UCLA Football 2025 Coaching Hot Board 3.0

New updates for the middle of November.

Bob Chesney (Photo credit: James Madison Athletics)

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Hello, we’re going to do more frequent updates of the Hot Board as we get closer to UCLA ultimately hiring a head coach. This will include whatever new intel we get, along with a reordering of potential candidates and an updated look at what UCLA fans should watch for.

Today’s update includes the arrival of Bob Chesney to the list officially, dropping a few candidates from the list, and generally cleaning things up as a mid-November reset. Let’s get into it.

Things to Watch

Here’s the latest rundown of things to watch.

With James Franklin officially going to Virginia Tech this afternoon, that makes things a bit easier for UCLA. The other big name in that search was Bob Chesney, so Virginia Tech being off the board takes one potential suitor out of contention.

Penn State, however, is the bigger name to watch, and to do that, you have to watch Lane Kiffin.

Right now, the current industry expectation is that Lane Kiffin is going to leave Ole Miss after this season (in fact, Ole Miss is imposing a deadline on Kiffin to make a decision, which feels bonkers for a potential playoff team to do to their coach, but these are the times we live in now). The frontrunners for Kiffin’s services are LSU and Florida, and between the two LSU has emerged as the favorite, as they have more resources available than Florida (they also have an insane political structure that would make UCLA fans blush, but that’s a whole different story). Kiffin going to LSU would cause Florida to pivot to second options, which include Eli Drinkwitz and Alex Golesh (at this point, Jedd Fisch is out for the Florida job).

Drinkwitz is the big one because he is currently the next coach up in the game of “Which Penn State Target Will They Fail to Get?”. So far, Curt Cignetti, Matt Rhule, and Mike Elko have all extracted giant extensions from their respective schools to keep Penn State away, and now their attention has turned to Drinkwitz and Georgia Tech’s Brent Key among others. But a name that is starting to get traction in the Penn State search is Chesney, provided the Nittany Lions continue striking out on their preferred targets. A lot of Penn State fans would not be happy with that outcome, and I think it is lower on the totem pole than other options for Penn State at the moment, but it is something to monitor.

Another thing to monitor: championship weekend and the playoffs. A few of the names UCLA is targeting (Chesney, Lewis, possibly Golesh and Mullen) will have games the first weekend of December. That means UCLA could be delayed in announcing their hire, which isn’t much of a problem (the school would likely have an idea of who the hire will be by that point and would be communicating that to potential recruits ahead of Early Signing Day), but I’m mentioning that now so people don’t freak out if December 1 hits and UCLA hasn’t announced a new head coach yet.

One last thing to watch: remember how I said Lane Kiffin is likely leaving Ole Miss? Don’t expect the Rebels to sit idly; I would expect them to be active already in the coaching market.

Few more bits before we get into the list:

• Chesney’s people have gone around saying that he’s focused on UCLA, Penn State, and Virginia Tech. VT is now off the board, and with no other jobs potentially opening at the level of UCLA (let alone Penn State), that bodes well for the Bruins.

• Chesney is repped by famed agent Jimmy Sexton, so there is a chance this is a leverage play to get Penn State to bite early. That said, I can’t see that being the case, and UCLA in particular would be able to match whatever extension James Madison would attempt to get Chesney to sign on to.

• Fisch is out of the running at Florida unless they miss like six other names, so he’s down to either leaving for UCLA or staying at Washington. Fisch clearly has some questions about the UCLA job, namely administration and NIL, but you wonder how much having his agent Casey Wasserman be involved in the process would affect things.

• Tony White and Tommy Rees are going to be names thrown around, especially by UCLA Football alumni in the case of White, but neither has covered themselves in glory at the moment, and the search committee in particular has been hesitant to connect with potential coaches that have a UCLA connection, especially after the disaster that was the Deshaun Foster tenure.

• As of right now, the expectation is that any new coach will get a clean slate, which is to say they will not be required to keep any of the current coaches on staff. This does not mean those coaches won’t stick around under the new regime (Jedd Fisch in particular has ties with a few current UCLA coaches) but it will not be an expectation.

