2025/2026 Coaching Carousel

[RandomUTfan]

Correct. I would not be shocked if Lincoln Riley eventually looks elsewhere and cashes in on success at USC if he can’t going.

Eventually, years of that travel schedule in conference will cause damage to those programs. Oregon can at least pay players to deal with it.

Riley has a ridiculous contract that would be dumb to willingly walk away from. He might have the biggest buyout in the country at 90 million dollars. Would be impossible to hire him away from USC either. How are you beating that contract? Would be foolish to offer him more than USC foolishly gave him. USC definitely couldn't afford to fire him.

 

[JMSqb11]

Riley has a ridiculous contract that would be dumb to willingly walk away from. He might have the biggest buyout in the country at 90 million dollars. Would be impossible to hire him away from USC either. How are you beating that contract? Would be foolish to offer him more than USC foolishly gave him. USC definitely couldn't afford to fire him.

Wasn’t aware of that. I guess 3-5 more years of awful travel has a price after all.

 

[stolitonic]

Riley has a ridiculous contract that would be dumb to willingly walk away from. He might have the biggest buyout in the country at 90 million dollars. Would be impossible to hire him away from USC either. How are you beating that contract? Would be foolish to offer him more than USC foolishly gave him. USC definitely couldn't afford to fire him.

Not that it matters,and is a matter of splitting hairs-but Riley's buyout after the season would be about $69 million. He got a $115 million 10 year contract and will have completed 4 years.

USC could pay it if they wanted to, but in the current environment they will not.

Agree that Riley will not leave as nobody would pay him anywhere close to that by this point

 

[05_never_again]

lol VT is a job just like Okie State and UCLA. Once trending programs that got gobbled up and spit out in this NIL era….

Those jobs lost their luster. There is absolutely no reason a coach leaving a SEC job on the up trend would be considered “stepping up” to an ACC program not named Clemson, Miami, or Florida State.

In this era, those schools are simply not destinations for recruits like they used to and it’s because the money isn’t competitive enough to not look elsewhere.

Historically, Vandy to Virginia Tech or UCLA type move was stepping up. Not anymore.

UCLA and VT were struggling pretty badly before NIL. Those 2 programs have problems that run deeper than just that. UCLA has not been "trending" in a very long time, unless you're talking about trending sideways or lower.

The biggest problem at UCLA is that I don't think they really care about football. Until that changes, it is an unattractive job despite being in great recruiting territory. VT has a better chance of winning its conference, but as you said a current SEC coach (even if at Vandy) is unlikely to go there if he has the program headed in the right direction.

 

[RandomUTfan]

Wasn’t aware of that. I guess 3-5 more years of awful travel has a price after all.

I looked to see if I could find out how that buyout is due if they choose to fire him. It sounds like it's all due up-front which sounds absolutely insane. That's a worse contract than Florida gave Billy Napier. And there's no mitigation meaning Riley could go coach somewhere else if fired and he still gets his 69 million. How much is Lincoln Riley's buyout at USC?

 

[RandomUTfan]

Not that it matters,and is a matter of splitting hairs-but Riley's buyout after the season would be about $69 million. He got a $115 million 10 year contract and will have completed 4 years.

USC could pay it if they wanted to, but in the current environment they will not.

Agree that Riley will not leave as nobody would pay him anywhere close to that by this point

Got you. The articles I was sourcing were older. Still not something USC could come up with to not coach at USC. That's an insane amount of money. You would not see me coaching in college again. I will find something else to keep me busy.

 

[RandomUTfan]

One of the things with these schools that are NIL-poor but have high expectations based on historic success is that IF YOU DO fire say a Kalen Deboer at Bama, and this is hypothetical, you not only have to pay him an obscene amount to go away, but you will also have to give the next guy you hire a ridiculous guarantee in his contract that also incentivizes that guy to get fired. It just makes absolutely no sense. Jimmy Sexton is a maniac.

 

[Boston Vol]

Gundy fired by Ok St.

Gotta admit, I expected them to keep him until the end of the season as he's an alumni and longtime coach.

A $20 million buyout for the Cowboys is a great deal of money. Gotta think they might have been better dumping that into an NIL fund.

It’s $15 million, and as with all buyouts, it depends how it is structured. If all, or most, is due upfront, then yeah that’ll hurt. But it could also be spread out over a certain number of years, which would obviously be beneficial to the school.

 

[JMSqb11]

I looked to see if I could find out how that buyout is due if they choose to fire him. It sounds like it's all due up-front which sounds absolutely insane. That's a worse contract than Florida gave Billy Napier. And there's no mitigation meaning Riley could go coach somewhere else if fired and he still gets his 69 million. How much is Lincoln Riley's buyout at USC?

