Ranking how all the new college football coaches did in 2024

Simply put, Curt Cignetti knocked it out of the park. In his first season in Bloomington, he shocked the world by leading the Hoosiers to an 11-1 record (the first 10-win season in program history) and earning a College Football Playoff berth. He has set the culture for an Indiana program that went just 9-27 over the last three seasons and had not seen this level of success since 1945. 

How is going 12-1, winning the Mountain West Conference championship, earning a College Football Playoff berth, having a player in the Heisman race, and watching your program accept a bid to join the Pac-12 in two years for Spencer Danielson? This is the Broncos’ best season since 2019 and their first high-level winning since Chris Petersen roamed the sideline over a decade ago. As I mentioned, with Boise State heading to the Pac-12 in 2026, Danielson has this program surging. 

Tulane nearly had a chance for a College Football Playoff opportunity until they lost their regular season finale to Memphis, then lost the AAC title game to Army. Still, Sumrall had a fantastic season and has become one of the most sought-after coaches among Power 5 openings. His success at Troy got him the Tulane job last offseason and his job with the Green Wave this year will have suitors lined up to snag him away. 

This has been a great season for the Orange under Brown. The Dino Babers era was filled with frustrating inconsistency that Brown’s approach has been welcomed by Syracuse’s fans. Not only has he coached up the team to an 9-3 record and a bowl bid, but his intensity has already become legend in upstate New York. His admission that he doesn’t shower after losses — his “winners get washed” comment went viral — or his barking at ESPN to bring College Gameday to Syracuse has endeared him to fans and players. He’s all in. 

Mike Elko was near the top of this ranking for much of the year, despite losing their opener to Notre Dame. The Aggies would win their next seven, including a strong performance against LSU. Then the final month happened and A&M didn’t deliver. They were demolished at South Carolina, lost a head scratcher at Auburn, then lost a tough battle against rival Texas. That Texas game was for a spot in the SEC championship game which, on its own, shows that Elko had a fine first season in College Station. The fact they were in the driver’s seat for an SEC championship in their finale says a lot, but the crumble down the stretch knocks Elko down this list a bit. 

There are two ways to look at Diaz’s first season in Durham. One, they’ve continued what Mike Elko built and had a great 9-3 season. Two, of those 9 wins … none of them were against anybody of note. Their best showing may have been the 28-27 loss to SMU and not their comeback win over rival North Carolina. No matter how you see it, this was a great season for Duke and not one where they suffered a drop-off like some of the other schools who watched their head coach leave for another job.  

This has certainly been a roller coaster season for Kalen DeBoer and his Alabama Crimson Tide. They jumped all over Georgia before hanging on for a huge win, then promptly go out and lose to Vanderbilt (which now doesn’t seem to be as big a crime as it initially did). The Tide crush Missouri and LSU, then get spanked by a below-average Oklahoma squad. Another loss to Tennessee and Bama pulled in a 9-3 record, which isn’t very Nick Saban-like. Missing the first 12-team playoff also hurts for a program that reached 8 of the first 10 playoffs.

The Eagles’ record may look the same, but O’Brien is building a program that plays tough and is always in games. When their season started, their upset win over Florida State in Tallahassee looked a lot better than what it ended up being. Still, BC started 4-1 with wins over the Noles and Michigan State and a narrow loss at Missouri. They suffered a mid-season swoon but played their opponents tough. This is a culture that can succeed if it’s given time. 

Lembo’s Bulls went 8-4, the most wins the program has had since the Lance Leipold era. Granted, Buffalo’s four-game winning streak to end the season was against the MAC’s worst teams, but it is still progress, and he’s building a culture in western New York. The offense began to really click as the season went along which hopefully carries over to 2025. 

Give Bronco Mendenhall a lot of credit. After losing their first four games (including their opener to Montana State), the Lobos won 5 of their next 7 (before losing their finale at Hawaii), which gave New Mexico their most wins since 2016. I mean, he nearly got the Lobos bowl eligible. He’s done such a fine job that he was a name to watch in this season’s coaching cycle for a bigger job. And then he jumped for one. He’s leaving for Utah State, where he’ll oversee the Aggies move from the Mountain West to the Pac-12. 

This wasn’t the start that Huskies fans wanted, but it may have been the one they should’ve expected. Washington lost a lot of talent to the NFL from their national championship runner-up squad and Fisch had to power through with a rebuilt roster. They did beat Michigan in a “rematch” of that title game but simply were a .500 team all year. That’s a bit more of a fall-off than what was expected from a coach who completely turned around Arizona’s program. 