• Similarly, UCLA is signaling to prospective coaches that the NIL warchest will be severely improved. From where remains to be seen (I would guess this is one of the reasons Wasserman is on the committee, to help drive that aspect).

• Finally, since I know this is all everyone is worried about: no, the move away from the Rose Bowl has no impact on the coaching search.

The Frontrunners

Bob Chesney

Current job: Head coach, James Madison

I am so excited I get to write this one.

Bob Chesney has always been near the top of my internal list of candidates for UCLA, but always as a guy I figured UCLA administrators would not dare consider. I’ll get to the why in a second, but for my money, it would be harder to find a better coaching candidate this cycle than Chesney.

It makes sense that Chesney was the name tabbed to succeed Curt Cignetti at James Madison because, much like Cignetti, all Chesney does is win. Chesney has a 129-51 record as a head coach across 16 seasons, with stops at DIII Salve Regina, DII Assumption, and FCS Holy Cross. At every stop, Chesney has won, winning conference titles and making playoff appearances along the way. What stands out is that Chesney has a reputation for taking moribund programs and turning them around quickly; Chesney is responsible for four of Holy Cross’s six overall berths in the FCS playoffs, and did a similar trick at Assumption. James Madison stands out as the first time Chesney took over a program that had experienced some recent success, but Cignetti had taken the core of his team with him to Indiana, leaving a rebuild for Chesney. That rebuild finished quicker than anticipated; after a 9-4 record in 2024, the Dukes are sitting at 9-1 this year, running away with the Sun Belt and with a shot at making the College Football Playoffs as the G5 representative. Not bad, all things considered.

Chesney is known as a culture guy, not as much an X’s and O’s guy. That has worked for him at all of his prior stops, as he and his staff have done an excellent job identifying talent and developing them. It also means he hasn’t been married to one philosophy, making him more adaptable to the changing college football landscape (but also making him more susceptible to a bad decision, if we are being fair).

But there are some things to be wary of here. For one, Chesney has no experience at the P4 level. At least with Cignetti, he had worked as an assistant coach at the P4 level, including at Alabama under Nick Saban; Chesney has none, and while he’s still generating success as he moves from the FCS to the FBS, it is a whole nother ballgame to move up to P4 football, specifically the high stakes world of the Big Ten and SEC. In addition, Chesney has never worked on the west coast, or even outside of the Northeast; James Madison is the first job he’s taken outside of New England. There may be some culture shock with the move. Finally, his recruiting ability is a bit of an unknown, but how much that ultimately matters in the new NIL world remains to be seen.

Jedd Fisch

Current job: Head coach, Washington

Jedd Fisch is a name familiar to many UCLA fans, both from his time as UCLA’s offensive coordinator during Jim Mora’s final season to his time leading Arizona and Washington. Fisch has proven himself to be a solid head coach, with a particular gift for recruiting despite lacking the resources of some of his rivals. There is definitely a subset of UCLA fans who believe he should have been the choice to take over from Mora instead of Chip Kelly (and honestly, they have a point, though it is hard to argue UCLA did not make the correct decision at that moment).

Fisch has the same con that Jonathan Smith has, in that he has only been at Washington for a little over a year. Still, that did not stop him from openly flirting with UCLA when Chip Kelly left last time, and it has been reported that Fisch’s family did not acclimate well to Seattle and has moved back to Arizona. Los Angeles was clearly to the Fisch family’s liking, and there are already rumblings that Fisch will be interested in this job again.

November Update: I think it is safe to say Jedd Fisch is going to be the top priority of the search committee. Besides the previous ties to UCLA, Fisch is a client of…Casey Wasserman, one of the members of the committee. At this point, I think it is pretty safe to say Fisch will likely be leaving Seattle after this season, but the big question will be where he goes next, as he has also emerged as a potential candidate at his alma mater, Florida (especially if they whiff on Lane Kiffin). Now, Washington could also throw a big extension in front of him, similar to what Nebraska just did with Matt Rhule, but the ball is really in Fisch’s corner. As it is, I expect UCLA to make a big push for him, especially if Florida fills its opening.

