Forde-Yard Dash: Crowning the Conference Coaches of the Year So Far

With the end of the regular season in sight, picking the best and worst coaching jobs of 2024 for each college football league.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti had led the Hoosiers to an undefeated season so far. / Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football, where it’s a fire sale on coaches at the Group of 5 level. First Quarter: Paths to the Playoff. Second Quarter: Winning the Staffing Battle.

Third Quarter: Conference Coaches of the Year—and Not Coaches of the Year 

There are still some important games that could change the outcome, but three weeks into November it’s time to assess who has done the best coaching jobs in each league. And, because The Dash isn’t just here to hand out roses, who has done the worst. The roundup: 

Big Ten 

Coach of the Year (so far): Curt Cignetti (21), Indiana Hoosiers. He’s also the national Coach of the Year at this point, and arguably the Coach of the Century. The Hoosiers have never been 10–0 before now, have their highest AP ranking (No. 5) since 1967 and have a live shot at the College Football Playoff one year after going 3–9. The Saturday game at Ohio State is merely the biggest in school history, and even a loss wouldn’t diminish this as an all-time great coaching job—which is why Indiana expedited an eight-year deal worth an average of $8 million a year last week. Google the man, he wins.

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Runner-up: Dan Lanning, Oregon Ducks. They were expected to be good, but they’ve exceeded that by going undefeated to this point and being ranked No. 1 in the nation. Changing conferences isn’t supposed to be easy, but Lanning and the Ducks are making it look that way.

Not Coach of the Year: Lincoln Riley of the USC Trojans, narrowly, over Sherrone Moore of the Michigan Wolverines. They’re both crashing disappointments at 5–5, but give slightly more blame to Riley than Moore. He’s been at this head coaching thing longer, and he lost to Moore head-to-head in the first of many blown fourth-quarter leads for the Trojans this season.

Big 12

Coach of the Year (so far): Kenny Dillingham (22), Arizona State Sun Devils. This is a tough one, given the competition. But the 34-year-old Dillingham has worked an incredibly fast rebuild of a near-dead program, with an 8–2 team that is in the Big 12 championship race in his second season. Low-wattage Michigan State transfer quarterback Sam Leavitt has thrown nine touchdowns and no interceptions the past three games, Cam Skattebo has developed into one of the nation’s best backs and the defense is overcoming some talent gaps with relentless effort. Dillingham is an ASU grad, but the school had better be prepared for other schools to come after him.

Runner-up: Deion Sanders, Colorado Buffaloes. With Kalani Sitake of the BYU Cougars right behind him. There are a thousand good things to say about Sanders’s work in Year 2 in Boulder, but let’s keep it to this: He’s 12–10 in two seasons, which is the best 22-game record for a Colorado coach since 1995 and ’96, when Rick Neuheisel inherited a powerful program from Bill McCartney. The program Coach Prime took over was at its nadir. And there have been a lot of coaches in between Neuheisel and Sanders.

Not Coach of the Year: Mike Gundy of the Oklahoma State Cowboys. A year after playing in the Big 12 championship game, the Stillwater Mullet is 3–7 and on a seven-game losing streak. Utah has collapsed as well, but at least Kyle Whittingham has quarterback injuries as a partial excuse. Gundy doesn’t. He’s just got a bad team.

SEC

Coach of the Year (so far): Mike Elko (23), Texas A&M Aggies. He showed all the substance the Jimbo Fisher era lacked, going 8–2 and putting the Aggies within reach of their first SEC title. Elko shrewdly navigated a quarterback change midseason and mid-game, benching Conner Weigman in favor of Marcel Reed and beating LSU in the process. The Aggies’ rise is close to delivering the one thing their fans wanted most this season—a fighting chance to take down Texas with SEC championship game hopes on the line when that rivalry resumes Nov. 30 in College Station, Texas.

Runner-up: Clark Lea, Vanderbilt Commodores. The Dores have beaten Alabama and Auburn in the same season for the first time since 1955. They’ve also beaten Kentucky and Virginia Tech. Picked a distant last as usual, they’re tied for eighth in a 16-team league and going bowling for the first time since 2018.

Not Coach of the Year: Brent Venables, Oklahoma Sooners. This could also be Hugh Freeze of the Auburn Tigers or Mark Stoops of the Kentucky Wildcats. But of those three, only Venables had a team coming off a 10-win season and starting the year ranked in the AP top 20. At 5–5 with Alabama and LSU still on the docket, he could be looking at a second losing season in three years at a program that doesn’t do losing seasons.

ACC

Coach of the Year (so far): Rhett Lashlee (24), SMU Mustangs. He had his program ready for the power-conference jump—SMU is the last unbeaten in league play in the ACC, and one of just three unbeatens in the power conferences. Lashlee made a tough-but-necessary quarterback change three games into the season to power the Mustangs’ progress, benching Preston Stone in favor of Kevin Jennings. He’s been excellent, despite key injuries to the receiving corps.

Runner-up: Mario Cristobal, Miami Hurricanes. It took a couple of seasons, but Cristobal is delivering on expectations when he was hired away from Oregon to restore his alma mater. With some key portal acquisitions and some great escapes in tight games, Miami controls its destiny in the ACC and CFP races.

Not Coach of the Year: Mike Norvell, Florida State Seminoles. Nobody has done a poorer job with his team this season than Norvell. Full stop.

