Pat Forde: The 25 Most Intriguing College Football Coaches for 2026

Back by popular demand—or perhaps force of habit—it’s time for the annual college football Most Intriguing Lists. First up: The 25 most intriguing coaches.

1. Curt Cignetti, Indiana

He is the game’s oracle until proven otherwise, a miracle worker who was hiding in plain sight for years. East Coast bias is generally overstated, but it’s the only explanation for the New York Knicks winning the ESPY for Team of the Year over Cignetti’s 2025–26 Hoosiers. What Indiana did was historic on multiple levels: the first 16–0 team at the highest level of the sport since the 19th century; the first new FBS national champion since Florida in 1996; the team that took the losingest program in FBS history out of the basement and far beyond anything previously experienced—and so forth. Along the way, Cignetti’s quirky personality, penchant for punchy quotes and scowling in-game demeanor have made him the biggest fascination in football.

2. Lane Kiffin, LSU

In Dante’s Divine Comedy, the eighth circle of hell is occupied by sowers of discord. These are your people, Lane. Nobody has sowed more discord in college football over the last 16 years than Kiffin, who took his divisive act to new heights (or depths) last fall by accepting the LSU job while his Mississippi team was in the midst of a College Football Playoff season. That was so disruptive it may actually spawn a federal law forbidding such a move in the future, if the Protect College Sports Act is passed by Congress. Kiffin is now on the clock to deliver a national championship at a school that has won three of them with three different coaches this century, but first he must endure a crucible of his own making—LSU at Ole Miss on Sept. 19, which might be the most bitter game in history.

All eyes will be on new LSU coach Lane Kiffin this season. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

3. Kyle Whittingham, Michigan

The implosion of Sherrone Moore might be an inadvertent (and expensive) blessing for the Wolverines. There is an adult in charge now in Whittingham, who became available when Utah squeezed him out to facilitate its longstanding succession plan to elevate assistant Morgan Scalley. A guy with 177 career victories and eight 10-win seasons in the relative obscurity of the Mountain time zone falls into Michigan’s lap, anxious to prove himself at age 66 at a blueblood program. Whittingham inherits a quarterback most foresee as a future NFL first-round pick in Bryce Underwood and brings over some key player and staff pieces from Salt Lake City. He’ll need them against a rugged schedule that features four 2025 playoff opponents.

4. Matt Campbell, Penn State

Like Whittingham at Michigan, Campbell is stepping out of an overachiever role at a try-hard program to take over an established heavyweight. He’s the winningest coach in Iowa State history (72 victories) and has the highest winning percentage of anyone in Ames since 1919 (.567). If the sense was that James Franklin let some standards slip at the end of his tenure, Campbell has come in with a mandate to tighten things back up. He brought a lot of Cyclones with him to State College, including quarterback Rocco Becht—how well do players and staff that went 8–4 in the Big 12 last year translate to the Big Ten? A lenient schedule (no Indiana, no Ohio State, no Oregon) gives him a chance.

5. Pete Golding, Mississippi

With a full season of exposure to Golding, college football fans are likely to love him right up until they hate him. He’s a lot—quippy, lippy and unafraid to ruffle feathers or flout transfer rules, as Clemson has alleged. (“Let’s not act like recruiting in college football for the last 100 years is the most moral thing. What are we talking about here?”) Golding earned immediate credibility with Ole Miss fans by replacing Kiffin and taking the Rebels to the CFP semifinals. With arguably the best quarterback (Trinidad Chambliss) and running back (Kewan Lacy) in college football, expectations are higher than they have been in generations—with Sept. 19 shaping up to be nothing short of a crusade.

6. Mario Cristobal, Miami

After some in-game gaffes in previous years, the playoff run to the title game last season went a long way toward cementing Cristobal’s stature as an elite coach. Bringing The U back to prominence was the reason why the intense Hurricane alum left Oregon to take the job; delivering on that confers hero status upon him. All that remains is the final step, and he might have the team to take it this season with another splashy transfer quarterback and spectacular skill players. With the rest of the Sunshine State in decay or rebuilding, he owns the place. Can he actually win an ACC title, too?

