College Football

Rising stars or feeling the heat? College football's most interesting assistant coaches

Published Jun. 22, 2023 10:15 a.m. ET

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RJ Young

FOX Sports National College Football Analyst

Michael Cohen

College Football and College Basketball Writer

Bryan Fischer

College Football Writer

The summer is a time for preparation in college football, as head coaches across the nation begin getting ready for fall camps.

But it's not just about the head coaches. Running a program requires help across the board, and the coordinators and position coaches will be key contributors in getting ready for a strong season.

Who are some of the assistants set to make a big impact in the 2023 season? Who are some that might be facing a little bit more pressure than usual? And which recent hires will be most worth keeping an eye on?

FOX Sports college football writers RJ Young, Michael Cohen and Bryan Fischer are here to weigh in on all of it.

Which new coordinator has your attention entering the 2023 season? Whose scheme or influence are you most interested in seeing?

RJ Young on the Big 12: TCU responded to losing 2022 Broyles Award winner Garrett Riley — baby brother to USC coach Lincoln Riley — with the hire of former Arkansas offensive coordinator Kendal Briles.

In a Big 12 as thick through the middle as Homer Simpson after a dozen doughnuts and a six-pack of Duffy's, it will be interesting to find out if Briles can muster the kind of explosive offensive TCU showed itself capable of last season when it finished as national title runner-up.

Remember, this is a team that was thought to be so good that the College Football Playoff selection committee picked it ahead of Alabama, Utah, Tennessee and USC as the fourth-best team in the country despite losing the Big 12 Championship to Kansas State.

At Arkansas, Briles put together the nation's No. 7 rushing offense (236.5 yards per game) and pushed Arkansas to its third-highest rushing yardage in a season (3,075 yards) since 2003. With quality dual-threat quarterback Chandler Morris and former Alabama running back Trey Sanders in the backfield, there's reason to believe TCU could be the best rushing team in the country. And they might need to be from the outset against Week 1 opponent Colorado.

Bryan Fischer on the Pac-12: Out West, it's hard to mention any school other than Colorado when it comes to interest level given the Coach Prime Effect™️, but Deion Sanders' offensive coordinator hire of former Kent State head coach Sean Lewis just adds another layer to what's going to unfold with the Buffs.

If you caught any of what Lewis did with the Golden Flashes (or at previous OC stops Syracuse, Bowling Green and Eastern Illinois), you know his teams play as fast as possible and love to stretch defenses in various ways given how they use different alignments. Bringing that to the Flat Irons will not only make CU games significantly more watchable, but it has a chance to really even things out on the field against the better opponents that they'll face in 2023. We know he'll have a dynamic quarterback to work with in Shedeur Sanders but leaning on a guy making the FCS-to-Power 5 jump adds another element to an experiment that should be as interesting to watch as any in college football for the reasons described above.

I'd also mention Jake Spavital's return to Cal as OC being big for both him and Justin Wilcox's future.

Michael Cohen on the Big Ten: It's difficult to look away from Wisconsin offensive coordinator Phil Longo in this situation. Not only is Longo part of the coaching transition from the Paul Chryst/Jim Leonhard eras to the new Luke Fickell regime, but he's also installing an Air Raid system that cuts against the ethos of Wisconsin football since former head coach Barry Alvarez began reviving the program the three decades ago. Thirty-one offensive linemen and 11 running backs were drafted out of Madison between 1991 and 2023 in a reflection of the Badgers' commitment to running the football. 

Of course, Longo and Fickell have bristled at any suggestion that their new scheme will abandon the run at Wisconsin. Instead, the spread concepts they'll use to stretch the field laterally are designed to facilitate the run game in different ways. Longo's offenses at North Carolina, where he served as offensive coordinator from 2019-22, ranked 38th, 11th, 18th and 67th nationally in rushing during that span. The Tar Heels produced two 1,000-yard rushers in Michael Carter (1,245 yards) and Javonte Williams (1,140 yards) during the 2020 season alone. But Longo's offense also attempted 526 passes last year with budding star Drake Maye at quarterback, and that's a far cry from the 326 passes thrown at Wisconsin.

Which coordinator enters the year on the proverbial hot seat? Who needs a strong performance to maintain job security moving forward? 

RJ on the Big 12: Oklahoma defensive coordinator Ted Roof needs to produce a championship-caliber defense given that the Sooners were awful on third down in 2022 and gave up 30 points per game — good enough for 99th out of 131 teams. With the Sooners handing out a number of scholarships to defensive transfers, including three expected to play important snaps this season — defensive end Rondell Bothroyd, defensive tackle Jacob Lacey and linebacker Dasan McCullough — all eyes will be on Roof and how his unit plays, particularly during the conference slate.

There's little doubt about Roof owns the experience — 36 years as a college football coach and a defensive coordinator at 12 stops — and acumen to pull off a dramatic turnaround of the defense. But gone are the days when Oklahoma could simply outscore most of its opponents.

And if Roof doesn't find a way to stop the majority of teams in the Big 12, there might be some doubt about what he can do against the vaunted SEC.

Bryan on the Pac-12: He certainly is aware of the external pressure already, but the easy answer is USC defensive coordinator Alex Grinch.

While I think some of the discussion surrounding his performance is a tad overblown, the fact of the matter is that the Trojans' final two games were disastrous from a defensive perspective and further ratcheted up 2023 as a make-or-break season for Grinch, the guy Lincoln Riley has entrusted to give him a defense that just needs to be average in order for the team to make the College Football Playoff. 

Last year, the team was overly reliant on turnovers and many of them were the type of lucky bounces that this season's group will not be able to count on. There has been a talent upgrade thanks to the transfer portal, as well as a host of highly touted prep guys, but the bottom line is USC has to tackle much better if they want to, in their words, finish the job.

Michael on the Big Ten: Choosing Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, whose unit was so disastrous in 2022 that the school cut his salary and revised his contract to include scoring-based incentives, seems too easy and too obvious here. So let's go in a different direction with Penn State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich entering his third season under head coach James Franklin.

Yurcich certainly doesn't begin the 2023 campaign on the hot seat, but the Nittany Lions fan base could turn in a hurry if the passing attack led by former five-star quarterback Drew Allar struggles to find its footing. The 47-year-old Yurcich came to Happy Valley with a decorated résumé that included stints at Oklahoma State (offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach from 2013-18), Ohio State (passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach in 2019) and Texas (offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach in 2020), but the output at Penn State hasn't risen to elite levels just yet. The Nittany Lions ranked 82nd in total offense and 90th in scoring offense during Yurcich's first season in 2021 before finishing 34th and 20th in those same categories last year.

And while the improvement was certainly noticeable, those numbers will need to jump again if a roster many believe to be the most talented of the Franklin era wants to get over the Michigan- and Ohio State-shaped humps in the Big Ten East and reach the College Football Playoff. How fast and how well Allar develops could be a significant factor in determining Yurcich's job security for 2024 and beyond.

Which position coach is on a fast track toward becoming a coordinator or head coach based on what they've accomplished thus far?

RJ on the Big 12: For the first time in some time, there isn't a slam dunk here. Had he not bolted for Clemson, Garrett Riley would've been at the top of this list. As the Big 12 stands now, though, Riley's recent counterpart, Joe Gillespie, feels like a man who is a return to the Big 12 title game away from being hired away — perhaps to a Texas school in need.

I spoke to Gillespie last fall and I remain as impressed with him now as I was when he became a defensive coordinator for the first time at the FBS level at Tulsa and produced the nation's best defensive player in Zaven Collins.

At TCU, he literally stepped into the shadow of one of the great defensive minds of the modern era in Gary Patterson — Patterson's statue stands on campus — and produced a defense at a private Christian school in Fort Worth that found itself in the national title game against Georgia just six months ago.

While he has never been a coach who wants to be on the move — coaching most of his life where he played high school ball in Stephenville, Texas — the right job might open for him as he continues to turn heads as a Horned Frog.

Bryan on the Pac-12: Washington receivers coach JaMarcus Shepard sticks out to me simply because of how many folks on Montlake felt okay with him potentially being elevated into the offensive coordinator role had Ryan Grubb left this offseason.

Shepard has learned from some of the sharpest offensive-minded head coaches around in Kalen DeBoer, Jeff Brohm and Mike Leach, plus he's got a terrific track record of maximizing talent at the receiver position. Take a look at what he did in developing David Bell and Rondale Moore at Purdue into guys defenses absolutely had to account for, while also noting that the Huskies' current crop of star wideouts made a huge jump in productivity with just one season of coaching from Shepard. The likes of Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan could very well challenge for the Biletnikoff Award in 2023 and there are 3-4 others who could go off in any game for Washington given the depth at the position their coach has helped establish. 

I also wouldn't be surprised if the guy Shepard took over for, current Oregon WR coach Junior Adams, sees his stock take off, while USC has two to keep an eye on in outside receivers coach Dennis Simmons and defensive backs coach Donte Williams.

