History UsefulNotes / CollegiateAmericanFootballNonPlayerFigures

* '''Jim Harbaugh''': Current HC at Michigan, where he was first a successful QB before a pretty solid journeyman NFL career.[[note]]He notably is enshrined in the Indianapolis Colts' Ring of Honor for leading them to an unexpected AFC Championship appearance that was the peak of the franchise's success in Indy before Peyton Manning's arrival.[[/note]] He then entered the college coaching ranks, first with FCS San Diego and then with Stanford, which he built up from Pac-12 bottom-feeder into a legitimate title contender. He next experienced great success as an NFL coach with the San Francisco 49ers, making it to the playoffs in three of his four seasons and to the Super Bowl where he lost to his brother John's Ravens. However, conflicts with management and the opportunity to coach his alma mater led him to return to the college ranks in 2015. The start of his tenure in Ann Arbor was relatively successful but had a mixed fan reception due to his early struggles against hated rival Ohio State and a [[EveryYearTheyFizzleOut disappointing 2-6 bowl game record]]. After a losing season in 2020 left him on the brink of being fired, Harbaugh overhauled his coaching staff, accepted a massive pay cut, and immediately beat Ohio State and led the Wolverines to their first two CFP berths in back-to-back years. However, Harbaugh's tenure became mired in controversy in 2023 due to credible accusations of Michigan having an extensive sign-stealing program under his watch, leaving his future in college football in question amid a suspension by the Big Ten. Despite this outside noise, Harbaugh still was able to lead the Wolverines to their first national championship in decades to cap the season.

* '''Jim Tressel''': The only coach to win national championships at the FCS and FBS levels and part of the first father-and-son pair to win national championships.[[note]]His father Lee Tressel won the 1978 D-III title at Baldwin Wallace University (then a "College") in Ohio. The other father-and-son national championship coaching pair is at D-III powerhouse Mount Union, where Larry Kehres and his son Vince, who succeeded him, both won multiple titles.[[/note]] He first made his name at Youngstown State, guiding the Penguins to four I-AA national titles from 1991-97. In 2000, Ohio State hired him from YSU, and he brought immediate success to the program, winning the BCS Championship in 2002 and turning around the school's fortunes against archrival Michigan. However, his tenure ended after a 2010 investigation found his players sold memorabilia to a drug dealer. As a result of the investigation, he was fired, the Buckeyes were banned from the 2012 postseason, and all victories from 2010 were vacated, including the Sugar Bowl victory. He returned to the college ranks in 2012 as an administrator, having been barred from athletic department positions until 2016. He eventually returned to Youngstown State as the school's ''president'' in 2014, serving in that post despite protests over his lack of qualifications until retiring in January 2023.

* '''Tim Murphy''': The HC of Harvard from [[LongRunner 1994 to 2023]], leading the Crimson to a record-tying nine Ivy League championships. His 200 wins are the most in the program's storied history, and the Crimson put up three undefeated seasons on his watch.[[note]]As with Roy Kidd and Jimmye Laycock above, this uses the stricter definition of an "FCS coach" to include only seasons coached at that level, not counting wins at any other level.[[/note]] Murphy also had a much less successful HC run at Cincinnati from 1989–93, with his only winning season there being his last. Under his leadership, Harvard also became the leading Ivy League school in sending players to the NFL including long-time QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, multi-time Pro Bowlers C Matt Birk and FB Kyle Juzczyk, and Super Bowl LV champion TE Cameron Brate. Former Wrestling/{{WWE}} star Wrestling/ChristopherNowinski also played under Murphy at Harvard. Murphy was also elected president of the American Football Coaches Association in 2012.

* '''Ken Niumatalolo''': The HC of Navy from 2007-22 and the winningest in its long history, having taken over for the last game of the 2007 season after his predecessor was hired away. Prior to coaching, Niumatalolo, a ''kamaʻāina''[[labelnote:*]]Hawaii-born[[/labelnote]] of Samoan origin, was a successful QB at Hawaii who led the school to its first bowl game in 1989. His hiring at Navy made him the first collegiate HC of Samoan descent on any level and only the second person of Polynesian descent to coach in FBS. He led the Midshipmen to three 10-win seasons, six bowl wins, and 11 wins over Army, but would be shown the door after consecutive 4–8 seasons. After a year as an assistant at UCLA, he was hired as HC at San Jose State. Also notable as one of the six featured individuals in the [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} LDS]] [[UsefulNotes/MormonCinema documentary]] ''Meet the Mormons''.

* '''Ken Niumatalolo''': The HC of Navy from 2007-22 and the winningest in its long history, having taken over for the last game of the 2007 season after his predecessor was hired away. Prior to coaching, Niumatalolo, a ''kamaʻāina''[[labelnote:*]]Hawaii-born[[/labelnote]] of Samoan origin, was a successful QB at Hawaii who led the school to its first bowl game in 1989. His hiring at Navy made him the first collegiate HC of Samoan descent on any level and only the second person of Polynesian descent to coach in FBS. He led the Midshipmen to three 10-win seasons, six bowl wins, and 11 wins over Army, but would be shown the door after consecutive 4–8 seasons. Also notable as one of the six featured individuals in the [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} LDS]] [[UsefulNotes/MormonCinema documentary]] ''Meet the Mormons''. He is currently a TE coach for the UCLA Bruins.

* '''Tim Murphy''': The current HC of Harvard since 1994, which he has led to a record-tying nine Ivy League championships. His 200 wins at the end of the 2023 season are the most in the program's storied history, and the Crimson has put up three undefeated seasons on his watch. Also, his 215 wins at the FCS level (including 15 at his first HC stop of Maine) make him the winningest active coach at that level.[[note]]As with Roy Kidd and Jimmye Laycock above, this uses the stricter definition of an "FCS coach" to include only seasons coached at that level, not counting wins at any other level.[[/note]] Murphy also had a much less successful HC run at Cincinnati from 1989–93, with his only winning season there being his last. Under his leadership, Harvard has also become the leading Ivy League school in sending players to the NFL including long-time QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, multi-time Pro Bowlers C Matt Birk and FB Kyle Juzczyk, and Super Bowl LV champion TE Cameron Brate. Former Wrestling/{{WWE}} star Wrestling/ChristopherNowinski also played under Murphy at Harvard. Murphy was also elected president of the American Football Coaches Association in 2012.

* '''Kalen [=DeBoer=]''': The current HC at Alabama. A former multi-sport athlete at NAIA Sioux Falls in his native South Dakota, he stayed in town and coached his alma mater to a 67–3 record and three national titles from 2005–09 before spending the next decade as an assistant at various schools. He was hired as HC of Fresno State in 2020, then took the reins at Washington in 2022; the Huskies immediately bounced back from a state of disarray to being one of the premier programs in the nation, complete with an undefeated regular season before losing to Michigan in the national championship game. After having lost just three games in two years in Washington, he was hired to succeed the legendary Nick Saban at Bama.

* '''Kalen [=DeBoer=]''': A former multi-sport athlete at NAIA Sioux Falls in his native South Dakota, he stayed in town and coached his alma mater to a 67–3 record and three national titles from 2005–09 before spending the next decade as an assistant at various schools. He was hired as HC of Fresno State in 2020, then took the reins at Washington in 2022; the Huskies immediately bounced back from a state of disarray to being one of the premier programs in the nation, complete with an undefeated regular season before losing to Michigan in the national championship game.

* '''Nick Saban''': The colossus of college coaching in the 21st century, with [[TheAce the most national titles in college football history]] at seven and the most wins of any active D-I coach. After several decades as an assistant at the college and pro levels, Saban turned around Toledo's program in his first and only year as its head coach in 1990. After serving as DC under [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeagueNonPlayerFigures Bill Belichick]] with the Cleveland Browns, Saban had a successful run at Michigan State (1995-99) before being hired by LSU, which he led to a national title in 2003. After [[AudienceAlienatingEra two middling seasons with the Miami Dolphins]] from 2005-06, where he insisted he was not going to become coach at Alabama up to two weeks before he [[BlatantLies returned to college coaching at Alabama]]. Once there, he asserted himself as one of the greatest coaches in college history by returning the school to its past dominance and leading the Tide to six national titles ('09, '11, '12, '15, '17, '20) and runner-up in three more seasons ('16, '18, '21). As another testament to his coaching and recruiting acumen, his Alabama teams have featured four Heisman winners, the most of any coach at a single program since Frank Leahy. Fun fact: During Saban's ''first 14 seasons'' at Alabama, none of his former assistants had [[AlwaysSecondBest won a game against him]] as the opposing head coach. This streak reached 24 games before ending in 2021 with two such losses, including the national title game. He holds the highest career winning percentage among all active college coaches.

* '''Kalen [=DeBoer=]''': A former multi-sport athlete at NAIA Sioux Falls in his native South Dakota, he stayed in town and coached his alma mater to a 67–3 record and three national titles from 2005–09 before spending the next decade as an assistant at various schools. He was hired as HC of Fresno State in 2020, then took the reins at Washington in 2022; the Huskies immediately bounced back from a state of disarray to being one of the premier programs in the nation, complete with an undefeated regular season capped by a national championship game appearance in just his second year on the job.