3.0 Update: Fisch is still a priority candidate, and there is a train of thought that the Chesney news leaked in part to get Fisch to make a decision. Still, I think the Chesney interest is legitimate enough that Fisch moves down a peg.

Alex Golesh

Current job: Head coach, South Florida

Golesh was on the “Names to Watch” list during the last go-round, but now he’s one of the top names UCLA will be considering, so it’s time to introduce him.

Alex Golesh has made numerous stops in his young coaching career, with jobs at Illinois, Toledo, Iowa State, and UCF. It was at UCF that he started working under Josh Heupel, and Heupel brought Golesh with him to Tennessee when he left in 2021, becoming the offensive coordinator. He leveraged that success into the head coaching job at South Florida in 2023, where he has amassed a 20-14 record so far. Critically, South Florida has been on an upswing during his tenure (the school posted 2-10 and 1-11 seasons before his arrival), culminating in this year’s squad, which is currently 6-2 with a victory over Florida.

There’s a lot to like with Golesh. He’s put together great offenses in his young coaching career, and he has a reputation as a good recruiter (being the recruiting coordinator for Heupel at Tennessee helps this case). He’s young, and the track record of success likely helps him with getting donors to pony up NIL money. On the flip side, he has no P4 head coaching experience, so there is some risk involved. He also has no West Coast experience, which I don’t think is a big deal, but it is something to consider.

Golesh is a name UCLA is actively vetting and reaching out to, but he’s also going to be a popular name this offseason, with jobs closer in Auburn, Florida, and LSU all having opened up. This is not to say UCLA can’t land Golesh, but they might have to pay more than they’d like for him.

3.0 Update: Golesh’s name has cooled a bit in UCLA circles, though not because of anything Golesh has personally done. No, the bigger threat is the glut of jobs that are open in the SEC at the moment, with the idea that Golesh might be a good option for a number of them, namely, Arkansas at the moment. If UCLA strikes out on Chesney and Fisch and Golesh is still available, the two sides would absolutely have a conversation, but I don’t think either side has the other at the top of their respective lists.

Sean Lewis

Current job: Head coach, San Diego State

Sean Lewis feels really close to moving up into that top tier, and I’m not quite sure how I feel about that yet.

I think there is no doubting his coaching ability, however. Sean Lewis is the guy who made Kent State, one of the worst football programs in the country, respectable, going 24-31 over his five seasons there and taking the Golden Flashes to two bowl games (for reference, Kent State has made a bowl game five times in program history). He left Kent State for an ill-fated run as offensive coordinator for Deion Sanders’s Colorado team, but was relieved of duties after a few games (more on this in a moment). That wasn’t enough to deter other teams from hiring him, and he wound up at San Diego State in 2024. That first year, the Aztecs went a miserable 3-9, but have bounced back in a major way this year, currently sitting at 7-1 and with an inside track of hosting the Mountain West Championship Game if they win out.

Here’s the thing that concerns me about Sean Lewis. Lewis is known as an offensive guy, and there is no doubt his Kent State teams could rack up the yards and points, but in two years at San Diego State, with much better access to talent than he ever had prior, the Aztecs have been bad on offense. This year, they rank 81st in Offensive SP+, and it is the defense that is carrying them to wins. Throw in how bad Colorado was on offense when he was in charge (and how they immediately got better once he left), and I’m left with some questions about his offense’s viability at the P4 level. Outside of that, he only has that brief Colorado stint and time at Syracuse under Dino Babers as his P4 experience, so there are questions there. Lewis is the top name at a West Coast G5 at the moment, so he’s getting play as a result, but I’m on the fence regarding him.

3.0 Update: Sean Lewis is moving into the contenders list by being the most viable backup option. Lewis has indicated to UCLA that he would come to the school if offered the job, and UCLA is likely the highest-profile opening that will be looking at him. Lewis is a solid backup choice, but make no mistake: he is the backup choice.

