Indiana Football Head Coaching Search: Updated List of Potential Candidates
(updated Wednesday, Nov. 29 at 1:10 p.m.)
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana has begun the search for its newest head coach after firing Tom Allen on Sunday.
At this point, it seems more likely that Indiana will opt for someone with a background as a head coach due to their experience in leading and building a program, as well as recruiting both at the high school level and in the transfer portal, but that doesn't completely eliminate coordinators or position coaches.
Here are some potential candidates.
Current head coaches
Jason Candle, Toledo
Candle has a 65-33 record at Toledo over the last eight seasons, including a 43-19 run in MAC play. He's won two MAC titles and will play for his third this year as the Rockets enter the MAC championship with an 11-1 and 8-0 record. Toledo has won at least six games every year, aside from the shortened COVID-19 season, along with four years with at least nine wins. Candle is an offensive-minded head coach, and his Toledo teams have ranked top two in scoring among MAC teams in six of his eight seasons. He has coached at Toledo in some capacity since 2009 and began his coaching career at Mount Union, where he also played wide receiver.
Curt Cignetti, James Madison
Cignetti has a 52-9 record at James Madison since 2019, dominating the CAA and Sun Belt with 31-4 conference record. James Madison has either won or played in the conference championship in all five seasons under Cignetti, and they'll do so again this year with an 11-1 record. Cignetti also led successful programs at Elon and Indiana University of Pennsylvania, winning at least six games in a combined eight seasons at both schools. He also has experience at the Power 5 level, holding a variety of offensive position coaching jobs at Alabama, NC State and Pittsburgh.
Chris Creighton, Eastern Michigan
Creighton has a 52-67 record across 10 seasons, which is weighed down by a 3-21 record in his first two years. More recently, he led Eastern Michigan to a 9-4 record in 2022, including a win in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. That year, Eastern Michigan ranked second in the MAC in offensive efficiency and had a conference-high 13 interceptions. The Eagles are en route to another bowl game this year, which will be the sixth in the last eight seasons under Creighton, making him the only coach that has led Eastern Michigan to multiple bowl games. His coaching career began as the offensive coordinator at Concordia University, and his first head coaching job was at Drake from 2008-13, where he went 44-22 with two conference titles.
Willie Fritz, Tulane
Fritz has an extensive head coaching background dating back to 1997 at Central Missouri, Sam Houston State, Georgia Southern and now Tulane, posting a 208-115 overall record. Since 2016, Fritz has led Tulane to a 54-46 record, but he's been particularly successful in the last two seasons, going 23-3 overall and 15-1 in the American Athletic Conference. Tulane drew national attention last year when it defeated USC in the Cotton Bowl, and the Green Wave was ranked No. 23 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings. Fritz won the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award and the George Munger Award in 2022, given to the nation's top head coach. Fritz played defensive back at Pittsburgh State from 1978-81.
Tom Herman, Florida Atlantic
Herman helped Ohio State win the 2014 national championship as the offensive coordinator, and he won the Broyles Award for the nation's top assistant coach. That led to his first head coaching job at Houston, where he posted a 22-4 record in two seasons. Herman was quickly scooped up by Texas the following year, where he went 32-18 overall and 22-13 in Big 12 play across four seasons. Despite winning four bowl games and finishing in the top 25 of the final AP poll in his final three seasons, Texas decided that wasn't good enough and fired him after the 2020 season. Herman spent one year with the Chicago Bears as an offensive analyst before being hired at Florida Atlantic, where he has a 4-8 record in his first season in 2023.
Kane Wommack, South Alabama
Wommack has the least amount of head coaching experience among the candidates listed, as he earned his first job at South Alabama in 2021. Since then, he has 21-16 overall record and a 13-11 mark in Sun Belt play. He led South Alabama to a 10-3 record in 2022, ultimately losing to Western Kentucky in the New Orleans Bowl. Indiana's potential attraction to Wommack stems from his stint at Indiana from 2018-20, first as the linebackers coach and then two years as the defensive coordinator. His "Swarm D" helped Indiana reach the Gator Bowl and Outback Bowl in 2019 and 2020, and the Hoosiers led the nation with 17 interceptions in 2020. Wommack, 36, is currently the third-youngest head coach in the FBS.
Previous head coaches
Paul Chryst, formerly Wisconsin and Pittsburgh
Chryst was fired from Wisconsin after beginning the 2022 season with a 2-3 record, but he built a perennial power in Madison from 2015-21. Wisconsin went 65-23 during that seven-year stretch, which included a 6-1 record in bowl games, with the only loss coming by one point to Oregon in the Rose Bowl. Wisconsin never finished worse than third, and it won the Big Ten West division three times under Chryst. Another potential factor could be that current Indiana offensive line coach Bob Bostad worked on Chryst's staff from 2017-22 and made noticeable improvements at Indiana in 2023. Prior to Wisconsin, Chryst went 19-19 in three seasons at Pittsburgh. He played quarterback at Wisconsin from 1986-88.
Rod Carey, current Indiana offensive coordinator
Carey joined Indiana's staff before the 2022 season as a quality control coach, a role in which provided an offensive perspective to the Hoosiers' defense. Midway through the year, he replaced Darren Hiller as Indiana's offense line coach. He went back to his quality control position to begin 2023, only to be promoted to offensive coordinator when Walt Bell was fired midseason. Indiana's offense made a slight uptick in scoring, going from 20.8 points per game with Bell to 22.2 with Carey, who strictly coached against Big Ten defenses. Carey's previous head coaching experience includes a 12-20 record in three seasons at Temple, as well as a 52-30 record at Northern Illinois, where he reached five bowl games in six seasons.
Current coordinators, position coaches
Mike Hart, Michigan running backs coach
Hart is a familiar name for Indiana. He was on Tom Allen's staff from 2017-20 as the running backs coach, and was also promoted to associate head coach during the Hoosiers' 6-2 season in 2020. Hart has spent the last three seasons coaching Michigan running backs, which rushed for over 3,000 yards in 2021 and 2022. His other past experiences include coaching running backs at Syracuse, Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan. The potential concern with Hart would be that he's never called plays as an offensive coordinator or head coach.
Justin Frye, Ohio State associate head coach for offense, offensive line coach
Frye was the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at UCLA from 2019-21. In his final two seasons, UCLA averaged at least 36 points per game, including finishing in second in the Pac-12 in total offense in 2021. He joined Ryan Day's staff at Ohio State in 2022, and the Buckeyes have scored at least 30 points per game in both seasons. Frye played offensive line at Indiana from 2002-06. He was a team captain as a senior and voted the team’s most outstanding offensive lineman. Frye graduated from Elwood High School in Indiana.
Ryan Grubb, Washington offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach
Grubb has been on coaching staffs with Kalen DeBoer dating all the way back to the University of Sioux Falls from 2007-09, followed by stops at Eastern Michigan, Fresno State and now Washington. As Washington's offensive coordinator in 2022, the Huskies had the nation's top passing offense and ranked second in total offense, just one year after ranking 114th in total offense. While Grubb doesn't have head coaching experience, his strong track record as an offensive coordinator could be attractive to an Indiana
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