* '''Jim Harbaugh''': Current HC at Michigan, where he was first a successful QB before a pretty solid journeyman NFL career.[[note]]He notably is enshrined in the Indianapolis Colts' Ring of Honor for leading them to an unexpected AFC Championship appearance that was the peak of the franchise's success in Indy before Peyton Manning's arrival.[[/note]] He then entered the college coaching ranks, first with FCS San Diego and then with Stanford, which he built up from Pac-12 bottom-feeder into a legitimate title contender. He next experienced great success as an NFL coach with the San Francisco 49ers, making it to the playoffs in three of his four seasons and to the Super Bowl where he lost to his brother John's Ravens. However, conflicts with management and the opportunity to coach his alma mater led him to return to the college ranks in 2015. The start of his tenure in Ann Arbor was relatively successful but had a mixed fan reception due to his early struggles against hated rival Ohio State and a [[EveryYearTheyFizzleOut disappointing 2-6 bowl game record]]. After a losing season in 2020 left him on the brink of being fired, Harbaugh overhauled his coaching staff, accepted a massive pay cut, and immediately beat Ohio State and led the Wolverines to their first two CFP berths in back-to-back years. However, Harbaugh's tenure became mired in controversy in 2023 due to credible accusations of Michigan having an extensive sign-stealing program under his watch, leaving his future in college football in question amid a suspension by the Big Ten. Despite this outside noise, Harbaugh still was able to lead the Wolverines to their first official national championship game to cap the season.

* '''Ken Niumatalolo''': The HC of Navy from 2007-22 and the winningest in its long history, having taken over for the last game of the 2007 season after his predecessor was hired away. Prior to coaching, Niumatalolo, a ''kamaʻāina''[[labelnote:*]]Hawaii-born[[/labelnote]] of Samoan origin, was a successful QB at Hawaii who led the school to its first bowl game in 1989. His hiring at Navy made him the first collegiate HC of Samoan descent on any level and only the second person of Polynesian descent to coach in FBS. He led the Midshipmen to three 10-win seasons, six bowl wins, and 11 wins over Army, but would be shown the door after consecutive 4–8 seasons. Also notable as one of the six featured individuals in the [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} LDS]] [[UsefulNotes/MormonCinema documentary]] ''Meet the Mormons''. He is now currently a TE coach for the UCLA Bruins.

* '''Kalen [=DeBoer=]''': A former multi-sport athlete at NAIA Sioux Falls in his native South Dakota, he stayed in town and coached his alma mater to a 67-3 record and three national titles from 2005-09 before spending the next decade as an assistant at various schools. He was hired as HC of Fresno State in 2020, then took the reins at Washington in 2022; the Huskies immediately bounced back from a state of disarray to one of premier programs in the nation, complete with an undefeated regular season capped by a national championship game appearance in just his second year on the job.

* '''Ken Niumatalolo''': The HC of Navy from 2007-22 and the winningest in its long history, having taken over for the last game of the 2007 season after his predecessor was hired away. Prior to coaching, Niumatalolo, a ''kamaʻāina''[[labelnote:*]]Hawaii-born[[/labelnote]] of Samoan origin, was a successful QB at Hawaii who led the school to its first bowl game in 1989. His hiring at Navy made him the first collegiate HC of Samoan descent on any level and only the second person of Polynesian descent to coach in FBS. He led the Midshipmen to three 10-win seasons, six bowl wins, and 11 wins over Army, but would be shown the door after consecutive 4–8 seasons. Also notable as one of the six featured individuals in the [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} LDS]] [[UsefulNotes/MormonCinema documentary]] ''Meet the Mormons''.

* '''Larry Scott''': Commissioner of the Pac-12 from 2009-21 and widely blamed for the impending demise of that conference (though he's far from the only culprit). Scott was one of the first in a wave of conference admins whose background was outside of college sports; he was a former pro tennis player with little on-court success who made a major mark in that sport on the business side, increasing revenue and narrowing the gender pay gap. That success piqued the interest of the Pac-12. Scott's tenure saw the Pac-12 court much of the Big 12 but eventually pick up only Colorado (plus Utah from the Mountain West). He also launched the Pac-12's own Network in 2012, with a lucrative side deal with ESPN and Fox for football and men's basketball that ran through 2023–24. Unfortunately, the Pac-12 Network proved to be a disaster, thanks in no small part to Scott being unable to reach a carriage deal with satellite TV providers, and the Pac was financially left in the dust by the SEC and Big Ten. Making matters worse, Scott had by far the largest salary of any conference commissioner, and moved the Pac-12 HQ into a downtown San Francisco building whose lease cost the conference over $8 million a year, vastly more than any other NCAA conference. By his departure in 2021, many Pac members--especially the tentpole programs of UCLA and USC--were looking for a way out, which would soon come.
* '''Mike Slive''': Along with the aforementioned Jim Delany, an administrator little-known to the general sporting public who had a huge impact on the 21st-century college sports scene. While Slive had several admin gigs in his earlier career, including being the inaugural commissioner of ''two'' D-I leagues (the non-football Great Midwest Conference and its successor Conference USA[[note]]C-USA was formed by a merger between the Great Midwest and Metro Conferences[[/note]]), he truly made his mark while commissioner of the SEC from 2002-15. First, he cleansed some of the stench around the SEC by telling league members who had complaints about other members' recruiting practices to take them to the league offices instead of the NCAA. The number of SEC schools facing sanctions dropped, though it's unclear whether it actually changed their practices. Next, he was the main architect of today's College Football Playoff. Slive had proposed a similar system as early as 2004 but faced opposition from the Big 12 and Big East. The SEC's dominance on and off the football field strengthened Slive's leverage, the Big 12 came on board in 2012, and the Big East (at least in its original form) imploded the next year, paving the way for the CFP to start in 2014. Slive was also responsible for luring Texas A&M and Missouri into the SEC in 2012, which helped pave the way for his final great accomplishment: the SEC Network. After seeing the success of the Big Ten Network, Slive saw his own opportunity to make the already ridiculously-wealthy SEC [[MoneyDearBoy even more so]], and his overtures to A&M (and to a lesser extent Mizzou) were driven by his desire to get more potential viewers. He teamed up with ESPN to bring the network to reality, and its 2014 launch was arguably the most successful for any US cable network (not just in sports!), with virtually every cable and satellite provider offering the service to viewers within the conference footprint. Retired in 2015 and passed away in 2018.

* '''Kevin Warren''': Became the first African-American commissioner of a Power Five conference, taking over from the aforementioned Jim Delany as Big Ten commissioner in January 2020 (a few months after Keith Gill, also mentioned above, became the first black commissioner of an FBS conference). A former college basketball player at Penn and Grand Canyon, he picked up an MBA and a law degree, and after a few years in law moved into front-office jobs in the NFL. After a two-year interlude with a law firm, where he brokered the most recent sale of the Minnesota Vikings, he joined the Vikings front office, eventually rising to chief operating officer. Warren's Big Ten tenure was eventful, first with the impending addition of UCLA and USC and then with the conference reaching a 7-year, ''$7 billion'' media deal with Fox, CBS, and NBC that starts in 2023. However, even with all this, the Big Ten didn't extend his contract, and he announced his departure in January 2023 effective that April, returning to the NFL as the Chicago Bears' new president and CEO. After his departure, it came out that the media deal he had negotiated wasn't completely finished, and the new deal will reportedly require all schools to host night games after the first weekend of November—something that several of the conference's biggest brands (e.g. Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State) have traditionally avoided.
* '''Brett Yormark''': Current Big 12 commissioner, who took over from the aforementioned Bob Bowlsby in 2022. Like an increasing number of conference admins in recent years, Yormark didn't come from a college athletics background—but so far has proven far more successful than most such admins (Larry Scott and George Kliavkoff, anyone?). Instead, he came from a sports marketing environment, with past stints with the Detroit Pistons, NASCAR, the Brooklyn Nets, and Music/JayZ's entertainment agency Roc Nation. In Yormark's introductory press conference, he said that the Big 12 was "open for business" and immediately entered into negotiations for a new conference media deal, jumping past the Pac-12, who was next due for renewal. He got a solid media deal from ESPN and Fox, putting the Big 12 as a strong #3 behind the Big Ten and SEC and making it the only power conference with football games on both ESPN and Fox. He also led the Big 12 side of the buyout negotiations with Oklahoma and Texas, letting them leave a year before the then-current Big 12 media deal expired in exchange for a [[MoneyDearBoy healthy payment]]. Yormark then took advantage of the new media deal and the subsequent troubles that the Pac-12 had reaching its own to poach several Pac-12 schools: Colorado (a founding Big 12 member) and its "Four Corners" compatriots of Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah. Yormark is reportedly seeking to sell the conference's basketball media rights separately from those for football when the Big 12 media deal is next up for bids in 2031—which, if it comes to pass, will be unprecedented in US college sports.

* '''Jim Delany''': A name little-known except to the most dedicated college sports geeks, but along with Roy Kramer and Mike Slive (also listed below) he arguably had more impact on the 21st-century college sports scene (not just football) than any other single individual.[[labelnote:*]]The word "single" is advised here because another candidate for the biggest impact is a group of seven Supreme Court justices who made up the majority in a 1984 ruling that stripped the NCAA of its control over televised college football, with impacts that continue to this day.[[/labelnote]] Unlike (most of) the others listed in this section, he was an administrator rather than a coach. After playing basketball at North Carolina, he went to law school and later took a position with the NCAA. He became commissioner of the FCS-level Ohio Valley Conference in 1979, and then in 1989 moved to the position where he made his true mark: Big Ten commissioner. His first major splash came in 1990, when he oversaw Penn State's entry into the conference. Later that decade, Delany and Kramer teamed up to create the the Bowl Championship Series, and in later years Delany was a major behind-the-scenes opponent of the playoff system championed by Slive (which became today's College Football Playoff). He was also the main force behind the creation of the Big Ten Network in 2007. Though not the UrExample of conference-specific cable networks (that would be the Mountain West Conference's now-defunct [=MountainWest=] Sports Network), it was the TropeMaker and TropeCodifier for future efforts of that type. Though not immediately successful, it became a major cash cow for the already-wealthy conference by the time the 2010s rolled around. Delany also helped to trigger the seismic conference realignments of the early 2010s with his wish to expand the BTN footprint, with the Big Ten bringing in Nebraska in 2011 and Maryland and Rutgers in 2014. He retired at the end of 2019 and has since experienced the other side of conference realignment as a consultant to Conference USA.

* '''George Kliavkoff''': Pac-12 commissioner from 2021 to the conference's all-but-certain demise in 2024, he's received a good deal of blame for the conference's collapse, though by many reports his immediate predecessor Larry Scott (below) left him in a no-win situation. Like Scott, Kliavkoff came from outside college sports, instead working in pro sports and entertainment with (among others) Major League Baseball, [=NBCUniversal=], Hulu, Hearst, and most recently MGM Resorts before taking on the Pac-12 job. When Kliavkoff came on, the Big 12 was vulnerable to poaching after the announcement that Oklahoma and Texas would leave for the SEC, and Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby (above) indicated that the remaining eight programs were interested in joining the Pac-12. However, Kliavkoff was unable to convince the conference presidents and chancellors to expand. More significantly, he allowed the Big 12 to jump ahead of the Pac in media negotiations, giving the Big 12 the kind of media deal that could have saved the conference. After the announcement that UCLA and USC would leave for the Big Ten, he failed to convince the remaining university suits to sign off on a lesser media deal, leading to the mass exodus that effectively killed the conference.

* '''Judy [=MacLeod=]''':[[note]]pronounced "[=McCloud=]"[[/note]] Commissioner of Conference USA since 2015 and most notable as the first woman to hold said position in an FBS conference. A former basketball player at D-III Puget Sound, she spent a few years as an assistant coach at then-NAIA Seattle before going to grad school at Tulsa, working in various athletic department positions before becoming AD in 1995. [=MacLeod=] presided over Tulsa's sequential moves to the WAC and C-USA before joining the latter's staff in 2005. She became commissioner in 2015, after C-USA had lost much of its pre-2013 membership to what is now The American. While she kept things stable for a time, she approached The American in 2021, shortly after the announcement that three of the latter league's members were moving to the Big 12, and proposed that C-USA and The American merge and then split into two more geographically compact leagues. The American rejected this and soon became the second league to raid C-USA, poaching six members after the Sun Belt had poached three. [=MacLeod=] (presumably with the help of the aforementioned Jim Delany) managed to keep the league afloat by adding four new members for 2023 and one each for 2024 and 2025.

* '''Larry Scott''': Commissioner of the Pac-12 from 2009-21 and widely blamed for the impending demise of that conference (though he's far from the only culprit). Scott was one of the first in a wave of conference admins whose background was outside of college sports; he was a former pro tennis player with little on-court success who made a major mark in that sport on the business side. Most notably, as CEO of the Women's Tennis Association from 2003 to 2009, he oversaw a fivefold increase in sponsorship money and an over threefold increase in total revenue. He also successfully convinced Roland Garros and Wimbledon to award equal prize money for men and women (the Australian and US Opens already did so). That success piqued the interest of the Pac-12. One of his first acts was persuading the conference presidents and chancellors that the Pac-12 should run its own TV network instead of partnering with an established broadcast outlet such as ESPN or Fox. Scott's tenure also saw the Pac-12 court much of the Big 12 but eventually pick up only Colorado (plus Utah from the Mountain West). When the Pac-12 Network launched in 2012, he also negotiated a lucrative side deal with ESPN and Fox for football and men's basketball that ran through 2023–24. Unfortunately, the Pac-12 Network proved to be a disaster, thanks in no small part to Scott being unable to reach a carriage deal with satellite TV providers. Later in 2018, ESPN reportedly offered to distribute the network in exchange for an extended rights agreement, but Scott and the conference suits refused. Soon, the Pac was financially left in the dust by the SEC and Big Ten. Making matters worse, Scott had by far the largest salary of any conference commissioner, and moved the Pac-12 HQ into a downtown San Francisco building whose lease cost the conference over $8 million a year, vastly more than any other NCAA conference. By his departure in 2021, many Pac members--especially the tentpole programs of UCLA and USC--were looking for a way out, which would soon come.

* '''Hal Mumme'''[[note]]Last name pronounced "mummy"[[/note]]: Maverick HC with a long career and a very checkered legacy, but still considered an important figure in the modern game as the inventor of the Air Raid offense. A receiver at Tarleton in his college playing days, he perfected his record-setting pass offense on the NAIA (Iowa Wesleyan) and D-II (Valdosta State) levels, then made the unlikely leap to the SEC when Kentucky hired him as HC in 1997. Despite relative success, he resigned in early 2001 amid an extensive NCAA investigation that found dozens of recruiting violations, including player payments and academic fraud, as Kentucky was hit with a postseason ban and scholarship reductions. After restarting the program at FCS Southeastern Louisiana, Mumme returned to the FBS ranks at New Mexico State in 2004. While he managed to squeeze out some decent play from the school's traditionally dreary football program, NMSU ended up getting sued by four Muslim players who alleged religious discrimination on Mumme's part, resulting in a financial settlement. After NMSU fired Mumme in 2008, he went back to the small college level with stints at D-III schools [=McMurry=] and Belhaven. He returned to the D-I level at FCS Jackson State as its OC in 2018 but was let go just after three games. He's bounced around various minor pro league teams since then, finishing his college HC career with a mediocre 142-152-1 mark. Despite that, he was the subject of an acclaimed biography (S.C. Gwynne's ''The Perfect Pass''), and Mumme protégés like Mike Leach, Guy Morriss, and Dana Holgorsen enjoyed success with the Air Raid system.

* '''Bobby Petrino''': The current OC at Arkansas, whose [[LongRunner 35+ year]] career has spanned over a dozen different college and pro programs. Petrino originally ''had'' a reputation as an outstanding offensive mind, but to most fans developed a bigger reputation of being an opportunist who would abandon programs at the first sign of trouble or a better contract somewhere else, including abandoning his first head coaching job at Louisville for a job in the NFL right after signing a long-term contract. That turned out to be a disaster in more ways than one (more on that on his entry on [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeagueNotoriousFigures the NFL's Notorious page]]), and he returned to college football as the HC of Arkansas. After his fourth year, Petrino got into a motorcycle accident. After giving a press conference in a neck brace and with his face still red from scrapes [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial insisting he was the only one on the motorcycle]], it came out that he did have a passenger: a mistress half his age whom he had given a job in the program, breaking school protocol. Petrino was fired and spent a year away from coaching while on an apology tour, got a job at Western Kentucky for one year, and [[EasilyForgiven returned to Louisville]], where he again saw success with QB Lamar Jackson... only for the program to slump after Jackson's departure, with Petrino losing the locker room and getting fired again. He later moved to FCS Missouri State in 2020, bringing the Bears to the FCS playoffs (which they hadn't made since 1990) twice before returning to FBS as a coordinator after the 2022 season. Echoing his itinerant history, he was first announced as the new OC at UNLV, but left within weeks for the same position at Texas A&M. After the 2023 season, A&M canned HC Jimbo Fisher, and new HC Mike Elko didn't keep him on. Amazingly, Petrino ended up back at the very same school from which he'd been fired for cause a decade-plus earlier, this time as OC.

* '''Rich Rodriguez''': A LongRunner hired as HC by Jacksonville State in 2022, where he's overseeing the Gamecocks' move from FCS to FBS. After serving as head coach at Salem (a small school one county south of his West Virginia hometown) for that program's final season in 1988, "Rich Rod" returned to his alma mater of West Virginia for a season as LB coach until becoming HC at another small WV school, Glenville State, in 1990. During his successful tenure there, he helped pioneer a run-oriented, no-huddle version of the spread offense. After he left Glenville State in 1997 to serve as OC under Tommy Bowden at Tulane and Clemson, he became HC at WVU in 2001, where he had a great run of success. He agreed to coach for Michigan in 2008, but West Virginia sued when he failed to pay for his $4M buyout, with Michigan eventually having to cover part of the bill. The endeavor proved to pointless for Michigan, as his tenure was abysmal with a 15-22 record, ending a 33-year bowl streak by going 3-9 in his first season, and losing their only bowl game in his third year. He also got the program into major trouble with the NCAA for the first time in its history, which led to his firing in 2010. He resurfaced in 2012 as HC for Arizona and found some success, only to be fired in 2018 after he admitted to having an extramarital affair with an administrative assistant who alleged she had been sexually harassed by him. Rodriguez bounced around the sidelines at a few schools before taking the JSU job.

