College Football Coaching Carousel Starts Spinning as Maryland, NC State and Baylor Make Changes

The college football coaching carousel has finally begun moving in late October, following a few false starts. Maryland, NC State and Baylor are the power conference programs that have made changes so far.

A slow beginning to the so-called silly season is not a shock after the record-setting turnover of 2025. The FBS hired 32 new head coaches that year, 17 of them in the four power conferences, and hundreds of assistants switched jobs. Over the last three offseasons, 93 FBS programs have changed head coaches. The open question is whether the sport has reached a cooling-off period as schools deal with the difficult economics of the NIL and revenue-sharing era.

Maryland started the firing season on Oct. 21 by parting ways with Mike Locksley. He leaves midway through his eighth season with a 39-54 record. The Terps went 4-8 in back-to-back seasons before this pivotal year. Wake Forest's Jake Dickert, a popular name at other openings, and Memphis' Charles Huff, a Maryland native, are among the early names to consider. Maryland has better NIL resources than a year ago, but the job remains a hard one in the Big Ten.

At Baylor, Dave Aranda is out after seven seasons. He won the Big 12 title in 2021 but otherwise had middling results, finishing 40-40 overall and 26-32 in conference play. Baylor may look for an offensive-minded coach, especially one with strong ties to Texas high school football. UTSA's Jeff Traylor, Texas State's GJ Kinne and USC's Lincoln Riley are candidates who could draw interest in Waco.

NC State has also moved on from Dave Doeren after 14 years in Raleigh. The decision followed a 31-28 loss at Stanford that dropped the Wolfpack to 1-3 in the ACC. Doeren typically won between seven and nine games a year, but frustrating losses repeatedly derailed seasons that might have been special. A decline over the last three years made a change look necessary.

The name generating the most buzz for the Wolfpack job is former NC State quarterback Philip Rivers, a program legend. Rivers has coached high school football in Alabama for five years and interviewed for the Buffalo Bills' head coaching job in January. His son, Gunner, is committed to NC State.

The pool of potential candidates in Raleigh is wide. Miami offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson, UNLV's Dan Mullen and Memphis' Charles Huff are also in the mix. As of Oct. 27, none of the three schools has named a replacement.