College football coaching carousel: Purdue, West Virginia, UCF jobs open up

Even though he compiled a 40-24 record over five seasons, Appalachian State fired Shawn Clark on Monday. The Mountaineers went 5-6 this season (their game against Liberty was canceled because of Hurricane Helene), their first losing campaign since 2013, the year before the program ascended to Football Bowl Subdivision status. Clark was an offensive lineman at Appalachian State in the 1990s and had been a coach there since 2016, but Athletic Director Doug Gillin said the expectation for the program “is to annually compete for a conference championship and a berth in the College Football Playoff.” Clark twice led the Mountaineers to the Sun Belt title game but lost both contests.

Purdue fired Ryan Walters on Sunday, less than 24 hours after the Boilermakers’ 66-0 loss to Indiana, their worst loss in the 126-game history of the Old Oaken Bucket rivalry.

Walters lasted just two seasons at Purdue and compiled a 5-19 record, with the Boilermakers losing their final 11 games this season to finish 1-11. They went winless in conference play for only the third time since 1946 and failed to beat a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent for only the second time in college football’s modern era.

Neal Brown’s shaky tenure as the Mountaineers’ coach ended Sunday when the school fired him after six seasons. Brown saved his job by leading West Virginia to a 9-4 record in 2023 and received a contract extension, but the Mountaineers’ 6-6 campaign in 2024 spelled the end of his tenure. Brown’s 37-35 record was West Virginia’s worst six-year stretch under one coach since Gene Corum went 29-30 from 1960 to 1965.

After three consecutive 4-8 seasons, Mike MacIntyre is out as the Golden Panthers’ coach, the school announced Sunday. MacIntyre previously led San José State and Colorado to 10-win seasons but could not get anything going at FIU, which has not been to a bowl game since 2019 and has not finished with a winning record since the year before that.

Sam Houston announced Sunday that K.C. Keeler had left to take over at Temple. Keeler went 97-39 in 11 seasons leading the Bearkats, who ascended to the FBS level during his tenure. Offensive coordinator Brad Cornelsen will be Sam Houston’s interim coach for its bowl game, the first in program history.

Gus Malzahn will leave the Golden Knights to become offensive coordinator at Florida State, the team announced Saturday. Malzahn, who previously led Auburn to an appearance in the national championship game after the 2013 regular season, went 28-24 in four seasons at UCF but was just 10-15 over the past two, which were the program’s first two seasons as members of the Big 12. He’ll now be in charge of reinvigorating a Seminoles offense that ranked 131st out of 134 FBS teams in yards per game and points per game.

The Tar Heels became the first Power Four program to part ways with its coach during this cycle, announcing Nov. 26 that this season will be Mack Brown’s last in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Brown, 73, returned to North Carolina in 2019 for his second stint with the Tar Heels after initially leading the team from 1988 to 1997. He went 44-33 in his second go-round with the program after Saturday’s loss to North Carolina State in the regular season finale. (Brown said following the game that he will not coach in the team’s bowl game.)

Brown is North Carolina’s all-time leader in wins, with 113, and has the most career victories among active Football Bowl Subdivision coaches with 272, well ahead of Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz’s 203. But this season has been a struggle for the Tar Heels. After a 70-50 loss on Sept. 21 to James Madison, a game that featured the most points ever surrendered by the Tar Heels, Brown reportedly told his players in the locker room that he would “walk away and step down if he was the problem,” though he later clarified his remarks to say he did not plan on retiring.

Tulsa fired Kevin Wilson on Nov. 24, one day after the Golden Hurricane fell to 3-8 with a 63-30 loss to South Florida. Wilson went 7-16 in nearly two full seasons at Tulsa. Wide receivers coach Ryan Switzer led the team in its regular season finale, a 63-16 loss to Florida Atlantic.

Central Michigan announced Nov. 20 that Jim McElwain will retire at the end of the 2024 season. McElwain, 62, went 33-36 in his six seasons at the Mid-American Conference school, the highlight being a 9-4 campaign and Sun Bowl victory in 2021. McElwain reportedly is involved in the NCAA’s investigation into how former Michigan staffer Connor Stalions ended up on the Chippewas’ sideline during a 2023 game against Michigan State, though it’s been reported that the probe had nothing to do with McElwain’s retirement.

McElwain also coached for three seasons at Colorado State and three at Florida, going 44-28 with those two programs.

