When Bowling Green re-closed the 2024-25 head coaching hiring cycle by hiring Eddie George to replace Scot Loeffler, the Falcons continued a trend already seen elsewhere at the FBS level. In picking a new head coach, Bowling Green hired a head coach.
The truism of job hunting To get a job, you need a job has never been more true than it is right now in major college football, where the ultimate criteria for becoming an FBS head coach is being a college football head coach.
Of the 28 jobs that have changed hands thus far in the cycle, 22 went to candidates that were either active head coaches or had previous head coaching experience on their résumé. That 79 percent represents a sharp uptick from the 58 percent in the 2023-24 cycle (19 of 33) and the 50 percent of the 2022-23 cycle (12 of 24).
To be sure, FBS teams have always hired coaches from lower on the so-called food chain, particularly from the Group of 6 (including the revived Pac-12) level to Power 4. There was some of that in the 2024-25 cycle among the limited number of P4 jobs that opened: West Virginia hiring Rich Rodriguez from Jacksonville State, Purdue luring Barry Odom from UNLV, and Wake Forest plucking Jake Dickert from Washington State.
In a quiet cycle at the Power 4 level, the Group of 6 placed a clear priority on head coaching experience across the board, though they traveled different avenues to reach the same destination. Four schools hired head coaches away from fellow Group of 6 schools.
G6-TO-G6 (4)
Tim Albin: Ohio to Charlotte
Charles Huff: Marshall to Southern Miss
KC Keeler: Sam Houston to Temple
Bronco Mendenhall: New Mexico to Utah State
Six pulled head coaches up from FCS.
FCS-TO-FBS (6)
Scott Abel: Davidson to Rice
Jason Eck: Idaho to New Mexico
Eddie George: Tennessee State to Bowling Green
Tre Lamb: East Tennessee State to Tulsa
Jimmy Rogers: South Dakota State to Washington State
Mike Uremovich: Butler to Ball State
And six more utilized a growing trend of lower-division (typically FCS, but not always) head coaches taking FBS assistant jobs to get their foot in the door at that level, then move into FBS head coaching roles.
LOWER DIVISION-TO POWER 4 ASSISTANT TO-G5 HEAD COACH (6)
Matt Drinkall: Kansas Wesleyan to Army to Central Michigan
Matt Entz: North Dakota State to USC to Fresno State
Joe Harasmyiak: Maine to Minnesota/Rutgers to UMass
Phil Longo: La Salle to (numerous other stops) to Sam Houston
Jerry Mack: North Carolina Central to (numerous other stops) to Kennesaw State
Willie Simmons: Florida A&M to Duke to Florida International
BOOMERANG HIRES (2)
Scott Frost: Nebraska to LA Rams to UCF
Dan Mullen: Florida to ESPN to UNLV
Add in North Carolina's uncharted hiring of Bill Belichick, and only six hires in the 2024-25 got their jobs without first becoming head coaches somewhere else at the college level first. When including interims promoted from within (Blake Harrell, East Carolina; Brian Smith, Ohio), only four schools hired brand-spanking-new head coaches.
BRAND-SPANKING-NEW HEAD COACHES (4)
Tony Gibson: Marshall
Charles Kelly: Jacksonville State
Zach Kittley: Florida Atlantic
Dowell Loggains: Appalachian State
One could call it the Cignetti Effect. After going 52-9 in five seasons at James Madison, Cignetti imported much of his infrastructure to Bloomington (read: players and assistants) and went 11-2 in his first season at Indiana, winning practically every coach of the year award he was eligible for in the process. Elsewhere, Pete Lembo went 9-4 in his first season at Buffalo after the program went 3-9 in 2023, and Bob Chesney left Holy Cross to go 9-4 at James Madison. After going 23-4 in two seasons at Troy, Jon Sumrall went 9-5 and played for a conference championship in Year 1 at Tulane.
Of course, for every instant success story, there's a counterargument. Willie Fritz did not bring immediate success with him from Tulane to Houston, Middle Tennessee's win total slipped from four wins to three in Derek Mason's first year, and Mike Elko (Texas A&M), Ken Niumatalolo (San Jose State) and Major Applewhite (South Alabama) brought generally the same results as the coaches they were hired to replace. And a lack of previous experience did not stop Fran Brown from winning 10 games in his first season at Syracuse, just as it hasn't stopped Dan Lanning and Kenny Dillingham from being successful in their first jobs, to name three.
That's not to say any of the above coaches won't find success in their tenures. Football is a complicated game and there will never be a one-size-fits-all approach to head coaching hiring.
Still, head coaches have examined the current landscape and decided they're better off not hiring someone to learn on the job.
"With so much uncertainty ahead with NIL and revenue share, ADs wanted to get someone who knows how to win in the existing world of football," an agent told FootballScoop. "Learning to become a good head coach is hard enough. Learning how to do it while everyone is also trying to learn all the changes that keep happening puts more on the plate of first-time head coaches."
The six previous cycles -- a period covering the advent of the NIL-and-Portal era that dominates today's landscape -- 86 of 154 FBS hires had previous head coaching experience, just above 55 percent. The 2024-25 cycle saw that number jump to nearly 80 percent.
The trend is a boon for FCS head coaches, but threatens to upend the traditional path of FBS assistant to FBS head coach. Let's take a recent example. One can debate the relative quality and fitness for the position of Bowling Green candidates Vince Marrow and Eddie George, but it was a fact that Marrow would have had to take a sizable pay cut from his seven-figure salary at Kentucky while George was in line for a raise at Bowling Green.
An AD who hired a sitting head coach this cycle but interviewed numerous coordinators told FootballScoop that assistant coaches' lack of decision-making experience in making roster experience pushed him toward a candidate with executive experience, though he didn't rule out hiring an assistant in the future. "Assistant coaches probably have less exposure to this portal, agent world," the AD said. "They'll evaluate a player but they're not managing payroll."
"I have to educate our clients that the longer you stay an assistant right now," the agent told FootballScoop, "the longer you'll probably remain an assistant unless you change your outlook on jobs you're willing to take."