By mid-October, there’s already nine head coach openings in college football. Boosters and donors are opening their checkbooks, preparing for what could be a wild coaching carousel season.
Perhaps the most shocking coaching change so far was Penn State’s firing of James Franklin after the Nittany Lions lost three straight games — first a nail-biter to Oregon, followed by disastrous and disappointing defeats to UCLA and Northwestern. Just last January, Penn State was playing in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff. While Franklin never did, they have the resources to win big, making the job an incredibly high profile one that will attract some of the best candidates in the sport.
Elsewhere, Oklahoma State sent longtime coach Mike Gundy packing, Arkansas bid farewell to Sam Pittman, and Virginia Tech severed ties with Brent Pry.
Here’s every head coaching change in 2025 so far:
James Franklin fired on Oct. 12
Franklin won 69 percent of his games at Penn State. He won a Rose Bowl, a Big Ten title, and had a run to the College Football Playoff semifinals just last season. But after starting the season as the No. 2 team in the AP Poll — viewed by many as a legit national championship contender — losing three straight games proved to be too much to stomach for the folks with power in Happy Valley. Franklin lost a lot to the other marquee programs in the Big Ten — specifically Michigan and Ohio State — and often failed to meet the lofty expectations that fans of the Nittany Lions had. Still, he has a 128-60 record and seven bowl wins as a head coach. If he wants to keep coaching, he’ll have a lot of options.
Trent Dilfer fired on Oct. 12
A former NFL quarterback who rode the coattails of an all-time great defense to a Super Bowl win, Dilfer had never coached in college before getting the UAB job in 2023 and his tenure went the way a lot of folks predicted: a 9-21 record across three seasons with a few episodes of him sticking his foot in his mouth. UAB probably wishes it had just stuck with Bryant Vincent, who went 7-6 with a bowl win as the interim coach in 2022.
Trent Bray fired on Oct. 12
After an 0-7 start this season, which followed a 5-7 record in 2024, the Beavers made the decision to move on from Bray, who played at Oregon State and had previously served as defensive coordinator under former head coach Jonathan Smith. The two years since the dissolution of the old Pac-12 has not been kind to Oregon State football.
Sam Pittman fired on Sept. 28
The Razorbacks fired Pittman after an 0-3 start, capped off by a blowout home loss to Notre Dame. The interim coach is Bobby Petrino — who you might remember was the head coach at Arkansas from 2008 to 2011 until he was fired following an incident in which he was involved in a motorcycle crash while riding with a former Razorbacks volleyball player who he had hired to his staff. Whether Arkansas sticks with Petrino for a second time remains to be seen.
Mike Gundy fired on Sept. 23
A three-time Big 12 Coach of the Year, Gundy’s 21-year tenure as the Cowboys’ head coach ended following a 19-12 loss at home to Tulsa. He found himself on the hot seat after posting a 3-9 record last season. Things in Stillwater haven’t gotten much better since his dismissal.
Brent Pry fired on Sept. 17
In a little more than three seasons on the job, Pry went 16-24 with his tenure beginning and ending with losses to Old Dominion. The Hokies are still chasing what the program used to be under longtime head coach Frank Beamer, but have had difficulty finding consistent success with the two coaches they’ve fired since. What could attract candidates was the announcement that came a few weeks after Pry’s firing — a $229 million investment into Virginia Tech’s athletic department.
DeShaun Foster fired on Sept. 17
UCLA pulled the plug on Foster’s coaching tenure three games into this season, during which the Bruins went 0-3 with two losses to Mountain West programs. Since the change, with Tim Skipper as the interim head coach and Jerry Neuheisel calling the offense, the Bruins have notched impressive victories over Penn State and Michigan State. Skipper had a decent run as the interim coach at Fresno State and could coach his way to the full-time gig if the Bruins keep winning.
Kenni Burns fired on April 15
Kent State fired its former head coach in the spring for multiple violations of his contract, including how he used a personal credit card. Since the turn of the century, Kent State has had just four seasons in which they’ve posted .500 or better records.
Troy Taylor fired on March 25
Former Cardinal quarterback Andrew Luck is now the general manager of the program and hired Frank Reich to coach the team on an interim basis this season. Taylor was dismissed in the spring following a report that he was investigated for mistreating staffers. Now in the ACC and operating in the era of revenue sharing and NIL, the Stanford gig seems like a difficult one. A lot has changed in this sport since the Cardinal’s glory days with Luck and Christian McCaffrey.
