College Football Coaches on the Rise: Future Household Names

Liam Donnan
Jul 31
9 min read

As college football continues to change, being able to relate to players and a willingness to adapt are factors of the upmost importance. Outside of the politics of the sport, it is constantly changing on the field, with new schemes, motions, and plays coming forth every season. Young coaches who recently played at the college level have a great understanding of all of these elements, and their services are very attractive to programs across all levels of college football.

While not all of the coaches on this list are under forty, some are just taking their first big strides at the FBS level, but some are very, very young. For example, D'Eriq King, the quarterbacks coach for SMU, is just 27 years old.

This list is in no order.

Brennan Marion - Head Coach - Sacramento State

Brennan Marion has been hailed as one of the most creative, innovative coaches in the sport. Going into 2025, he is taking on his first head coaching role as the head coach of the Sacramento State Hornets. Previously, Marion served as a wide receivers coach at multiple programs, the pass game coordinator and receivers coach for Texas, and most recently the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator for the UNLV Rebels.

Marion is the inventor of the "go-go" offense. The go-go plays at a high tempo, and stretches defenses in a variety of ways. Predicated on lots of 21 and 22 personnels, pistol and shotgun triple option run plays are seen, and most of their zone run concepts have RPO tags. It is a modern offense with very traditional roots.

The work Marion did in 2024 at UNLV was very impressive. His offense as top 10 in the nation in rushing yards per game, scored 32.5 points per game, and were top 15 in points per play, and playing almost the entirety of the season without starting QB Matthew Sluka and RB Michael Allen.

At Sac State, Marion is in a very unique position. The program wants to take the leap from the FCS to the FBS, but without a conference invitation, have been advised not to. In 2026, they will be an independent school regardless of what level they are at. They truly feel like they have a shot to be a successful program in the FBS, and for good reason. Their NIL fund, "Sac-12" has raised over 57 million dollars in NIL, and also plan to build a new, modern stadium. Highly rated high school recruits and transfers have already begun to sign with Marion and the Hornets. Whether he is the coach to take Sac State to the FBS, or he takes another job at a high-level program is to be determined, but if he is not already, Brennan Marion is a future household name.

Dell McGee - Head Coach - Georgia State

This could be faith in a former Kirby Smart assistant, moreso than it is what his team done on the field, and truly proven. In one season under Dell McGee, Georgia State went 3-9. He needs more time, obviously, but this could be the start of a great group of five program.

McGee has enjoyed a long and successful career as a coach in the state of Georgia. He spent a long time as the head coach of Carver-Columbus, a high school in Columbus, Georgia, and also coached RB’s at Georgia Southern. Then, he became an assistant head coach and RB coach at Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs, before being hired as the head coach at Georgia State.

Anyone from Kirby’s coaching tree has a lot of intrigue and promise, and McGee has Georgia State recruiting as well as anyone in the group of five. Their 2025 overall class ranked 74th in the nation, good for the fifth best in the G5, and their high school class ranked 67th in the nation, also the fifth best among G5 teams.

Demonstrating an ability to recruit at a program who doesn’t traditionally recruit well is a tell-tale sign of an elite coach, but the wins need to show up on the field before he becomes a big-time hire at the P4 level.

Will Stein - Offensive Coordinator - Oregon

Stein has become one of the hottest names amongst offensive coordinators in his two years at Oregon, for good reason. Stein immediately went into coaching following his playing days at a QB for Louisville, becoming a GA there. He spent three seasons with Texas before becoming an OC at Lake Travis HS in Austin, Texas. After three successful offensive seasons as the OC and pass game coordinator at UTSA, he was hired at Oregon.

He is just thirty-five, has led elite offenses in his two seasons for the Ducks, and is an elite recruiter and developer. Plus, the overwhelming success of former Oregon OC Kenny Dillingham at Arizona State cannot hurt his chances at becoming a head coach, as Dillingham came from the Lanning staff at Oregon as well.

Will Stein has had the luxury of having the two most experienced college football players in the sports' history play quarterback for him, and 2025 presents an entirely new challenge: develop a young quarterback who struggled elsewhere. Dante Moore has all the traits to be a successful quarterback, and Stein's system is very quarterback friendly. Not only is it a "prove it" year for Dante Moore, but also his offensive coordinator.

Stein's offenses at Oregon have ranked 4th and 8th in the nation in points per game, behind a dynamic quick game, RPO, and run heavy offense. As he, Dan Lanning and the rest of the staff continue to stack elite recruiting classes, the offense is only getting more talented. He is a sure-thing future head coach.