* '''Jim Tressel''': The only coach to win national championships at the FCS and FBS levels and part of the first father-and-son pair to win national championships.[[note]]His father Lee Tressel won the 1978 D-III title at Baldwin Wallace University (then a "College") in Ohio. The other father-and-son national championship coaching pair is at D-III powerhouse Mount Union, where Larry Kehres and his son Vince, who succeeded him, both won multiple titles.[[/note]] He first made his name at Youngstown State, guiding the Penguins to four I-AA national titles from 1991-97. In 2000, Ohio State hired him from YSU, and he brought immediate success to the program, winning the BCS Championship in 2002 and turning around the school's fortunes against archrival Michigan. However, his tenure ended after a 2010 investigation found his players sold memorabilia to a drug dealer. As a result of the investigation, he was fired, the Buckeyes were banned from the 2012 postseason, and all victories from 2010 were vacated, including the Sugar Bowl victory. He returned to the college ranks in 2012 as an administrator, being named Vice President of Strategic Management at Akron (where he had started his coaching career as a grad assistant) before returning to Youngstown State as the school's ''president'' in 2014 (at which time he officially ended his football career), serving in that post until retiring in January 2023. His appointment as president was controversial for a couple of reasons. First, due to the OSU scandal, he was under an NCAA "show-cause penalty" (essentially a blackballing from athletic department positions) until 2016. Second, his highest degree is a master's; a research doctorate or law degree is normally a necessity for a US university president. Tressel's defenders pointed out that the NCAA penalty only barred him from direct involvement with the athletic department and that his main role would be fundraising, in which he had plenty of experience from his coaching days.
* '''Mel Tucker''': HC at Michigan State notable for his unlikely rise to the position and record-shattering contract. Originally a DB at Wisconsin in the early '90s, he moved into a career as an assistant coach, bouncing around power college programs like Ohio State (where he won the 2002 national title), Alabama, and Georgia, and throughout the NFL, including a stint as interim HC of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2011. His success landed him the Colorado HC position in 2019. After a tepid 5-7 season with the Buffaloes, the sudden and controversial resignation of long-time HC Mark Dantonio from Michigan State very late in the "coaching carousel" process (see his entry above) left Tucker one of the few available candidates for the position. He went just 2-5 in the COVID-shortened 2020 season with the Spartans but exploded to 11-2 in his second season, tying the (then) largest win total turnaround in FBS history (now second). With rumors swirling that LSU was considering Tucker for their vacant HC position, Michigan State acted quickly and offered him a 10-year, $95 million fully guaranteed extention, the then-largest for a HC in NCAA history. Though this contract was quickly surpassed by a few other prominent coaches, this total was shocking for someone with just 20 games at the school to that point and by far the most for a black head coach in NCAA history. He was suspended after two games in the 2023 season pending the results of a sexual harassment investigation, soon followed by his firing for cause (voiding his guarantees, pending the inevitable legal entanglements).

* '''Robert Neyland''': HC of Tennessee from 1926-34, 1936-40, and 1946-52, with the interruptions being for military service in the Panama Canal Zone and WWII; in 1946, he retired from military service as a [[FourStarBadass brigadier general]]. During his time at Tennessee, he never had a losing season and won four national championships in 1938, 1940, 1950, and 1951. He was also an innovator of the game of football, being credited as the first coach to use a sideline phone and game film to study opponents. He also wrote the seven [[https://www.volnation.com/neylands_maxims.php Game Maxims]] that are still recited by Tennessee players before every game and have been used by many football coaches as a teaching method. Finally, he personally designed Tennessee's home stadium, which was renamed in his honor prior to his death in 1962.
* '''Ken Niumatalolo''': The HC of Navy from 2007-22 and the winningest in its long history, having taken over for the last game of the 2007 season after his predecessor was hired away. Prior to coaching, Niumatalolo, a ''kamaʻāina''[[labelnote:*]]Hawaii-born[[/labelnote]] of Samoan origin, was a successful QB at Hawaii who led the school to its first bowl game in 1989. His hiring at Navy made him the first collegiate HC of Samoan descent on any level and only the second person of Polynesian descent to coach in FBS. He led the Midshipmen to three 10-win seasons, six bowl wins, and 11 wins over Army, but would be shown the door after consecutive 4–8 seasons. Also notable as one of the six featured individuals in the [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} LDS]] [[UsefulNotes/MormonCinema documentary]] ''Meet the Mormons'', described on This Very Wiki as "basically 'I'm a Mormon': The Movie".

* '''Ed Orgeron''': A longtime assistant coach through the '80s and '90s whose position on successful teams in Miami (FL) and USC helped him to become HC at Ole Miss from 2005-07. After that stint proved fairly disastrous, he eventually returned to USC, where he briefly served as an interim HC in 2013 after Lane Kiffin's firing. "Coach O" was named HC of LSU in 2015, and his return to his home state was met with general success that peaked with the school's national title win in 2019. However, the program's performance plummeted during the following two seasons after a massive talent drain; this, coupled with numerous off-field behavioral issues, resulted in his firing during the 2021 season, though he stuck out the rest of the regular season. Orgeron is likely most recognizable for his ''very'' distinct GutturalGrowler Cajun accent.

* '''Chris Petersen''': A highly winning HC with Boise State (2006-13) and Washington (2014-19). Petersen's first year saw the Broncos go undefeated and become the second BCS Buster, memorably defeating Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl off of the "Statue of Liberty" trick play. Boise State remained one of college football's winningest programs and posted another undefeated BCS Buster season in 2009. Petersen continued his success after making the leap to the Power Five, reviving a Washington program that had floundered for over a decade and even earning a CFP berth, but he unexpectedly retired after the 2019 season due to burnout from the stresses of the occupation.

* '''Tommy Prothro''': A successful coach for Oregon State from 1955-64 and UCLA from 1965-70, putting a winning record at both. Guided the Beavers to their most successful run in school history, claiming three conference titles and a win in the Liberty Bowl. His stop at UCLA was less successful, as he made only one bowl game and was a vocal critic of the Pac-8 rules. He went into pro coaching and scouting with the Rams, Chargers, and Browns, seeing the Rams and Chargers teams he built go on to greater success under his successors. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991 and died in 1995 after a cancer battle. He was known for [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} carrying a mysterious briefcase while donning a fedora and wearing a suit and tie]] at his college stops.

* '''John Robinson''': Best known for his two tenures at USC from 1976-82 and again in 1993-97. In his first tenure, he continued predecessor John [=McKay's=] (above) run of success and led the Trojans to a share of the 1978 national title. After spending 1983-91 as HC of the NFL's Los Angeles Rams (posting the longest tenure and most wins in franchise history), he returned to USC and briefly revived the school's prospects. He finished his coaching career at UNLV, only having one winning season from 1999-04. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009 and currently is a senior consultant as LSU.

* '''Francis Schmidt''': A HC best known for his tenures at TCU (1929-33) and Ohio State (1934-40), although he had successful early career gigs at Tulsa from 1919-21 and Arkansas from 1922-28 as well as a less successful late career stint at Idaho from 1941-42 (which ended when the Vandals put football on hiatus during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII). A quietly important figure in the sport's history, Schmidt was the first coach to really dig into offensive strategizing, with a vast playbook full of trick plays and audacious gambits, including using the forward pass as a way to move the ball rather than just for long yardage desperation plays, and expanding the role of the QB from mere signal-caller to ball-mover. The sports media used the term "razzle dazzle" to describe his offense. Sid Gillman, who began his career as a Schmidt assistant, credited him as an inspiration for the pass-based offense he introduced into pro football in TheFifties. Schmidt's hiring at OSU was a watershed moment for the sport as an early example of a national coaching search; in that era, big-time coaches were almost always either alums of their school or had some other connection to their conference.[[note]]Schmidt played for Nebraska, which is now a Big Ten member.[[/note]] Another Schmidt legacy was the spread of the idiom "Those fellows put their pants on one leg at a time, the same as everyone else", a regional Texas saying he used during a press conference in 1934 about his chances of beating Michigan, which became internationally famous. Schmidt won that game (and was the first Buckeye coach to leave Columbus with a winning record against the Wolverines), and ever since, every time Ohio State beats Michigan, the players receive a pants-shaped lapel pin. Passed away in 1944 and was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1971.

* John '''"Jock" Sutherland''': A player at Pitt from 1915-17, he got his first HC job at Lafayette in 191 and led them to a national championship in 1921. He then went back to Pittsburgh in 1924 to replace his coach and mentor, Pop Warner (see below). He led the program to a 111-20-12 record and had four Rose Bowl appearances (where he [[EveryYearTheyFizzleOut went 1-3]]). He led the school to four national championships in 1929, 1931, and 1936-37 before resigning after 1938 due to the school putting less emphasis on football. He went on to coaching in the NFL, coaching the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1940-41 and the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1946-47. He died from a brain tumor in 1948 and was posthumously inducted in the Hall of Fame's inaugural class in 1951.

* '''Jeff Tedford''': HC for California and Fresno State who is best known as a "QB Guru". Originally a QB himself at Cerritos Community College and then Fresno State, he moved into a professional career in the CFL in the '80s before returning to his alma mater as QB coach then OC from 1992-97. He moved to Oregon as OC from '98-'01 and parlayed success in that role into the HC job at Cal from '02-'12. In this span, Tedford became the winningest coach in school history and had ''six'' of his quarterbacks selected in the 1st round of the NFL Draft. Unfortunately, the first five are all considered [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeagueNotoriousFigures draft busts]], but the sixth (and ironically last) was Aaron Rodgers. After being fired from Cal, he spent several seasons as an assistant in the NFL and CFL before returning to his alma mater as head coach. He seemed to be turning the program around but regressed in his final year before retiring due to health concerns. His retirement [[TenMinuteRetirement didn't stick]], as he returned to Fresno State in 2022.

* '''Frank Thomas''': Successful coach at Alabama. Played QB for Knute Rockne (see above) at Notre Dame and got his first HC gig in 1925 at Chattanooga, guiding the Mocs to 3 SIAA titles in his four-season tenure. In 1931, he became the HC for Alabama, succeeding Wallace Wade (see below), and became the AD in 1940. During his tenure at Alabama, he put up a record of 115-24-7 (.812) and won two national championships. His win percentage and total currently rank third in Alabama history, behind Nick Saban and his former player Bear Bryant (see both above). He retired from coaching in 1946 due to contracting heart and lung disease and being too physically weak to care for his mentally ill sister, although he remained AD until 1952. Was inducted in the Hall of Fame's inaugural class in 1951 and passed away in 1954.

