Adam RittenbergNov 30, 2025, 03:38 PM ETCloseCollege football reporter; joined ESPN in 2008. Graduate of Northwestern University.Follow on X
play0:32Paul Finebaum: Is Virginia Tech an upgrade for James Franklin?Paul Finebaum weighs in on James Franklin reportedly being hired as Virginia Tech’s next coach.
Lane Kiffin to LSU, Pete Golding to lead Ole Miss (0:51)Adam Rittenberg reacts to Lane Kiffin’s decision to take LSU’s job and Ole Miss replacing Kiffin with defensive coordinator Pete Golding. (0:51)
Paul Finebaum: Is Virginia Tech an upgrade for James Franklin?Paul Finebaum weighs in on James Franklin reportedly being hired as Virginia Tech’s next coach.
Stanford hires former Cardinal QB Tavita Pritchard as coach
Schools around the Power 4 that fired their coaches in the first two months of the season — or, in Stanford’s case, way back in late March — are targeting candidates and finalizing deals. Interestingly enough, one of the first major coaches to lose his job, Penn State’s James Franklin, was the first noninterim coach to be hired, as he is headed to Virginia Tech.
New hires always come with hope and optimism, grand proclamations and the chance to get programs on the right track. But not all hiring processes are the same. The financial component with jobs is essential — what schools are willing to spend not just on their head coach, but the assistants and support staff and, perhaps most important, the team roster.
We will be reviewing all of the major coaching hires in the 2025-26 cycle, evaluating how each coach fits in the job, their major challenges and what it will take to be successful. We will also assign an initial letter grade for each hire.
Although Golding has shown his talents in recruiting and with schematics, how will he handle the media? How does he do in front of donors and other key stakeholders with the university? Perhaps he just needed the chance, which he now has, but assistant coaches that are shielded from the media often take some time to get fully comfortable.
He has led Memphis since late 2019 but been at the program since 2016, so he understands the recruiting landscape and where Arkansas must look for players. Arkansas’ location can be a challenge for acquiring talent, but Silverfield shouldn’t be intimidated by it. He also brings a strong background on offense to Fayetteville and should compile a staff that has similar knowledge to the area and possibly the SEC.
Silverfield’s consistency and success tended to go under the radar at a program like Memphis, where people have grown accustomed to really strong seasons. But his steady leadership style, shown in 2023, 2024 and most of this year, should help an Arkansas program that needs clear direction. He hasn’t coached in the SEC, and there could be a learning curve, but he shouldn’t be surprised walking in the door at Arkansas after spending so much time with Memphis. — Rittenberg
Golesh also brings an offensive background that should energize Auburn fans, especially after how poorly things went on that side of the ball under Freeze. He spent time with Matt Campbell early in his career, and then with Josh Heuepel at both UCF and Tennessee. South Florida ranks in the top five nationally in both scoring and total offense this season, and its defense shined in wins against Boise State and Florida.
Pritchard, 38, was part of Stanford’s seismic shift under Jim Harbaugh, quarterbacking the team to a signature win against USC in 2007. He then witnessed Stanford’s rise to a consistent contender and, more importantly, saw how things went downhill so quickly after COVID and in the portal/NIL era. His ability to learn from those difficult times and ensure Stanford avoids them will be important. But again, he’s not doing this alone, as he comes in immediately aligned with Luck. — Rittenberg
Generating momentum. Few people share as close an association with some of the biggest moments in Stanford history as Pritchard, but during those heights, the Cardinal never truly resonated broadly within a competitive San Francisco Bay Area sports market. With the collapse of the Pac-12 and six losing seasons in the past seven years, Stanford football has essentially become irrelevant locally. Building a program under those circumstances is difficult.
Beyond the structural challenges, this is just a team that needs a talent upgrade. They don’t have the players right now to compete at a high level. — Kyle Bonagura
Morris played and coached in the Big 12 at Texas Tech and spent time at Houston early in his career, so he won’t be unfamiliar with the key characteristics of a program like Oklahoma State. He’s not a Gundy disciple, but he can respect what Gundy did to elevate the program, while implementing his own vision, which worked both at Incarnate Word and at North Texas. — Rittenberg
The answer here is twofold: 1) Morris must live up to the unprecedented levels of consistent success his predecessor brought Oklahoma State; 2) Morris will also have to figure out exactly how to take the Cowboys’ football program to the future.