Next Man Up

Dan Mullen

Current job: Head coach, UNLV

Perhaps the most experienced head coach among those with a legitimate chance at this job. Dan Mullen took over as the head coach at Mississippi State in 2009. He essentially built that program from the ground up, finishing with a 69-46 record at the school and holding the record for most bowl appearances in Bulldogs history (he’s also second all-time in wins, but that’s because Jackie Sherrill had four more seasons on him). His .600 winning percentage is by far the best of a Mississippi State football coach in the modern era, and he gets to claim Dak Prescott as a player he developed into a legitimate NFL quarterback, which is not nothing. Mullen comes from the Urban Meyer tree and was his QB coach at Utah and Florida (where he also picked up offensive coordinator duties), so he also gets to claim Alex Smith and Tim Tebow as his college successes.

Talking about Mullen’s Florida tenure is interesting. He finished with a 34-15 record and went to three major bowl games in that time, winning the Peach and Orange Bowls before losing the Cotton Bowl. But Mullen showed a loyalty to his coaches that would be his downfall, particularly defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, and there were reports of disinterest on the recruiting trail. It’s an odd statement, as Florida had two top 10 classes during his time and the worst full class he had ranked at 12, but perhaps that was as much a failure to quickly adapt to the changing Portal/NIL landscape. He has certainly learned a lot during his media stint before returning to coach, as UNLV went heavy in the portal and has put together a squad that is currently 6-2 on the season (with a win over Deshaun Foster, for as much as that counts for anything).

With Mullen, you’re getting a coach with ample Power Four experience, who clearly has a plan for the new era and is likely chomping at the bit to get back into the action at a high level. Throw in that he is a Grade-A shit-talker who would get under Lincoln Riley’s skin in a hurry, and this is a pretty good backup plan.

3.0 Update: No real update here, but Mullen is suddenly on track to make the Mountain West Championship game, which does help make him more attractive to prospective job openings. A fun quirk of his UNLV tenure is that UNLV admitted that they do not have the money to pay him for the entirety of his contract, so I assume UNLV officials hope he moves on sooner rather than later.

Will Stein and Tosh Lupoi

Current job: Offensive and Defensive coordinator (respectfully), Oregon

You’ll notice that most of this list is filled with current head coaches. That’s partly because I think UCLA will prioritize head coaching experience after being burned so badly by the Foster hire, but that doesn’t mean they should dismiss rising coordinators out of hand. In fact, Oregon has two coordinators with very different value propositions that UCLA should be willing to consider.

For Will Stein, you’re taking a gamble that he ends up like Kenny Dillingham - a young, vibrant offensive mind who will work tirelessly to build a successful program. There’s no doubting Stein’s offensive mind, having gotten the best from Bo Nix and Dillon Gabriel (and looking to do the same with former Bruin Dante Moore). He’s also an excellent recruiter, and the hope would be that he picked up as many lessons as possible while working under Dan Lanning, one of the best coaches in the game currently.

Tosh Lupoi is a little different. His defenses are fine, not outstanding, but in Lupoi, you have a guy who understands the value of recruiting better than anyone, being known as one of the most elite recruiters on the West Coast. Lupoi would bring west coast knowledge that most of the other names on this list lack (Lupoi is a UC Berkeley alum, and coached both there and at Washington in addition to Oregon). Besides coaching under Lanning, Lupoi spent time as the defensive coordinator at Alabama under Nick Saban. In both cases, there was an understanding that the head coach would have a hand in designing the defensive strategy, but it is increasingly clear that Lupoi knows his stuff on that front.

The big knock against both guys: no head coaching experience. Lupoi is older and more veteran, so you’d think he would have more of a chance to break through that problem, but for both, this would be something that the UCLA administration would need to overlook.

November Update: Of the two names, Stein is the one getting the most traction, but I do think he’s lower on the list of priorities than other names here. Still, given how the carousel could shake out, you never know.

3.0 Update: UCLA has had initial conversations with Tosh Lupoi, so keep an eye out here if UCLA strikes out on a number of targets above him.