* '''Gary Barnett''': A coach at Northwestern (1992-98) and Colorado (1999-2005) who contributed to the latter program's fall from grace. Barnett made a tremendous splash on the college football scene when he helped to turn Northwestern around from one of the absolute worst programs in the nation into a Rose Bowl contender in 1995. Despite collecting most of the Coach of the Year awards for that season, Northwestern's performance fell back off fairly soon after. His next coaching stop in Colorado saw more sustained on-field success. Off the field, however, his tenure was dogged by controversies. These included recruiting violations, behavior concerns, and--perhaps most troubling--his dismissal of former kicker Katie Hnida's testimony of being sexually assaulted by a Colorado teammate. Barnett was suspended by the school for his comments abount Hnida, and he was later forced to resign shortly before the school incurred multiple NCAA penalties that contributed to the program enduring a full decade of losing seasons.

* '''Hugh Freeze''': The current HC at Auburn most (in)famous for his time at Ole Miss from 2012-16. After early career success as an offensive innovator at Lambuth (a Tennessee NAIA school that has since closed) and Arkansas State, he was hired by Ole Miss and led the program to a bowl appearance in each of his first four years with the school. However, after posting his first losing season in 2016, an NCAA investigation found that Freeze and his staff had committed a litany of recruiting and benefit violations, including having his assistants outright paying players in cash. Freeze initially survived the controversy, passing the blame onto his assistants and his predecessor, Houston Nutt. Nutt sued the school to clear his name. As part of discovery for the lawsuit, Freeze's school-issued cell phone records were turned over, which revealed that he was actively attempting to smear Nutt (and had also frequently called an escort service with the school's property). Freeze resigned, the NCAA vacated 27 of his wins with the school, and Nutt's suit was settled with Ole Miss putting most of the blame on Freeze. Controversially, Freeze was hired by Liberty in 2019 despite protests over his past conduct violating the [[StrawmanU conservative evangelical Christian school]]'s honor code. Freeze was successful with raising the program's ceiling and landed the Auburn job in 2023.
* '''Todd Graham''': HC whose career started with a bang in 2006, leading Rice to its first bowl appearance in 45 years. He left the Owls after that one season, spending four years at Tulsa and one at Pittsburgh before taking the Arizona State job starting in 2012. He guided the Sun Devils to the 2013 Pac-12 championship game but failed to build on that success and was let go after the 2017 season. In 2020, he was hired to replace Nick Rolovich (below) at Hawaii. While he compiled a decent 11-11 record in Honolulu, things quickly entered meltdown mode for Graham at the end of 2021, with several current and former players accusing him of DrillSergeantNasty levels of verbal abuse. 14 Hawaii players eventually left the team, including ''Graham's own son''. Things got so bad that the Hawaii State Senate held a hearing to investigate Graham, where players and their families made lots of specific allegations about Graham's HairTriggerTemper, including his calling ukuleles "fucking annoying" and slurring Hawaii as a "third world country" because a vending machine didn't have Dr Pepper. Graham resigned soon after.

* '''Mark Hudspeth''': Once considered a rising talent after successful HC tenures at North Alabama (then D-II, now FCS) from 2002-08 and at Louisiana-Lafayette[[note]]now called Louisiana[[/note]] from 2011-17, his star dimmed when revelations came forward of violations involving an assistant, causing parts of the 2011-14 seasons to be vacated, including the 2011 and 2014 New Orleans Bowl victories. In 2019, he was hired to be HC of Austin Peay and seemed to right the ship, as he led the program to its first 11-win season, first appearance in the FCS playoffs, and first conference championship in 42 years. However, he was suspended by the program in 2020 for conduct unbecoming of his position and subsequently resigned, though the university has never explained exactly what he did wrong, and Hudspeth insists that he left on his volition to "spend more time with my family." He is currently coaching high school football in Alabama.

* '''Hal Mumme'''[[note]]Last name pronounced "mummy"[[/note]]: Maverick HC with a long career and a very checkered legacy, but still considered an important figure in the modern game as the inventor of the Air Raid offense. A receiver at Tarleton in his college playing days, he perfected his record-setting pass offense on the NAIA (Iowa Wesleyan) and D-II (Valdosta State) levels, then made the unlikely leap to the SEC when Kentucky hired him as HC in 1997, allegedly to accommodate star QB Tim Couch with a pass-friendly coach and offense. While he guided the Wildcats to bowl bids in '98 and '99, Couch's early departure for the NFL hobbled the program, and he resigned in early 2001 amid an extensive NCAA investigation that found dozens of recruiting violations, including player payments and academic fraud, as Kentucky was hit with a postseason ban and scholarship reductions. After restarting the program at FCS Southeastern Louisiana, Mumme returned to the FBS ranks at New Mexico State in 2004. While he managed to squeeze out some decent play from the school's traditionally dreary football program, NMSU ended up getting sued by four Muslim players who alleged religious discrimination on Mumme's part, a suit that ended in a financial settlement. After NMSU fired Mumme in 2008, he went back to the small college level with stints at D-III schools [=McMurry=] and Belhaven. He returned to the D-I level at FCS Jackson State as its OC in 2018 but was let go just after three games. He's bounced around various minor pro league teams since then, finishing his college HC career with a mediocre 142-152-1 mark. Despite that, he was the subject of an acclaimed biography (S.C. Gwynne's ''The Perfect Pass''), and Mumme protégés like Mike Leach, Guy Morriss, and Dana Holgorsen enjoyed success with the Air Raid system.

* '''Scott Frost''': Originally a QB who started out at Stanford but transferred to Nebraska after two years, leading the Cornhuskers to their most recent national championship in 1997, he entered into coaching after an unspectacular NFL career and quickly moved up the ranks. In 2016, he was hired by UCF the season after they went completely winless; in just his second season, UCF went [[FlawlessVictory completely undefeated]] and claimed a national championship after they weren't granted a spot in the CFP. Frost collected almost every major Coach of the Year award and was subsequently hired by his alma mater to lead the Cornhuskers back to the glory they hadn't seen since his graduation. Unfortunately, his tenure in Nebraska proved to be an absolute disaster; his four years in Lincoln saw the program only further lose its luster, with four straight losing seasons in which Frost built a reputation for losing almost every game by a single score. Frost was fired early in the 2022 season after losing two games (''also'' by single scores!) in which Nebraska was heavily favored, leaving Lincoln as the first full-time head coach with a losing record since Bob Devaney began his tenure six decades prior.

* '''Lou Holtz''': Spent nearly [[LongRunner 35 years]] as the head coach of six different schools,[[note]]William & Mary (1969-71), NC State (1972-75), Arkansas (1977-83), Minnesota (1984-85), Notre Dame (1986-96), and South Carolina (1999-2004)[[/note]] most famously for Notre Dame in the late '80s and early '90s, where he led their last National Championship team in 1988. To younger fans, Holtz is likely more famous for his time as an analyst working alongside Mark May for ESPN's various college football shows including ''Scoreboard'', ''Final'', and ''Live''. Holtz went into semi-retirement from broadcasting in 2015, though he and his ''distinctive'' voice (caused by his [[FalseTeethTomfoolery dentures]]) still make occasional appearances on the network. The less said about his one season in the NFL (going 3-10 with the New York Jets in 1976, with Holtz resigning before season's end to take the Arkansas job), [[AudienceAlienatingEra the better.]] He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Donald Trump in 2020, which many connected more to his decades of vocal support for the Republican party (something that had actually cost him his job at Arkansas) than his public service. His son, '''Skip''', has also enjoyed a successful coaching career with collegiate stops at Connecticut, East Carolina, South Florida, and Louisiana Tech and is currently coaching the Birmingham Stallions of the USFL.

* '''Don James''': A successful HC for Kent State from 1971-74 and Washington from 1975-92. During his time at Kent State, he led them to their first (and thus far only) conference championship and second ever bowl in school history in 1972 behind a team led by [[UsefulNotes/NFLDefensiveAndSpecialTeamsPlayers Jack Lambert]], Gary Pinkel, and Nick Saban (see below for the latter two). He then went on to Washington, leading them to an impressive winning record and guiding them to a share of the 1991 national championship. He retired abruptly after 1992 when his team was hit with sanctions and he had a falling-out with university administration over their handling of the incident.[[note]]The punishment was originally a one-year bowl ban and two-year TV revenue ban, but it got changed to a two-year bowl ban and one-year TV revenue ban[[/note]] He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997 and died from pancreatic cancer in 2013.

* '''K. C. Keeler''': Currently the HC at Sam Houston, Keeler is the only coach to win FCS national championships at two different schools and the only person to coach in the FCS and D-III championship games. [[LongRunners Starting his HC career in 1993]] he guided Rowan to the D-III championship game (the Stagg Bowl) in his very first season, losing to Mount Union. That became a familiar refrain for Keeler, as Rowan made 5 Stagg Bowls from 1993-99 but lost all of them, with three of the losses to Mount Union and Keeler's personal AlwaysSomeoneBetter Larry Kehres (see below).[[note]]The coaches that Keeler lost his Stagg Bowls to, Kehres, Wisconsin-La Crosse's Roger Harring, and Pacific Lutheran's Frosty Westering, are all Hall of Famers who combined for almost '''900''' career wins![[/note]] In 2002, he took the job at his alma mater Delaware, replacing longtime coach Harold "Tubby" Raymond. He made the (then) I-AA championship game in his second year but this time won it in spectacular fashion, with a [[CurbStompBattle 40-0 shutout of Colgate]]. He took Delaware to two more FCS title games (2007, led by future Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco, and 2010) but lost them both and was let go after 2012. After working for ESPN in 2013, Keeler took the Sam Houston job the next year, guided the Bearkats to six playoff appearances, and won the championship in the 2020-21 season that saw FCS schools play a spring schedule because of the USefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic. Sam Houston's FBS move in 2023 means that Keeler has coached at every NCAA level except D-II.

