How many coaching changes will there be in 2023?
That number was at 21 before legendary Alabama coach Nick Saban retired on Jan. 10. Saban’s retirement set off a chain reaction of six coaching changes in the last week, and more could follow.
So, that number now sits at 27, and Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh has yet to make a decision about a possible jump to the NFL.
In 2022, there were 23 FBS coaching changes, which was down from 28 in 2021. There were 18 coaching changes in 2020.
MORE: Transfer portal QB tracker 2023: Tyler Van Dyke, Will Howard on the move
So, who’s next? A look at all the FBS coaching changes for 2023:
College football coaching changes 2023
Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern
Fired (July 10): Northwestern fired Fitzgerald three days after the school announced a two-week suspension in connection with a hazing investigation within the program. Fitzgerald is currently suing the university for $130 million in damages. Fitzgerald’s firing was an offseason shocker considering the former Wildcats linebacker had been the head coach since 2006. He had a 110-101 and led Northwestern to Big Ten championship appearances in 2018 and 2020.
Mel Tucker, Michigan State
Fired (Sept. 27): The Spartans fired Tucker with cause on Sept. 27. Tucker was under investigation by the university in connection with a sexual misconduct complaint by Brenda Tracy, a prominent sexual assault awareness advocate. Tucker led the Spartans to a 11-2 record in 2021, which prompted the school to sign him to a massive $95 million contract extension. Michigan State slipped to 5-7 in 2022 and was 2-0 at the time when he was let go. Harlon Barnett is Michigan State’s interim coach.
Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M
Fired (Nov. 12): Texas A&M fired Fisher, who was hired in 2018 from Florida State with the expectation he could lead the Aggies to a national championship. Fisher, however, struggled with building a consistent contender in the SEC West. Texas A&M finished 9-1 in 2020 in the COVID-19 shortened season, with the only loss coming to eventual national champion Alabama. The Aggies were 19-15 from 2021-23 under Fisher, and that included a 10-13 record in SEC play. Fisher will receive a massive $75 million buyout in guaranteed money.
Andy Avalos, Boise State
Fired (Nov. 12): Boise State fired Avalos – a former linebacker for the Broncos from 2001-04 – in just his third season. The Broncos slipped to 5-5, but the timing was curious considering they were coming off a 42-14 victory against New Mexico. Avalos had a 22-14 record. He was previously the defensive coordinator at Oregon.
Zach Arnett, Mississippi State
Fired (Nov. 13): Arnett was Mike Leach’s defensive coordinator at Mississippi State, and was elevated to interim coach when Leach fell ill in December 2022. Mississippi State named him permanent head coach just days after Leach’s death, and then let him go before he finished his first season. Arnett won Mississippi State’s bowl game after the 2022 season and was 4-6 in 2023. The Bulldogs hired Jeff Lebby.
Brady Hoke, San Diego State
Retired (Nov. 13): Hoke announced his retirement, effective at the end of this season. The Aztecs slipped to 3-7 this season, and Hoke is 39-31 in his second stint with the program. He was the head coach at Michigan from 2011-14 and the interim coach at Tennessee for two games in 2017. Hoke, 65, is 104-91 as a head coach.
Dino Babers, Syracuse
Fired (Nov. 19): Babers is out effective immediately on the heels of a loss to Georgia Tech, the school announced. After a 4-0 start, the Orange have dropped six of their last seven games. They can still become bowl-eligible by beating Wake Forest on Saturday, however. Babers, 62, was in his eighth season at the school and finishes with a 41-55 record there after much more successful two-year stints at Eastern Illinois (19-7) and Bowling Green (18-9).
Jonathan Smith, Oregon State
Resigned (Nov. 25): Smith resigned from his alma mater to take the same position at Michigan State. Smith, 44, did a remarkable job building the Oregon State program from the bottom up over the last six seasons. He totaled a 25-13 record with three straight winning seasons in conference play. The level up to the Big Ten will be a challenge, but Smith is a solid fit at Michigan State.
Danny Gonzales, New Mexico
Fired (Nov. 25): Gonzales had his best season with his alma mater in 2023, but a 4-8 record wasn’t good enough to keep him in the job. The former Lobos player went 11-32 in four seasons in Albuquerque, bottom out at 2-10 in 2022. A two-win improvement this year wasn’t enough.
