Forde-Yard Dash: Why Hiring the Right Coordinators Is More Important Than Ever

As head coaching changes slow because schools are not spending as recklessly on buyouts, navigating the carousel of assistants can make or break a season.

Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock left LSU and returned to the Fighting Irish sideline. / GREG SWIERCZ / USA TODAY NETWORK

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Second Quarter: Winning the Staffing Battle Matters

There are several reasons why Marcus Freeman (11) is thriving right now at Notre Dame while his former bosses, Brian Kelly (12) and Luke Fickell (13), are not exactly having the times of their lives. But don’t overlook this one: talented assistants have chosen the Fighting Irish and Freeman over Kelly’s LSU Tigers and Fickell’s Wisconsin Badgers. 

Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock used to be LSU offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock (and prior to that was Cincinnati Bearcats offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock). He left LSU when Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels left—probably a well-timed exit—and returned to South Bend, where he’d worked from 2010 to '16. 

Currently, Notre Dame is on a six-game streak of scoring 30 or more points, something it hasn’t accomplished since making the College Football Playoff in 2020. Meanwhile LSU’s scoring has plummeted by more than 16 points per game year-over-year—and while that probably has more to do with Daniels’s departure than anything else, new coordinator Joe Sloan’s work with the Tigers has come under mounting criticism. 

LSU has averaged 17.3 points during its current three-game losing streak. They miss Denbrock in Baton Rouge right now, where LSU’s 4.08 yards per play in a loss to Florida was its fewest in 32 games.

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Freeman has also won some staffing wars with Fickell, his boss when both were at Cincinnati. Quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli had been with Fickell at Cincy from the start in 2017, and briefly joined him at Wisconsin in ’23. But by spring he’d been hired away by Freeman.

In December 2023, Freeman grabbed receivers coach Mike Brown from Fickell’s staff. He also retained secondary coach Mike Mickens, who had come from Cincinnati to Notre Dame in February ’20 under Kelly and stayed.

Freeman’s best hire, though, came independent of both Kelly and Fickell—that was landing defensive coordinator Al Golden in 2022. His unit currently ranks third nationally in points allowed per game, fourth in yards allowed per play and sixth in yards allowed per game. Offensive line coach Joe Rudolph, a former Wisconsin assistant who predated Fickell there, has done good work this season as well with a young unit. All things considered, Notre Dame has assembled a great staff.

Meanwhile, Fickell fired his offensive coordinator, Phil Longo, on Sunday. That was a strange marriage that never worked—Longo was an Air Raid guy coming to a ground-and-pound school, and even at Cincinnati, Fickell was not an air-it-out coach. The percentage of running plays at Wisconsin dropped from 65.4% in 2021 to 60.6 in ’22 (the year Paul Chryst was fired) to 49.2 last season, with Longo calling plays. This year it has risen back to 55.2%, but that might owe more to the Badgers’ quarterback play than anything else.

Wisconsin has brought in two starting QBs via the transfer portal in Fickell’s two seasons—Tanner Mordecai from SMU in 2023 and Tyler Van Dyke from Miami in ’24. Mordecai wasn’t very effective (his 127.15 pass efficiency rating was seventh in an aerially challenged Big Ten). Van Dyke was lost to injury for the year early this season, but his numbers weren’t great in the first two games. Backup Braedyn Locke, a Longo recruit, is 16th in the Big Ten in efficiency at 114.48. 

If the Badgers dip back into the portal for a QB this offseason, they need to get it right. Fickell also needs to get the coordinator hire right—perhaps by offering it to Guidugli.

Fickell’s hiring at Wisconsin looked like the home run of the 2023 coaching carousel. It has instead been a bloop single thus far. He’s 12–11 overall, 8–8 in league play, stuck in the middle of an increasingly difficult conference. Finding an offensive coordinator that fits him and fits Wisconsin will be a vital move going into a pivotal third year.