Well in his defense, someone was gonna have to pony up and make a big ass contract offer to get him from OU.

The funny thing is he ran from the SEC and getting a great offer from LSU to run to USC right as they joined the big ten.

 

[JMSqb11]

UCLA and VT were struggling pretty badly before NIL. Those 2 programs have problems that run deeper than just that. UCLA has not been "trending" in a very long time, unless you're talking about trending sideways or lower.

The biggest problem at UCLA is that I don't think they really care about football. Until that changes, it is an unattractive job despite being in great recruiting territory. VT has a better chance of winning its conference, but as you said a current SEC coach (even if at Vandy) is unlikely to go there if he has the program headed in the right direction.

A 10-2 or even 9-3 SEC team (as evidenced last year) is very well in playoff contention where as a 2 loss ACC team that isn’t Clemson, Florida State, or Miami are eliminated from contention for a playoff spot.

 

[RandomUTfan]

One of the things with these schools that are NIL-poor but have high expectations based on historic success is that IF YOU DO fire say a Billy Napier at Florida, you not only have to pay him an obscene amount to go away, but you will also have to give the next guy you hire a ridiculous guarantee in his contract that also incentivizes that guy to lose because that's how unattractive those jobs are. That's probably one thing that is causing such hesitancy in Gainesville. It wouldn't just be Billy's contract either. His staff has buyouts.

Florida is about a 6 win team on average. I'm not going to look it up, but their success has been limited. Billy Napier is about the sort of coach that Florida's going to be able to hire at this point. It's just not as attractive a job as it used to be. Yes, Florida is a hotbed for recruiting, but not when severral other schools in your state can pay those recruits more than you can.

The advantage that caused Meyer to choose UF over Notre Dame has vanished.

Outside companies—Not Florida's collective—are paying DJ Lagway to play at Florida. The disparity between what he makes and what the rest of the team makes from the Florida collective is vast and I've heard rumors it's created resentment in his teammates. If you watch Florida games DJ never talks to his teammates. Never encourages them. Never critiques them.

Clemson I know is a 6 win on average team because I saw that stat the other day. Dabo is a victim of his own success at Clemson but I don't know if I should call a guy who gets 60 million dollars to go away a victim. But who is going to want that job after Dabo??

 

[JMSqb11]

One of the things with these schools that are NIL-poor but have high expectations based on historic success is that IF YOU DO fire say a Billy Napier at Florida, you not only have to pay him an obscene amount to go away, but you will also have to give the next guy you hire a ridiculous guarantee in his contract that also incentivizes that guy to lose because that's how unattractive those jobs are. That's probably one thing that is causing such hesitancy in Gainesville. It wouldn't just be Billy's contract either. His staff has buyouts.

Florida is about a 6 win team on average. I'm not going to look it up, but their success has been limited. Billy Napier is about the sort of coach that Florida's going to be able to hire at this point. It's just not as attractive a job as it used to be. Yes, Florida is a hotbed for recruiting, but not when severral other schools in your state can pay those recruits more than you can.

The advantage that caused Meyer to choose UF over Notre Dame has vanished.

Outside companies—Not Florida's collective—are paying DJ Lagway to play at Florida. The disparity between what he makes and what the rest of the team makes from the Florida collective is vast and I've heard rumors it's created resentment in his teammates. If you watch Florida games DJ never talks to his teammates. Never encourages them. Never critiques them.

Clemson I know is a 6 win on average team because I saw that stat the other day. Dabo is a victim of his own success at Clemson but I don't know if I should call a guy who gets 60 million dollars to go away a victim. But who is going to want that job after Dabo??

Especially with Florida basketball success. I view some of these schools willing to tread water with football if another major program in their AD is at the top.

Regarding Clemson, they go down the tubes nationally when Dabo is not there.

The odds of them sliding severely downhill under Dabo are low and as it turns out, the hype of Klubnik is actually DJ Ugly 2.0…..

The one reason I think Dabo can bounce and get back to his success is Clemson FINALLY embraced the NIL revolution with spending and revenue sharing at a big level.

With that said, Dabo will have a very experienced roster leaving after this season so it’s likely he’ll be rebuilding next year. Clemson should definitely kick the tired on Klubnik

 

[508mikey]

Gundy is gone.

to bad Beldar has a show cause for 8 more years

 

[RandomUTfan]

Especially with Florida basketball success. I view some of these schools willing to tread water with football if another major program in their AD is at the top.

Regarding Clemson, they go down the tubes nationally when Dabo is not there.