Tom Allen, Indiana
Fired (Nov. 26): Allen took the Hoosiers to New Year’s Day bowl games after the 2019 and 2020 seasons but has seen diminishing returns since, with records of 2-10, 4-8 and finally 3-9 this season ultimately spelling the end of his tenure after seven years. Allen, 53, was 33-49 in his first head coaching job. His buyout is $20.8 million.
Dana Holgorsen, Houston
Fired (Nov. 26): Houston expected big things when it lured Holgorsen away from West Virginia after he led the Mountaineers to seven bowl games in eight seasons. The Cougars enjoyed the high life for one season, in 2021, but it never quite clicked for Holgorsen in H-Town. After going 12-2 two years ago, Houston slid to 8-5 in 2022 and 4-8 this year, costing Holgorsen his job. He was 31-28 in five seasons with the Cougars after going 61-41 in eight years at WVU.
Dana Dimel, UTEP
Fired (Nov. 26): In 2018, Dimel took over a UTEP program that had gone 0-12 the previous season. The Miners won a total of two games in his first two seasons, but he did manage to get them to a bowl game in 2021 as they finished with a 7-6 record. UTEP has slumped back to 5-7 and then 3-9 since then, and Dimel is out in El Paso after six seasons with a 20-49 record.
Terry Bowden, Louisiana-Monroe
Fired (Nov. 26): The veteran coach Bowden also took over a program that had been winless the year before he arrived and made some progress, going 4-8 his first two seasons. The Warhawks went 2-10 this year, though, and that was the end of the line for the 67-year-old coach.
Mike Elko, Duke
Resigned (Nov. 27): Elko left the Blue Devils to replace Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M, and the program is in better shape than he found it. While football will never be the focus in Durham, Elko led the team to back-to-back bowl appearances in his two seasons after replacing longtime coach David Cutcliffe.
Rick Stockstill, Middle Tennessee
Fired (Nov. 27): It’s difficult to imagine the Blue Raiders program without Stockstill at the helm, but MTSU will start fresh for 2024. Stockstill led the program in Murfreesboro for 18 seasons, going 113-111 and leading MTSU to all 10 of its bowl appearances since making the jump to the FBS level in 1999.
Curt Cignetti, James Madison
Resigned (Nov. 30): Cignetti left JMU to take over for Allen at Indiana, getting his first Power 5 head coaching job. Cignetti oversaw the Dukes’ wildly successful transition from a perennial FCS power to immediate FBS contender, leading JMU to an 11-1 record this season. Cignetti was 52-9 overall in five seasons at James Madison.
Ken Wilson, Nevada
Fired (Dec. 1): Wilson spent decades as an assistant with the Wolf Pack, then left for a pair of Pac-12 jobs before returning for his first head coaching stint two years ago when Jay Norvell left for Colorado State. Norvel had led Nevada to four straight bowl games, but Wilson’s teams went 2-10 each of the last two seasons, leading to his ouster.
Willie Fritz, Tulane
Resigned (Dec. 3): Fritz is headed to Houston to replace Holgorsen after getting the Green Wave back into the national discussion during his time in New Orleans. Tulane went 2-10 in 2021 but is a combined 23-4 over the last two seasons, including a Cotton Bowl win over USC and top-10 national finish last season. In all, Fritz was 54-47 in eight seasons at Tulane.
Craig Bohl, Wyoming
Retired (Dec. 6): Bohl, 65, announced he will retire after the Cowboys’ Arizona Bowl matchup against Toledo on Dec. 30. He has spent 10 years at Wyoming and the bowl game will determine whether he goes out with a winning record in FBS, as his career mark at Wyoming stands at 60-60. He previously went 104-32 at North Dakota State, winning three consecutive FCS titles. The Cowboys have had only one losing season the last eight years, a 2-4 mark during the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign.
Jon Sumrall, Troy
Resigned (Dec. 8): Sumrall, 41, resigned and took the same job at Tulane. The former Kentucky linebacker made the rise up the coaching ranks before a successful two-year stint with the Trojans. Troy finished 12-2 in 2022 and was 11-2 in the 2023 regular season. The Trojans won back-to-back Sun Belt championships. Sumrall is a quick-riser who should continue that success with the Green Wave.