Brent Brennan

Current job: Head coach, Arizona

Brennan is a weird mix of qualities that likely make him unappealing to the average UCLA fan. He’s a UCLA alum, which I know will leave a bad taste in many fans’ mouths following the Foster fiasco. He’s also fairly new to his current job, arriving in Arizona following the departure of Jedd Fisch to Washington, so everything we said about Smith and Fisch would apply to Brennan, too. And just as a hire, Brennan is not a flashy name that would get the fanbase excited. That does count for something.

There are positives to Brennan. His work at San Jose State almost feels deserving of a statue; while his overall record of 34-48 might seem bad, he’s also the only coach in school history to take the team to three bowl games and won the Mountain West during the 2020 COVID season, their first conference title since they played in the Big West conference. Brennan is also intimately familiar with the California recruiting scene, which is a point in his favor.

November Update: Brennan is already not a sexy name, and Arizona is again scuffling under him, to the point where he is a potential firing at the end of this season. If UCLA ended up with Brennan, that would be a sign that they struck out on a lot of names prior.

3.0 Update: I’m moving Brett Brennan up to this list, not because UCLA is seriously considering him, but because he is considered the deep fallback option should other things fall through. Not a sexy hire by any means.

Not Doing Themselves Any Favors

Jonathan Smith

Current job: Head coach, Michigan State

There’s an alternate universe out there where Jonathan Smith is already UCLA’s head coach, but in that universe, UCLA was proactive in firing Chip Kelly, unlike our current reality, where the school let Kelly engineer a hostage situation that only served to damage the program further.

Smith checks a lot of boxes for UCLA. He’s a proven program builder, having built up the last good Oregon State team and putting Michigan State on the right track so far. While his offenses don’t wow you, they are effective, and Smith’s teams are known for being well-coached and fundamentally sound. He’s also a local boy; Smith is from Glendora and went to UCLA games at the Rose Bowl in his youth (though, crucially, he does not have other UCLA ties). We know Jonathan Smith had a high degree of interest in this job before, as he tried to wait out Chip Kelly before taking the Michigan State job rather than staying at Oregon State when the school was sent off to the wilderness following the dissolution of the Pac-12, and word in the agent community is that Smith will be interested again.

The big question with Smith is one of timing. If this job were opening up a year from now, Smith would be the #1 option with a bullet, and UCLA would likely have little trouble convincing him to come home. But given that Smith is only in his second year at Michigan State, it may be harder to convince him to leave the new project he started so soon. His buyout is reportedly cheap thanks to a clause in his contract that was activated after Michigan State fired the athletic director who hired him, which is a point in his favor as well to the famously budget-conscious UCLA brass.

November Update: The good news is that Jonathan Smith might become very available for UCLA soon. The bad news is that it is because he feels likely to be fired before the end of the season. Michigan State is not a good team, as evidenced by UCLA absolutely smoking them at home last month, and Smith does not seem like a good fit in East Lansing. UCLA might be able to get him for a song, but he would be a hard sell to a fanbase that just watched him flounder as publicly as he has been. A reunion with Oregon State is also potentially in the cards, though some bitterness with how he exited a few years ago would need to be worked out.

3.0 Update: Smith looks destined to be fired at the end of this year, so he’s only an option if UCLA wants to go as cheaply as possible.

Tony White

Current job: Defensive coordinator, Florida State

Here’s what I wrote the last time this job came open:

Tony White feels like the big hot name amongst UCLA insiders for a variety of reasons. For one, he has ties to UCLA, having played for the Bruins from 1997 to 2000 and working as a graduate assistant in 2007. In addition, White is a really good defensive coordinator. Last year, the Huskers ranked 6th in the country in defensive SP+. This is not a one-time occurrence, either; White took over at Syracuse in 2020 and got the Orange to improve from 46th in his first year to 24th by the time he left. White has ties to the region as well, having coached at Arizona State and San Diego State prior. Finally, White has a reputation as a good recruiter, having been named a top recruiter while at SDSU and with plenty of articles in recent history noting his recruiting prowess. Perhaps just as important, White spent last year getting a close look at Nebraska’s NIL machine, which just landed a top quarterback recruit in Dylan Raiola along with others for a recruiting class that is currently 18th in the country according to 247Sports with one five-star and seven four-stars.

