The transfer portal gets all the love. Switching conferences is all the rage. But the college football coaching carousel deserves your attention as well.
While most of our readers can name every head coach across the FBS, things get a little dicey at coordinator. And given the fact that these coaches often call games on Saturdays, they can prove to be more influential than the men they work under.
So, here are my eight favorite offensive and defensive coordinator hires from this past cycle and how they’ll come to impact the 2024 college football season.
Offensive Coordinator Hires
Andy Kotelnicki, Penn State
Former Kansas OC
In the start-up world, the cliche is that everyone needs to do more with less. The same was true at Kansas, which was a coaching graveyard ever since the Jayhawks and Mark Mangino went their separate ways in 2009.
From 2009-21, KU’s average finish in terms of scoring offense was 114th nationally. But then Andy Kotelnicki performed a miracle.
In short, he did more with less. In 2022, the Jayhawks averaged 35.6 points per game (21st). Last season, despite injuries at quarterback, they finished inside the top 20 in scoring and ninth in yards per game on the ground.
When a team like Kansas is running for over 200 yards per game, the college football world takes notice. Kansas featured just one All-Big 12 lineman, so much of the success was due to Devin Neal and Kotelnicki’s innovative offense.
He throws a ton of eye candy at defenses with elaborate pre-snap motion. Once the play has begun, he has RPOs and options built into so many play calls that defenses are seemingly playing catch-up on every play.
Kotelnicki uses a Hoberman sphere to explain how pre-snap motion and RPOs have allowed smaller teams, like the ones he coached at Kansas, to pile up yardage.
Another offensive genius, Chip Kelly, has succeeded at giving defenses the impression that his system is complex, when in reality his offenses are using motion, personnel groupings and RPOs to dress up simple concepts.
The result is they play fast, perfectly executing a smaller bundle of plays, while the defense is trying to account for all the wrinkles that the Kotelnickis and Kellys of the world dream up on a weekly basis.
Penn State has been stuck in the mud offensive since the end of the Trace McSorley era, failing to get the kind of quarterback necessary to punch through to the top of the Big Ten.
But the beauty of Kotelnicki’s system is that his running backs could be the stars.
Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen may even be on the field at the same time in Wildcat packages this fall. This takes the pressure off of Drew Allar, who has been under a constant microscope since taking the reins as the Nittany Lions’ QB1.
Kotelnicki should get the best out of this entire offense, but if he works his magic with Allar the way he did with Jalon Daniels, he’ll be a head coach by this time next year.
Mike Denbrock, Notre Dame
Former LSU OC
One of my favorite Brian Cox lines in "Succession" relates to what Mike Denbrock accomplished with Jayden Daniels in Baton Rouge.
People forget, but before Daniels was the Heisman Trophy winner, he was in serious need of a career reboot. He was viewed as a streaky passer before transferring to LSU in 2022. In fact, he was coming off a season at Arizona State in which he barely threw more touchdowns than interceptions (10 to 9).
But then Denbrock worked his magic, creating a perfect offense around him and filling him with confidence.
“You make your own reality. And once you've done it, apparently, everyone's of the opinion it was all so f****** obvious."
There wasn’t an obvious fix with Daniels, but Denbrock found it, unlocked every ounce of potential, and No. 5 set multiple SEC records en route to a Heisman.
Now Denbrock returns to South Bend after serving as a position coach there from 2010-16 under Brian Kelly. Can he make it two in a row and coach up Riley Leonard to an All-American level?
Because if the Irish’s offense looks even 80% as feisty as LSU’s from last fall, Notre Dame will be in the 12-team College Football Playoff field.
Leonard finished top-30 in QBR in each of the past two seasons as Duke’s starting quarterback and brings 1,200 career rushing yards and 19 rushing touchdowns to the table. If he adds a deep-ball element to his game the way Daniels did last fall, (11.7 YPA), Touchdown Jesus leaving his hands up all game long will be appropriate.
This is a home-run hire for the Irish and potentially the missing piece for Freeman, who needs to win big in Year 3.
Drew Cronic, Navy
Former Mercer HC
The Service Academies seem to understand something that the Vanderbilts of the world do not. College football, like life, isn’t fair.
Understanding it'll never have recruiting classes like Oregon, Georgia and Ohio State, Navy opts to run a specialty offense. For years, that meant the triple option, specifically the flexbone. When the Midshipmen had an experienced quarterback and offensive line, they could shorten games with clock-killing drives that moved it three to four yards at a time.
But then the NCAA undercut them with brutal rules changes around cut blocks. Navy’s undersized offensive line was unable to compete, and things got ugly.
