College football coaches on the move: Carousel in overdrive, keep up with hiresMatthew Glenesk, USA TODAYSun, November 30, 2025 at 4:40 PM UTC·6 min readHang on! The college football coaching carousel is spinning in hyper-speed. Three SEC schools wasted no time in hiring replacements as Arkansas, Auburn and Florida all beat Lane Kiffin and LSU to the altar Sunday morning.
Here's a look at the FBS openings and who is on the move:
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Arkansas
IN: Ryan Silverfield
OUT: Sam Pittman
Silverfield, 45, just wrapped up his sixth full season at Memphis. The Tigers went 8-4 and upset the Razorbacks in late September. Memphis went 50-25 during Silverfield's tenure, winning at least six games and obtaining postseason eligibility in every season. He produced back-to-back double-figure winning seasons from 2023-24, going 21-5 in the two-year stretch.
Auburn
IN: Alex Golesh
OUT: Hugh Freeze
Golesh led the Bulls to a 9-3 mark this season, the program’s most wins in eight years. Over his three-year tenure at the school, Golesh went 23-15. He took over a South Florida program that had gone just 4-29 in the three seasons before he was hired. Under the 41-year-old Golesh, the Bulls didn’t just rack up wins, but points. South Florida finished among the top 35 FBS teams in scoring offense in each of Golesh’s three seasons. This season, it averaged 43 points per game, the fourth-best mark in the FBS.
Virginia Tech hired James Franklin as its next head coach. Franklin was fired earlier this season at Penn State. He replaces Brent Pry, who was fired midseason by the Hokies.
Oklahoma State hired Eric Morris from North Texas to be the Cowboys next head coach. Morris replaces longtime OSU coach Mike Gundy, who was fired earlier this season.
Colorado State hired Jim Mora Jr. as its new head coach. Mora led UConn to back-to-back nine-win seasons and replaces Jay Norvell, who was fired midseason.
Oregon State hired Alabama co-offensive coordinator JaMarcus Shephard as its head coach, replacing Trent Bray who was fired after an 0-7 start this season.1 / 4These college football coaches are on the move. See who found new home
Virginia Tech hired James Franklin as its next head coach. Franklin was fired earlier this season at Penn State. He replaces Brent Pry, who was fired midseason by the Hokies.1 / 4These college football coaches are on the move. See who found new home
Virginia Tech hired James Franklin as its next head coach. Franklin was fired earlier this season at Penn State. He replaces Brent Pry, who was fired midseason by the Hokies.2 / 4These college football coaches are on the move. See who found new home
Oklahoma State hired Eric Morris from North Texas to be the Cowboys next head coach. Morris replaces longtime OSU coach Mike Gundy, who was fired earlier this season.3 / 4These college football coaches are on the move. See who found new home
Colorado State hired Jim Mora Jr. as its new head coach. Mora led UConn to back-to-back nine-win seasons and replaces Jay Norvell, who was fired midseason.4 / 4These college football coaches are on the move. See who found new home
Oregon State hired Alabama co-offensive coordinator JaMarcus Shephard as its head coach, replacing Trent Bray who was fired after an 0-7 start this season.Cal
IN:
OUT: Justin Wilcox
Wilcox was fired following a 31-10 loss to rival Stanford on Nov. 22. The loss dropped Cal to 6-5 on the season, though the Bears would beat SMU in the regular-season finale to finish 7-5. Wilcox had been the coach for the Bears since 2017 and has posted a 48-55 record over his nine seasons leading the program. His best season came in 2019, when he led the team to an 8-5 record.
Colorado State
IN: Jim Mora
OUT: Jay Norvell
Mora turned UConn into a winner. Before Mora took the UConn job in 2022, the Huskies had not won nine games since 2007. Following a 9-16 mark in his first two seasons, Mora has led UConn to back-to-back nine-win seasons in 2024 and 2025. In 2025, the Huskies went 9-3, which included wins over ACC foes in Boston College and Duke. All three of UConn's defeats this season came in overtime.
