2025’s wild college football coaching carousel by the numbers

It will likely be a while before we see a college football coaching carousel quite like the one we just witnessed.

Over 30 new head coaches were hired or promoted, including 17 across the Power 4 conferences. There was a Lane Kiffin saga that, even by Kiffonian standards, was dramatic and messy. There were big money moves and internal promotions — wall-to-wall action from midseason to December.

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But now the dust has finally settled (we think). Even across a remarkable carousel, some stats and figures stand out above the rest. Here are some of the most interesting and notable numbers from the 2025-26 college football coaching carousel.

$54,000,000: Brian Kelly’s buyout

In a hectic window with a number of firings — and, as a result, buyouts — no coach’s departure cost as much money as Brian Kelly’s. Kelly’s buyout at the time of his dismissal by LSU was $54 million — which he’ll be paid in full after a brief dispute.

What could $54 million get you? Well, it could buy Michael Jordan’s iconic Chicago mansion five times over and still have some pocket change left over. Or how about 14 2026 Ferrari F80s? Or, if you wanted to spend it all in one place, you could take a look at a 63.5-meter yacht.

66: Kyle Whittingham’s age

Teams generally preferred to hire younger coaches this cycle — 81% of coaches hired or promoted were under the age of 50, and the average age of the 17 Power 4 coaches hired or promoted was 42.6 years old — but the most notable exception to this trend was a big one. Michigan tabbed 66-year-old Kyle Whittingham, who recently stepped down after 22 seasons at the helm of Utah, to take the reins in Ann Arbor. Prior to accepting his new gig, the last time Whittingham had a job outside of the Beehive State was when he was a 34-year-old defensive coordinator at Idaho State in the early 1990s.

Bonus points for not caring about age also go to Colorado State, which went with Jim Mora Jr., 64, after his strong run at UConn. Whittingham and Mora Jr. were the only head coaches older than 56 to be hired this offseason.

32: Teams with new coaches

To call this season’s coaching carousel crazy would likely undersell matters somewhat — it has been the busiest cycle in decades. Thirty-two head coaches were either hired or promoted at the end of this season — for scale, the legendary coaching carousel at end of the 2021-22 season that saw the likes of LSU, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, USC and more all open up still saw only 29 new head coaches take over.

23: Players following Matt Campbell to Penn State (and counting)

In the transfer portal era, when you hire a new head coach, sometimes you’re not just getting a new coach — you can get a new core of players as well.

Such was the case at Penn State. After a 58-day searching saga that included, among other twists, involvement from Crumbl cookies, Penn State landed on Iowa State boss Matt Campbell to take over at Beaver Stadium. Campbell didn’t come alone to Pennsylvania from Ames, however. As of writing, 23 former Cyclones have committed to the Nittany Lions in the transfer portal following Campbell to his new job.

In turn, Iowa State has benefited from a similar phenomenon in restocking its own roster. As of writing, 15 former Washington State players have followed the Cyclones’ Campbell replacement, Jimmy Rogers, to Ames.

6: Internal promotions

Not every new coach has to be a statement hire from out of town. Sometimes, the new head man is already in the building.

Six schools found their new boss by looking inward, with the promotions at Kent State, Ole Miss, Southern Miss, Tulane, UAB and Utah coming in all manner of circumstances. Pete Golding, who has already made his head coaching debut in the College Football Playoff after being hired immediately following Lane Kiffin’s decampment for LSU, and Morgan Scalley, a longtime assistant to Whittingham at Utah and coach-in-waiting for the Utes since the summer of 2024, are among the names that rose to their new positions from a lower rung on the org chart.

5: New SEC coaches in one day

If this coaching carousel was the epitome of chaos, then Nov. 30, 2025, was its apex. The madness had been brewing through the night, as buzz continued to grow that Kiffin would be confirming his departure from Ole Miss for the LSU job, the culmination of a weekslong saga. But before that saga could finally conclude, there was frenetic movement elsewhere in the conference.

Three coach hirings were all confirmed before Sunday morning’s end: Ryan Silverfield at Arkansas, Alex Golesh at Auburn and Jon Sumrall at Florida. The finalization of Golesh’s and Silverfield’s respective moves came so close together that ESPN’s Pete Thamel confirmed both hires in the same alert notification.

Later in the day, Kiffin would indeed announce his departure for LSU. It didn’t take long for Ole Miss to find his replacement, as former defensive coordinator Pete Golding was officially promoted to head coach by the day’s end.