In college football, you never really know whether a coaching hire is going to work — just take a peek at all those A’s for Brian Kelly and Billy Napier four years ago. But you also don’t need to wait around to evaluate whether a school hired the right fit.
As the 2025-26 coaching carousel heats up, we’re handing out initial grades to the hires as head coach openings are filled around the country, focusing on how much the hire makes sense and whether it satisfies what a team identified it needed going into a coaching search.
Check back as more jobs get filled.
Oregon State hires JaMarcus Shephard: C
(Hired Nov. 28)
It’s surprising Oregon State is going with another first-time head coach, after admitting mistakes in promoting Trent Bray with that inexperience last time. Shephard has experience in the region, having worked at Washington and Washington State, and he’s developed some of the best wide receivers in college football in recent years. Every coach has to get their first shot somewhere, and he knows the area, which helps. But this move is quite an unknown.
Colorado State hires Jim Mora: B
(Hired Nov. 25)
It’s a compliment to the hire that most observers were surprised Mora didn’t land a bigger job. Mora has a rare spectrum of experience, from being an NFL head coach who reached an NFC Championship Game to taking over a 1-11 UConn program and winning nine games twice. His UCLA tenure also looks better in hindsight. His ceiling as a coach may not be as high as others’, but he should be able to bring structure, planning and vision to a program that has mostly lacked it for two decades, outside of one brief spurt. Can Mora use his West Coast connections to get better players to Colorado State? He has done more with less, and Colorado State’s resources shouldn’t make it a “less.”
Oklahoma State hires Eric Morris: B+
(Hired Nov. 25)
Morris checks a lot of boxes for Oklahoma State. He has deep ties to Texas, having spent almost his entire playing and coaching career there. And he knows how to develop quarterbacks, as names like Patrick Mahomes, Cam Ward, John Mateer and now Drew Mestemaker have thrived under his watch. He has also shown an ability to do more with less at North Texas and FCS Incarnate Word.
But while Morris’ offenses have long been good, his defenses have been up and down, and he’s won six games or fewer in four of six non-pandemic seasons as a head coach as a result. The hire of Skyler Cassity as Mean Green defensive coordinator in 2025 was one of Morris’ best moves. We don’t know yet whether Cassity will follow him to Stillwater, but that side of the ball will have to keep up with the offense.
Virginia Tech hires James Franklin: A-
(Hired Nov. 17)
Franklin was the No. 1 target from the moment he was fired at Penn State, and for good reason. He’d never missed a bowl game in 15 years at Vanderbilt or Penn State, outside of the pandemic-altered 2020 season. He turned Penn State into a top-10 program again. He dominated recruiting in the state of Virginia while at Penn State. He has a long track record of fostering alignment and investment. All the characteristics Virginia Tech needed, Franklin has them. He has only won one conference championship, and his game management has come under fair criticism, but he checks off all the other boxes of what Virginia Tech needed.
Kent State promotes Mark Carney: B
(Named interim coach in April, hired to full-time job Oct. 30)
What Carney has accomplished this season cannot be understated. He became the interim head coach on the eve of spring practice in April, when coach Kenni Burns was fired amid an investigation into his financial dealings. Then his defensive coordinator left in the summer for an assistant job at North Dakota State. The Golden Flashes were 1-23 in the previous two years and appeared headed for a doomed 2025 season. Yet this year’s team is 4-7 and remained in bowl contention until a loss to Central Michigan in the season’s penultimate week. Kent State is arguably the toughest job in the Football Bowl Subdivision, so keeping a coach who turned the Golden Flashes back into a respectable MAC outfit was an easy decision.
