This is the second of our four-part series that grades and explains those grades for FBS colleges that have hired new head coaches.
Today, we look at Michigan State, Tulane, North Texas, California, Northern Illinois, and UCLA.
Michigan State
New Head Coach: Pat Fitzgerald
New Coaching Staff Rating: 13.5
New Coaching Staff Grade: C-
Pat Fitzgerald?
Really?
Yes, he has plenty of experience but after 17 seasons at Northwestern, he was just 110-101 and finished his final two seasons just 2-16 in the Big Ten.
Last season, MSU finished 91st in the Savvy Index rankings so the Spartans have a lot of ground to make up which will require excellence in the portal and NIL. Unfortunately, Fitzgerald’s results in the hyper-portal era showed fewer wins than the season before. Instead of gaining ground in the transitions of college football, he lost ground. Some of his efforts were stifled by academic standards at NU that disqualify some athletes before they can even apply.
Before the advent of portal madness, Fitzgerald had some momentum so we can neither count him in as a success nor count him out. As a head coach in the new era, he’s in a wait-and-see holding pattern.
What we can do is evaluate the kind of coordinators he has attracted.
On the offensive side, he is bringing in Nick Sheridan who has been OC at Indiana (two seasons) and Alabama (one season). He is a solid OC and the offense appears to be in good hands.
The same cannot be said for the defense.
Fitzgerald hired Max Bullough who has no experience as an OC at any level and only two seasons as a position coach [Notre Dame]. Bullough’s lack of DC experience makes this a less-than-average hire and that is a problem because MSU’s defense gave up more points last season than at any time since the shortened 2020 campaign.
Fitzgerald and Sheridan are about average as far as new coaches are concerned but the inexperience of Bullough makes this a C- situation.
Tulane
New Head Coach: Will Hall
New Coaching Staff Rating: 13.5
New Coaching Staff Grade: C-
Tulane has been terrific lately as the Green Wave posted more than 40 wins in just the past four seasons.
That makes the hiring of Will Hall as the Waves’ new head coach an unexpected and odd move.
Hall has just three years of head coaching experience at the FBS level. All three were at Southern Miss where he lost more than twice as many games as he won and was ultimately fired in 2024 amid a 1-6 start.
There is also a troubling trend in Hall’s experience as a head coach. In each of his prior tenures, whether in FBS or FCS, he started well but by the third season — the season that would have most of the players recruited by him — results were terrible.
That raises the question: Why would nationally-ranked program with Tulane’s appeal not draw from a healthy list of candidates with more successful experience?
Hall is a good guy and became instantly popular in Tulane last year as passing game coordinator, but there are few reasons to believe he can keep Tulane above double-digit wins.
The good thing for Hall is that he may have found instant help in offensive coordinator Russ Callaway who has tons of experience in FBS. Indeed, he has little as OC but he was a Nick Saban understudy for two seasons and that usually bodes well.
My Savvy Index projects that the Tulane offense will do well in 2026.
Nate Fuqua is the new defensive coordinator. He was co-defensive coordinator at Cincinnati in 2023 and 2024 where his defenses underperformed and were abysmal at stopping rush attacks. He was subsequently fired after the 2024 season and has spent the past two years as a defensive analyst, first at Army, then at Kentucky.
There are no opponents on Tulane’s schedule that are currently ranked so that will help. However, getting to double-digit wins once again is not likely.
North Texas
New Head Coach: Neal Brown
New Coaching Staff Rating: 15.0
New Coaching Staff Grade: C
Neal Brown comes in to take over at NTU after a brief and unsuccessful stint as head coach at West Virginia. Before WVU, Brown was quite successful at Troy.
He is taking over a North Texas program that finished 85th ranked on Savvy Index so there is plenty of work to be done.
NTU’s hiring of brown is a good fit because both succeed in sub-power conference situations.
Brown has Mike Bloesch as his offensive coordinator. Bloesch was formerly at North Texas before accepting an opportunity to be a position coach for the Cal Bears. He was then elevated to OC for 2023 season but was fired at the end of the 2024 season after Cal’s interception ratio immediately doubled and was getting worse each year.
Bradley Peveto will be the primary defensive coordinator. He brings 30+ years of college coaching to UNT but it took 25 seasons for him to finally be elevated to DC (UTEP) and since then, co-DC at Texas State. He has a lot of experience but his path to DC took an unusually long time in coming.
