As the 2025-26 college football regular season comes to a close this week, the coaching carousel is only going to keep heating up. Some programs, in the face of seeing their coaches depart for greener pastures, decided to lock up potential candidates with lucrative extensions. Others who haven't run the risk of big-time schools poaching up-and-coming talent to try and reboot their championship expectations.
Typically, you can look to the Group of Five conferences to provide the most likely candidates to make the jump into the Power Four. This season offers no shortage of overachieving schools led by hungry coaches who would pounce at the opportunity to lead a college football blue blood.
4 rising CFB programs that could see their head coaches poached this offseason
North Texas: Eric Morris
NOTE: Just after publication, Morris was announced as the next head coach at Oklahoma State
Morris' third season leading the Mean Green seems to have been the charm. At 10-1, the program is poised to compete for the American Athletic Conference crown and potentially qualify for its first-ever College Football Playoff berth. Quarterback Drew Mestemaker leads the country in passing yards (3,469) which has helped produce the top scoring offense in the country (46.3 points per game).
After going 11-14 the previous two seasons, Morris has led his team to a significant turnaround that has caught the eye of national pundits. Even if North Texas somehow fails to make the CFP, Morris should be getting many phone calls from schools looking to overhaul their offense.
Tulane: Jon Sumrall
In just two seasons at the helm in New Orleans, Sumrall has compiled a pair of nine-win campaigns and now has the Green Wave positioned to battle UNT for the American Athletic title. A victory in two weeks would earn Tulane its first ever CFP bid and draw even more attention to Sumrall's impressive achievements.
Transfer QB Jake Retzlaff is top-50 in passing yards (2,426) and has kept Tulane in close games this season. Despite the controversial circumstances surrounding his arrival, Retzlaff has seen a rather seamless transition from BYU to Tulane. That's a credit to Sumrall and his staff's ability to coach up a player to work within their system. Imagine what he could do with more power -conference talent at his disposal.
UConn: Jim Mora
While more of a familiar face than an up-and-coming coaching talent, Mora has proven he still has what it takes to win. UConn appeared to be a death sentence of a job when he was hired as an offensive in 2021, then accepted the head coaching gig in 2022 following an unceremonious exit from UCLA in 2017.
His first two seasons left much to be desired, going a combined 9-16. But over the last two years Mora has managed something no other Huskies coach has been able to achieve of late: consistent winning. He's coached UConn to consecutive nine-win seasons for the first time in program history. With the Huskies consistently being considered one of the worst programs in the sport, he's now used them as proving ground that with the right leadership anyone can be a sustained winner (and he could do it for your program, too).
James Madison: Bob Chesney
With only two seasons under his belt for the Dukes, Chesney may be a bit raw for some programs to take a gamble on. But desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures, and stringing together consecutive seasons with nine or more wins from the jump could be enough for some athletic director to at the very least bring him in for an interview.
The Dukes are also in position for CFP consideration, but their weaker schedule could be a road block even if they win the Sun Belt Conference. Nevertheless, boasting a top-50 red zone offense, a top-10 rushing offense and top-20 scoring offense should at least put Chesney on several coaching search radars.