In response, Navy canned head coach Ken Niumatalolo. His replacement, Brian Newberry, tweaked his offense in Year 1 by bringing in Grant Chestnut from Kennesaw State. But the offense sputtered, averaging just 17.7 points per game, its second-lowest figure in the past 15 years.
So, Newberry wasted no time and made another change, this time making a shift to the Wing T offense. Drew Cronic the father of the “Millennial Wing T,” is promising a hybrid attack.
Much like Kotelnicki, Cronic’s offense will feature lots of shifts, motions and formation diversity.
While at Mercer, Cronic even gave Alabama’s staff headaches.
Nick Saban said this after their game in 2021:
“There are a lot of bunch formations, and there’s a lot of motions and adjustments that players have to make. So, this is totally unique to anything that we’ve played against and will play against the rest of the season.”
The misdirection running game, at the heart of the Wing T, still needs talented ballcarriers, and Cronic has a few this fall. Alex Tecza is a bruising back, and Eli Heidenreich has breakaway speed.
The line will feature three seniors with plenty of experience, so there’s a hope they take to the system right away.
In the opening month, Navy draws Bucknell, Temple and UAB — three defenses just begging to get carved up on the ground. I foresee a hot start for Navy under Cronic’s leadership.
Dean Kennedy, James Madison
Former Holy Cross OC
With Kennedy calling the shots, Holy Cross scored 37 points per game last season and nearly upset both Boston College and Army on the road.
His quarterback, Matthew Sluka, became a Walter Payton Award finalist and rode that season to the starting job out west at UNLV.
Kennedy was masterful on third downs (51.9%, second), and despite defenses preparing to stop his running game, they never could. Holy Cross finished second nationally with a yards-per-carry average of 6.32.
Holy Cross made it difficult to predict its play-calling thanks to a mix of under-center, pistol and shotgun looks. Being able to execute from all three snaps gave defenses more homework and put different defenders in conflict.
Kennedy now inherits one of the best G5 running back rooms and a former blue-chip recruit at quarterback.
George Pettaway, a former top recruit at North Carolina, is joined in the backfield by fellow transfer Ayo Adeyi from North Texas.
Adeyi is a home run waiting to happen, posting a career yards-per-carry average of 6.8. Pettaway has the potential to match Adeyi’s burst, having shown great potential as a return man at UNC while he waited his turn to start at running back.
As for quarterback, Dylan Morris arrives in Harrisonburg after flashing at Washington. He was an All-Pac-12 honorable mention in 2020 but would lose his job to Heisman finalist Michael Penix Jr.
From a clean pocket, he can look the part of a former four-star recruit. But when he was put under pressure he crumbled. His turnover-worthy vs. big-time throw ratio was cut in half down to 1.45 in his final year as the UW starter, and pressure had everything to do with that.
This is why Kennedy’s biggest job will be working with an offensive line breaking in three new starters.
If he can hide some of their continuity issues on the line and protect Morris, this offense could shine in Year 1 given the skill position talent.
I was thoroughly impressed with his film last year at Holy Cross, so I think he’ll be able to scheme his way around an inexperienced line while filling his quarterback with confidence.
Defensive Coordinator Hires
D'Anton Lynn, USC
Former UCLA DC
The John Harbaugh defensive coordinator factory just doesn’t miss, does it? If you leave Harbaugh’s defensive staff in Baltimore, to coach a college defense, you’re likely headed for big things.
First, it was Mike Macdonald making the move from Baltimore to Ann Arbor. After one successful year running the Wolverines’ defense, he returned to Baltimore to man the same role for the Ravens. He’s now an NFL head coach in Seattle.
Jim Harbaugh replaced Macdonald with Jesse Minter. The former Ravens’ defensive backs coach used two spectacular years at Michigan to score him the DC job with the L.A. Chargers.
This brings us to Lynn, who spent two years with the Ravens as safeties coach before receiving the call from Chip Kelly to run the UCLA defense.
In 2022, a year before he arrived, UCLA gave up over 400 yards per game (87th), struggled to generate takeaways (66th) and was dreadful in the red zone (106th).
Then Lynn went to work, and all of a sudden, UCLA was flying to the football.
A top-10 finish in total defense, an 11-point per game reduction in their scoring average and a massive takeaway improvement made the Bruins one of the best defensive stories in college football last fall.
His next task? Cleaning up the soft USC defense.
The Trojans continue to struggle on the tackling front (75th, per PFF) and consistently lost receivers in coverage (88th, per PFF). That explains why they never got off the field, ranking 109th in third-down defense.
Their takeaway numbers also fell off a cliff, the one band-aid they had going for them in 2022. The most telling stat? The Trojans finished 123rd in EPA per play last season.
The job will be difficult, but Lynn worked wonders across town last year, and this challenge is on par with what he dealt with in Westwood.