7. James Franklin, Virginia Tech

The reinvention of Franklin in Blacksburg will be a fascinating undertaking. Very few places would fire a coach with a 104–45 record, half a season removed from going to the CFP semifinals, but Penn State did when a season of sky-high expectations crashed quickly. In truth, the Franklin–Penn State marriage had frayed to the point where separation was needed. Tech has considerable history of its own, but the early expectation is to get it off the mat and forwardly placed in the ACC again. (At minimum, Franklin has an immediate opportunity to restore the Lane Stadium aura of old.) This could be a sweet-spot job for the 54-year-old—if he emerges wiser in a few areas from his time in State College.

8. Bill Belichick, North Carolina

My, how The Hoodie has frayed. He led this list last year, before his debut season as a college coach turned into a dumpster fire. From the high-profile girlfriend who likes to file records requests to the disastrous general manager to the 4–8 debut record laced with blowout losses, all Belichick’s NFL winning was quickly erased. Now the curiosity is whether the dumpster fire has been extinguished and the program has made tangible progress. Bobby Petrino rides in to the rescue as offensive coordinator (hopefully not on a Harley) but DC Stephen Belichick (Bill’s son) is on medical leave. If the Tar Heels aren’t appreciably better, a 1–5 start is entirely possible. At that point, this expensive experiment would take on definitive bust dimensions.

North Carolina coach Bill Belichick is facing a stark difference entering this season from his debut last year. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

9. Joey McGuire, Texas Tech

So, can he coach? We got some answers on that front last year, as a loaded Red Raiders squad went 12–2, won the Big 12 and made the playoff. But after leveraging a roster spending gap over the rest of the league, Tech was punked by a similarly well-funded program (Oregon) in the CFP, 23–0. So the question remains whether McGuire is a caretaker or a program elevator. The Brendan Sorsby debacle this spring also alienated the Red Raiders in the eyes of much of the rest of the nation. (How much McGuire had to do with that, as opposed to billionaire booster Cody Campbell, is open to debate.) Now McGuire and his staff have to show they can win big with a backup quarterback coming off knee surgery.

10. Lincoln Riley, USC

His hiring was a bombshell when it happened in late 2021, but since then the impact has been more like a bottle rocket. After an 11-win opening season, Riley has averaged eight over the next three. This season, the Trojans say they have everything in place to return to prominence, from a fully functional front office and NIL war chest to an experienced roster to a capable coaching staff to the nation’s No. 1 freshman class to a gleaming new football facility. “The momentum has been created,” Riley said last week. “It’s been fun to see our program grow in all the areas that you need to be a championship-level program.” It’s not a moment too soon for Riley, who will be under serious fire if the Trojans aren’t at least seriously in the playoff mix all season.

11. Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame

I’m going with Freeman as the coach most likely to break through and win his first national championship this season. Freeman was a risky internal promotion that has paid off spectacularly, with the Fighting Irish winning 43 of 55 games while becoming a permanent playoff contender. The last growth area for the 40-year-old is avoiding the early season flop: His August/September record is 13–6 and in games thereafter he is 30–6. That includes first-month fiascos against Marshall and Northern Illinois, and last year’s 0–2 start that cost the Irish a playoff bid. Despite losing two first-round NFL running backs from the 2025 squad, on paper this is Freeman’s best team, with a loaded defense and star QB. He turned down NFL interest last year, and it will probably be there again this year.

12. Dan Lanning, Oregon

If Freeman has been great while struggling to start seasons, Lanning has been great while struggling to nail the ending. His Ducks have won 48 out of 56 games, with two or fewer losses in each of the last three years. But the wheels came off in the playoff quarterfinals as the No. 1 seed against Ohio State two seasons ago, and last year Oregon was annihilated by Indiana in the semifinals. Average margin of defeat in those two elimination games: 27 points. Lanning has a loaded roster but is breaking in two new coordinators. If those internal promotions perform as expected, the Ducks should be among a handful of teams with legitimate national title aspirations.

13. Mike Norvell, Florida State

Man, what happened? Since being snubbed for the playoff at 13–0 in 2023, the collapse of Norvell’s program remains stunning to contemplate. The Seminoles are 7–18 since then and have lost 11 straight outside of Tallahassee, giving up every ounce of program momentum that had been built up before quarterback Jordan Travis’s fateful broken leg. If FSU had silly money, Norvell almost certainly would have been bought out (at massive cost) after last season. Instead, he gets one more chance to turn it around—with a transfer QB (Ashton Daniels) who hasn’t played on a winning team in four previous years of college ball. With expectations hammered down to the ground, maybe Florida State can sneak up on some teams this year.

