Tramel: Wisconsin's Luke Fickell best hire of 2023 coaching carousel
Twenty-four major-college football teams changed coaches for the 2023 season. Some of the new hires will be hits. Some will be misses. Picking the winners is easy; being right is not.
A year ago, I ranked the 29 coaching changes. I had Miami’s hiring of Mario Cristobal No. 1. The Hurricanes went 5-7, their worst record in 15 years. I had OU’s hiring of Brent Venables No. 4. The Sooners went 6-7, their first losing season in 24 years.
I had Texas Tech’s hiring of Joey McGuire No. 28. The Red Raiders went 8-5, their best record in nine years.
And who knows? Maybe Cristobal and Venables will win big. Maybe McGuire still goes bust.
It’s hard to know what will happen. But some coaches seem better fits than others. Some coaching hires appear to be home runs, others appear to be a strikeout.
Here’s how I rank the 24 hires for the 2023 season.
More: Which Big 12 football matchup ranks No. 1 among new-look conference's 105 games in 2023?
1. Wisconsin: Luke Fickell replaces Paul Chryst
The firing of Chryst was stunning. He had a 67-26(!) record at Wisconsin, then the Badgers started acting like Auburn or Louisiana State. But Wisconsin aced this hire. Fickell, an Ohio State graduate and long-time coach, was an A-plus head coach at Cincinnati and figures to do the same thing in Madison.
2. Nebraska: Matt Rhule replaces Scott Frost
Rhule had a winning record at Temple (28-23) and quickly rebuilt Baylor after the Art Briles scandal. Rhule was 11-27 as head coach of the Carolina Panthers before he was fired last October. But Rhule always seemed more of a college fit. I thought Rhule would have been a great pick for OU 18 months ago; I had Rhule, Venables and Shane Beamer as my top three prospects. What’s good for the Big Red of the South most definitely is good for the Big 12 of the North.
3. Liberty: Jamey Chadwell replaces Hugh Freeze
Chadwell was highly-successful (39-22) in five years at Coastal Carolina. Quite a coup for Liberty. Rarely do you see a mid-major winner take another mid-major job in the same region of the country.
4. Louisville: Jeff Brohm replaces Scott Satterfield
The Cardinals get the prize for luckiest program in the coaching carousel. Louisville got the coach it wanted without having to fire the coach it didn’t want. When Satterfield evaded the Louisville posse by jumping to Cincinnati, the ‘Ville scooped up Brohm from Purdue. Brohm was a two-year starting quarterback at Louisville under Howard Schnellenberger and has been successful as a head coach — 30-10 in three years at Western Kentucky, and a winner, 36-34, at Purdue, which is not easy.
5. Florida Atlantic: Tom Herman replaces Willie Taggart
Taggart was 16-17 as head coach at Oregon and Florida State, then was 15-18 in three years with the Owls. Herman is the former head coach at Houston and Texas, where he went 54-22. Seems like a big upgrade.
More: Tramel's ScissorTales: Would SEC consider NFL-style scheduling after OU football arrives?
6. Colorado: Deion Sanders replaces Karl Dorrell
Whether or not you like Deion’s methods or believe he will get the Buffaloes rolling, remember this. CU football had fallen and couldn’t get up. The Buffs went 1-11 last season, and only one of their defeats was by less than 23 points. Sanders has brought attention and a spotlight to a program that had fallen in the abyss. That’s a start.
7. Georgia Tech: Brent Key replaces Geoff Collins
Collins was 10-28 in 3½ years with the Yellow Jackets. Talk about a rambling wreck. Georgia Tech has become one of the toughest jobs in Power Five Conference football. Key was a four-year Georgia Tech starter at guard in much better days; 34-14 in four seasons under George O’Leary, 1997-00. Key also was Collins’ assistant head coach, which is both good and bad. He knows what the job entails, but he also was part of the non-success. But give Key credit — the ‘Jackets went 4-4 with Key as interim coach last season, including a remarkable 4-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
8. UNLV: Barry Odom replaces Marcus Arroyo
Odom, from Ada High School, was a linebacker at Missouri and its head coach from 2016-19. Odom was fired after going 25-25. Bad move by Mizzou, and good move by UNLV. Odom is quite the catch for the Rebels.
9. Arizona State: Kenny Dillingham replaces Herm Edwards
ASU went from one extreme to another. Edwards was a 63-year-old pro football lifer. Dillingham is a 33-year-old whiz whose high-school career was ended by injury; he began helping coach his own high school and was its offensive coordinator at age 21. Dillingham became a student assistant at Arizona State in 2014 and quickly shot up the coaching ranks — he's already been offensive coordinator at Memphis, Auburn, Florida State and Oregon.
10. Navy: Brian Newberry replaces Ken Niumatalolo
Newberry is a 1992 Westmoore High School graduate. He’s got big shoes to fill. Niumatalolo was fired after 16 seasons and a 109-83 record. No other Navy coach had more than nine seasons on the job or more than 55 wins. Newberry was Niumatalolo’s defensive coordinator the last four years. Service-academy experience usually matters for service-academy success.