Transfers Akili Arnold (Oregon State) and Kamari Ramsey (UCLA) give him established playmakers on the back end, and Bear Alexander and Easton Mascarenas-Arnold give USC a chance to improve against the run.
It won’t be easy, but improvements will be glaringly obvious given the depths this defense plunged to last season. The John Harbaugh connection is on a heater and it’ll continue this fall with Lynn and USC.
Kane Wommack, Alabama
Former South Alabama HC
Before Wommack took over in Mobile, South Alabama had zero winning seasons to its name at the FBS level. He won 10 games and finished 7-1 in Sun Belt play in 2022 and then upset Oklahoma State on the road last fall before finishing the campaign with seven wins.
His calling card for all this success? A mean defense.
At USA, his defenses finished 26th and 15th, respectively, in the past two seasons in terms of total defense. You can count on his defensive front creating negative plays.
And once they have a team backed up, they stand tall on third downs. Opponents can also forget about punching it in for six in the red zone.
When Wommack's defenses bend, they don’t break. In the past two seasons, his defenses finished top-30 at least once in total, third-down and red-zone defense. And this is without the benefit of blue-chippers on his roster.
This explains why Kalen DeBoer threw a bag at Wommack. Specifically, a $1.55 million bag. The Crimson Tide nearly doubled his salary.
Wommack could be Alabama’s best defensive coordinator since Jeremy Pruitt. Placing aside his career implosion, Pruitt oversaw an Alabama defense in 2017 that finished first in total and scoring defense.
Wommack has the kind of juice to help the Tide return to the top of the sport.
The first step will be creating more Havoc. Alabama finished 34th in tackles for loss, 48th in takeaways and 32nd in passes defended. Those are mortal numbers for a program that used to squeeze the life out of opponents.
Tyler Santucci, Georgia Tech
Former Duke DC
I promise Santucci was on this list before the Yellow Jackets upset Florida State in Dublin.
The rising star is just 36 years old and already proved in one game with Georgia Tech that he wasn’t just a tackling dummy working for Mike Elko at Duke. Elko had earned the reputation as a brilliant defensive mind, but Santucci had just two years of coordinator experience before heading to Georgia Tech. So, was he ready for a turnaround?
If early returns are any indications, both he and his defense are ready.
Georgia Tech got shoved around in 2023, finishing 131st against the run (221 YPG), while giving up touchdowns nearly every time opponents got in goal-to-go situations. So, drawing Florida State and a highly-rated Seminoles offensive line right out of the shoot seemed less than ideal on paper.
On the opening drive, FSU ran it for 58 yards on five carries. But then Santucci and his defense settled in and allowed a grand total of 216 yards for the remainder of the game.
Florida State, after averaging over 10 yards per carry on the opening drive, didn’t crack 100 rushing yards for the game.
More reasons for optimism? The tackle-for-loss production. Last season, Georgia Tech was one of the worst power conference teams in terms of generating negative plays (106th in TFLs). It was credited with seven TFLs against Florida State and didn’t allow a single play of 30-plus yards. Last fall, GT gave up more than two per game (84th).
The difference is noticeable, and that's the kind of upgrade that will win the Jackets more games this season.
Much like his defense last year at Duke, Georgia Tech seemed prepared for everything Florida State threw at it once it moved past the scripted portion of the game.
If this defense can play on that level all season long, it'll go from an ACC dark horse to a true threat overnight.
Shiel Wood, Houston
Former Tulane DC
My only repeat pick from last year’s list!
Two years ago, Wood turned Troy into the ‘85 Bears. The Trojans ranked top-10 nationally in yards per play allowed, yards per pass attempt and scoring defense. They won the Sun Belt on the back of their defense, and Wood was finally given his flowers.
After years with programs like Army and Wofford, his coaching style and results were getting noticed. His calling cards? His defenses stop the run, get off the field on third down and limit big plays.
In his one season at Tulane, he hit the trifecta. It started up front with a top-20 finish against the run. The Green Wave also shut down the skies, allowing the 19th-lowest rate of passing explosives. And while they weren’t elite, they were serviceable on third down (44th).
Now, Wood gets the call up to the Power Four with his shot at Houston.
Willie Fritz has some talent and a returning quarterback to work with on offense, but it’s a true Year 0 on defense for Wood. This is where he’ll show his value.
The Cougars return just two starters from a defense that got shredded last season. Doug Belk’s defense finished 115th in total defense last fall while giving up 31.5 points per game. It generated next to no Havoc (123rd), got gouged by big plays (98th in rushing explosives) and was the fourth-worst third-down defense in America.
This is why you hire Wood. He'll get everyone rowing in the right direction, and I believe they’ll be a middle-class defense in the Big 12 by midseason, which would be a huge upgrade.