Tom Herman did not even make it to the end of his second season leading the Owls; the school fired him Nov. 18 after he compiled a 6-16 record. Herman once was seen as one of the fastest-rising coaching stars in college football, but he has yet to regain his footing after his middling four-year tenure as Texas’s coach from 2017 to 2020 and now two substandard seasons with FAU.

Like Herman, Biff Poggi didn’t last two seasons with the 49ers. And like Herman, he was fired Nov. 18 after going 6-16. Charlotte (4-7) has lost four games by at least 30 points this season.

Poggi, a former coach at Gilman School and St. Frances Academy in Baltimore who spent two seasons as associate head coach at Michigan, went 6-16 with the 49ers. Associate head coach Tim Brewster led the team to victories in its final two games of the season.

U-Mass. announced Nov. 18 that it was firing Don Brown after nearly three seasons and a 6-28 record. It was Brown’s second tenure in Amherst after leading the Minutemen to a 43-19 record from 2004 to 2008, when the team still competed at the Football Championship Subdivision level. U-Mass. returns to the Mid-American Conference next season after spending all of Brown’s tenure as an independent.

Temple fired Stan Drayton on Nov. 17, one day after the Owls defeated Florida Atlantic, 18-15, for their third win. Drayton, one of only 16 Black head coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision, went 9-25 in nearly three seasons at the Philadelphia school.

On Sunday, Temple announced the hiring of K.C. Keeler as its new coach. Keeler led the Sam Houston Bearkats to the Football Championship Subdivision championships after a perfect 10-0 season in 2020. He also has coaching experience in the Mid-Atlantic region from his time at Delaware, which he coached to three appearances in the FCS title game.

Ball State fired Mike Neu on Nov. 16 before the end of his ninth season with the program. In 2020, Neu led the Cardinals to their first Mid-American Conference title in 24 years, the only bowl victory in program history and just their second national ranking ever, but Ball State has gone only 12-22 in the three seasons since, including 3-9 this season.

Brian Bohannon, the only coach the Owls had known since the program’s inception in 2015, parted ways with Kennesaw State on Nov. 10, though there was some confusion about whether he resigned (per the school) or was fired (per Bohannon himself). Playing their first season as an FBS program, the Owls went 1-8 this year under Bohannon, who had led them to four NCAA tournament appearances during their time as an FCS program and compiled a 72-38 record.

On Sunday, Kennesaw State announced the hiring of Jerry Mack as Bohannon’s replacement. Mack had been the running backs coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars after three years holding the same job at Tennessee. He previously was head coach at FCS North Carolina Central, compiling a 31-15 record.

Rice fired Mike Bloomgren on Oct. 27, one day after the Owls fell to 2-6 with a loss to Connecticut. Bloomgren went 24-52 in six-plus seasons at the Houston school and had led the Owls to bowl games in each of the past two seasons, though neither ended with Rice having a winning record. (The Owls last finished above .500 in 2014.)

On Nov. 26 Rice named Scott Abell its new coach. Abell had been the coach at FCS Davidson since 2018 and will leave as the winningest coach in program history, having led the Wildcats to seven straight winning seasons and three appearances in the FCS playoffs.

Southern Miss fired Will Hall on Oct. 20 after the Golden Eagles started the season 1-6. Hall went 14-30 in three-plus seasons in Hattiesburg, with one winning record and a bowl-game victory in 2022.

East Carolina fired Mike Houston on Oct. 20 even though the Pirates were 3-4 and still in contention for a bowl game. (They have since won three straight to become bowl eligible under former defensive coordinator Blake Harrell, who on Wednesday was named the team’s new head coach.) Houston spent nearly six seasons as East Carolina’s coach and went 15-10 in 2021 and 2022, but the Pirates had gone just 5-14 since then.

Harrell, 45, had been East Carolina’s defensive coordinator since 2020. This will be his first head coaching job.

Jeff Tedford stepped down as the Bulldogs’ coach in July because of health concerns, and interim coach Tim Skipper has led Fresno State to a 6-6 record and bowl eligibility. The school posted the job opening in mid-November, though, because that is required by California state law.

Utah State fired Blake Anderson in July “for contacting a potential domestic violence victim and a witness to the incident after an Aggies player was arrested, and failing to properly report the case,” the Associated Press reported. Utah State went 4-8 under interim coach Nate Dreiling.