This college football offseason was filled with coaching changes in what was an exhilarating coaching carousel. Along with several high-profile head coaches changing jobs came a number of coordinator hires, as assistants will bring their schemes and play-calling abilities to new programs. Â
A college football defensive coordinator can be a thankless job, but in recent years, we’ve seen several lesser-known DCs rise to become head coaches at some of the sport’s biggest programs including Kirby Smart, Dan Lanning, Marcus Freeman, and Jon Sumrall. This season 29 different Power Four teams will have a new defensive coordinator. Here are five notable defensive coordinators at new schools to keep an eye on in 2026.
The longtime TCU head coach will return to a major college football coaching role after leaving TCU in 2021. Patterson spent 21 seasons as the Horned Frogs head coach, which included 11 seasons with 10 or more wins. Since leaving TCU, he served as a special assistant to Steve Sarkisian at Texas in 2022 and worked as a consultant at Baylor in 2024. Now Patterson will head to USC, where he will need to improve a defense that has consistently been an issue during the Lincoln Riley era. The Trojans’ struggles on that side of the ball have often been what has held them back, and 2026 feels like a season where Riley must get USC over the hump.
It feels like Will Muschamp has coached at just about every SEC program during his long career, and now he’ll return to Texas with the Longhorns part of the conference. While he may be more known for his fiery personality and sideline theatrics, Muschamp is an incredible coach and one of the top defensive minds in college football. A member of the Nick Saban coaching tree, Muschamp has served as defensive coordinator at LSU, Auburn (2006-07, 2015), Texas (2008-10), and Georgia (2022-23), in addition to head coaching stints at Florida and South Carolina. After taking a step back the past two seasons serving as an analyst at Georgia, it’s great to have Muschamp back in a major college football role.
Knowles took some heat when he left Ohio State after helping the Buckeyes win a national title to take the defensive coordinator job at Penn State and becoming the highest-paid DC in college football history. That move ultimately proved to be the wrong one after what was a disastrous 2025 season in Happy Valley. Knowles landed in Knoxville this offseason, where he’ll have full control of the defense with Josh Heupel overseeing the offensive side of the ball. We have seen the longtime defensive coordinator take defenses from good to great during his stops at Duke, Oklahoma State, and Ohio State, and that is exactly what he will be expected to do at Tennessee. The Vols have shown major improvement on that side of the ball in recent seasons, but the hope is that Knowles can develop the unit into one of the SEC’s best defenses to go along with Heupel’s high powered offense.
Not long ago Vince Kehres was coaching at the Division III level, where he spent eight years as a defensive coordinator and seven seasons as the head coach at D3 powerhouse Mount Union. During his time coaching there he was part of nine national championship teams, including two as head coach, and compiled a 95-6 record leading the program. Kehres left his alma mater in 2020 to become the DC at Toledo, where he spent the past six seasons consistently leading one of the MAC’s top defenses while producing seven NFL Draft picks. He will now make the jump to the Power Four level at Syracuse, where he will try to improve an Orange defense that was one of the worst in all of college football last season.
Illinois has had some strong defensive coordinators under Bret Bielema, and Bobby Hauck will look to be the next in line. Hauck spent the early part of his 37-year coaching career as a special teams and defensive position coach, but he has surprisingly never been a defensive coordinator. However, he has spent 20 seasons as a head coach at UNLV and Montana. During his time with the Grizzlies, he helped build Montana into a top tier FCS program. Hauck spent the past eight seasons as Montana’s head coach before announcing his retirement, but days after was named the Fighting Illini’s defensive coordinator.
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