Coaching Carousel Spins Right Into the College Football Playoff

The unrelenting college football coaching carousel has wreaked havoc on multiple teams that will appear in this year’s College Football Playoff. 

Half of the teams in the CFP field are losing coaches, from coordinators to head coaches. Three schools—No. 6 Ole Miss, No. 11 Tulane, and No. 12 JMU—have either already lost or will lose their head coaches.

The biggest story in college football last week was Lane Kiffin’s controversial exit from Ole Miss right before the Rebels were set to make a run in the College Football Playoff. Kiffin announced last Sunday that he would take the job at LSU, signing a seven-year, $91 million contract complete with a multimillion buyout and no offset clause. 

Kiffin lobbied to continue to coach Ole Miss in the Playoff, but Ole Miss leadership decided he couldn’t stay in Oxford after signing a contract to coach one of the team’s biggest rivals. Instead, defensive coordinator Pete Golding will lead Ole Miss in the Playoff.

Double-Duty Coaches

The Rebels will face off against Tulane, another program that lost its head coach just days before the CFP rankings were revealed. On Sunday, Jon Sumrall announced he will head to Florida next season—but unlike Ole Miss, Tulane leadership said Sumrall would be allowed to continue to coach the program through the CFP. (The decision was arguably easier given that Tulane isn’t in the same conference as Florida, and is not at the same conference level.)

During an interview on Sunday, Sumrall told ESPN he was heading to Gainesville for a couple of days—presumably to begin prepping his Gators program, including working on retaining players and preparing for the upcoming transfer portal window. Sumrall is doing double duty, however: He said he’ll be watching game tape on the plane to prep for the CFP matchup against Ole Miss on Dec 20.

He has a similar schedule to fellow Group of 6 CFP coach Bob Chesney. On Saturday, UCLA announced it had hired Chesney to lead a beleaguered Bruins program—just one day after Chesney led James Madison to the Sun Belt title. 

Like Tulane, JMU will allow Chesney to finish out his season with the Dukes before moving to Westwood. Chesney told ESPN he will fly cross-country to Los Angeles on Monday to meet the UCLA team; he has a press conference to be introduced as the Bruins head coach Tuesday. Then, he said he’ll head back to Virginia to prepare the Dukes for their matchup against Oregon on Dec. 20.