* '''Brian Kelly''': The winningest coach in Notre Dame history with a 113-40 record. After spending over a decade as HC of D-II Grand Valley State (1991-2003, winning back-to-back D-II national championships in his final two seasons) and a brief tenure at Central Michigan (2004-06), Kelly took the reigns at Cincinnati and immediately took the program to its greatest heights, leading the Bearcats to an undefeated regular season in 2009 [[{{Foreshadowing}} before leaving the team prior to their bowl game]] to accept the Notre Dame job. Kelly's run at Notre Dame brought the school the most success it had seen in decades, including an appearance in the 2013 BCS Championship Game. However, his tenure with the Fighting Irish was also marked with multiple controversies from the beginning; a student videographer (Declan Sullivan) was infamously killed during a practice in his first season after a hydraulic lift was knocked over from high winds (the school was fined for safety violations) and the NCAA officially rescinded all of the school's wins for two seasons, including their failed championship run, due to academic violations. Still, the program remained successful, with Notre Dame later seeing two visits to the CFP under Kelly. However, prior to the school's bowl game in 2021, while they were still potentially eligible for a third CFP run, Kelly took the HC job at LSU. He has the odd distinction of being an active FBS coach who has a D-II stadium named after him (his alma mater Assumption University in Massachusetts plays at Brian Kelly '83 Stadium).

* '''Mike Leach''': An offensive innovator known by some as the "mad scientist" of college football (see Clark Shaughnessy below for another coach of that nickname) and by others as "The Pirate" for his affinity for them,[[note]]He even had a life-size statue of a singing pirate in his office at Wazzu, a gift from basketball coaching legend Bob Knight, who coached at Texas Tech when Leach was there coaching football.[[/note]] and also famous for his DeadpanSnarker meets {{Cloudcuckoolander}} personality. Like Bill Clark above, he was one of the few FBS coaches who never played college football, playing UsefulNotes/{{rugby|Union}} at BYU instead after an injury ended his own QB prospects. Leach also didn't start his coaching career until after getting a ''law degree'' at Pepperdine (a school that last fielded a football team in 1961, the year he was born). He is credited with inventing the "Air Raid" offense while serving as an assistant coach under his mentor, Hal Mumme. Originally seen as a gimmick offense with artificially inflated passing numbers due to its pass-heavy and up-tempo nature, Leach's success at Big 12 bottom-feeder Texas Tech from 2000-09 caused it to proliferate throughout college football. Due to the Air Raid's influence, he has had numerous assistant coaches and even some former ''quarterbacks'' go on to land HC jobs. Despite never having a losing season at the school, Texas Tech fired Leach after he was accused of improperly treating RB Adam James' concussion.[[note]]Later revelations showed that Leach may not have knowingly committed any wrongdoing and that his firing came after significant lobbying from Adam's father, former NFL RB and then-ESPN analyst Craig James, who was upset at his son's lack of playing time. Leach took Texas Tech to court, but being a state school, the case was dismissed on the grounds of sovereign immunity.[[/note]] He eventually wound up at typical Pac-12 bottom-feeder Washington State (2012-19), taking them to respectability they hadn't seen since the 1990s. After six bowl appearances in his eight seasons on the Palouse, including five straight from 2015–19, he left for SEC mid-pack fixture Mississippi State in 2020. He died suddenly from a heart attack following the 2022 regular season. While his career coaching record of .596 was ''two wins'' shy of the current threshold for Hall of Fame induction, Leach's 18 wins over AP-ranked teams while his own team was unranked are the most in the AP Poll era. Despite his acromonious departure from Texas Tech, he was still inducted into the school's Hall of Fame and Hall of Honor.

* '''Joe Moglia''': The coach who oversaw Coastal Carolina's transition from FCS to FBS, setting the stage for their breakout 2020 season under his successor Jamey Chadwell. Moglia is most notable for his unusual career path. After college, he embarked on the usual path of assistant gigs before he decided to leave football behind for a Wall Street career in 1983. He had spectacular success, becoming CEO of the discount brokerage that eventually became TD Ameritrade in 2001 and growing its client assets and market cap tenfold. Moglia later left to return to football, starting out as an assistant at Nebraska in 2009 and moving to the United Football League's Omaha Nighthawks in 2011. With the UFL veering toward collapse, he became Coastal's head coach in 2012, leading the Chanticleers to FCS playoff berths in his first four seasons in charge as well as a 10–2 record in a 2016 season in which they were ineligible for the playoffs due to having begun their FBS transition. He took 2017 off for medical reasons but returned for the Chants' first full FBS season[[labelnote:*]]in the sense of being eligible for bowl games, though they didn't reach that mark[[/labelnote]] in 2018 before handing the program off to Chadwell. During the second act of his coaching career, he also held the largely ceremonial position of board chairman at TD Ameritrade, stepping down from that role in 2020 after the company was bought by Charles Schwab Corporation.

* '''Larry Coker''': HC of Miami (FL) from 2001-06 where, after decades as an assistant for various programs, he won the 2001 National Championship in his very first year as a head coach (joining Michigan's Bennie Oosterbaan as the only two top-level coaches to do so). However, his last three years were marked by disappointed, as Miami struggled to adapt to the ACC. He was fired after 2006, largely due to a brawl during a game against FIU and the team's lack of punishment to the parties involved. He resurfaced after a five-year hiatus as the first HC of UTSA in 2011 before retiring after 2015.

* '''Sylvester Croom''': A Hall of Fame player at Alabama who later became a long-time assistant coach in the college and pro ranks from 1976-2003, he got his only HC job in 2004 at Mississippi State. When he took the job, he became the first African-American to be a HC of a school in the SEC and held the position until 2008, only putting up one winning season. After his HC career, he continued on as an assistant with various NFL teams until officially retiring in 2018.

* '''Kalen [=DeBoer=]''': A former multi-sport athlete at NAIA Sioux Falls in his native South Dakota, he stayed in town and coached his alma mater to a 67-3 record and three national titles from 2005-09 before spending the next decade as an assistant at various schools. He was hired as HC of Fresno State in 2020, then was hired to lead Washington in 2022; the Huskies immediately bounced back from a state of disarray to one of premier programs in the nation, complete with an undefeated regular season capped by a national championship game appearance in just his second year on the job.

* '''Bobby Dodd''': The winningest coach in Georgia Tech history, one of a handful of figures enshrined in the Hall of Fame as both a player and coach, and the namesake of one of the most prestigious Coach of the Year awards. After a successful tenure as Tennessee's QB in the late '20s, he served as an assistant to William Alexander for 13 years at Tech before succeeding him and leading the program for 22 seasons (1945-66) and becoming the school's AD in 1950. He was a beloved figure at Tech, where [[BlasphemousPraise "In Dodd We Trust"]] was a fan {{Catchphrase}}. Dodd was unique in the annals of college sports for his laid-back and student-focused approach; he prioritized academic over athletic performance, never recruited more students than could make the final team, and coached each game from a seated position at a card table he posted on the sidelines. This approach brought the team great success, including a national title in 1952. However, it also led to Tech leaving the SEC when Dodd grew frustrated with other programs and coaches (particularly Bear Bryant) who did not follow suit. After he retired as HC in 1966, he spent another ten years as AD, overseeing the program's racial integration. Passed away in 1988.

* '''[=LaVell=] Edwards''': The coach responsible for turning BYU into a football power. A lineman at Utah State in his playing days, Edwards was promoted to the HC position at BYU in 1972. Up to that point in their history, the Cougars were poster children for football mediocrity, having only won a single conference championship, with an all-time winning percentage of just .428, and had only beaten archrival Utah five times in 47 tries. By the time he retired after 2000, he had won 257 games in 28 seasons (6th most all time, 2nd most with a single school), along with 19 conference titles and a national championship in 1984 (the only "mid-major" school to win one in modern college football history), and had gone 22-6 against the Utes. Edwards is credited for jumpstarting the idea of high-volume passing offenses in college football, doing so to gain a competitive edge against other dominant teams who relied much more on power running and stout defenses. In total, he produced ''nine'' quarterbacks who led the NCAA in either passing yards, rating, or touchdowns, more than any other college ''program'' has ever produced; several of them set NCAA records (including Ty Detmer, see below) or went on to NFL success (Steve Young, Jim [=McMahon=]). Edwards likewise mentored several successful NFL coaches (Mike Holmgren, Andy Reid). He also oversaw one of the last racial integrations of any college program in his first season, notably coming several years ''before'' the [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} LDS Church]] disavowed its anti-Black doctrines and practices. BYU's stadium is named in his honor; in fact, it was formally renamed for Edwards ''immediately before'' his last home game, making him one of a small number of coaches to lead a team in a stadium named after him. Edwards died in 2016 a few days after breaking a hip.