The odds of them sliding severely downhill under Dabo are low and as it turns out, the hype of Klubnik is actually DJ Ugly 2.0…..

The one reason I think Dabo can bounce and get back to his success is Clemson FINALLY embraced the NIL revolution with spending and revenue sharing at a big level.

With that said, Dabo will have a very experienced roster leaving after this season so it’s likely he’ll be rebuilding next year. Clemson should definitely kick the tired on Klubnik

Florida makes more off of this bum football season than they made off that basketball championship. It's nice, sure, but football is the revenue-generator. Yes, they might want to tread water. Stricklin is perfectly safe. He just got a 11th hour extension as the last Interim president was headed out the door. But once revenue dips? All bets are off. They are safe this year. They've sold enough tickets already.

Clemson will go down the tubes with Dabo still there. It's already happening. Bringing in portal players that do not replace the talent you just lost with like talent is not fixing NIL. It's embracing the inevitable. I always suspected Dabo's reluctance to use the portal had more to do with lack of funding than some ridiculous principled stance. All those Clemson players are getting NIL. I bet they had to fork over a pretty penny to keep that QB. So much they couldn't afford to put enough around him to beat teams like Syracuse. Syracuse is good. Clemson should not lose to Syracuse. But here we are. Clemson is a school that loses to Syracuse. And perhaps annually to South Carolina?

 

[JMSqb11]

Florida makes more off of this bum football season than they made off that basketball championship. It's nice, sure, but football is the revenue-generator. Yes, they might want to tread water. Stricklin is perfectly safe. He just got a 11th hour extension as the last Interim president was headed out the door. But once revenue dips? All bets are off. They are safe this year. They've sold enough tickets already.

Clemson will go down the tubes with Dabo still there. It's already happening. Bringing in portal players that do not replace the talent you just lost with like talent is not fixing NIL. It's embracing the inevitable. I always suspected Dabo's reluctance to use the portal had more to do with lack of funding than some ridiculous principled stance. All those Clemson players are getting NIL. I bet they had to fork over a pretty penny to keep that QB. So much they couldn't afford to put enough around him to beat teams like Syracuse. Syracuse is good. Clemson should not lose to Syracuse. But here we are. Clemson is a school that loses to Syracuse. And perhaps annually to South Carolina?

Dabo bet it all on Klubnik being the guy this year. That didn’t happen and from the sounds of it, Klubnik was never a risk to go portaling. So they bet on a QB that flopped.

Since there is huge money commitment, this is the new thing to watch in college football with players getting a bag and not producing….

Perfect example right now is Ole Miss. Kiffin clearly has found his QB in Chambliss but they have a lot of money committed to Austin Simmons. The money vs the locker room dynamic is gonna be a new entertaining thing in college athletics.

 

[stolitonic]

Got you. The articles I was sourcing were older. Still not something USC could come up with to not coach at USC. That's an insane amount of money. You would not see me coaching in college again. I will find something else to keep me busy.

If they wanted to, USC could come up with the money. The amount of wealth possessed by their alumni base is staggering.

Only takes a few powerful alumni to want him gone and poof-he gone. As things are, he is really not in danger at this point. The USC alumni I know are just happy to not be in UCLAs position right now.

 

[05_never_again]

A 10-2 or even 9-3 SEC team (as evidenced last year) is very well in playoff contention where as a 2 loss ACC team that isn’t Clemson, Florida State, or Miami are eliminated from contention for a playoff spot.

If they win the ACC they're automatically in (effectively). There's no way the ACC champ would be the 6th highest ranked conference champion.

 

[JMSqb11]

If they win the ACC they're automatically in (effectively). There's no way the ACC champ would be the 6th highest ranked conference champion.

Reread what I said.... There is no scenario where a 10-2/9-3 ACC team would contend for a playoff spot that isn't named one of those 3. The odds of a 2 or 3 loss ACC Champ that isn't one of those 3 are miniscule. So like I said, a 10-2/9-3 Vandy is contending for a playoff spot from the SEC. A 10-2/9-3 Virginia Tech is not. Lea leaving Vandy for Tech would be a step down.

 

[05_never_again]

Reread what I said.... There is no scenario where a 10-2/9-3 ACC team would contend for a playoff spot that isn't named one of those 3. The odds of a 2 or 3 loss ACC Champ that isn't one of those 3 are miniscule. So like I said, a 10-2/9-3 Vandy is contending for a playoff spot from the SEC. A 10-2/9-3 Virginia Tech is not. Lea leaving Vandy for Tech would be a step down.