Florida State coach Mike Norvell has one more chance to turn it around this season. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

14. Kalen DeBoer, Alabama

A few things should be said in defense of the man who has committed the grave sin of Not Being Nick Saban: He’s undefeated in the Iron Bowl; he’s 2–1 against league kingpin Georgia; and he did, in fact, win a road playoff game last season. But that comeback victory at Oklahoma was completely obscured by the subsequent beatdown from Indiana, Georgia still smoked the Tide in the SEC title game and everyone beats Auburn these days. This is life as DeBoer heading into Year 3—even the good stuff isn’t good enough compared to his peerless predecessor. Nevertheless, Alabama extended his contract through 2032, with an annual salary of $12.5 million. If this season doesn’t go well, that deal will take its place in the pantheon of terrible college football extensions.

15. Kirby Smart, Georgia

After Saban’s retirement, Smart was the obvious heir to best active coach in America status. He still can claim that—for now. (If Cignetti never loses again, that changes the equation.) It’s not as if the Bulldogs have slumped since winning consecutive national titles in 2021 and ’22—they’ve gone 36–6, won two SEC championships and been in consecutive playoffs. But the dominance of those title teams has faded a touch, with defenses that are a tad less ruthless and offenses that are a tad more laborious (many Georgia fans feel a certain way about OC Mike Bobo). Smart is 0–2 in the last two playoffs after being favored in both games. Making at least a CFP semifinal this season would silence any whispers about Smart needing to modernize his approach.

16. Pat Fitzgerald, Michigan State

Hungry coach meets hungry program in a match made in blue-collar heaven. Fitzgerald has been out of college football for three years since his firing at Northwestern amid an investigation of hazing within his program. He settled a wrongful termination suit that included a statement from the school saying that he did not condone or direct any hazing, which cleared the way for his return. Michigan State was happy to snap up a Big Ten overachiever, hoping that Fitz’s spit-in-your-eye fighting spirit will rekindle the pugnacious soul of the Mark Dantonio era Spartans. “I wouldn’t say I have a chip on my shoulder,” Fitzgerald said last week. “I wouldn’t say our program has a chip on our shoulder. I’d say we have a bag of chips on our shoulder. I’ll leave it at that.”

17. Jon Sumrall, Florida

The former SEC linebacker likes pedicures, which is a fairly intriguing place to start. If Sumrall becomes the guy who ends a string of failed post–Urban Meyer hires, his nail tech could become the most important person in Gainesville. A guy who led Kentucky in tackles in 2004 might well have the right combination of proven coaching ability (43–12 at Troy and Tulane) and a personality that is big enough for a big job. Sumrall’s worst year as a head coach thus far is nine wins, which is more than once-mighty Florida has won in a season since 2019. With four 2025 CFP teams on the schedule, Sumrall will have to keep the Gators on their, um, toes.

18. Bob Chesney, UCLA

For years, UCLA football has been all scenery and no substance—pretty uniforms, pretty stadium, scant success. Chesney has a chance to change that, to put some power in the powder blue. The Bruins are banking on him being Cignetti 2.0, rising from the small-college ranks and even going through the same James Madison pipeline to a power-conference job. (Like Cignetti, Chesney brought some key staff members and players with him from JMU to his next stop.) He has been a consistent winner, going 132–52 as a head coach at the Division III, Division II, FCS and FBS levels. Chesney is the latest coach tasked with unleashing the full talents of QB Nico Iamaleava. Throwing the ball downfield would be a good place to start, after the Bruins had one of the least explosive passing games in the country last season.

19. Morgan Scalley, Utah

Replacing 21-year head coach hero Whittingham was never going to be easy, but the circumstances have ratcheted up the stakes. Whittingham was shown the door to make room for his successor-in-waiting, then landed the deluxe Michigan job pretty much out of nowhere. Now the comparison game will have real-time results. Fortunately for Scalley—a Salt Lake City native, former Ute player and Ute assistant—he has some strong building blocks in quarterback Devon Dampier (more than 8,000 yards total offense in three years) and running back Wayshawn Parker (more than 1,700 rushing yards in two years). The schedule is entirely manageable (no Texas Tech) and should build toward a Holy War showdown with BYU on Nov. 7.