There is always going to be some hesitancy to hire a head coach with no prior experience - after all, the last time the Bruins did this, we ended up with Karl Dorrell - but there is a lot to like about White’s resume and what he can bring to the program. As a former player with ties to the last truly great UCLA team, White can animate the older segments of the fanbase and get money flowing into UCLA’s NIL collective, and his defensive prowess would help continue the huge step forward made by the program last season.

Much of that still holds, though White has since moved to Florida State, where he already made an impact in shutting down Kalen DeBoer’s Alabama offense in the season opener.

The big con against Tony White is his lack of head coaching experience, and given what a disaster the Deshaun Foster era was, there may be some hesitancy with the decision-makers regarding giving another Bruin alum their first head coaching gig. But this is perhaps the only coordinator hire I think UCLA will seriously consider among the top-level candidates.

November Update: That season opener against Alabama is well in the rearview mirror now. Florida State has scuffled again this season, leading to very loud questions about the continued employment of Mike Norvell. White has not exactly covered himself in glory during this run, with his defense getting blown up to the tune of 46 points by Virginia, 28 points by Miami (in a game that Miami stopped playing at halftime, a sign of their own impending implosion), 34 points by Pitt, and 20 points by Stanford. They righted the ship against Wake Forest, but for White to get back into this race, he’s going to need to make the Seminoles’ defense look all-world again.

3.0 Update: Tony White is always going to retain some support from UCLA football alumni, but he continues to put up poor results, including a miserable showing against Clemson two weeks ago. Florida State was able to limit Virginia Tech this week, but its last two opponents, NC State and Florida, have the capacity to put up numbers. In any case, I don’t know if White is surviving going into next year at Florida State, especially if his boss remains on the hot seat.

Dave Aranda

Current job: Head coach, Baylor

Dave Aranda has been a frequent name to pop up on UCLA coaching searches for the past few years, for a good reason. Aranda is a local boy (born in Kern County, went to school in Redlands, and played at Cal Lutheran) who has had a lot of success in the past; he was a highly sought-after defensive coach throughout the 2010s with huge success at both Wisconsin and LSU, and was able to parlay that into the Baylor job. Aranda found early success at Baylor, as in his second season, the Bears went 12-2, won the Big 12, and won the Sugar Bowl.

It’s been all downhill from there, as Baylor has failed to live up to expectations since that season, and the fanbase’s patience is starting to wear thin. Baylor scuffled to a 3-9 mark in 2023 and is scuffling again this year despite all of the hype and promise they had at the start of the season. More distressing is the Baylor defense, which is not good in the slightest - the Bears rank 93rd in SP+, and have given up 30+ points five times already on the season. Aranda has also not adjusted well to the changing college football landscape regarding NIL, which isn’t a great sign considering how deep the pockets are at Baylor compared to UCLA.

I think there is an open question of whether Baylor will fire Aranda at the end of this season; if they can win more and secure a bowl game, the powers that be in Waco may stick it out for another season to avoid joining the silly season, but a failure to do that might be too much for Aranda to overcome. I know Aranda has talked about being a good fit at UCLA in the past, but if he’s at UCLA, it might be as a rebound defensive coordinator rather than as head coach.

3.0 Update: Aranda’s situation at Baylor is fascinating at the moment. Normally, you’d assume he is firmly on the hot seat and on the verge of being fired, but his athletic director just took a leave of absence following a tumultuous few weeks, and now no one knows who is in charge of Baylor anymore. Thus, Aranda may avoid a firing that seems like it’s on the horizon just because everything else around him is on fire.

