Four Power 4 Head Coaches Start Spring Football at New Schools Tuesday

Among the schools starting spring football practices on Tuesday, March 17, are four teams - Auburn, Michigan, Michigan State and Virginia Tech - that welcome in new head coaches for the 2026 college football season.

Three of those four new head coaches have previous head coaching experience at the Power 4 level, but now must translate that experience to success with new programs. While all first-year head coaches face similar hurdles, the individual situations at each of these schools present specific challenges for the four new coaches starting practices on Tuesday.

Spring football provides the initial opportunity for first-year head coaches to see what their roster looks like on the field, and these four rosters, in particular, have seen significant changeover since last season. Here is a look at the situations each of the four new head coaches have inherited ahead of their first practices of the spring.

Auburn - Alex Golesh

Alex Golesh arrives at Auburn after three seasons as the head coach at South Florida. | Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Former South Florida head coach Alex Golesh takes over for Hugh Freeze after spending three seasons in Tampa and posting a record of 23-15 while leading the Bulls. Prior to becoming a head coach, Golesh was an offensive coordinator at Tennessee and UCF, and coached tight ends for Illinois and Iowa State.

Golesh landed one of the biggest Portal transfers of the off-season when former USF quarterback Byrum Brown decided to follow his head coach to The Plains. Brown started 32 games over four years and will bring that experience, as well as a familiarity with Golesh’s playbook, with him to the Auburn offense.

Quarterback Byrum Brown is following Alex Golesh to Auburn from USF, where he started 32 games over four seasons. | Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

Defensively, Golesh chose to maintain consistency by retaining coordinator D.J. Durkin, who served as the interim head coach after Freeze was fired mid-way through last season. Auburn finished the 2025 season at 5-7, but won just one game in SEC play.

Michigan - Kyle Whittingham

Michigan parted ways with Sherrone Moore in December following an embarrassing scandal that involved a staff member, and looked to add stability to the program by bringing in Kyle Whittingham, who spent the previous 21 seasons as the head coach at Utah. Whittingham brought offensive coordinator Jason Beck with him from Utah, and hired Jay Hill from BYU to run the defense.

One of Whittingham’s most important moves since taking over in Ann Arbor was retaining freshman sensation Bryce Underwood, who started all 13 games at quarterback in his first season. Underwood should be more consistent in Year 2 under center, which will also be aided by seven total returning starters on offense, including four along the offensive line.

Bryce Underwood threw for 2,428 yards and accounted for 17 total touchdowns in his true freshman season at Michigan. | Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

Michigan is just over two years removed from winning a National Championship, but patience runs short in Ann Arbor when the Wolverines are not consistently competing for titles. Whittingham has more to work with than most first-year head coaches this spring, but the Maize and Blue faithful will expect this team to be competitive in the Big Ten in Year 1.

Michigan State - Pat Fitzgerald

After a three-year hiatus away from the college game, Pat Fitzgerald lands at Michigan State, where he becomes the fourth head coach to lead the Spartans in the last eight seasons. Fitzgerald is also looked at as a stabilizing presence at the head coach position, having led his alma mater, Northwestern, for 17 seasons and winning the most games of any head coach in the Wildcats’ history.

Pat Fitzgerald is the new head coach at Michigan State, after previously leading his alma mater, Northwestern, for 17 years. | Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

With the Transfer Portal and NIL, the college game has evolved significantly since Fitzgerald last coached in 2022, but he has shown the ability to adapt, landing close to 30 total players out of the Portal this winter, including cornerback Charles Brantley who returns to East Lansing after starting 24 games for the Spartans before spending a transfer year away at Miami.

Fitzgerald has made toughness the cornerstone of the rebuild at Michigan State, and that will require a strong running game. Former UConn running back Cam Edwards leads a revamped running back room after posting 1,240 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns last season for the Huskies, which was the 15th best rushing total for any back in FBS in 2025.

Virginia Tech - James Franklin

James Franklin's early ouster at Penn State meant that he could get a head start on the rebuild at Virginia Tech. | Brian Bishop-Imagn Images

James Franklin started the 2025 college football season with high expectations at Penn State, but found himself as the head coach at Virginia Tech before the regular season had concluded. Franklin spent a total of 15 seasons as head coach at both Penn State and Vanderbilt, and Virginia Tech hopes he can restore the consistent winning tradition that has eluded the Hokies since Frank Beamer retired over a decade ago.

This hire was made by Virginia Tech on November 17 of last year, giving Franklin a head start to not only plan for the Transfer Portal, but also re-recruit current players on the Hokies’ roster. The latter effort resulted in 14 starters from the 2025 team opting to return to play for Franklin next season, while their Portal class was ranked as one of the best in the ACC.

Wide receiver and the offensive line look stable for the Hokies, but the position most Virginia Tech fans will be focused on this spring is quarterback. Franklin was able to convince Ethan Grunkemeyer, who started the final seven games of the season for Penn State last fall, to join him in Blacksburg, setting up a quarterback battle with redshirt freshman Bryce Baker, a transfer from North Carolina who was a four-star prospect coming out of high school.

Ethan Grunkemeyer gets a fresh start at Virginia Tech after starting the final seven games of the season for Penn State. — Ethan Grunkemeyer gets a fresh start at Virginia Tech after starting the final seven games of the season for Penn State last year. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images