Kevin Donley's retirement at the University of Saint Francis brings about two massive changes. At USF, it means the Cougars are waving goodbye to the only head coach the program's ever known. Donley founded the program in 1998 and won 240 games with two NAIA national championships in his 27 seasons, and now former All-American player-turned-offensive coordinator Adam Sherman will lead the next era of Saint Francis football.
It's also a change for college football as a whole, as Donley passes the torch as college football's winningest active coach to LSU's Brian Kelly, who enters 2025 with 292 credited wins*. Donley finishes his race in fifth place all time after compiling 356 wins across 46 seasons at four universities. He wore the belt as college football's winningest active coach for eight seasons, following Ken Sparks's 2016 retirement after 338 wins in 37 seasons at Carson-Newman (N
(* - Kelly has been on the field for 313 wins, but 21 were vacated at Notre Dame.)
With Kelly now in possession of that title for, in all likelihood, the remainder of his career, here's a look at the remainder of the list.
1. Brian Kelly, Grand Valley State (Mich.), Cincinnati, Notre Dame and LSU -- 292
2. KC Keeler, Rowan (N.J.), Delaware, Sam Houston and Temple -- 271
3. Steve Ryan, Morningside (Iowa) -- 240
4. Mike Feminis -- Saint Xavier (Ill.) -- 219
5. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa -- 216
6. Sherman Wood, Bowie State (Md.) and Salisbury (Md.) -- 214
7. Willie Fritz, Central Missouri, Sam Houston, Georgia Southern, Tulane and Houston -- 212
8. Chris Creighton, Ottawa (Kan.), Wabash (Ind.), Drake and Eastern Michigan -- 196
9. Mike Sirianni, Washington & Jefferson (Pa.) -- 194
10. Todd Knight, Delta State (Miss.) and Ouachita Baptist (Ark.) -- 190
11. Rich Rodriguez, Salem (W. Va.), Glenville State (W. Va.), Michigan, Arizona, Jacksonville State and West Virginia -- 190
12. Kevin Callahan, Monmouth -- 188
13. Chris Hatcher, Samford -- 182
14. Andy Frye, Centre College (Ky.) -- 180
14. Dabo Swinney, Clemson -- 180