The other splashy head coaching hire in the Big Ten last year was the Nebraska Cornhuskers landing Matt Rhule (14). Like Fickell at Wisconsin, returns to date are surprisingly underwhelming. And like Fickell at Wisconsin, Rhule has trapdoored his offensive coordinator.

As the Cornhuskers languished after a 5–1 start, Marcus Satterfield was demoted earlier this month. Rhule brought in former West Virginia and Houston head coach Dana Holgorsen in search of an emergency transfusion, hoping touted freshman Dylan Raiola will take some strides, but the first game with Holgo calling plays was about the same as what preceded it.

Holgorsen joined the Huskers for an emergency offensive fix. / Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

Through September, Raiola’s efficiency rating was 162.61. Since then it is 106.01. Nebraska has gone five straight games without scoring more than 20 points or averaging five yards per play. And the Huskers have now lost four straight, languishing at 5–5, still seeking their first bowl game since 2016.

Coordinators have been taking hits elsewhere beyond the Big Ten, too. The lack of head coach firings at the power-conference level has been striking—schools are not spending as recklessly on buyouts, for once, thanks largely to the looming House v. NCAA settlement that will cost them tens of millions starting in 2025. And some coaches on the hot seat have done enough to stabilize their standing, most notably Dave Aranda at Baylor and Billy Napier at Florida. 

But sacrifices have been made at a few places where head coaches could get whacked next year. Most notably: the Florida State Seminoles (15) broomed three assistants last week, including their offensive and defensive coordinators; the Oklahoma Sooners (16) ousted OC Seth Littrell back in October; and the Central Florida Knights (17) bounced defensive coordinator Ted Roof. After being given fat, new contacts in the offseason and then flopping this fall, Mike Norvell will be on the clock in Tallahassee and Brent Venables in Norman, Okla., in 2025. The timing of their travails is acutely felt—Florida State has made a grandiose show of suing the ACC to lessen its departure fees (for … somewhere), while Oklahoma has gotten its teeth kicked in upon entry into the SEC.

At UCF, Gus Malzahn has struggled to upgrade the program for the rigors of the Big 12. After winning nine games in each of his first two seasons while UCF was in the American Athletic Conference, Malzahn is now 10–13 and 5–11 in league play in 2023 and ’24. In a wide-open league where teams picked to finish at or near the bottom have risen to the top, UCF’s malaise is noteworthy.

The other notable power-conference coordinator change is at a place where the head coach is on retirement watch. 

Utah Utes (18) offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig stepped down in October, a development that has not stopped the tailspin—the Utes have now lost six in a row and have thrown the second-most interceptions in the nation at 17. Head coach Kyle Whittingham is 64 years old, not in love with the modern realities of the sport and has already named defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley his successor-in-waiting. Is this the year Whittingham walks away as the best coach in Utah history?

Where will coordinators fall next? There are a couple of logical locations. 

The Michigan Wolverines (19) aren’t likely to stand pat on the offensive side of the ball after seeing that unit fall apart. Coordinator Kirk Campbell is under fire with the Wolverines averaging 20.4 points per game, on pace for their lowest average since 2008. Of course, head coach Sherrone Moore was promoted from OC and has his own fingerprints on that unit; he will be under pressure in ’25 to restore a program that has gone from 15–0 last season to 5–5 this year.

The Arizona Wildcats (20) also are experiencing a jarring head coach transition, going from 10 wins under Jedd Fisch to the current 4–6 under Brent Brennan. Arizona retained its standout pass-and-catch combination of Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan, but that hasn’t translated to success with the new coaching staff. 

The Wildcats still have a chance to finish well, having routed the Houston Cougars last week and with big opportunities against the TCU Horned Frogs and Arizona State Sun Devils still to come. But keep in mind that first-year athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois didn’t hire Brennan, and there is the additional dynamic of the Sun Devils having a breakthrough season when least expected. Never underestimate the pressure that is applied when one school is having a bad season and its neighboring rival is having a great one.

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