Jerry Kill, New Mexico State
Retired (Dec. 23): Kill stepped down at New Mexico State after compiling a 17-11 record with the Aggies the last two seasons. Kill, 62, led New Mexico State to back-to-back bowl appearances and an appearance in the Conference-USA championship game. “This year has been tremendously difficult for me, and I gave it everything I had physically, mentally and emotionally,” Kill said in a statement.
Nick Saban, Alabama
Retired (Jan. 10): Saban retired after a remarkable 17-year run at Alabama that produced nine SEC championships and six national championships. Saban is widely considered the greatest college football coach of all time. The 72-year-old coach led Alabama to the College Football Playoff in eight of the last 10 seasons. Saban also won a national championship at LSU in 2003. He was replaced by Washington’s Kalen DeBoer on Jan. 12.
Kaleb DeBoer, Washington
Resigned (Jan. 12): DeBoer resigned from Washington to take the same position with Alabama. DeBoer compiled a 25-3 record with the Huskies the last two seasons, and he led the school to its first appearance in the College Football Playoff championship in 2023-24. DeBoer had a 67-3 record at Sioux Falls in the NAIA before climbing the FBS coaching ranks.
Jedd Fisch, Arizona
Resigned (Jan. 14): Fisch resigned after three seasons with the Wildcats to take the same job at Washington. Fisch is coming off a 10-3 season with Arizona – one that saw the program average 34.6 points per game. The Wildcats were 1-11 in his first season in 2021. Fisch makes the move up to the Big Ten.
Brent Brennan, San Jose State
Resigned (Jan. 16): Brennan replaces Fisch at Arizona. Brennan, 50, as a GA with the Wildcats in 2000. He has a strong background on the West Coast as a former UCLA player and he compiled a 34-48 record at San Jose State the last seven seasons. The Spartans made three bowl appearances and finished No. 24 in the AP Poll in 2020.
Kane Wommack, South Alabama
Resigned (Jan. 16): Wommack resigned from the job as a head coach to become the new defensive coordinator at Alabama. Wommack, 36, was an assistant coach with Kaleb DeBoer at Indiana. It is an intriguing move considering Wommack had a 22-16 record and had taken the Jaguars to back-to-back bowl games out of the Sun Belt.
Maurice Linguist, Buffalo
Resigned (Jan. 16): Linguist resigned from Buffalo to become the co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at Alabama. He served as the coach for the Bulls the last three seasons and compiled a 14-23 record. Linguist, 39, was the defensive backs coach for the Dallas Cowboys before taking the Buffalo job.
FBS coaching changes by school 2023
| SCHOOL | OUT | IN |
| Northwestern | Pat Fitzgerald | David Braun |
| Michigan State | Mel Tucker | Jonathan Smith |
| Texas A&M | Jimbo Fisher | Mike Elko |
| Boise State | Andy Avalos | Spencer Danielson |
| Mississippi State | Zach Arnett | Jeff Lebby |
| San Diego State | Brady Hoke | Sean Lewis |
| Syracuse | Dino Babers | Fran Brown |
| Oregon State | Jonathan Smith | Trent Bray |
| New Mexico | Danny Gonzales | Bronco Mendenhall |
| Indiana | Tom Allen | Curt Cignetti |
| Houston | Dana Holgorsen | Willie Fritz |
| UTEP | Dana Dimel | Scotty Walden |
| Louisiana-Monroe | Terry Bowden | Bryant Vincent |
| Duke | Mike Elko | Manny Diaz |
| Middle Tennessee | Rick Stockstill | Derek Mason |
| James Madison | Curt Cignetti | Bob Chesney |
| Nevada | Ken Wilson | Jeff Choate |
| Tulane | Willie Fritz | Jon Sumrall |
| Wyoming | Craig Bohl | Jay Sawvel |
| Troy | Jon Sumrall | Gerad Parker |
| New Mexico State | Jerry Kill | Tony Sanchez |
| Alabama | Nick Saban | Kalen DeBoer |
| Washington | Kalen DeBoer | Jedd Fisch |
| Arizona | Jedd Fisch | Brent Brennan |
| San Jose State | Brent Brennan | TBD |
| South Alabama | Kane Wommack | TBD |
| Buffalo | Maurice Linguist | TBD |