Re-read what I said. A 10-2/9-3 ACC team likely still has a chance at winning the conference title, and if they do, they're in. That's how they'd get in, not as an at-large. I disagree that the odds of that are "miniscule," especially with the state Clemson is in, Miami seemingly always choking, and FSU being a yo-yo program.

If you want to talk about miniscule odds, it is Vanderbilt going 10-2 or 9-3 in the SEC.

 

[JMSqb11]

Re-read what I said. A 10-2/9-3 ACC team likely still has a chance at winning the conference title, and if they do, they're in. That's how they'd get in, not as an at-large. I disagree that the odds of that are "miniscule," especially with the state Clemson is in, Miami seemingly always choking, and FSU being a yo-yo program.

If you want to talk about miniscule odds, it is Vanderbilt going 10-2 or 9-3 in the SEC.

There will not be a 10-2/9-3 team that wins the ACC this year. So when I say a 10-2 / 9-3 team from the ACC not contending for playoff spot, its an at large bid.... SEC had three 9-3 teams last year up for the last spot. Now they all got passed over thank goodness, but notion that there will be a 9-3/10-2 ACC champ that isn't from the trio of Clemson, Miami, and FSU is not a smart one.

 

[05_never_again]

There will not be a 10-2/9-3 team that wins the ACC this year. So when I say a 10-2 / 9-3 team from the ACC not contending for playoff spot, its an at large bid.... SEC had three 9-3 teams last year up for the last spot. Now they all got passed over thank goodness, but notion that there will be a 9-3/10-2 ACC champ that isn't from the trio of Clemson, Miami, and FSU is not a smart one.

But that is more likely than a 10-2 Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt has never had a 10-win regular season in the history of their program. The last time they won 9 regular season games was 1915.

In the relatively recent past Pitt, Virginia Tech, and Georgia Tech all have won the ACC as a 10-2 regular season team. Miami hasn't even won the ACC since they joined the conference.

 

[JMSqb11]

But that is more likely than a 10-2 Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt has never had a 10-win regular season in the history of their program. The last time they won 9 regular season games was 1915.

In the relatively recent past Pitt, Virginia Tech, and Georgia Tech all have won the ACC as a 10-2 regular season team. Miami hasn't even won the ACC since they joined the conference.

History is irrelevant given we are now in a 12 team playoff..... As I said, a team not named Clemson, Miami, or FSU will not be 10-2/9-3 and contend for a playoff spot. A 10-2/9-3 SEC team regardless if its Ole Miss or Vandy or Miss State....

Lea going to VA Tech would be a step down.

 

[05_never_again]

History is irrelevant given we are now in a 12 team playoff..... As I said, a team not named Clemson, Miami, or FSU will not be 10-2/9-3 and contend for a playoff spot. A 10-2/9-3 SEC team regardless if its Ole Miss or Vandy or Miss State....

Lea going to VA Tech would be a step down.

What does the fact that we're in a 12-team playoff have to do with the odds of Vanderbilt, or any team for that matter, winning 10 regular season games? Those 2 things are completely independent from each other.

I don't disagree that a 10-2 Vanderbilt team probably makes the playoff. They've also never won 10 regular season games in program history.

 

[JMSqb11]

What does the fact that we're in a 12-team playoff have to do with the odds of Vanderbilt, or any team for that matter, winning 10 regular season games? Those 2 things are completely independent from each other.

I don't disagree that a 10-2 Vanderbilt team probably makes the playoff. They've also never won 10 regular season games in program history.

A 9-3 team has never hinted at making the postseason where the national title is possible until the 12 team playoff as evidenced as last year where three 9-3 teams were in contention for a playoff spot......

or did you just start following college football this year?

 

[05_never_again]

A 9-3 team has never hinted at making the postseason where the national title is possible until the 12 team playoff as evidenced as last year where three 9-3 teams were in contention for a playoff spot......

or did you just start following college football this year?

Are you missing the part where the 5 highest ranked conference champions get automatic bids? You said "a team not named Clemson, Miami, or FSU will not be 10-2/9-3 and contend for a playoff spot." Yes they would, assuming that team won the ACCCG. A 10-2 or 9-3 ACC champ, even one that isn't Clemson/Florida St/Miami, is almost certainly getting in by rule. I don't think there'd be a scenario where the champ from 5 other conferences is higher than the ACC champ and keeps them out.

I think there are better odds of that scenario happening than Vanderbilt going 10-2. You're right that a 10-2 Vanderbilt would get in. I just think that Vanderbilt going 10-2 is more unlikely than a team like Virginia Tech (or Georgia Tech, or North Carolina, etc.) going 10-2 at some point and winning the ACCCG.