Utah coach Morgan Scalley is now the top man after being named coach-in-waiting several years prior. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

20. Steve Sarkisian, Texas

Sark has returned the Longhorns to permanent contender status, with three straight seasons of double-digit wins for the first time since 2007–09. Like Mack Brown before him, he now has to take the next steps—win a conference championship and ultimately a national championship. Texas may well be the single biggest winner in the transfer portal, adding major playmakers on both sides of the ball in addition to retaining standouts on defense and the offensive line. Sark has hitched his wagon to Arch Manning, which every coach wanted to do when he was coming out of high school. Manning’s first year as a starter was rough early and better late; if his improvement continues this season it may vault the program to championship status.

21. Ryan Day, Ohio State

He got the two big burdens off his back the past two seasons—winning a national title in 2024 and ending a four-year losing streak to Michigan in ’25. The only thing left on the checklist is to accomplish both of those things in the same season, and he might have the team to do it. Day did masterful work last year, rebuilding to a 12–0 record and No. 1 ranking, but then came the postseason crash—an upset loss to Indiana in the Big Ten title game and an upset loss to Miami in the CFP quarterfinals. When your only losses are to the last two teams standing, that’s not bad—but this is Ohio State, and the offensive shortcomings in those two games were glaring (especially in the running game). Day has his third offensive coordinator in three years (Arthur Smith) but the best wide receiver in the game (Jeremiah Smith) and a standout QB. Expectations remain as high as possible.

22. Kalani Sitake, BYU

Perhaps the strangest blip on the hire-and-fire radar last year was Sitake’s appearance as a candidate for the Penn State job. That subsided fairly quickly, and remains in his happy place at BYU. The personable former Cougar player has been a great fit as head coach, winning 10 or more games four times in Provo. That includes the last two years, and it includes getting BYU into the 2025 Big 12 title game despite having to make freshman QB Bear Bachmeier the unexpected starter during the summer. This season Sitake has one of the nation’s most experienced teams and should directly challenge Texas Tech for Big 12 supremacy and a playoff berth.

23. Mike Elko, Texas A&M

The A&M players call their head coach “Elko,” which fits the completely unpretentious third-year boss of the Aggies. He’s as flashy as a river barge but just as effective at getting a job done, with a 35–16 career record at Duke and A&M. Last year the Aggies started 11–0 for the first time since 1992, which was great. Ending the season with losses to Texas (ouch) and at home in the CFP to Miami after scoring three points on three red zone possessions (double ouch) was not great. Expectations are higher, the conference schedule is tougher and Elko is breaking in new offensive and defensive coordinators. But the talent and experience are on hand for another big season.

24. Tosh Lupoi, California

The Golden Bears had a good quarterback in 2024 and lost him to the portal. You may have heard of him—Fernando Mendoza. This past offseason, Cal kept its rising star QB in Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele. That was the latest and perhaps greatest recruiting win for new head coach Lupoi, who made his name landing talent for head coaches named Saban, Sarkisian, Lanning and Jeff Tedford. Lupoi played and coached at Cal under Tedford, and the return to his alma mater certainly shakes things up after the solid-but-staid Justin Wilcox era. This could be a wild experiment in Berkeley, with a lot of coaches moving up into positions they haven’t held before.

California coach Tosh Lupoi gets his shot at the head coaching gig after making a name for himself landing talent for other top coaches. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

25. Deion Sanders, Colorado

No Most Intriguing List is complete without Coach Prime, who always keeps it interesting even if the product isn’t always successful. Such was the case last year, when the constant churn of the program and a lack of foundation was exposed in the aftermath of losing Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders. The Buffaloes plummeted from 9–4 to 3–9, and it was a Karl Dorrell–looking 3–9 on occasion late in the season. Sanders has retooled his staff again with a couple of promising coordinator hires in Brennan Marion (offense) and Chris Marve (defense), while committing to former five-star QB recruit Julian “JuJu” Lewis. A schedule with 11 power-conference opponents will be a challenge.

Other coaches considered: Dabo Swinney, Clemson; Clark Lea, Vanderbilt; Collin Klein, Kansas State; Eric Morris, Oklahoma State; Alex Golesh, Auburn; Will Stein, Kentucky; Charles Huff, Memphis; Luke Fickell, Wisconsin; Jason Eck, New Mexico; Dan Mullen, UNLV; Jim Mora, Colorado State; Jason Candle, Connecticut; Mike Jacobs, Toledo; Tony Elliott, Virginia; Brent Key, Georgia Tech; Willie Fritz, Houston; Kenny Dillingham, Arizona State.

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