Colorado State ― which fired Jay Norvell on Oct. 19 ― is joining the Pac-12 next season and looking for stability after cycling through three different head coaches since 2019 in Mike Bobo, Steve Addazio and Norvell.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementExpert grades for the move: Colorado State hires Jim Mora to usher in Pac-12 era
Florida
IN: Jon Sumrall
OUT: Billy Napier
Sumrall, in his second season at Tulane, has the Green Wave at 10-2 this season and in contention for a College Football Playoff berth. No. 23 Tulane (No. 24 in CFP) plays No. 22 North Texas in the American Conference championship game on Dec. 5, with the winner having a strong shot at reaching the 12-team bracket.
LSU
IN:
OUT: Brian Kelly
Kelly was fired midway through his fourth season with the Tigers on Oct. 26 following LSU's 49-25 loss to Texas A&M at home. Each of the three coaches at LSU before Kelly – Nick Saban, Les Miles and Ed Orgeron – won national titles with the program. Kelly went 34-14 during his time with the program.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMemphis
IN:
OUT: Ryan Silverfield
Silverfield is on his way to Arkansas.
Oklahoma State
IN: Eric Morris
OUT: Mike Gundy
The hire of Morris has created a bit of history for Oklahoma State. As noted by its news release, Morris is the first sitting head coach that Oklahoma State has hired since 1969, while it is the first time in program history that the Cowboys have hired a sitting head coach from a school that is in the Division I FBS level.
A former wide receiver for Texas Tech, Morris comes from the Mike Leach and Kliff Kingsbury coaching tree. He is in his third season at North Texas, where he has built the Mean Green program into one of the top programs in the American Conference and within the Group of Five.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementOregon State
IN: JaMarcus Shephard
OUT: Trent Bray
The 42-year-old Shephard is currently Alabama's wide receivers coach and assistant head coach under Kalen DeBoer. Shephard was also on DeBoer's staff at Washington, serving as the assistant head coach, passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach.
Shephard replaces Trent Bray, who was fired last month after the Beavers started this season with seven straight losses and posted a 5-14 record in his two seasons at the school. Shephard has also coached at Western Kentucky, Washington State, and Purdue.
Penn State
IN:
OUT: James Franklin
Franklin was fired by Penn State on Oct. 12 after the Nittany Lions dropped three consecutive games to Oregon, UCLA and Northwestern. The Nittany Lions entered the 2025 college football season as the No. 3 team in the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll and were considered national championship contenders after bringing back several of their offensive players.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementTerry Smith has gone 3-3 in his six games as interim coach after Penn State fired Franklin.
South Florida
IN:
OUT: Alex Golesh
Golesh is on his way to Auburn.
Stanford
IN: Tavita Pritchard
OUT: Frank Reich (interim)
Stanford hired Washington Commanders quarterback coach Tavita Pritchard to be the Cardinal's next head coach. He will take over for Frank Reich, who has been serving as interim coach this season after Stanford fired Troy Taylor in March. Pritchard is expected to start at Stanford following the Commanders' game on Sunday, Nov. 30 vs. the Denver Broncos.
UAB
IN:
OUT: Trent Dilfer
Dilfer, a former NFL quarterback and Super Bowl champion, went 9-21 with the Blazers, never winning more than four games in a season. He was an out-of-the-box hire at the time, having only coached at the high school level before getting the job.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementUCLA
IN:
OUT: DeShaun Foster
The Bruins fired its second-year coach on Sept. 14, two days after they took a 35-10 drubbing of New Mexico at home to start the season with three consecutive losses, two of which came against Group of Five opponents. Tim Skipper was named interim coach for the rest of the season.
Virginia Tech
IN: James Franklin
OUT: Brent Pry
Franklin was 104-45 overall in 12 seasons at Penn State and led the program to its first trip to the College Football Playoff berth last season. One area where Franklin struggled with at Penn State was against top-10 ranked opponents, as he led the Nittany Lions to a 4-20 record against top-10 opponents.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Hokies will be the third stop of Franklin's head coaching career, with his first stop coming at Vanderbilt from 2011-2013.
USA TODAY Sports reporters John Leuzzi, Craig Meyer, Ehsan Kassim and Austin Curtight contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College football coaching hires: Which coaches are on the move? Keep up
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