With the College Football Playoff expanding and a lack of marquee jobs opening up, this year’s coaching carousel certainly lacked the sizzle of last season. Three of the four College Football Playoff teams had to conduct coaching searches after the 2024 postseason.
This year brought just one opening in the SEC and Big Ten combined, and just five power conference jobs overall. Outside of Bill Belichick dominating the college football news cycle for a few days with his stunning decision to go to North Carolina, the carousel flew under the radar.
Several coaches, notably Florida’s Billy Napier and Baylor’s Dave Aranda, played their way off the hot seat, and others had massive buyouts (Florida State’s Mike Norvell) that gave them some protection.
The five new hires include three who have power conference experience yet were fired at their last Power 5 stop in Scott Frost, Rich Rodriguez and Barry Odum. A pair of coaches are going home to try to relive the high point of their college careers (Frost to UCF, Rodriguez to West Virginia), plus another who went from a P5 job to a G5 job while still at the same school (Jack Dickert) and is now back in the P4. Got all that?
MORE: SN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25 | Composite Top 25
Here are the updated stats SN has tracked since 2017 on where athletic directors have turned to hire power conference coaches.
Plucking head coaches from the G5 level remains the No. 1 choice. The “other” category went up by two this year with the hirings of Frost and Belichick, who were out of college football last season. Kansas State’s Chris Klieman, Colorado’s Deion Sanders and Illinois’ Bret Bielema are notable “other” coaches who have been successful hires in recent years.
| New Hire | 2017-24 | 2025 |
| P5/4 Head coach | 14 | 0 |
| Promoted | 15 | 0 |
| P5/4 Coordinator | 19 | 0 |
| P5/4 Assistant | 4 | 0 |
| G5 Head coach | 27 | 3 |
| Other* | 15 | 2 |
* – Includes NFL assistants, coaches out of football or FCS coaches
Here are some belated grades on the 2025 hires listed alphabetically by program. And here are our past report cards for 2022, 2023 and 2024.
MORE: The full 2024-25 coaching carousel
Grading college football coaching hires for 2025
North Carolina — Bill Belichick
There is no precedent for this. You might look at Pete Carroll, who took over at USC after 16 years in the NFL, but he had 11 years of college experience straight out of college. Belichick has none. Zero.
We could give this an “A” for hiring a six-time Super Bowl-winning mastermind who will run circles around the rest of the ACC. Or we could give it an “F” for UNC grabbing a big name whose only goal is to get back into the NFL and leave the Tar Heels to his son Stephen. We’re leaning more “A” than “F,” but this is obviously not a long-term hire, so whatever success may come isn’t necessarily sustainable.
Grade: B-
MORE: Bill Belichick’s UNC contract details
Purdue — UNLV head coach Barry Odom
Odom comes off a near miraculous two-year run at UNLV to land in the Big Ten. UNLV had just one winning season in its previous 22 years (2013) before Odom arrived, and he immediately guided them to a 9-5 mark in 2023 and 11-3 in 2024 despite losing his starting quarterback halfway through this season.
Odom lasted four years at Missouri, going 25-25 (13-19 SEC) before being fired from his alma mater. He’s going to need another miracle in West Lafayette at Purdue, a program that can go sideways quickly if the right coach isn’t in charge.
Grade: B+
UCF — Scott Frost
Runner-up to Belichick as the wildest hire of the cycle, Frost has had one winning season in seven years as a head coach — but it was a doozy. UCF went 13-0 with Frost at the helm in 2017. He then left to restore his alma mater at Nebraska, and it was a disaster. After four losing seasons featuring torturous losses, he was fired after three games in 2022 and has been out of football since then.
College football looks nothing like it did when Frost weaved his magic at UCF, which was in the AAC at the time, and really is quite different even from 2022 with the foundational changes thanks to NIL, the transfer portal and realignment. Hard to see this working out in any way.
Grade: D
Wake Forest — Washington State head coach Jack Dickert
We gave Dickert a “C+” when Wazzu promoted him from interim to full-time coach for the Cougars, and we were wrong. Remember, Dickert took over unexpectedly when Nick Rolovich resigned over his refusal to be vaccinated during the 2020 season. Then he saw the Pac-12 implode and had to navigate the program through unexpected life as an independent.
To go 23-20 overall, beat Washington in the ultimate revenge game and earn a bowl bid was great work. Wake Forest can be uphill sledding, but it is going to seem calm for Dickert.
Grade: B+
West Virginia – Jacksonville State head coach Rich Rodriguez
The second homecoming of the cycle, but this one should work. Rodriguez has had success everywhere he’s been with the notable exception of Michigan, where he went 15-22 from 2008-2010. He’s also had his share of trouble, with a messy departure from West Virginia in which he was sued and had to pay his full buyout, some NCAA violations at Michigan, plus a sexual harassment lawsuit at Arizona that was later dismissed and ended with Rodriguez exonerated.
On the field, RichRod won huge at WVU, going 31-5 in his final three seasons and had WVU in national championship contention. He had five winning seasons in six years at Arizona (UA has had one in the seven years since he left) and the last two years went 18-9 at Jacksonville State in their first two years as an FBS member. His ugly departure from Morgantown has been forgiven among the WVU faithful, and in a balanced Big 12, there’s no reason he won’t lead them into the upper third of the league very quickly.
Grade: A
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