Grading every college football coaching hire from 2022 after year 1
By John Buhler
With one year down, let’s hand out some grades on last year’s college football coaching hires!
Last offseason, these 30 college football programs made it be known that they got their guy.
Now that we have had a full season’s worth of shenanigans to overanalyze to the fullest, it only makes sense to review the head-coaching hires from a season ago. While no new head coach got canned after year one, only one led his team to the College Football Playoff. That would be Sonny Dykes over at TCU. His Horned Frogs went 13-2 overall 9-0 in the Big 12 and won the Fiesta Bowl.
If you do not remember who was hired last cycle, these are the 30 head coaches who got jobs.
- Akron Zips: Joe Moorhead
- Colorado State Rams: Jay Norvell
- Duke Blue Devils: Mike Elko
- FIU Panthers: Mike MacIntyre
- Florida Gators: Billy Napier
- Fresno State Bulldogs: Jeff Tedford
- Georgia Southern Eagles: Clay Helton
- Hawaii Rainbow Warriors: Timmy Chang
- Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns: Michael Desormeaux
- Louisiana Tech Bulldogs: Sonny Cumbie
- LSU Tigers: Brian Kelly
- Miami Hurricanes: Mario Cristobal
- Nevada Wolf Pack: Ken Wilson
- New Mexico State Aggies: Jerry Kill
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Marcus Freeman
- Ohio Bobcats: Tim Albin
- Oklahoma Sooners: Brent Venables
- Oregon Ducks: Dan Lanning
- SMU Mustangs: Rhett Lashlee
- TCU Horned Frogs: Sonny Dykes
- Temple Owls: Stan Drayton
- Texas Tech Red Raiders: Joey McGuire
- Troy Trojans: Jon Sumrall
- UConn Huskies: Jim Mora
- UMass Minutemen: Don Brown
- USC Trojans: Lincoln Riley
- Virginia Cavaliers: Tony Elliott
- Virginia Tech Hokies: Brent Pry
- Washington Huskies: Kalen DeBoer
- Washington State Cougars: Jake Dickert
Let’s grade some college football head-coaching hires after their first year at the helm, shall we?
Table of Contents
- Page 1: Introduction + Two coaches needing vast improvement in year 2
- Page 2: Billy Napes stumbling out the blocks and a winner in NC
- Page 3: The Clay Helton Redemption Tour
- Page 4: Family over everything and The U stands for unwatchable
- Page 5: Boomer Loser needs some help but the cheese is tasty in Eugene
- Page 6: Dykes headlines elite run of hires in Texas
- Page 7: Lincoln Riley almost got USC to the Playoff in year 1
- Page 8: DeBoer de merrier in Seattle
College football head-coaching hire grades 2022: First year on the job marks
Akron is not a good program, but this is not Joe Moorhead’s first rodeo either
While Akron looked like a decent, re-entry point for Joe Moorhead as a head coach, the Zips went a miserable 2-10 during his first year at the helm. Though Akron is not a world-beater of a program in the MAC, this is not Moorhead’s first run as a college football head coach either. The Zips have to be markedly better in year two under him for us to think Moorhead can get this turned around.
Grade: C-
Jay Norvell left Nevada in-conference for Colorado State and his team got worse
This may turn out to be a wonderful, long-term play for Jay Norvell, but no doubt about it, he had a rough first year in Fort Collins. Colorado State went 3-9 overall in Norvell’s first season. Though it was the same mark in his first year at Nevada, Norvell had the Wolfpack winning about 7.5 games annually in Reno with fewer resources. Time will tell if Norvell made the right call switching teams.
Grade: C-