Despite some warts, this coaching staff should keep North Texas competitive. Savvy Index does not project another 12-win season, but 10 wins appear to be within sight.
California
New Head Coach: Tosh Lupoi
New Coaching Staff Rating: 15.0
New Coaching Staff Grade: C
California finally grew weary of former coach Justin Wilcox’ rudimentary results and parted ways with the popular former Duck.
In his place will be another Duck — sort of.
Tosh Lupoi is better known for his fantastic work as defensive coordinator at Ohio State but his tenure at Oregon was terrific and also growing. Coaches who spend two or more seasons at a coordinator level in elite programs generally succeed as head coaches.
After him, things begin to fall apart a little.
He has hired Jordan Somerville to be his offensive coordinator. But, Somerville has just two seasons of college football coaching and that was as a mere position coach at New Mexico. He spent the next three seasons as only an assistant position coach in the NFL. He has no experience as an offensive coordinator. To think he can take over a Power Four offense with no experience, no history as a recruiter, and no west coast ties, is quite a stretch.
On the defensive side, Lupoi has hired Jeyvon Brown who has almost no FBS experience, no ties to the West Coast, and only co-coordinator experience at Western Kentucky for one season. He should benefit from Lupoi’s strong defensive background but, at some point, he will have to do things on his own and he lacks the background to suggest he will succeed.
Hiring Tosh Lupoi was a great start for Cal. But, he is going to have to carry all of the Cal water for months until these coordinators are able to launch on their own. They will have a “do-able” schedule until September 19th. After that, things get brutal and the effectiveness of those coordinators will become vivid.
Northern Illinois
New Head Coach: Rob Harley
New Coaching Staff Rating: 15
New Coaching Staff Grade: C
Northern Illinois’ head coach Thomas Hammock waited until February 18, 2026 — or just one month before Spring football — to resign, leaving NIU in quite a pickle.
As of today [April 16, 2026], the Huskies still do not have a true head coach. Rob Harley continues to wear the “interim” tag. I believe his work in the past two months will cause NIU to remove that tag and name him the permanent head coach.
Why?
Because Harley quickly turned heads when he hired Tony Peterson as his offensive coordinator.
Peterson has been an FBS offensive coordinator at many stops since 1996 with some of that experience being in the Big Ten
Harley doubled-down on that success when he retained D J Bland as his defensive coordinator. Bland has been successful on the defensive side for the past eight seasons and in three seasons at NIU, he pushed NIU’s secondary to sixth in the entire nation for fewest passing yards allowed.
Despite desperation in DeKalb, Northern Illinois will land on its feet if the Huskies finally remove the “interim” tag from Harley’s job description.
UCLA
New Head Coach: Bob Chesney
New Coaching Staff Rating: 15.5
New Coaching Staff Grade: C+
As much as I like and respect DeShaun Foster, I didn’t see his tenure as head coach at UCLA lasting very long. I actually felt bad for him because it seemed that UCLA rushed and pushed Foster from a mere position coach to HC, a spot for which he was clearly not ready.
Coming in now is Bob Chesney who followed Curt Cignetti at James Madison and kept the Dukes successful for two seasons.
However, that is his only FBS HC experience Chesney has. Can he recruit? Can he hit the portal and make up for an obvious talent deficit that lingers after all of the coaching chaos and transitions at UCLA?
Chesney’s history is too short to see this as anything more than a slightly-better-than-average head coach hire — at least for now and at least early in his tenure as a Bruin.
At James Madison, Chesney inherited a strong roster. At UCLA, he must build one yet even Stanford
So far, his recruiting ranks just 62nd in the nation with no five star recruits and only one four star. Even lowly Purdue has out-recruited UCLA this cycle.
What will help is offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy who comes to UCLA from a successful stint as OC at James Madison. Kennedy’s offense gained ground in rushing yards per attempt every year Kennedy was at JMU.
Kennedy rates better-than-average on the offensive side and that is a good harbinger of Chesney’s long-term success.
Colin Hischler is not a well-known name but he probably will soon be as UCLA’s defensive coordinator. He has co-DC stints at Wisconsin, Alabama, and Cincinnati and one season at James Madison. His experience, longevity, success, and familiarity with Chesney’s system make him a good hire for Chesney.
Based on rating factors I see in Savvy Index, I suspect Chesney will increase wins to perhaps bowl eligibility this season.
Savvy Game Line 