Longshots

Eric Morris

Current job: Head coach, North Texas

If you’re looking for a hot coaching candidate that UCLA can realistically get, it’s hard to go further than Eric Morris here. Morris is currently at North Texas, where he has been spending the past three years turning around the Mean Green, going from a 5-7 record in 2023 to getting bowl eligible last year to racing out to an 8-1 record so far this season. Prior to that, he served a one-year stint at Washington State’s OC and had a four-year stint as the head coach of Incarnate Word, where he compiled a 24-18 record with two Southland Conference titles. Maybe most importantly, he served as offensive coordinator at Texas Tech from 2013-2017, which means he was the sole offensive coordinator when Patrick Mahomes was lighting the Big 12 on fire. In fact, Morris is something of a quarterback whisperer, as he brought Cam Ward with him from Incarnate Word to Washington State and recruited John Mateer to the school as well.

There is some risk and reward with Morris. He’s young but already has a pretty impressive resume, with strong recruiting chops and energy. But he’s considered a Texas guy; outside of two quick stints at Washington State, he’s only ever coached in the state of Texas. That might limit his reach as a coach; it certainly prevented Jeff Traylor from getting traction at the P4 level when he had UTSA rolling. If Morris is the choice, UCLA may have to move quickly, as there are already some programs in the area (Oklahoma State, Arkansas) that might move on him, and with Baylor and TCU as possibilities to open as well, Morris may have good options close to home.

3.0 Update: Morris moved down into the longshot category, mostly because it appears he will have his choice of either Oklahoma State or (potentially) Baylor, so he’ll get to stay close to home where he’s comfortable.

Jon Sumrall

Current job: Head coach, Tulane

Another name that was on the “Names to Watch” list, Sumrall has risen a ton since the market evolved and UCLA’s priorities shifted. Which isn’t a knock on Sumrall at all; rather, UCLA’s shifting focus could end up leading it to a better coach than its usual modus operandi.

Jon Sumrall has proven to be a winner at the lower levels. He’s bounced around the South for the past decade, bouncing between Tulane, Troy, Ole Miss, and his alma mater, Kentucky. Crucially, he does have some West Coast experience, as he spent five years as an assistant at San Diego. At Kentucky, he served as defensive coordinator, and that work eventually got him the head coaching job back at Troy, where he went 23-4 over two years and won the Sun Belt twice. He then parlayed that into the Tulane job following the departure of Willie Fritz, where he’s had some modest success rebuilding after Fritz took his core with him to Houston. At Tulane, Sumrall is 15-7, finishing second in the American last year (losing the championship game to Army), and is currently 6-2 this season.

Where Golesh is a great offensive coach, Sumrall is known for his defense, and he’s very good at it. Sumrall’s teams are known for playing excellent defense and complementary football on offense (which is also why this year is so weird, as the Tulane defense isn’t very good while the offense has been much better). He’s also known as more of a CEO-style coach, who empowers his coordinators and focuses more on the overall program. He’s a good recruiter, and as evidenced by his time at Tulane, he has experience getting people to spend money for NIL, as Tulane is one of the top G5 programs in that regard.

Like with Golesh, Sumrall is going to be a hot name this cycle. I don’t think LSU will consider him (because LSU considers Tulane beneath them in the same way they did not consider Billy Napier when he was winning the American up the state at Louisiana), but Auburn and Florida will absolutely be considering him. More interesting will be what Ole Miss or Kentucky does if their jobs open up. Either way, I expect Sumrall will be on the move this offseason, but where is more of an open question.

3.0 Update: Moved down to longshot just because Sumrall seems destined for a big SEC opening this cycle. LSU is the team to watch here, depending on whether they can get their ducks in order, but Auburn and potentially Ole Miss loom as potential landing spots as well.

Other Names to Watch

Jason Ecks, Head coach, New Mexico

Spencer Danielson, Head coach, Boise State

Matt Entz, Head coach, Fresno State

Justin Wilcox, Head coach, UC Berkeley

Tommy Rees, Offensive coordinator, Cleveland Browns

Off The List

PJ Fleck, Head coach, Minnesota

Tim Skipper, Interim head coach, UCLA

Matt Campbell, Head coach, Iowa State

Kalani Sitake, Head coach, BYU

James Franklin, former Head coach of Penn State, has now been hired by Virginia Tech