record $76 million buyout to fire coach Jimbo Fisher.

Elko immediately showed his chops as a head coach, authoring one of the sport’s biggest turnarounds in the 2022 season. Duke went 9-4 in Elko’s first season after he inherited a team that had gone 3-9 the year before. The team went 7-5 this season after losing quarterback Riley Leonard to injury in Week 4.

Fisher was 45-25 in six seasons at Texas A&M.

More: Elko leaves Duke after two seasons
Fisher fired, gets record buyout | AD: Aggies stuck in neutral


Oklahoma OC Lebby in for Arnett at Mississippi State

Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby will be the new coach at Mississippi State, the school announced Nov. 26.

Lebby has been the offensive coordinator at OU, Ole Miss and UCF, with high-tempo and prolific offenses his hallmark. Since 2019, he’s been coordinator of an offense that has scored 50 or more points 14 times, leading all active offensive coordinators.

Lebby replaces Zach Arnett, who fired Nov. 13 before completing his first season. Arnett, the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator for three seasons, was promoted to head coach this past December after the sudden death of Mike Leach.

More: Lebby agrees to five-year deal
Mississippi State fires Arnett after 11 games


Michigan State hires Oregon State’s Smith

Michigan State hired Oregon State football coach Jonathan Smith for the same role Nov. 25, hours after both teams ended their regular seasons.

Smith, 44, completed the regular season as No. 16 Oregon State fell to rival Oregon 31-7 on the road, dropping to 8-4 on the season. The former Beavers quarterback finishes 34-35 in six seasons at his alma mater, but 18-7 since the start of the 2022 campaign.

The Spartans fired Mel Tucker for cause Sept. 27 as he was under university investigation for a sexual misconduct complaint brought by Brenda Tracy, a sexual assault awareness speaker.

More: MSU fires Tucker for bringing ‘ridicule’ to program


Northwestern promotes interim coach Braun

Interim coach David Braun, hired in January as defensive coordinator by former coach Pat Fitzgerald, was promoted to the permanent head-coaching role. Entering Week 12, Braun had led Northwestern to five wins, more than the team’s combined win total from the past two seasons (4). He is the first Northwestern coach to win five games in his first season since Walter McCornack in 1903.

The school named Braun interim coach July 14, four days after it fired Fitzgerald in the wake of hazing allegations against the program. Fitzgerald went 110-101 over 17 seasons at Northwestern.

More: Committee liked Braun’s approach | Hazing ‘clearly not a secret

Continue Reading

Sports

Sources: Jays give Vlad Jr. 14-year, $500M deal

Published

on

By

Sources: Jays give Vlad Jr. 14-year, 0M deal

First baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Toronto Blue Jays are in agreement on a 14-year, $500 million contract extension, pending physical, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan on Sunday night.

This is a monumental, no-deferral deal to keep the homegrown star in Toronto for the rest of his career, and comes as the 5-5 Blue Jays are in the midst of a road trip that takes them to Fenway Park to meet the Boston Red Sox on Monday.

Guerrero, 26, a four-time All-Star and son of Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero, had said he would not negotiate during the season after the sides failed to come to an agreement before he reported to spring training. The sides continued talking, however, and sealed a deal that is the third largest in Major League Baseball history, behind only Juan Soto‘s 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets and Shohei Ohtani‘s 10-year, $700 million pact with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Blue Jays, snakebit in recent years by Soto and Ohtani signing elsewhere, received a long-term commitment from their best homegrown talent since Hall of Famer Roy Halladay.

They had tried to sign Guerrero to a long-term deal for years to no avail. Toronto got a glimpse of Guerrero’s talent when he debuted shortly after his 20th birthday in 2019 and homered 15 times as a rookie. His breakout season came in 2021, when Guerrero finished second to Aaron Judge in American League MVP voting after hitting .311/.401/.601 with 48 home runs and 111 RBIs.