American

Coach of the Year (so far): Jeff Monken (25), Army Black Knights. In its first year in the conference, his hard-edged team is 9–0 and has trailed in just one game, for a portion of a quarter, while winning every game by double digits. Now Army is prepping for the program’s biggest game since the 1950s on Saturday, against Notre Dame. Shock the world there, and Monken could surpass Cignetti for national Coach of the Year.

Monken is prepping for the biggest Army game since the 1950s with an unbeaten record on the line. / Danny Wild-Imagn Images

Runner-up: Jon Sumrall, Tulane Green Wave. You want a rising star in the coaching profession? Sumrall has been a head coach for three seasons and has advanced to the league championship game every time—twice at Troy in the Sun Belt, and now in his debut at Tulane. 

Not Coach of the Year: Tom Herman, Florida Atlantic Owls. Herman was shockingly unsuccessful at FAU, going 6–16 before being fired Monday—hitting rock bottom on a six-year swan drive after winning 10 games at Texas in 2018. But it should be noted that FAU athletic director Brian White is specializing in big-name hirings and panic firings. He brought in Willie Taggart on the rebound from Florida State in ’20 and fired him after three seasons with a 15–19 record, and now he’s nuked Herman two seasons into a move from Conference USA to the AAC. FAU hasn’t had a head coach last more than three years since program founder Howard Schnellenberger retired in ’11; maybe some continuity would help.

Conference USA

Coach of the Year (so far): Rich Rodriguez (26), Jacksonville State Gamecocks. He can still draw it up, with a career full of wins everywhere but Ann Arbor, Mich. In his third year at Jax State, Rich Rod has the Gamecocks in first place at 6–0, 7–3 overall and on a seven-game winning streak. Games against Sam Houston and Western Kentucky the next two weeks will decide the regular-season title.

Runner-up: K.C. Keeler, Sam Houston Bearkats. Sam Houston joined the FBS ranks last year and went 3–9. Now it is 8–2 and in the title mix. With a lot of holes to fill on defense, the Bearkats lead the league in fewest points allowed. 

Not Coach of the Year: Mike MacIntyre, Florida International Panthers. Playing in Pitbull Stadium has not ushered in greatness. FIU is 3–7 and 1–4 in one-score games.

Mid-American

Coach of the Year (so far): Scot Loeffler (27), Bowling Green Falcons. Sticking with Loeffler through a slow three-season start to his tenure has paid off—the Falcons were competitive in Years 4 and 5 and now are in contention for the MAC championship in Year 6. Bowling Green is tied for first with Miami (Ohio) and Ohio, and a home game against the RedHawks on Nov. 29 could be pivotal in deciding who goes to Detroit for the title game. Bowling Green hasn’t played in that game since 2015.

Runner-up: Thomas Hammock, Northern Illinois Huskies. He and NIU will always have Sept. 7 in South Bend.

Not Coach of the Year: Jim McElwain, Central Michigan Chippewas. His program is under investigation for the Great Connor Stalions Sideline Caper and his team is 3–7 after losing five straight. If McElwain is still the coach in 2025, The Dash will be shocked.

Mountain West

Coach of the Year (so far): Spencer Danielson (28), Boise State Broncos. He got the full-time job after knocking out the interim audition last fall, then did the most important thing for 2024—got superstar running back Ashton Jeanty to stay in Boise. Danielson also made a big QB call that has turned out well, going with Maddux Madsen over touted USC transfer Malachi Nelson. Buy stock on the 36-year-old Danielson, who is looking like the next big winner from the Boise State pipeline.

Runner-up: Barry Odom, UNLV Rebels. He’s changed the trajectory of UNLV football, going 17–7 in two seasons and making decades of unrealized potential tangible. UNLV needs a Colorado State loss in one of its final two games to get another shot at Boise State in what would be a juicy MWC title game.

Not Coach of the Year: Troy Calhoun, Air Force Falcons. He’s done great work for a long time in Colorado Springs, but got caught with a very young team this season and it has shown. Air Force started 1–7 but has won its last two games and could finish on a four-game winning streak.

Pac-12 

Coach of the Year (so far): Jake Dickert (29), Washington State Cougars. Until last week, the Cougs were in at least fringe contention for an improbable CFP at-large bid. After losing star quarterback Cam Ward and all of its conference clout, this program was supposed to be all but dead. At 8–2, Dickert isn’t letting it die.

Not Coach of the Year: Trent Bray, Oregon State Beavers. In a two-man race, someone has to be second. It’s Bray, wallowing along at 4–6 in his debut season.

Sun Belt

Coach of the Year (so far): Bryant Vincent (30), Louisiana-Monroe WarHawks. Several other coaches can be considered here, but when you take over one of the worst programs in FBS and start 5–1, you’ve done some work. ULM is now 5–5 and the air is out of the balloon, but this is a program that went 10–36 the previous four seasons and hasn’t had a winning record since 2012. Give Vincent the credit he couldn’t get while the interim coach at UAB.

Runner-up: Bob Chesney, James Madison Dukes. Cignetti left for Indiana and took a ton of good players with him. Chesney restocked and has kept winning, going 8–2 and hanging in the East Division race. (Yes, the Sun Belt still has divisions. Last of its kind.)

Not Coach of the Year: Dell McGee, Georgia State Panthers. Shocked Vanderbilt on Sept. 14. Hasn’t won since.

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