The three hottest names in college football's head coaching search

The season of college football firings and hirings is upon us. With many teams underperforming, coaches leaving for other jobs and numerous other variables, every year we see head coach openings across the college football landscape.

Last year, a few of the biggest changes at the FBS level were Kalen DeBoer taking over as head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide for Nick Saban following his retirement. Another was Mike Elko taking over for Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M.

This season will have some anticipated and unanticipated coaching changes of its own. The actual schools are still to be determined, but presumably schools like Kentucky and Arkansas are few power-four schools that could see a changing of the guard.

With the exits comes speculation surrounding which coaches would be the best fit for each university. I took a look at some up and coming coaches that I thought would make the most sense to be hired into a bigger opportunity if it aligned.

Hot names in the college football 2024 head coaching search

Buster Faulkner (Georgia Tech)

Buster Faulkner is currently the offensive coordinator for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Faulkner’s coaching roots started for his former team as a player, Valdosta State in 2005 as a student assistance. Since then, Faulkner has had nine different stops at FCS and FBS programs throughout the southeast.

His most notable two were as the quality control analyst and quarterbacks coach with the Georgia Bulldogs from 2020-2022, and the last two years with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets as offensive coordinator. The Bulldogs won two national championships during Faulkner’s time with the quarterbacks in Athens, most notably starter Stetson Bennett who was at the helm for the back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022.

Head coach Brent Key of the Yellow Jackets has seen his offensive production grow leaps and bounds since inserting Faulkner into the offensive coordinator role in 2023.

Do not be surprised if his success at these two Power-4 programs should propel him to a head coaching opportunity in 2024.

Rhett Lashlee (SMU)

Lashlee was the offensive coordinator for the Auburn Tigers under head coach Guz Malzahn from 2013 to 2016 and helped lead them to the national championship game against the Florida State Seminoles during his time.

From there, Lashlee would bounce around at a few different schools before landing a head coaching gig in 2022 with the SMU Mustangs who have excelled since he took over the program. After a 7-6 season in 2022, Lashlee has the Mustangs a combined 21-4 to-date since.

As of the beginning of this year however, SMU is now a member of the ACC, which gives them a lot more revenue to pay Lashlee and could make him more difficult to lure away than other coaches. While Lashlee’s salary is $2.4 million per year making him one of the lowest paid coaches in the ACC, he just signed an extension that will likely leave him in SMU for at least the near future.

Jon Sumrall (Tulane)

Sumrall has been on a meteoric rise since receiving his first head coaching opportunity with the Troy Trojan’s in 2022. The former Kentucky Wildcat linebacker went 23-4 in his two seasons with the Trojan’s, leading them to back-to-back Sun Belt Conference championships.

His performances catapulted him to a head coaching opportunity with the Tulane Green Wave in 2023 where he has done nothing short of continue to exceed expectations, having the Green Wave at 9-2 so far this year with a chance to win the AAC Championship in his first season.

While these three coaching names are not the only ones that may see a bigger opportunity in 2024, they are indeed three of the more commonly mentioned names as of right now. Salaries, buyouts and multiple other variables are at play, but we will know shortly whether or not one of these coaches take a bigger opportunity for 2025.