Guerrero followed with a pair of solid-but-below-expectations seasons in 2022 and 2023, and in mid-May 2024, he sported an OPS under .750 as the Blue Jays struggled en route to an eventual last-place finish. Over his last 116 games in 2024, the Guerrero of 2021 reemerged, as he hit .343/.407/.604 with 26 home runs and 84 RBIs.

With a payroll expected to exceed the luxury tax threshold of $241 million, the Blue Jays ended the season’s first week atop the American League East standings. Toronto dropped to 5-3 on Friday after a loss to the Mets, in which Guerrero collected a pair of singles, raising his season slash line to .267/.343/.367.

Between Guerrero and shortstop Bo Bichette‘s free agency after the 2025 season, the Blue Jays faced a potential reckoning. Though Bichette is expected to play out the season before hitting the open market, Guerrero’s deal lessens the sting of Toronto’s pursuits of Ohtani in 2023 and Soto in 2024.

Toronto shook off the signings of Soto and first baseman Pete Alonso with the Mets, left-hander Max Fried with the New York Yankees and infielder Alex Bregman with the Boston Red Sox to retool their roster. Toronto gave outfielder Anthony Santander a heavily deferred five-year, $92.5 million contract, brought in future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer on a one-year, $15.5 million deal, bolstered its bullpen with right-handers Jeff Hoffman and Yimi Garcia, and traded for Platinum Glove-winning second baseman Andres Gimenez, who is hitting cleanup.

Toronto’s long-term commitments will allow for significant financial flexibility. In addition to Bichette and Scherzer, right-hander Chris Bassitt and relievers Chad Green and Erik Swanson are free agents after this season. After 2026, the nine-figure deals of outfielder George Springer and right-hander Kevin Gausman come off the books, as well.

Building around Guerrero is a good place to start. One of only a dozen players in MLB with at least two seasons of six or more Wins Above Replacement since 2021, Guerrero consistently is near the top of MLB leaderboards in hardest-hit balls, a metric that typically translates to great success.

Like his father, who hit 449 home runs and batted .318 over a 16-year career, Guerrero has rare bat-to-ball skills, particularly for a player with top-of-the-scale power. In his six MLB seasons, Guerrero has hit .288/.363/.499 with 160 home runs, 510 RBIs and 559 strikeouts against 353 walks.

Originally a third baseman, Guerrero shifted to first base during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Had the Blue Jays signed Alonso, they signaled the possibility of Guerrero returning full time to third, where he played a dozen games last year.

With the extension in place, the 6-foot-2, 245-pound Guerrero is expected to remain at first base and reset a market that had been topped by the eight-year, $248 million extension Miguel Cabrera signed just shy of his 31st birthday in 2014.

Continue Reading

Sports

Jackson-Earnhardt Jr. trademark dispute resolved

Published

on

By

Jackson-Earnhardt Jr. trademark dispute resolved

OWINGS MILLS, Md. -= It looks like Dale Earnhardt Jr. has waved the red flag in a short-lived trademark dispute with Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson.

The NASCAR legend announced Friday on social media that he has secured the right to use a stylized version of No. 8 and will abandon the original No. 8 logo used by Earnhardt’s JR Motorsports. This decision came two days after Jackson filed an opposition claim with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to stop Earnhardt from putting that JR Motorsports version of No. 8 on merchandising.

“We are looking forward to the remainder of an already successful season,” Earnhardt wrote on social media.

Jackson, who has worn No. 8 since his college days at Louisville, previously registered the trademark “ERA 8 by Lamar Jackson.” His filing had argued Earnhardt’s attempt to trademark that particular version of No. 8 would create confusion among consumers.

The trademark review for a challenge can take more than a year. If the U.S. Patent and Trademark appeal board would have denied Earnhardt, Jackson could have sued him if Earnhardt had used it for merchandising.

This isn’t the first time that Jackson has tried to stop another athlete from filing a trademark on this number. In July, Jackson challenged Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman’s attempt to use “EIGHT” on apparel and bags.

