Lane Kiffin absolutely blew up Ole Miss on his way out the door this offseason, leaving an 11-1 team in chaos before their College Football Playoff run. After five years in Oxford, Kiffin packed his bags in November for SEC rival LSU, his fifth stop as a Division I head coach and third in the SEC. This move is a total game-changer, and he is not messing around, already recruiting Arizona State transfer QB Sam Leavitt to join him as he tries to revitalize a Tigers program that hasn’t sniffed an SEC title since Joe Burrow was slinging it in 2019.
The SEC Carousel is Spinning
The SEC coaching drama didn’t stop with Kiffin. Golding stepped up to lead Ole Miss ahead of the CFP, and what a job he did! He lifted the Rebels to the semifinals with huge wins over Tulane and Georgia before they eventually lost to Miami (FL). Golding retained quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, and he is set to build on a season that saw the Rebels rack up the most wins in program history. Talk about stepping into a pressure cooker and delivering! Then you have Sumrall, who parlayed Tulane’s CFP appearance into the head coaching spot at Florida. That guy has a rocket strapped to his career. He just got his first Division I head coaching gig with Troy in 2022, and four years later, he is in the SEC with Florida, a team that hasn’t won 10 games since 2019. Can he turn that around? That’s a huge challenge.
Big Ten Bets and Hokies’ Hopes
It wasn’t just the SEC seeing major shifts. Kyle Whittingham is now at Michigan, taking over for Sherrone Moore. After 23 years leading Utah to two Pac-12 championships, Whittingham has the monumental task of cleaning up a mess and getting the Wolverines back to their 2023 national championship form. That’s not an easy job, but if anyone can do it, it’s a guy with that kind of experience.
And let’s not forget Curt Chesney. He followed Curt Cignetti’s path from James Madison’s Sun Belt to the Big Ten, settling at UCLA. In 2025, Chesney led the Dukes to an incredible 12-1 season, including a Sun Belt title and a CFP appearance. Now he’s trying to fix a UCLA program that went a rough 8-16 in its first two B1G seasons under DeShaun Foster. His secret weapon? UCLA’s roster has 63 newcomers, with 42 of them transfers, and 10 of those came directly from JMU with Chesney. That’s a massive influx of talent and familiarity.
Meanwhile, James Franklin’s 12-year run at Penn State ended abruptly, but he landed at Virginia Tech just a month later. He got right to work, flipping 10 Penn State commits to the Hokies. He still has a tall task, though; Virginia Tech hasn’t won 10 games since 2016. Penn State replaced Franklin with Matt Campbell, who was known for doing a ton with very little at Iowa State, leading them to eight Bowl Games in 10 seasons. Now, with the Nittany Lions, he’s got more resources and even brought Cyclones quarterback Rocco Becht with him to State College. Rounding out the changes, Stein earned his first Division I head coaching gig with Kentucky after three seasons as Oregon’s OC.
Man, the 2026 season is gonna be absolutely wild with all these new faces on the sidelines. These hires are setting the stage for some epic showdowns and unexpected twists. Who thrives and who crashes and burns with all these massive changes? We’ll all be watching to see how these huge gambles pay off.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Fox Sports.
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