Morris is only 40 (cue the Gundy memes), hasn’t been a Power 4 head coach, and before this season had only middling results with North Texas. His quarterback track record is his superpower, though, and Oklahoma State needs a renaissance at the position after things fell off too sharply. Morris can recruit Texas and build up the roster. Time will tell if he has the expertise to win one-score games in a league where programs are extremely similar. — Rittenberg
Paul Finebaum: Is Virginia Tech an upgrade for James Franklin?
Paul Finebaum weighs in on James Franklin reportedly being hired as Virginia Tech’s next coach.
When Franklin was fired and almost immediately announced his intentions to coach in 2026, Virginia Tech emerged as a natural landing spot for the 53-year-old. He has spent most of his career near the mid-Atlantic region, twice serving as a Maryland assistant, leading programs in Vanderbilt and Penn State and even working within the state at James Madison in 1997.
Virginia Tech’s two post-Frank Beamer hires were a coach who had not led a Power 4 program (Justin Fuente) and a first-time head coach (Brent Pry). In Franklin, Virginia Tech gets a proven winner from the Big Ten and SEC, who knows the region extremely well and will be extremely motivated to compete for league titles and CFP appearances.
Franklin’s big-stage shortcomings are a concern but perhaps not as much for a program like Virginia Tech, which is seeking to become a consistent conference title contender again. — Rittenberg
LSU got the coach it wanted ahead of other suitors, further confirming that its coaching job, despite the drama and dysfunction, remains one of the best in college football. Kiffin left a great situation at the height of his powers because he knows that LSU can consistently compete for national titles in ways that other programs simply cannot. In Kiffin, LSU gains a coach accustomed to the bright lights and the big stadiums, who can attract and develop talent and potentially restore the program to national powerhouse status. LSU can offer the big stage Kiffin lacked at Ole Miss, and wanted again.
Kiffin hasn’t worked at LSU but knows the SEC well after stops at Ole Miss, Alabama and Tennessee. Like Kiffin did at Ole Miss, he should put together an excellent staff that can scour Louisiana, Texas and the surrounding areas for top talent. He certainly will try to bring some of Ole Miss’ top players with him. Kiffin brings the offensive chops that LSU lacked at the end of Kelly’s tenure. He’s one of the nation’s best at identifying and developing quarterbacks, and the emergence of running back Kewan Lacy and others underscores that the Kiffin plan works on offense. — Adam Rittenberg
LSU has a reputation as a place where it is possible to win championships, and that expectation will be placed on Kiffin immediately – especially with the money he is being paid. The Tigers pride themselves on this fact as Nick Saban, Les Miles, then Ed Orgeron all won national titles. Brian Kelly was an awkward fit from the start and never truly got the vibe down on the Bayou. Kiffin has his own unique way of running a program, but he has to find a way to work with all the different “cooks in the kitchen” so to speak. The entire state is heavily invested in LSU football, and though Kiffin has an extremely high profile, he is moving to an even bigger spotlight in Baton Rouge — the only Power 4 school in the state. Kiffin must embrace that, and everything that comes with it. As coveted as he was in this cycle, Kiffin has never won a conference title and finding a way to get over the hump at a school like LSU has to happen. This will be his best shot to get it done, and the clock will start ticking as soon as his first press conference ends. — Andrea Adelson
The fixation around Kiffin the past few weeks would normally be attached to a multi-time national championship winner, or at least a coach who has won a Power 4 conference title. Kiffin did tremendous work at Ole Miss but still needs to show he can win the biggest games consistently. LSU is a national championship-or-bust type of program, and Kiffin will be judged at the very highest level, which he craves. He brings the right ingredients to get it done in Baton Rouge, especially his work with quarterbacks. — Rittenberg
Under normal circumstances, Ole Miss could run a complete coaching search, thoroughly assess candidates currently in head-coaching roles, and others who might help build on the historic success under Lane Kiffin. But these are the strangest of times in Oxford, as Kiffin exits for LSU, a College Football Playoff first-round game looms for the Rebels, and emotions are running extremely high. Kiffin certainly will try to poach the roster for top pieces, and Ole Miss must do what it can to protect as many players as possible. Golding was the lead recruiter for many of them. He’s well-liked by players and won’t need to familiarize himself with Oxford, the administration and how Ole Miss is set up to compete.