The college football coaching carousel is heating up, and this is shaping up to be one of the wildest years of coaching changes in quite some time. With several high-profile jobs already open, and more likely to become available, there are only so many big-name candidates available. As a result, I would expect some lesser-known coaches from Group of Five programs to be serious contenders for higher level jobs. Here are five Group of Five coaches to keep an eye on in this year’s college football coaching carousel.
No one has elevated their stock more this season than Alex Golesh as he has the Bulls ranked in the top 25 and a frontrunner for the Go5 College Football Playoff bid. The 41-year-old is in just his third season as a head coach, all at USF, but he was once a standout offensive coordinator and has shown the ability to change the culture of a program in his short time in Tampa.
Golesh is known for his extremely high tempo offense, which makes him a unique candidate, but this could draw some power conference programs away.
In his first year at New Mexico, Jason Eck already has the Lobos over their preseason win total through just seven games and has them on track to break the program’s bowl drought and make their first bowl game appearance since 2016.
The creative and fun offensive minded coach is known for his balanced offense and common usage of trick plays. He came up through the FCS level, most notably as offensive coordinator at South Dakota State, then as the head coach at Idaho where he accumulated a record of 26-13 and led the Vandals to the FCS playoffs in all three of his seasons.
Eck is especially a name to watch if Wisconsin decides to move on from Luke Fickell. As a former Badger offensive lineman and a native of the state, I believe Eck would be a strong candidate to turn that program back around.
Keeler might not be the flashiest name on the board, but as a candidate, he reminds me a lot of Curt Cignetti when Indiana hired him at the end of 2023. He’s an older guy in his mid-60s, but has a ton of head coaching experience, and similar to Cignetti, has won everywhere he’s been.
He began his head coaching career in 1993 at Division III Rowan University, where he won 80% of games over nine seasons. He then moved on to Delaware where he led the program to multiple double-digit win seasons and won the FCS national championship in 2003. In 2014, Keeler became head coach at Sam Houston State, keeping them as a powerhouse FCS program and winning another national title in 2020.
Now in his first season with Temple, he has quickly turned things around for what has been a struggling program in recent years. After just eight games, Temple has four wins which is already more than they have had in any season since 2019.
Eric Morris is one of those young, hot-shot offensive-minded coaches whose time may not come this season, but he’s likely to land a higher-level job in the near future. The former wide receiver played for Mike Leach at Texas Tech, and later was a part of Leach’s staff at Washington State in 2012. His career also includes a stop back at Texas Tech as offensive coordinator for five seasons, including 2015-2016 alongside Kliff Kingsbury and a high-powered Red Raiders offense led by Patrick Mahomes.
Morris went on to become the head coach at Incarnate Word, where he discovered and developed quarterback Cam Ward, who later followed him to Washington State when Morris became the Cougars’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2022. In Pullman, Morris also recruited and developed John Mateer.
Morris is now in his third season at North Texas and has the Mean Green on track for one of their best seasons in program history.
While the other names on this list may be considered long shots or backup candidates, it seems much more likely that Jon Sumrall will get an opportunity with a Power Four program this offseason. He was very successful in his two seasons at Troy before taking over at Tulane following Willie Fritz’s departure, and has kept the Green Wave as a premier Group of Five program.
Sumrall spent 16 seasons as a defensive assistant before earning his first head coaching job at Troy in 2022. Since then, he has an impressive 38-10 record as a head coach. With most of his life and coaching experience taking place in the south, expect Sumrall to be a hot name for SEC openings.