More: Tramel's ScissorTales: College football nation mourns as Army scraps the triple option
11. Purdue: Ryan Walters replaces Jeff Brohm
The 37-year-old Walters, who grew up in California and played at Colorado, is a fast-rising coach who was defensive coordinator at Missouri (2018-20) and Illinois (2021-22). Walters is sharp, but you never know how a young buck will fare as a head coach.
12. Texas State: G.J. Kinne replaces Jake Spavital
A Tulsa guy replaces a Tulsa guy. Spavital, a high-school quarterback at Tulsa Union, was 13-35 in four seasons at Texas State. Kinne was a three-year University of Tulsa starting QB, 2009-11, after transferring from the University of Texas. Kinne is well-traveled as a coach — assistant at Southern Methodist in 2017, Arkansas in 2018, Philadelphia Eagles in 2019, Hawaii in 2020 and Central Florida in 2021. Incarnate Word hired Kinne as head coach a year ago, and he took the Cardinals to a 12-2 record and the Division I-AA semifinals.
13. Mississippi State: Zach Arnett replaces Mike Leach
Tough spot for Arnett, the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator when Leach tragically died last December. Arnett, a Rocky Long disciple, worked under Leach three seasons. Arnett hired an offensive coordinator who does what most coaches do in Leach’s wake — move away from the original Air Raid.
14. Kent State: Kenni Burns replaces Sean Lewis
The 39-year-old Burns played at Indiana and coached at Minnesota. Plus he spent a year at Western Michigan, so he has some Mid-American Conference experience.
15. Cincinnati: Scott Satterfield replaces Luke Fickell
Tough shoes to fill. Fickell took UC to its greatest heights and was beloved. Satterfield spent most of his post-high school days at Appalachian State, as a quarterback, assistant coach and highly-successful head coach. In four years at Louisville, Satterfield’s Cardinals went 25-24 in the aftermath of the Bobby Petrino debacle.
More: Tramel: Will Brent Venables' $175M dream facility for OU football get built?
16. South Florida: Alex Golesh replaces Jeff Scott
Scott was a disastrous 4-26 in three seasons at USF. Now he gives way to Golesh, who played at Ohio State and was a graduate assistant at Oklahoma State in 2008, as a protégé to then-Cowboy defensive coordinator Tim Beckman. Golesh, 38, might be the only Soviet-born coach in college football. He was born in Moscow in 1984. Golesh also has coached at Northern Illinois, Toledo, Illinois, Iowa State, Central Florida and Tennessee, the latter two as offensive coordinator for Josh Heupel.
17. North Texas: Eric Morris replaces Seth Littrell
Littrell was 44-44 in seven seasons but was fired last December. Morris, 37, is not all that experienced but has plenty of Texas ties — he's from Shallowater, Texas; played at Texas Tech; and has coached at Houston, Tech and Incarnate Word.
18. Coastal Carolina: Tim Beck replaces Jamey Chadwell
Beck, former quarterback coach and/or offensive coordinator at Nebraska, Ohio State and Texas, was North Carolina State’s offensive coordinator the last three years. But at age 57, he doesn’t have a ton of mid-major or mid-Atlantic experience.
19. Stanford: Troy Taylor replaces David Shaw
Shaw was a Stanford icon who ran out of gas in a changing environment (transfer portal, paying players) unconducive to an academically-elite school. Taylor played quarterback and coached at California but made his mark with a 30-8 record in three years at Sacramento State.
20. Tulsa: Kevin Wilson replaces Philip Montgomery
TU didn’t want to fire Montgomery but didn’t know what else to do. TU is a hard job. Montgomery was 43-53 in eight Golden Hurricane seasons. Wilson, 61, was 26-47 in six seasons at Indiana, another hard job. Does he have the energy to take on the Tulsa challenge?
More: Tramel: BYU leads the celebrations as Big 12 Conference enters new era
21. Auburn: Hugh Freeze replaces Bryan Harsin
Harsin never made much sense. Freeze absolutely makes sense, but is that a good thing? The scandal-ridden Freeze at a scandal-ridden school. Freeze won at Ole Miss, but both NCAA rule violations and personal demons dogged Freeze. Then he won at Liberty, proclaiming a new leaf.
22. Western Michigan: Lance Taylor replaces Tim Lester
Taylor, a wide receiver at Alabama, spent six seasons on National Football League staffs and has coached at Appalachian State, Stanford, Notre Dame and Louisville a total of eight years. Does he know much about MAC-level football?
23. Alabama-Birmingham: Trent Dilfer replaces Bryant Vincent
Dilfer was a 14-year NFL quarterback and an 11-year television analyst. Dilfer’s coaching experience? Four high school seasons. Seems a major stretch. The last time Dilfer spent significant time on a college campus, he was a quarterback at Fresno State, 30 years ago.
24. Charlotte: Biff Poggi replaces Will Healy
Healy went 15-24 in four seasons as head coach; he was a traditional hire — hired away from Austin Peay. But Poggi is anything but traditional. He is 63 years old and played at Pittsburgh in the Panthers’ golden era of the late 1970s. He was an ultra-successful hedge-fund manager who dabbled in high school football coaching and became a long-time head coach at two Maryland academies. Then in 2021, Jim Harbaugh hired Poggi as Michigan’s assistant head coach. Perhaps Poggi can fund his own name, image and likeness deals.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Coaching carousel: Luke Fickell & Matt Rhule best hires of 2023