Well, this was a tiny bit better than what he inherited from the Mel Tucker era, but this wasn’t a good year in East Lansing. Only one of the Spartans wins came against what you may call an impressive opponent — a 32-20 win over Iowa back in October — and a 5-7 record keeps them out of a bowl. Granted, they played a tough conference schedule that they weren’t up to the task for, but this looks and feels like a lot of the same for Michigan State — on the field. This is just Year One, but there will be a lot of pressure for Smith to turn this around as the fan base has watched what has happened at Indiana. 

Ken Niumatalolo’s first season at San Jose State went fairly well. The Spartans finished with a 7-5 record after beating the ACC’s Stanford behind one of the nation’s top passing offenses. The passing success is quite interesting since Niumatalolo actually made a quarterback change mid-season, electing to bench Emmitt Brown for Walker Eget (plus Eget’s not-so-memorable 4-of-22 performance against UNLV in a rainstorm). Following up what Brent Brennan did in San Jose was going to be tough, but Niumatalolo has seeming kept the train moving forward. 

You’ve already read how good of a coach Curt Cignetti is, so it should come as no surprise that James Madison was going to take a hit when he left for Indiana. Not only did he build an FCS power, but he was able to step up in class to the FBS without missing much of a beat (19-5 in two years in the higher division). The fact that Chesney, who had a fantastic career at Holy Cross, has ended his first season with an 8-4 record is pretty impressive. The best moment of the season was when the Dukes went into Chapel Hill and hung 70 points on the Tar Heels in a 20-point win. A curious loss to UL Monroe and a non-competitive showing in a loss to a down Appalachian State stings, but this was a decent transition year for the program and for Chesney. 

We all knew that Moore would have a tough time following up what Jim Harbaugh did at Michigan. Two straight College Football Playoff appearances and a national championship ended Harbaugh’s reign, but Moore was a key part of that success. The exodus of a lot of talent and the inability to find a quarterback to replace J.J. McCarthy has doomed the Wolverines to a 7-5 record this season. It’s one thing to lose games facing that tough of a schedule, but Michigan wasn’t very competitive against Oregon, Texas or Illinois. The season-ending win in The Game, though, is a huge boost for Moore (who was the interim head coach when the Wolverines beat the Buckeyes last year) and the future of the program. This is a rebuilding year for Michigan, but Moore will have some pressure to get back to competing for a playoff spot next season. 

UL Monroe was a running joke over the last five years, and especially under former head coach Terry Bowden. So Bryant Vincent going 5-7 and beating Troy and James Madison is a breakout campaign. Of course, this is a tale of two seasons for the Warhawks — they began 5-1 with their only loss coming to then-No. 1 Texas before losing their final six games (three in blowouts). For the first half of the season, Vincent was on many national Coach of the Year lists but ULM has hit a skid that squashed those talks. Still, this has been a successful season by any means, even if it ended on a slide. 

Aside from a 10-2 record in 2022, the South Alabama program has been middling at best. So a 6-6 mark in 2024 shouldn’t be much of a surprise in Mobile. Major Applewhite’s Jaguars have had an uneven performance to the season, mixing impressive wins with head-scratching losses. But the final six weeks of the season showed that this could be a program on the rise in the Sun Belt — four wins, three by double-digits, and two close losses to two of the better teams in the league. They also were able to win a Louisiana, the top team in the West Division. The offense has looked much more crisp and is a building block for 2025. 

What Bray inherited at Oregon State was one of the toughest situations in the country. The Beavers were successful under Jonathan Smith (who left for Michigan State) but Bray wasn’t walking into the same program. Oregon State’s conference was shattered (their win over Washington State was the lone Pac-12 game on the schedule), they were thrust into a scheduling agreement with the Mountain West, and there was a massive roster upheaval. On the surface, a 5-7 season isn’t that bad, but the Beavers lost six of the final seven games and watched Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty pile up 226 yards rushing on them in the finale. Hopefully with the Pac-12 beginning to rebuild the conference for 2026, Bray can start to stabilize the program. 

Last year, Houston finished 4-8 and tied for 11th place in the Big 12. In Willie Fritz’s first season, Houston finished 4-8 and tied for 11th place in the Big 12. Look no further to the Cougars’ awful offense — the averaged just 14 points per game this season which is by far the worst in the Big 12 and only Kent State scored less points than Houston. Fritz’s Tulane teams weren’t known for high-octane offenses, but this was bad. They scored 10 points or less six times and were shut out twice. Frtiz has already made a change, dismissing offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay. Remember: It took his 7th year at Tulane before Fritz got the Green Wave turned around. Will he have that kind of time in Houston? 

The Chip Kelly era wasn’t the best, but it looked better than DeShaun Foster’s first season with the Bruins. The offense is one of the worst in the FBS, averaging just over 18 ppg this season. The defense has been the bright spot for Foster over the last six weeks of the season and is certainly something to build off of. UCLA will miss bowl season for the first time since 2020, but this was a season of growth for Foster … who got off to a weird start with his Big Ten media day introduction. He got the job after Kelly left to become a coordinator at Ohio State and while UCLA was leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten. Let’s see what Foster does in 2025. 

