This offseason was one of the craziest that we've seen in a long time especially with the coaching carousel. We saw three of the best jobs in the SEC open up as Florida, LSU, and Auburn were all looking for head coaches while LSU's coaching search opened up the job at Ole Miss with Lane Kiffin's departure.
As the start of January and the opening of the Transfer Portal nears, each of the new head coaches in the SEC will look to set themselves up best for early success at their new programs. Whether it's due to resources or current rosters, some SEC head coaches are better set up to win as soon as year one.
Lane Kiffin and Pete Golding will battle for early success
Considering that Will Stein was arguably the best coordinator on the market, it was a surprise to see that he took the Kentucky job. The program has seemingly been behind every other program in the SEC in terms of resources which will require a bigger buy in. If Will Stein is able to further develop quarterback Cutter Boley, we could see this team improve in the short term.
After Arkansas finally fired Sam Pittman, they went to Memphis hiring Ryan Silverfield to lead the program. Silverfield has a massive rebuild to go through as this team didn't have nearly enough talent to win in the SEC, especially on defense. If Silverfield gets similar buy-in from boosters to what John Calipari and the basketball program have gotten, he can quickly turn this program around.
Jon Sumrall will either inherit a Florida roster with a ton of exciting young talent or he'll have to rebuild this entire roster. The Gators lost DJ Lagway to the Transfer Portal and other programs will be circling for some of the top pieces on the roster. Florida has put a solid staff around Sumrall, but how he manages the next few weeks will determine how Year 1 plays out.
The issue for Hugh Freeze at Auburn wasn't talent as he had an elite roster, but it was his inability to nail the quarterback position. Alex Golesh has seen some talented pieces declare they're entering the Transfer Portal, but for the most part he's still kept key pieces in Cam Coleman and Deuce Knight on board. If Alex Golesh can pick the right quarterback this offseason, he should have a great roster to work with.
While he'll be a head coach for the first time, the great news for Pete Golding is he's moving to a bigger office at the same school. Lane Kiffin took most of the offensive staff, but Golding keeps his defensive staff in place while he'll have a great roster depending upon who he can retain. It's not often a coach gets to take over a Playoff team, and after the way Kiffin left, Golding should be given a ton of resources to work with.
While Brian Kelly failed this season, he had every chance to build a winner bringing in a loaded Transfer Portal class. The LSU Tigers just made a massive investment by hiring Lane Kiffin, and the same will likely be done in the Transfer Portal to ensure he hits the ground running. Lane Kiffin inherits a roster with some exciting pieces, but more importantly, the Transfer Portal King will have every resource at his disposal to build an elite roster.