When asked about this dispute last summer, Jackson said, “We’re going to keep this about football. That’s outside noise. We’re sticking with [talking about training] camp, football, and that’s it.”

Continue Reading

Sports

Hamlin holds off Byron in OT for Darlington win

Published

on

By

Hamlin holds off Byron in OT for Darlington win

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Denny Hamlin did his job so his pit crew could do its most stellar stop at the perfect time.

Hamlin came into the pits after a final caution in third place and told himself to hit every mark, then let his guys take over.

And that’s what the Joe Gibbs Racing group did, pulling off a perfect winning moment that sent Hamlin out with the lead. He took over on the final restart and held off William Byron to win the Goodyear 400 on Sunday.

It was Hamlin’s 56th career NASCAR win, his fifth at Darlington Raceway and his second straight this season

“When you think about 56 wins, that’s a huge deal,” said Gibbs, Hamlin’s longtime car owner.

Hamlin said he hung on throughout as Byron and others looked like they might pull out victory. Instead, Hamlin waited out his time and then pounced as he broke away during the green-white-checkered finish.

“I can still do it, I can do it at a high level and look forward to winning a lot of races this year,” Hamlin said.

Hamlin won for a second straight week after his success at Martinsville.

Hamlin chose the outside lane for a final restart and shot out to the lead and pulled away from series points leader Byron and NASCAR wins leader Christopher Bell.

Hamlin looked like he’d have a strong finish, but not a winning one as Ryan Blaney passed Tyler Reddick for the lead with three laps left. But moments later, Kyle Larson spun out forcing a final caution and the extra laps.

It was then time for Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew to shine as it got him out quickly and in the lead.

Byron, who led the first 243 laps, was second with Hamlin’s JGR teammate Bell in third.

“There are two people I really love right now, my pit crew and Kyle Larson,” Hamlin said to a round of boos from those in the stands.

Reddick was fourth and Blaney was fifth. The rest of the top 10 finishers were Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs and Kyle Busch.

Hamlin credited the past two victories to his pit crew.

“The pit crew just did an amazing job,” he said. “They won it last week, they won it this week. It’s all about them.”

Blaney had thought he was clear to his first-ever Darlington victory after getting by Reddick late. When he saw the caution flag for Larson’s spin, he said he thought, “Oh, no! I thought we had the race won.”

So did Byron, who sought was to become the first NASCAR driver in nearly 25 years to lead every lap on the way to victory. He got shuffled down the standings during the last round of green-flag pit stops and could not recover.

“It was looking like it was going to be a perfect race and we were going to lead every lap,” he said.

But once “we lost control, it was too late to get back up there,” Byron said.

Bad day

Kyle Larson, who won the Southern 500 here in 2023, had high hopes for a second Darlington win. But he slid into the inside wall coming off the second turn on lap three and went right to garage where his team worked the next couple of hours to get him back on track. Larson returned on lap 164 after falling 161 laps off the pace. Larson finished next to last in 37th.

Biffle’s ride

Greg Biffle, the last NASCAR driver to win consecutive Cup Series victories at Darlington in 2006 and 2007, drove the pace car for the Goodyear 400 on Sunday. Biffle has had an eventful few months, flying rescue missions with his helicopter into areas of the Southeast affected by devastating Hurricane Helene in September.

Biffle was planning a weeklong trip to the Bahamas when his phone started going off about people stranded in parts of Western North Carolina.

“I went to the hangar and the power was out,” Biffle said. “We got the hangar down open with the tug and got the helicopter out. Once I got in the air, I realized what had taken place.”

Biffle then flew the next 11 days from “sunup to sundown.”

“It was incredible,” Biffle said. “It was pretty tough going for the first week.”

Biffle won the Myers Brothers Humanitarian Award for his work.

Up next

The series goes to Bristol on April 13 before taking its traditional Easter break.

Continue Reading

Trending