Michael on the Big Ten: One name to watch is Michigan tight ends coach Grant Newsome, a youthful former Wolverines offensive tackle who was forced to medically retire after sustaining a serious knee injury in 2016. Newsome began his coaching career working with the tight ends as a student assistant from 2018-19 alongside eventual U-M offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore. Then he progressed to a graduate assistant role with the offensive line from 2020-21 before head coach Jim Harbaugh promoted him to a full-time role with the tight ends ahead of the 2022 campaign.

For a first-time position coach, Newsome's impact was startling both on and off the field. He worked around a season-ending back injury to starting tight end Erick All (38 catches, 437 yards in 2021) by developing four-star freshman Colston Loveland into an excellent complement to starter Luke Schoonmaker, an eventual second-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. Loveland and Schoonmaker combined to make 51 catches for 653 yards and five touchdowns in a run-heavy offense that demanded even more of them as blockers. 

On the recruiting front, where Michigan is approaching levels never before seen during the Harbaugh era, Newsome has secured arguably the top tight end class in the country for 2024 with verbal commitments from four-stars Brady Prieskorn (No. 72 overall, No. 5 TE) and Hogan Hansen (No. 196 overall, No. 10 TE) months in advance of the early signing period. Newsome's stock couldn't be higher for a coach still in his mid-20s. 

Which freshly hired position coach intrigues you for the 2023 campaign?

RJ on the Big 12: Recently hired away from Texas Tech, Oklahoma receivers coach Emmett Jones will quietly guide the deepest position group in the program. With Michigan transfer Andrel Anthony joining standouts Jalil Farooq, Drake Stoops and Gavin Freeman, Jones has a chance to make a splash in a position that has produced recent stars Marvin Mims, Marquise Brown and CeeDee Lamb among others.

And there's certainly room for a new receiving star to emerge with Lamb being the last Sooner to catch more than 60 balls in a season (2019) as well as the last Sooner to record at least 10 TD passes in a season (2019).

For perspective, that year, 2019, also saw Jalen Hurts, Tanner Mordecai and Spencer Rattler all on an OU quarterback depth chart created by Lincoln Riley.

Bryan on the Pac-12: If you want to stick solely to position coaches, new Stanford DL coach Ross Kolodziej qualifies as intriguing. He's got an NFL background from playing in the league for several years, was around Wisconsin for Paul Chryst's successful years, and played for Barry Alvarez during the heights of the Badgers' late-90s heyday. The Cardinal were absolutely dreadful defensively (especially against the run) and will benefit from a new staff simply trying new things to get the most out of a group that does have some talent but never seemed on the same page last season. Tobin Phillips and David Bailey are some solid pieces to build around, and I'll be curious how Kolodziej helps elevated the group around them.

That said, the most intriguing hire to me is UCLA's D'Anton Lynn. The former Penn State corner is just 33 but has been an NFL position coach for eight years and now gets handed the reins for a Bruins defense that underachieved a year ago. It's a big step up going from being just a voice in the room to being the guy calling plays, and I'm fascinated at how Lynn, the son of former Chargers coach Anthony Lynn, does handling that while dropping into a college game that throws a lot of different styles at you.

Michael on the Big Ten: A slight cop-out because this coach also holds a co-offensive coordinator title in addition to coaching tight ends, but Kevin Sumlin's addition to head coach Mike Locksley's staff at Maryland is fascinating for many reasons. The 58-year-old Sumlin is best known for being the head coach at Texas A&M from 2012-17, a stretch that included the Johnny Manziel era in College Station, but he has additional head-coaching stints at Houston (2008-11), Arizona (2018-20) and with the Houston Gamblers of the USFL (2022). That means he arrives in College Park with significantly more experience than his boss, Locksley, who took over the Terrapins in 2019 and whose only other head-coaching gig came at New Mexico from 2009-11.

Joining Sumlin in College Park is former Michigan and Miami offensive coordinator Josh Gattis, who was fired after one season with the Hurricanes. Gattis holds the full offensive coordinator title for the Terrapins, with Sumlin alongside him as co-coordinator. Both of them are working for Locksley, a well-regarded offensive mind in his own right with stints as Alabama's co-offensive coordinator and full offensive coordinator in 2017 and 2018, respectively. That's a lot of brain power and, potentially, a lot of ego overseeing the Maryland offense. Will the Terrapins find the right blend among their three senior offensive minds? Or will there be too many cooks in the kitchen making things overly complicated for talented quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa? It's something to watch this season.

Bryan Fischer is a college football writer for FOX Sports. He has been covering college athletics for nearly two decades at outlets such as NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports and NFL.com among others. Follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast "The Number One College Football Show." Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young and subscribe to "The Number One College Football Show" on YouTube.

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter at @Michael_Cohen13.

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