Choate inherited one of the toughest jobs in America when he took over for Ken Wilson at Nevada. The Wolf Pack went 4-10 over the last two years and they’ve really struggled with attendance. No one cares about this program. So Choate going 3-10 in his first year in Reno is a bit of a win … even if actual winning has been a struggle. Nevada ended the season on a six-game losing streak and was winless in Mountain West play, and it isn’t like Choate’s team was showing signs of rapid improvement. He’s instilled a great work ethic which hopefully is the foundation going forward. 

Five years ago, this program was dead. The Miners went 2-34 from 2017 to 2019 and looked like a lost cause. Dana Dimel was able to make minor improvements and even got the 2021 team into a bowl, but this is a hard job. Walden is an energy guy and UTEP has needed someone to come in there with a voice to wake up this program. While it hasn’t resulted in a large amount of wins this year (just three), this looks like a team on the rise, and one that snagged an invite to leave Conference USA for the Mountain West in 2026. 

A season that began with so much hope quickly fell into a thud and more of the “same old thing” under Lewis. A six-game losing streak to end the season, which most of them are not really competitive, has been tough to swallow. So much so that certain segments of the fan base are already turning on him, attendance has crashed — they’ve had some of the smallest crowds in Snapdragon Stadium’s nearly 20-year history — and with the Aztecs upcoming move to the Pac-12 in 2026, Lewis may be in a prove-it season next year. 

Jedd Fisch did a marvelous job digging Arizona out of a massive hole, so when he moved to Washington it was going to be interesting to see if Brent Brennan could maintain the momentum. In Year One, the answer is no. The Wildcats finished 4-8 and 15th out of 16 teams in their first season in the Big 12. Arizona lost 7 of their final 8 games and gave up at least 49 points in each of their last three losses. 

Let’s first celebrate what Jerry Kill was able to do in his two years in Las Cruces — 17-11 in two years, two bowl games and a 10-5 record last year. This is a program that has been one of the worst in the country for decades. So it was going to be tough for Sanchez to replicate what Kill resurrected, but Sanchez … who played for the Aggies in the 1990s and was an assistant to Kill … was all-in. There have been some bumps in the road along the way to their 3-9 season, most notably the mid-season dismissal of offensive coordinator Tyler Wright after bigoted comments on his X account surfaced. Sanchez had a highly decorated career as a high school coach but struggled in five seasons at UNLV, where the Rebels had five losing seasons. Will he be able to turn around Kill’s momentum? Right now it doesn’t seem likely. 

Coaching matters at Troy. Neal Brown had three 10-win seasons with the Trojans before departing for West Virginia, then Chip Lindsey suffered through three three-win seasons. Jon Sumrall revamped the program with a 23-5 record over two years before heading off to Tulane, but Parker has really struggled to find his footing. After a woeful 1-7 start to the season (which is more losses than Sumrall had in his Troy career), the Trojans won two impressive games … including on the road at Georgia Southern … and finished with a 4-8 record. A far cry from last year’s 11-3 mark, but the turnaround gives fans a belief of something to build off of and the possibility that Troy can turn it around in 2025. 

This has been a really bad season in Laramie. The Cowboys went a lowly 3-9 on the season, their first losing season (not including the awkward 2020 season) since 2015. While the record may be horrid, they have shown signs of life during the year. Their 17-13 loss to Boise State was surprisingly competitive and they lost four of their games this season by four points or less. Still, three wins is a large falloff after their 8-4 season in Craig Bohl’s final year. 

Mason’s time at Vanderbilt was rocky, to say the least, and his first season at Middle Tennessee looks to be much of the same. The Blue Raiders’ three wins this season have come against an FCS opponent and two of the worst teams in Conference USA. Their losses have been ugly — six of them coming by 20 or more points and every loss coming by double digits.

Nate Dreiling was tossed into the interim head coaching gig late in the summer, so it’s hard to truly judge what he’s done at Utah State. Ultimately he’ll rate low due to a 4-8 record, a six game losing streak, and the fact that the Aggies will likely look elsewhere for their next head coach. That’s not all on Dreiling, who was hired as the defensive coordinator in the offseason and then suddenly found himself as the FBS’s youngest head coach by June. Hopefully he will get another chance to run his own program down the road. 

Mississippi State has been the worst team in the SEC, and while somebody has to be that’s not acceptable anywhere in that conference. Not only did they go winless in conference play (0-8), they really weren’t that competitive in most of the games. In a conference and state that bleeds college football, going 2-10 isn’t going to cut it. Lebby will be on some hot seat lists heading into next season.