Coaching Changes That Will Impact The 2026 College Football Season

The coaching carousel ran rampant this past offseason.

Lane Kiffin jumped from one SEC team to another. Kyle Whittingham will try to restore Michigan’s prowess. A handful of top programs are betting their future on up-and-coming former Group of Six coaches. 

Coaching changes will affect the 2026 college football season. Here’s a look at the moves that could have the greatest impact. 

Kiffin left Ole Miss in November after leading the Rebels to an 11-1 record. After five years at Ole Miss, Kiffin’s departure created chaos around a feel-good College Football Playoff run for the Rebels. Kiffin hopped to SEC rival LSU, his fifth stop as a Division I head coach and third in the SEC. Kiffin recruited Arizona State transfer QB Sam Leavitt to join him as he tries to revitalize a Tigers’ program that hasn’t won the SEC since 2019 with Joe Burrow in the pocket.

Chesney followed the footsteps of Curt Cignetti, going from the Sun Belt’s James Madison to the Big Ten, and he settled at UCLA. In 2025, Chesney led the Dukes to a 12-1 season, including a Sun Belt title and a CFP appearance. He’ll try to turn around a Bruins program that went 8-16 under DeShaun Foster in its first two seasons of B1G football. UCLA’s roster consists of 63 newcomers, 42 of them transfers – 10 of which came from JMU with Chesney. 

Whittingham succeeds Sherrone Moore at Michigan, where he’ll try to clean up a mess and help the Wolverines return to the form they were in when they won the 2023 national championship. Whittingham spent 23 years as Utah’s head coach, leading its program to two Pac-12 championships. 

After James Franklin’s 12-year run at Penn State abruptly ended in the middle of last season, he landed at Virginia Tech a month later. Franklin got right to work, flipping 10 Penn State commits to Virginia Tech. Franklin still has a tall task at hand as the Hokies haven’t won 10 games since 2016. 

After a lengthy search, Penn State replaced Franklin with Matt Campbell. Campbell was known for doing a lot with a little at Iowa State, where he qualified for eight Bowl Games in 10 seasons. Now with the Nittany Lions, he’ll have a few more resources backing him up. Campbell took Cyclones quarterback Rocco Becht to help set a foundation at State College. 

Sumrall parlayed Tulane’s CFP appearance into a head coaching position with Florida. Sumrall has a rocket strapped to his career, as he got his first Division I head coaching gig with Troy in 2022, and four years later is in the SEC. Florida hasn’t won 10 games since 2019. 

Golding took over at Ole Miss ahead of the CFP after Lane Kiffin left for LSU at the end of the 2025 regular season. Golding lifted Ole Miss to the semifinals with wins over Tulane and Georgia, before the Rebels lost to Miami (FL). Golding retained quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, and will try to build on a season in which the Rebels won the most games in program history. 

Stein earned his first Division I head coaching gig with Kentucky after three seasons as Oregon’s offensive coordinator. He’s taking on an uphill battle as Kentucky’s athletics department prioritizes basketball, and its football team has only won 10 games twice in the last 10 years. Stein, though, has the gumption to fundraise, and will have to rely on that as he tries to find consistent success in Lexington.

Golesh jumped from G6 to P4 after lifting South Florida to a third straight winning season in 2025. He’ll take over an Auburn program that hasn’t had a winning season since the COVID-19 shortened 2020. Golesh took USF quarterback Bynum Brown with him to Auburn, and together they’ll try to compete in the SEC. 

Hartline has become famous for building Ohio State into WR-U. Being the head coach of a G6 program is a whole ‘nother task. Hartline will have to prove that his positional development chops translate to overseeing an entire roster at a USF program that’s had three straight winning seasons.