We have finally reached the top 10. The cream of the crop. The very best Christmas presents of the cycle. Without any further explanation needed, let’s get to the nitty gritty.
Note: While this article was in production the Philadelphia Eagles hired Bowling Green State Falcons head coach Scott Loeffler as their quarterbacks coach. So I will do a separate post for them altogether.
#10 Matt Entz-Fresno State
North Dakota State head coaches have had a successful track record moving up to the FBS level with Craig Bohl and Chris Klieman being strong examples. Matt Entz will look to continue that trend at Fresno State.
The 52 year old Waterloo, Iowa native spent 2019-2023 as the head man of the aforementioned NDSU Bison. He had an exceptional five years on the job, going 60-11, winning fifteen playoff games and two national championships in 2019 and 2021. Entz would join Lincoln Riley’s staff at USC as an Associate Head Coach and Linebackers Coach before being offered the Bulldogs gig.
Fresno State should be a consistent bowl team under Entz. He has the experience in both the regular season and the playoffs to be a winner in the valley.
#9 KC Keeler-Temple
Strangely enough, all four Owl teams hired a new head coach this cycle. We talked about Rice’s Scott Abell in part two, and both Kennesaw State’s Jerry Mack and FAU’s Zach Kittley in part three. Now it’s time to talk about one of the best hires of the cycle in KC Keeler.
The 65 year old returns to his home state of Pennsylvania and will look to turn around a Temple Owls program that has struggled recently. Keeler is one of the most experienced head coaches, having coached in 384 career games, posting a 271-112-1 record, including 46 playoff victories and a National Championship with Sam Houston State in 2020. The transition from FCS to FBS was difficult at first with a poor 3-9 season in 2023 but surprised everyone last year, where they went 10-3 in just their second season as an FBS member.
The Owls got a grizzled veteran on their hands that has improved every program he has been a part of and will look to do the same at Temple.
#8 Barry Odom-Purdue
Purdue is going to be very difficult to turn around, but they got a very good grab in UNLV’s Barry Odom. He did great work in his two seasons in Las Vegas, where he guided the Rebels to a 19-8 record, 2 Mountain West Championship games, and a #23 ranking in the final AP poll.
Before Odom’s arrival the UNLV Rebels were a poor program that went ten consecutive seasons with no bowl appearances. He’s put them in a much better place and now handles an even more gargantuan task of fixing a Boilermakers team that has gone 5-19 in the past two seasons, including a dreadful 1-11 record this past season.
Purdue hit rock bottom in 2024, now with Barry Odom steering the ship, there’s nowhere to go but up.
#7 Scott Frost-UCF
Unlike Most of the jobs on this list, UCF recently has had a strong winning tradition, especially over the past 15 years. Gus Malzhan started off strong at UCF with a pair of 9 win campaigns, including an AAC championship appearance in 2022, but the wheels fell off as they went 6-7 in 2023 and a poor 4-8 in 2024. After the season concluded Gus Malzhan made the shocking move to become Florida State’s new offensive coordinator.
The Knights decided to hit the time button back to 2016 and Scott Frost is now back for his second stint in Orlando. Frost did marvelous work in his two seasons at UCF, taking a team that went 0-12 in 2015, to 13-0 record two seasons later, including a #6 finish in the AP Poll. His alma mater Nebraska hired Frost in 2018, hoping to turn around the team’s fortunes.
Unfortunately for Frost he could never get it going in Lincoln, posting a very disappointing 16-31 record before getting fired three games into the 2022 season. Now he will look to rebound at the school that gave him his first head coaching gig and will look to rekindle some of that 2017 Christmas-esque magic.
#6 Charles Huff-Southern Mississippi
The Golden Eagles brass knocked this hire out of the park with the hire of Charles Huff. After the botched contract negotiations with Marshall, Southern Mississippi ceased the opportunity and snagged one of the best hires of the carousel. In his four seasons at Marshall, Charles Huff led the Thundering Herd to a 32-20 record, four straight bowl games and won the Sun Belt in 2024.
Huff has already been doing excellent work in the transfer portal, grabbing his former Marshall players like Cornerback Josh Moten, Cornerback Ian Foster(All Sun Belt 1st team as kick returner). He also got some new reinforcements from the FCS ranks in SoCon First Team Safety Josh Battle and Portland State FCS Freshman All American Linebacker Michael Montgomery.
For a program coming off a miserable 1-11 season, there’s a strong chance that the Golden Eagles are one of the most improved teams heading into 2025.
To be concluded in part five, as we take a deep dive into the five best head coaches of the 2024-2025 head coaching carousel, including Tim Albin, Bronco Mendenhall, Dan Mullen and more.
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