* '''Kirk Ferentz''': The winningest coach in Iowa history and currently the [[LongRunner longest-tenured]] active coach with a single FBS program, having coached the Hawkeyes since succeeding Hayden Fry (see below) in 1999 after years as an assistant in college and the pros and an unsuccessful HC stint with Maine (1990-92). Ferentz quickly rebuilt Iowa back to its old form and became renowned as one of the [[StoneWall best defensive coaches]] in the nation... at the cost of Iowa regularly having some of the worst ''offenses'' in the nation, likely contributing to the program's inability to take the next step and become a real threat to win Big Ten championships (having last won one in 2004). His UltimateJobSecurity has also come under scrutiny due to numerous scandals, legal troubles, and the extreme degrees of {{Nepotism}} that have followed his tenure. Most notably, his son Brian served as his OC from 2017-23 despite the unit's persistently ranking among the worst in the nation.[[note]]This would normally be an NCAA violation, but Iowa skirted the issue by claiming that he reports to the ''AD'' rather than the rest of the coaching staff. Brian signed a contract for the 2023 season calling for him to be let go if the Hawkeyes failed to average 24 points per game that season: through 8 weeks, they averaged only 20, and only with the help of numerous defensive and special teams scores, leading the AD to announce his firing before the season had ended.[[/note]]

* '''Kalen [=DeBoer=]''': A former multi-sport athlete at NAIA Sioux Falls in his native South Dakota, he stayed in town and coached his alma mater to a 67-3 record and three national titles from 2005-09 before spending the next decade as an assistant at various schools. He was hired as HC of Fresno State in 2020, then was hired to lead Washington in 2022; the Huskies immediately bounced back from a state of disarray to one of premier programs in the nation, complete with an undefeated regular season in his second year on the job.

* '''Jim Harbaugh''': Current HC at Michigan, where he was first a successful QB before a pretty solid journeyman NFL career.[[note]]He notably is enshrined in the Indianapolis Colts' Ring of Honor for leading them to an unexpected AFC Championship appearance that was the peak of the franchise's success in Indy before Peyton Manning's arrival.[[/note]] He then entered the college coaching ranks, first with FCS San Diego and then with Stanford, which he built up from Pac-12 bottom-feeder into a legitimate title contender. He next experienced great success as an NFL coach with the San Francisco 49ers, making it to the playoffs in three of his four seasons and to the Super Bowl where he lost to his brother John's Ravens. However, conflicts with management and the opportunity to coach his alma mater led him to return to the college ranks in 2015. The start of his tenure in Ann Arbor was relatively successful but had a mixed fan reception due to his early struggles against hated rival Ohio State and a [[EveryYearTheyFizzleOut disappointing 1-6 bowl game record]]. After a losing season in 2020 left him on the brink of being fired, Harbaugh overhauled his coaching staff, accepted a massive pay cut, and immediately beat Ohio State and led the Wolverines to their first two CFP berths in back-to-back years. However, Harbaugh's tenure became mired in controversy in 2023 due to credible accusations of Michigan having an extensive sign-stealing program under his watch, leaving his future in college football in question amid a suspension by the Big Ten.

* '''Bob Stoops''': The HC of Oklahoma from 1998-2016 who helped the program escape the stigma of the sanctions placed on it at the end of the Barry Switzer era and middling play under the previous regimes. He won the 2000 National Championship at OU and was also the only HC in the BCS era to ever win the Rose, Orange, Fiesta, and Sugar Bowls. He retired from Oklahoma in 2017 but quickly returned to coaching in the XFL for the Dallas Renegades. After that league folded mid-season due to COVID, he hopped over to broadcasting, returned to the sidelines in 2021 to coach Oklahoma's bowl game after Lincoln Riley's departure, and returned to the XFL after its revival, leading the now-Arlington Renegades to the league's first championship. His brothers, '''Mark Stoops''' and '''Mike Stoops''', also became head coaches; while Mike had a pretty mediocre run coaching Arizona from 2004-11, Mark has seen great success at Kentucky since 2013, building the long-struggling program back to consistent contention for the first time in decades, becoming that program's winningest HC by 2022 (though his critics point out that almost all of his SEC wins came against teams that finished with losing conference records).

* '''Tim Murphy''': The current HC of Harvard since 1994, which he has led to a record-tying nine Ivy League championships. His 192 wins entering the 2023 season are the most in the program's storied history, and the Crimson has put up three undefeated seasons on his watch. Also, his 207 wins at the FCS level (including 15 at his first HC stop of Maine) make him the winningest active coach at that level.[[note]]As with Roy Kidd and Jimmye Laycock above, this uses the stricter definition of an "FCS coach" to include only seasons coached at that level, not counting wins at any other level.[[/note]] Murphy also had a much less successful HC run at Cincinnati from 1989–93, with his only winning season there being his last. Under his leadership, Harvard has also become the leading Ivy League school in sending players to the NFL including long-time QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, multi-time Pro Bowlers C Matt Birk and FB Kyle Juzczyk, and Super Bowl LV champion TE Cameron Brate. Former Wrestling/{{WWE}} star Wrestling/ChristopherNowinski also played under Murphy at Harvard. Murphy was also elected president of the American Football Coaches Association in 2012.

* '''Nick Saban''': The colossus of college coaching in the 21st century, with [[TheAce the most national titles in college football history]] at seven and the most wins of any active D-I coach. After several decades as an assistant at the college and pro levels, Saban turned around Toledo's program in his first and only year as its head coach in 1990. After serving as DC under [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeagueNonPlayerFigures Bill Belichick]] with the Cleveland Browns, Saban had a successful run at Michigan State (1995-99) before being hired by LSU, which he led to a national title in 2003. After [[AudienceAlienatingEra two middling seasons with the Miami Dolphins]] from 2005-06, where he insisted he was not going to become coach at Alabama up to two weeks before he [[BlatantLies returned to college coaching at Alabama]]. Once there, he asserted himself as one of the greatest coaches in college history by returning the school to its past dominance and leading the Tide to six national titles ('09, '11, '12, '15, '17, '20) and runner-up in three more seasons ('16, '18, '21). As another testament to his coaching and recruiting acumen, his Alabama teams have featured four Heisman winners, the most of any coach at a single program since Frank Leahy. Fun fact: During Saban's ''first 14 seasons'' at Alabama, none of his former assistants had [[AlwaysSecondBest won a game against him]] as the opposing head coach. This streak reached 24 games before ending in 2021 with two such losses, including the national title game. He holds highest career winning percentage among all active college coaches.

* '''Amos Alonzo Stagg''': Another pioneer in college football. First, while a student at Yale, he was a member of Walter Camp's very first All-America team in 1889. He then went into coaching, compiling a 314–199–35 record at three schools: Springfield College (1890-91), the University of Chicago (for [[LongRunner 41 seasons]], 1892-1932, winning national titles in 1905 and 1913), and College of the Pacific (1933-46). Stagg was responsible, at least in part, for innovations such as the huddle, lateral pass, man in motion, varsity letters, uniform numbers, and, less well-known but very important, football played indoors.[[labelnote:Explanation]] While at Springfield, he scheduled a game against his alma mater Yale at Madison Square Garden in New York on [[https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth-oai:r781x872r December 13, 1890]], a 16-10 win for Yale. Then in 1893 and 1894 Chicago became the first college team to play home games indoors, when he adopted a place called Tattersall's Riding Academy as the Maroons' home, using tree bark as a playing surface. In all those cases, the field had to be shrunk from regulation size to accommodate the facilities. An 1896 game against Michigan inside Chicago Coliseum was the first indoor game on a regulation sized field.[[/labelnote]] He also invented some equipment, notably the tackling dummy. Even after being forced out at his last HC job at Pacific (at [[CoolOldGuy age 84]]), he still wasn't done with football—he served as top assistant to his son at Susquehanna, a small Pennsylvania school, for five seasons, and ''after that'' returned to Pacific's home city of Stockton, California to serve as kicking coach for six seasons at the local junior college until finally retiring at age ''96'' (he finally passed at age 102 in 1965). He was a member of the inaugural class of the Hall of Fame in 1951 as both a player and coach, the only person to be inducted in both roles until the 1990s. The NCAA D-III championship game is named the Stagg Bowl in his honor. Springfield, Chicago, and Susquehanna have all named their home venues Stagg Field in his honor (Chicago has placed his name on two different stadiums; Pacific's stadium was also called Stagg Memorial Stadium, but they dropped football after the 1995 season and demolished it in 2014).

* '''Bob Stoops''': The HC of Oklahoma from 1998-2016 who helped the program escape the stigma of the sanctions placed on it at the end of the Barry Switzer era and middling play under the previous regimes. He won the 2000 National Championship at OU and was also the only HC in the BCS era to ever win the Rose, Orange, Fiesta, and Sugar Bowls. He retired from Oklahoma in 2017 but quickly returned to coaching in the XFL for the Dallas Renegades. After that league folded mid-season due to COVID, he hopped over to broadcasting, returned to the sidelines in 2021 to coach Oklahoma's bowl game after Lincoln Riley's departure, and returned the XFL after its revival, leading the now-Arlington Renegades to the league's first championship. His brothers, '''Mark Stoops''' and '''Mike Stoops''', also became head coaches; while Mike had a pretty mediocre run coaching Arizona from 2004-11, Mark has seen great success at Kentucky since 2013, building the long-struggling program back to consistent contention for the first time in decades, becoming that program's winningest HC by 2022 (though his critics point out that almost all of his SEC wins came against teams that finished with losing conference records).

* William '''"Dabo" Swinney'''[[note]]Got his nickname as an infant when his older brother mispronounced "that boy".[[/note]]: The current HC of Clemson which, under his leadership, achieved national prominence and was one of the few programs to regularly compete with Alabama under Nick Saban during their 2010s peak. (Swinney played WR at Alabama in the early '90s.) Made the somewhat unprecedented leap from Clemson wide receivers coach straight to HC in 2008 after the previous coach resigned and kept the job after salvaging Clemson's season. To say this promotion worked out would be an understatement; he led the Tigers to national championships in 2016 and 2018, beating Alabama in both instances. Clemson has taken a step back in early 2020s due in part to Swinney's stubborn refusal to utilize the transfer portal and the mass attrition of assistant coaches getting head coaching jobs elsewhere, most prominently long-time DC Brent Venables.

