New College Football Head Coach Expectations 2022: Meet The First Year Coaches

College Football New Head Coaches: What are the expectations for all 29 going into 2022?

Lincoln Riley, USC

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Before This … Head coach at Oklahoma for five seasons.

Top Line of the Resumé: Four Big 12 championships and three College Football Playoff appearances.

Realistic Expectations In Year One: Win the Pac-12 Championship, and at least get close to the College Football Playoff.

Realistic Expectations Over Next Five Years: Two Pac-12 championships, one Big Ten title – USC joins in 2024 – at least two runs to the College Football Playoff, and one national title.

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Jon Sumrall, Troy

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Before This … He was a key assistant at Kentucky and the 2021 offensive coordinator.

Top Line of the Resumé: Was part of the Neal Brown coaching staff at Troy that won the 2017 Sun Belt title – at least the co-champion – thanks to one of the nation’s top defenses.

Realistic Expectations In Year One: Come up with a winning season for the first time since 2018 thanks to a vastly improved defense.

Realistic Expectations Over Next Five Years: Winning seasons and bowl games have to be the norm, with at least two appearances in the Sun Belt Championship.

Jeff Tedford, Fresno State

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Before This … Out of the game for a few years, Tedford returns to Fresno State after winning 26 games and a Mountain West title in three years from 2017 to 2019.

Top Line of the Resumé: A legendary quarterback coach who helped make Aaron Rodgers, Trent Dilfer, Derek Carr, Joey Harrington, Akili Smith, and Kyle Boller first round draft picks.

Realistic Expectations In Year One: Win the Mountain West Championship with QB Jake Haener one of the nation’s best passers.

Realistic Expectations Over Next Five Years: As long as Tedford can stay healthy and wants to coach, Fresno State should set the bar at a Mountain West championship level. It might not go 22-6 like it did in 2017 and 2018, but it might not be far off.

Brent Venables, Oklahoma

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Before This … He spent ten years as the Clemson defensive coordinator after working as the Oklahoma DC from 1999 to 2011.

Top Line of the Resumé: 2016 Broyles Award winner as the top assistant, coaching the Clemson defense in a national championship season.

Realistic Expectations In Year One: Win the Big 12 Championship and at least come close to making the College Football Playoff.

Realistic Expectations Over Next Five Years: Quickly get back to dominating the Big 12 with a tremendous defense to go along with that offense, get to at least one College Football Playoff, and then go off to the SEC and make a big splash right away in 2024.

Bryant Vincent, UAB

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Before This … Offensive coordinator at UAB from 2018 to 2021.

Top Line of the Resumé: Leader of the offense that came up with one of the best seasons ever for UAB football with a run to the 2018 Conference USA championship and 11-win campaign.

Realistic Expectations In Year One: Get back to the Conference USA Championship after missing out last year – UAB went to three straight from 2018 to 2020. Win enough to not be the interim head coach.

Realistic Expectations Over Next Five Years: Transfer the success in Conference USA over to the American Athletic Conference next season. Vincent is still technically an interim head coach with Bill Clark needing to step down, but there’s no reason to expect UAB’s success to slow down.

Ken Wilson, Nevada

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Before This … The longtime Nevada assistant worked as a linebacker coach, defensive coordinator, and for a stretch in the athletic department from 1989 to 2012. Last year he was the Oregon co-defensive coordinator.

Top Line of the Resumé: He was either a defensive coordinator or linebacker coach for 12 conference champions at Nevada and Oregon since 1990.

Realistic Expectations In Year One: Rebuild quickly enough to get Nevada to a bowl game for its fifth season in a row.

Realistic Expectations Over Next Five Years: Create one of the Mountain West’s best defenses as the backbone to an annual bowl-bound program that gets to a conference championship game at least once.

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