By this point last year, the college football coaching carousel was in full spin. Coaches had been fired at UCLA, Virginia Tech and Arkansas. Penn State was 10 days away from dismissing longtime coach James Franklin. And Florida's Billy Napier and LSU's Brian Kelly wouldn't make it through October with their jobs. The 2026 cycle is off to a slower, albeit predictable, start. No Power 4 jobs have opened, and only one major coordinator change came down this week, as Illinois defensive coordinator Bobby Hauck is out after only four games.
Coordinator promotions at Texas A&M and Oregon draw scrutiny. Texas A&M and Oregon both lost their offensive and defensive coordinator pairings from College Football Playoff teams in 2025, and both went internally to fill those roles. Aggies offensive coordinator Collin Klein returned to lead the program at Kansas State, his alma mater, while defensive coordinator Jay Bateman left College Station for Kentucky. Rather than open up desirable coordinator jobs, Texas A&M's Mike Elko and Oregon's Dan Lanning promoted from within the staff.
So far, new OC Holmon Wiggins hasn't found the formula to help quarterback Marcel Reed, who completed just 10 of 26 passes with an interception. Texas A&M enters Week 5 ranked 112th nationally in yards per game, 102nd in percentage of plays 10 yards or longer and 114th in raw QBR. The heat on Oregon's new coordinators isn't as strong after last week's 14-point road win against USC.
Source: ESPN General · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing