Dana Holgorsen – Syndication Server

Could Nebraska be adding a former Big 12 head coach to their staff?

Nebraska could be potentially be adding a former Big 12 head coach to its staff.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers could be adding former West Virginia and Houston head coach Dana Holgersen to their coaching staff according to reports.

On Saturday, according to multiple reports including Huskers Online’s Steven Sipple and 247Sports’s Matt Zenitz, the Huskers are in talks with the 52-year-old. It is unclear what role Holgorsen would serve on Matt Rhule’s staff.

Holgorsen was fired as the head coach of the University of Houston following the conclusion of this past season. In his four seasons with the program, the Cougars went 31-28 including 20-19 in conference play. This past season in the program’s first year in the Big 12, the Cougars went 4-8 including 2-7 in conference play.

The Iowa native also spent nearly a decade with the West Virginia Mountaineers leading the program to a 61-41 record.

Prior to his time as a head coach, Holgorsen spent time with multiple programs including Texas Tech, Houston, and Oklahoma State as an offensive coordinator.

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2023-2024 College Football Coaching Carousel

Texas A&M hires Duke’s Mike Elko as the coaching carousel continues to spin.

The end of the college football season is here and the coaching carousel is once again getting fired up. This season saw two early head coaching changes within the Big Ten to get an early jump on things, but more coaching changes are popping up as we close in on the end of another regular season around the nation.

We’ll keep track of all of the head coaching changes in our updated coaching carousel tracker to see what head coaches are out and who is replacing them. This will be updated daily as needed with the latest head coaching changes as jobs open up and are filled. As is so often the case in college football, one coaching vacancy being filled will lead to another opening popping up as a result.

As of Thursday, Dec. 8 there are 2 head coaching vacancies in college football, including 1 power conference job to fill. A total of 19 head coaching changes have been made this year.

Below is the updated chart for this year’s edition of the head coaching carousel in college football. After that is a bit more detail on each job opening, listed in alphabetical order.

USC’s Kliff Kingsbury emerges as candidate for Houston job after Dana Holgorsen is fired

Notable: Kingsbury did previously coach at Houston as an assistant.

The University of Houston fired head coach Dana Holgorsen on Sunday morning. The spins of the coaching carousel are creating all sorts of possibilities, and some of them could involve USC.

One is that Kliff Kingsbury could become the next Houston head coach.

Joseph Duarte of the Houston Chronicle included Kingsbury on a list of candidates to replace Holgorsen:

“He’s familiar with UH as a former co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach (2010-11) and served as OC/QBs coach at Texas A&M during Johnny Manziel’s Heisman Trophy season in 2012. Along with Manziel, Kingsbury has worked with notable quarterbacks Baker Mayfield, Caleb Williams, Case Keenum, Kyler Murray and Patrick Mahomes. One bonus: Kingsbury is still being paid from his NFL job until 2027 after being fired just 10 months after signing a six-year extension.”

Reactions to the Kingsbury link at Houston are pouring in:

8 college football coaches on the hot seat, including Houston’s Dana Holgorsen

Jimbo Fisher was the first major domino to fall in what could prove to be a wild coaching carousel.

In contrast with the chaos of the college football coaching market the last two years, it’s been a bit of a slow burn to start the 2023 carousel.

As the calendar turned to November, the only Power Five openings were Michigan State and Northwestern, both of which opened for non-football reasons. It looked like we could be heading for a relatively quiet cycle.

Then, a major domino fell. In what became something of a “Black Sunday” for college football coaches, Texas A&M decided to part ways with coach Jimbo Fisher (and pay the $76 million buyout that came with that decision).

Since then, we’ve seen a few more changes, including in the SEC West. Mississippi State fired first-year coach Zach Arnett just 11 games into his tenure after he took over last December after the death of coach Mike Leach.

In the Group of Five ranks, Boise State axed third-year coach Andy Avalos, and San Diego State (and former Michigan) coach Brady Hoke announced his retirement.

These were the first moves to be made, but if history is any indicator, they’ll be far from the last. Here are eight more coaches who find themselves on the hot seat with two weeks left in the regular season.

Week 3 Roundtable: A pair of coaches seats are heating up

Who has the hotter seat and which conference matchup is the best? These questions get answered in our weekly College Wire roundtable discussion.

Plenty of storylines are becoming clear as we enter Week 3 of the college football season.

One major storyline involves coaches who are on the hot seat. Neal Brown of West Virginia and Danny Gonzales of New Mexico were the two names at the top of most lists. However, since the beginning of this year, we can add another name to the list, Houston’s Dana Holgorsen.

Ironically enough, Brown replaced Holgorsen at West Virginia when he left for the job at Houston. Now both could be joining the unemployment line if something doesn’t change in the coming weeks.

WVU has another major test as they rekindle their “Backyard Brawl” rivalry with Pitt of the ACC. Houston gets its first taste of Big 12 play when they host the CFP runner-ups, TCU on Saturday.

The College Wire network tackles the question of who has more pressure right now among four other questions ahead of Week 3 in college football.

Dana Holgorsen’s thoughts on Texas leaving: ‘Screw them’

Dana Holgerson…not a big Longhorns fan.

Texas has always been enemies to the rest of the Big 12 due to the fact that they carry themselves as the national brand they are. However, there is a new reason the rest of the conference dislikes them.

After announcing that they were departing for the SEC, it has been made abundantly clear by the remaining teams and even Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark that they won’t be missed. Over the past few days, the commissioner publicly rooted against Texas, and now the latest slam by a conference foe came via Houston head coach Dana Holgorsen.

The former West Virginia head coach was asked recently about both Texas and Oklahoma leaving for the SEC, but it clearly seemed to be directed at the Longhorns. His answer was short and simple.

“Screw them. They can go wherever they want,” Holgorsen said on his radio show, via the Houston Chronicle. “They don’t want us and we don’t want them.”

The Longhorns will be traveling to Houston to take on the Cougars for their Week 7 matchup. It is safe to say that they will have some bulletin board material to help motivate them.

12 Power Five coaches who need a strong start to the 2023 season to avoid the hot seat

These coaches could be looking for new jobs next year if they don’t turn things around quickly.

It seems a bit silly to even mention the phrase “hot seat” when we still haven’t even kicked off a ball in the 2023 season.

But this is modern college football. The sport has become dominated by both massive coaching contracts and, in turn, an expectation for quick success.

Gone are the days when coaches were given years at a time to program-build. The transfer portal allows for much quicker roster transitions than were previously possible, and NIL provides a more even playing field — in theory, at least.

But Power Five schools aren’t just becoming more impatient in terms of how long they’re willing to extend the benefit of the doubt to their coaches. They’re also becoming increasingly more likely to make changes mid-campaign, often even before November.

In 2022, seven Power Five coaches were fired before the start of the final month of the season. Three of those didn’t even make it to October.

That’s a trend we will almost certainly see continue in 2023. With that in mind, here are 12 Power Five coaches who absolutely must start the season on a high note to avoid the hot seat.

Some of these are new coaches still looking to prove themselves, while others are longer-tenured and hoping to recapture past success that has since faded. But the uniting thread between them all is that they could be searching for new jobs next year if they don’t turn things around quickly.

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CBS Sports Big 12 Hot Seat Ratings: ‘Pressure is mounting’ for Brent Venables

In their updated hot seat rating for the 2023 season, CBS Sports believes “pressure is mounting” for Oklahoma’s Brent Venables.

Coming out of a 2022 season where the Oklahoma Sooners had their first losing season since 1998 with one of the worst defenses in the team’s history, it’s not unreasonable to have questions about the direction of the program.

At the same time, it’s only been one year, and we haven’t seen Venables’ recruiting classes take the field and play significant snaps yet. The team may not have much success to speak about on the field yet, but the coaching staff has done a tremendous job off of it on the recruiting trail.

They’ve put together two top 10 classes, and with the way things are shaping up, the Sooners are looking at a third straight top 10 class in the 2024 cycle.

Ahead of the 2023 season, CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd took a look at every head coach in the FBS and determined where they stood on his “hot seat rating system.”

It’s a system that rates coaches from 0-5. “Zero” represents coaches that are untouchable, like Nick Saban or Kirby Smart. “Five” represents coaches that are in must-win mode heading into 2023.

Here’s a look at where the 14 Big 12 coaches stand heading into 2023. We also included where each coach ranked in CBS Sports’ head coach rankings in the Big 12 and overall and their career winning percentages.

CBS Sports ranked every coach in the Power Five, how did the Big 12 fair?

How did Brent Venables and the Big 12 fare in CBS Sports ranking of each Power Five coach?

The expansion to 14 teams for the 2023-2024 academic year provides a unique environment for the Big 12 in its final year with Oklahoma and Texas. New teams mean new faces in the coaching ranks.

Over at CBS Sports, they ranked each coach in the Power Five, so we’ve collated where the Big 12 head coaches stack up ahead of the 2023 season.

CBS Sports coach rankings No. 26-69.

CBS Sports coach rankings No. 25-1.

Four Big 12 coaches landed in the top 25, but none made it into the top 10. It’s a pivotal season for several guys. Here’s a look at how the Big 12 coaches faired in CBS Sports Power Five head coach rankings.

Houston coach Dana Holgorsen ‘couldn’t be more excited’ to have Texans draft Tank Dell

Houston Cougars coach Dana Holgorsen says he “couldn’t be more excited” that the Houston Texans drafted WR Tank Dell.

Count Dana Holgorsen among the many inside the Bayou City and the surrounding areas that is ecstatic the Houston Texans picked Tank Dell.

The Texans traded with the Los Angeles Rams to take the former Houston Cougars receiver with the 69th overall pick in Round 3 of the 2023 NFL draft Friday night in Kansas City.

“Couldn’t be more excited,” Holgorsen said via the Houston Chronicle’s Joseph Duarte. “I loved coaching Tank and having him continue his career in Houston is as good as it gets. Being able to watch Case Keenum throw to Tank Dell is what it’s all about about. Great Coogs. Great people!”

Keenum is back with the Texans for a third stint, but this time as the veteran backup to rookie C.J. Stroud, who the Texans took No. 2 overall on Thursday night.

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