* '''Tommy Elrod''': A player and later assistant coach for Wake Forest in the '90s/'00s who became the school's radio broadcast analyst in 2014 after new HC Dave Clawson chose not to retain him as an assistant. He was at the center of what came to be known as the "Wakey Leaks" scandal when, after observing the team's practices, sold gameplan information to Wake's opponents including Louisville, Virginia Tech, and Army. Each of the schools fined/suspended their staff members who accepted the information (most notably Virginia Tech's Shane Beamer, son of then-head coach Frank Beamer) while Elrod was fired. Ironically, the scandal [[https://thetouchdown.co.uk/the-slow-mesh-the-evolution-of-wake-forests-innovative-offense/ was arguably the catalyst for Wake's later success]]—Clawson's OC Warren Ruggiero responded by devising the "slow mesh" offense that has powered the Deacons to said run.

* '''Tod Eberle and Dick Yoder''': Possibly the greatest examples of SmallRoleBigImpact in college football history. In 1986, Eberle was commissioner of the D-II Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, and Yoder was the AD at PSAC member West Chester and a member of the D-II council. At the time, the PSAC faced a football scheduling conundrum—it had 14 members, and its two divisional winners played a championship game. However, NCAA limits on regular-season games meant that every PSAC team had to leave a schedule slot open, and only the two divisional winners got to play all of their allowed regular-season games. Eberle asked Yoder to draft NCAA legislation to allow the PSAC to stage a championship game that ''didn't'' count against scheduling limits. Yoder's original draft required a league have 14 members, with the PSAC then being the only league in any NCAA division with that many football members. However, before Yoder brought the proposal up for a vote, another D-II conference with 12 football members asked him to change his draft to reduce the required number of teams to 12. He did just that, and the NCAA passed this rule with little fanfare.[[note]]At the time, such changes had to be voted on by the entire NCAA membership, but it was a non-issue for Division I-A (now FBS) conferences, none of which had more than 10 members.[[/note]] This rule ended up setting the terms of FBS conference realignment for the next three decades, because the first conference to actually take advantage of this rule was the SEC (see Roy Kramer below).[[note]]Ironically, the PSAC abolished its championship game immediately after this rule change passed! As it turned out, the NCAA expanded the D-II playoffs from 8 to 16 teams in 1988, and the PSAC feared that the result of a title game could cost the conference a potential at-large playoff berth. The title game wasn't reinstated until 2008.[[/note]]

* '''John Swofford''': A former QB and DB at North Carolina, Swofford made his mark in the sport as ACC commissioner from 1997–2021 after 17 years as the Tar Heels' AD. Under his watch, the ACC kicked off the first major conference realignment of the current century by poaching Boston College, Miami, and Virginia Tech from the Big East in 2004 and 2005. The ACC expanded even further under his watch, bringing in Pitt and Syracuse in all sports and Notre Dame in non-football sports in 2013 and Louisville the following year (though the conference did lose Maryland to the Big Ten), and Swofford also oversaw the creation of the ACC Network. However, the media deal that allowed for the creation of the ACC Network would come back to bite the conference in the early 2020s, as it left the ACC enormously behind the Big Ten and SEC in revenue, with no apparent hope of change until well into the 2030s.[[note]]Said media deal was originally for 15 years from 2012–2027. It was extended in 2016 to a ''20-year'' deal. Both deals included a "grant of rights" (GOR) stating that if a school leaves the ACC during the contract term, all remaining broadcast revenue during the contract goes to the conference. Not to mention that the ACC's exit fee was reported in 2023 to be about $120 million (to be precise, three times the conference's annual operating budget). Several schools have lawyered up in an attempt to find a way out of the GOR; none have yet been able to. On top of that, the Big Ten and SEC deals that start in 2024 will end before the ACC's deal, giving those conferences a chance to cash in even more.[[/note]] As an aside, his older brother was the late singer [[Music/{{Oliver}} Oliver.]] %% The page on his brother includes an exclamation point, mostly because the page on the movie (which has the exclamation point) existed first.

* '''Mike Bellotti''': The winningest coach in Oregon history. Got his first HC gig at Chico State (1984-88), putting up a losing record. After serving as OC under Rich Brooks (see below) at Oregon for five seasons, he was promoted to HC and built on the foundation his predecessor laid. From 1995-2008, he guided the Ducks to two conference titles and had only one losing season. He retired in 2009 to become Oregon's AD, resigned in 2010 to become an analyst for ESPN, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014.

* '''Judy [=MacLeod=]''':[[note]]pronounced "[=McCloud=]"[[/note]] Commissioner of Conference USA since 2015 and most notable as the first woman to hold said position in an FBS conference. A former basketball player at D-III Puget Sound, she spent a few years as an assistant coach at then-NAIA Seattle before going to grad school at Tulsa, working in various athletic department positions before becoming AD in 1995. [=MacLeod=] presided over Tulsa's sequential moves to the WAC and C-USA before joining the latter's staff in 2005. She became commissioner in 2015, after C-USA had lost much of its pre-2013 membership to what is now The American. While she kept things stable for a time, she approached The American in 2021, shortly after the announcement that three of the latter league's members were moving to the Big 12, and proposed that C-USA and The American merge and then split into two more geographically compact leagues. The American rejected this and soon became the second league to raid C-USA, poaching six members after the Sun Belt had poached three. [=MacLeod=] (presumably with the help of the aforementioned Jim Delany) managed to keep the league afloat by adding four new members for 2023 and one for 2024.

* '''Greg Sankey''': Current SEC commissioner, making him one of the biggest power brokers in college sports. The upstate New York native had a modest start to his career as director of intramural sports at the small Utica College, but moved south to become compliance director at Northwestern State, a I-AA/FCS school in Louisiana. From there, he moved on to the Southland Conference in 1992, becoming that league's commissioner in 1996. When the SEC had compliance issues at the turn of the century, Mike Slive (below) brought him in to address them, and he rose through the ranks until becoming Slive's successor in 2015. He's been intimately involved with the two most recent major realignment cycles, first as Slive's deputy when the SEC brought in Missouri and Texas A&M and then as commissioner with the impending arrival of Oklahoma and Texas. Sankey also pushed for the expansion to the College Football Playoff from its original four teams to 12, now set for the 2024 season.

* '''Bobby Petrino''': The current OC at Arkansas, whose [[LongRunner 35+ year]] career has spanned over a dozen different college and pro programs. Petrino originally ''had'' a reputation as an outstanding offensive mind, but to most fans developed a bigger reputation of being an opportunist who would abandon programs at the first sign of trouble or a better contract somewhere else, including abandoning his first head coaching job at Louisville for a job in the NFL right after signing a long-term contract. That turned out to be a disaster in more ways than one (more on that on his entry on [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeagueNotoriousFigures the NFL's Notorious page]]), and he returned to college football as the HC of Arkansas. After his fourth year, Petrino got into a motorcycle accident. After giving a press conference in a neck brace and with his face still red from scrapes [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial insisting he was the only one on the motorcycle]], it came out that he did have a passenger: a mistress half his age whom he had given a job in the program, breaking school protocol. Petrino was fired and spent a year away from coaching while on an apology tour, got a job at Western Kentucky for one year, and [[EasilyForgiven returned to Louisville]], where he again saw success with QB Lamar Jackson... only for the program to slump after Jackson's departure, with Petrino losing the locker room and getting fired again. He later moved to FCS Missouri State in 2020, bringing the Bears to the FCS playoffs (which they hadn't made since 1990) twice before returning to FBS as a coordinator after the 2022 season. Echoing his itinerant history, he was first announced as the new OC at UNLV, but left within weeks when the same position at Texas A&M. After the 2023 season, A&M canned HC Jimbo Fisher, and new HC Mike Elko didn't keep him on. Amazingly, Petrino ended up back at the very same school from which he'd been fired for cause a decade-plus earlier, this time as OC.

* '''Jimbo Fisher''': A protégé of Bobby Bowden and Nick Saban, Fisher was chosen as Bowden's successor at Florida State, continuing the program's success from 2010-16, including a national title in 2013. Fisher attracted some criticism for his lax attitude towards players' academic performance and retired with one game left in 2017 to take the HC job at Texas A&M; FSU fell to its first losing records in four decades immediately after his departure. In 2021, he led A&M to a stunning road upset of top-ranked Alabama, ending two remarkable streaks: 100 straight Bama wins over unranked teams and 24 straight wins for Nick Saban at Alabama when the opposing HC was one of his former assistants.[[labelnote:*]]Fisher had served under Saban at LSU.[[/labelnote]] That was also the year in which his original 10-year deal at A&M was replaced by a new 10-year deal for $95 million ''fully guaranteed''. However, Fisher would come under increased scrutiny for the Aggies' overall underperformance, as his impressive recruiting never translated to similar excellence on the field. He was fired late in the 2023 season, with A&M swallowing a buyout of about ''$77 million''—nearly three times the highest previous known buyout of a coaching contract at a public school.[[note]]A&M will be on the hook for more—many if not all of his assistants have their own (lesser) buyouts, and any established coach the Aggies may go after will almost certainly have his own buyout.[[/note]] He's also at the center of one of the craziest WhatCouldHaveBeen scenarios in recent history: UAB was set to hire him as HC after the 2006 season, but the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees stepped in and nullified the contract offer, a move widely seen as the Tuscaloosa campus deliberately kneecapping the Birmingham campus' football program.[[note]]It wasn't the first time the system board was accused of this, and was far from the last. See UAB's description in the "Group of Five" page for ''many'' more examples.[[/note]]