CFB coaching carousel: Tracking every FBS vacancy
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‘
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — Francisco Álvarez checked off another box Saturday in his return from tearing the ulnar collateral ligament in his left thumb last month.
The New York Mets catcher took batting practice on the field Saturday for the first time since injuring the thumb sliding into second base against the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 19. He took more than 20 swings before the Mets hosted the San Francisco Giants at Citi Field.
Asked if he took the swings at full strength, Álvarez pointed out that he hit a ball 115 mph. That, he joked, said it all.
“I’m very happy and excited to be back on the field,” Álvarez, 22, said. “I’m very happy with how everything is going.”
Álvarez, who underwent surgery on the thumb April 23, explained he is still a few steps away from going on a rehab assignment. The next checkpoints include hitting off a pitching machine to face velocity before facing live pitching and catching bullpens.
The Mets announced a six-to-eight-week timeline for Álvarez following the surgery. Tuesday marks five weeks.
“I don’t know if it’s a few more weeks or days,” Álvarez said. “It’s really how is everything going? If I keep feeling good, if I keep doing good, if I don’t feel nothing in my thumb, my batting cage is feeling good, maybe it’s a couple of weeks, a couple of days.”
Álvarez said he sought out advice from Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Pérez, a fellow Venezuelan who sustained the same UCL thumb injury in 2022. Two years later, Pérez, one of the most productive hitters in the majors this season, told Álvarez about the recovery process and the need to take his time.
The Mets, meanwhile, have had some of the worst production in the majors from the catcher position without Álvarez. Mets catchers Tomas Nido and Omar Narvaez have combined to for a .194 batting average since April 20, the fourth-worst mark in the majors. Their collective 38 wRC+ ranks 28th, ahead of only the Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs.
It didn’t take Yankees slugger Juan Soto long to show Padres fans what they are missing.
In his first game back to face San Diego since being traded to the Yankees this offseason, he drove a third-inning high fastball from Yu Darvish over the right-center-field fence for his 14th homer of the year. It was the first of three no-doubt shots for the Yankees that inning off Darvish. Aaron Judge followed with a homer and Giancarlo Stanton also had a two-run shot.
Soto’s 423-foot homer gave the Yankees a 3-0 lead as they went on to win the game 8-0. He also walked in the fourth, flied out to the wall in right in the seventh and doubled in the ninth.
He described the third inning as “electric, fun. Definitely fun. It was pretty cool to see the guys coming through against a guy like that. It’s huge.”
The 25-year-old from the Dominican Republic was greeted with a mixture of boos from Padres fans and cheers from the many Yankees fans at Petco Park when the starting lineup was announced and each time he came to the plate.
“I wasn’t expecting cheers or boos but they did both,” Soto said. “I was right in the middle. That was pretty cool. That’s fine. I don’t mind at all.”
The Yankees are 37-4, including the playoffs, when Stanton and Judge homer in the same game and are 2-0 when Soto, Judge and Stanton all homer in the same game.
“It was pretty awesome, actually,” manager Aaron Boone said of the third inning. “You get those moments every now and then in the regular season that are, ‘Man, that was pretty cool.’ When Juan kind of took the air out of it right there and Judgey follows it right up, and then here we go (Alex) Verdugo and then here we go Stanton, one of those cool ones during the season that you get to be a part of.”
Soto left a note on the grass in right field after the eighth inning that his former teammate Fernando Tatis Jr. picked up and read when he took the field in the ninth.
Soto wouldn’t say what the note said, but added: “It was something cool. He enjoyed it because when I hit the double he looked at me, he was laughing about it.”
In preparing for his first game at Petco since being traded to New York on Dec. 7, Soto said he thought San Diego is a great city for any big leaguer to play in for a long time.
“My time in San Diego was great. It was unbelievable,” said Soto, who was involved in two blockbuster trades in just 16 months.
The Padres obtained Soto from Washington in an eight-player trade Aug. 2, 2022, after he turned down a $440 million, 15-year offer from the Nationals. The Padres envisioned having him for three playoff runs. Though they made a stirring run to the NL Championship Series in 2022, they were a major disappointment in 2023, when they missed the playoffs despite having baseball’s third-highest payroll.
Soto said he was prepared to return to San Diego for this season.
But the death of free-spending owner Peter Seidler on Nov. 14 plunged the Padres into financial uncertainty. Looking to reset their luxury tax and needing to add pitching, they sent Soto to the Yankees in a seven-player trade.
“We never get the chance to keep talking a little bit farther with the Padres, but it was a great team, great fan base,” Soto said. “But at the end of the day, we just couldn’t get it done and just keep moving forward.
“Where I’m at, I’m more than happy where I’m at. I’m really excited,” he said.
The Yankees and Soto agreed Jan. 11 to a $31 million, one-year contract, breaking Shohei Ohtani’s record for an arbitration-eligible player. Soto had a $23 million salary last year in his only full season with the Padres and the outfielder can become a free agent after this season, when he will be 26.
Boone, part of the first family in baseball history to produce three generations of major league players, said the series should offer “a little added buzz with Juan being back here and the Yankees being in town.
“Obviously, this is a pretty wild fan base,” said Boone, who was born in suburban La Mesa. “It’s been such a popular scene here these last couple of years with the big-name people they’ve brought in. And I’m sure with us being here it’s going to be a pretty cool environment, especially being on a weekend.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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