Zach Kittley - Head Coach - FAU

Kittley is entering just his first year as a head coach, but he was one of my favorite hires of the off-season.

He spent time at Western Kentucky and Texas Tech as an offensive coordinator, where he found lots of success at both spots. He led one of the best passing offenses of all time with QB Bailey Zappe at WKU in 2021, and his offenses at Texas Tech were high-flying as well. He matches what FAU wants to be, and if there is a turnaround for the Owls, Kittley will be the reason, and there will be big name teams calling for him as a head coach.

The program at FAU has been "down" for quite a while. 2019 was the last time that they made a bowl game in a full football season, and they have gone over four wins just once since the 2020 COVID season. Kittley should be able to get it turned it around quickly. He brought in former Western Kentucky quarterback Caden Veltkamp, who was a star for WKU, the C-USA's offensive player of the year in 2024. He threw for well over 3000 yards last season and 25 touchdowns. Veltkamp is one of the premier quarterbacks in the group of five, and is clearly Kittley's guy.

Mack Leftwich - Offensive Coordinator - Texas Tech

Kittley's replacement at Texas Tech, Mack Leftwich is one of the hottest young names on the coaching circuit. Leftwich is just thirty years old, and has already led some of the best offenses in the FBS. After leading Texas State to the third highest-scoring offense in the FBS in 2024, the Red Raiders brought him on in a home-run hire. His youth, creativity, and proven production, as well as his lifelong ties to Texas make him a future major program head coach hire.

He has an embarssment of riches at his disposal at Texas Tech, including veteran QB Behren Morton, WR's Caleb Douglas, Micah Hudson, Coy Eakin, and Reggie Virgil, as well as dynamic USC transfer RB Quinton Joyner. Texas Tech is set to be one of the top contenders in the Big 12, and the hiring of Leftwich can only help.

D'Eriq King - Quarterbacks Coach - SMU

D'Eriq King stopped playing football in 2023. He had a great college career, playing for Houston and Miami, and carried that into stops with the New England Patriots, Carolina Panthers and the DC Defenders of the XFL. He quickly became an offensive analyst for SMU in 2023, and got promoted to quarterbacks coach last season. The work he did in that position was more than impressive.

Along with head coach Rhett Lashlee and offensive coordinator Casey Woods, King navigated a change at quarterback, transitioning from Preston Stone to Kevin Jennings just three games into the season. A move that paid off for the Mustangs. Kevin Jennings became one of the biggest breakout stars in the sport last year, becoming an all-ACC selection en route to a conference championship appearance and a CFP berth.

King still has lots of coaching in front of him. Given the impressive resume he has already built in just two seasons of coaching, it is hard to believe that he won't eventually be a high-level offensive coordinator, and maybe even a head coach.

Andy Kotelnicki - Offensive Coordinator - Penn State

Kotelnicki has been climbing the ranks of college football on a steady pace since 2004. He made several stops across division III, II, and the FCS, before taking an offensive coordinator position at Buffalo in 2015. He spent six seasons in that position, and became the offensive coordinator at Kansas, where he stayed until 2023. He was apart of the great turnaround that head coach Lance Leipold and the players executed at Kansas, which was led by a dynamic offense.

His impact at Penn State was immediately felt, as Penn State was forced to compete in high scoring games on multiple occasions, and certainly did compete. Traditionally, Penn State would win with an elite defence, regardless of some of the star offensive players that have come through Happy Valley in the James Franklin era.

Now, entering 2025, Penn State has its most talented team in the James Franklin era. Kotelnicki has the best running back duo in the nation (Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton), a talented quarterback in Drew Allar, a great offensive line, and they went into the portal to address their receiver issue. The receiver room last year was very, very bad. No receiver caught a pass in their CFP semi-final loss to Notre Dame. Trebor Pena (Syracuse) Devonte Ross (Troy) and Kyron Hudson (USC) are expected to change that.

Kotelnicki has already begun interviewing for P4 head coaching roles, most notably this offseason with West Virginia.

Kam Martin - Running Backs Coach - Tulsa

Kam Martin played college football as recently as 2019, enjoying a solid four year career with Auburn. He rushed for over 1500 yards in his career, his best season coming in 2018. He almost immediately became a coach following his playing days.

Prior to Tulsa, Martin coached at Incarnate Word (FCS) and UCF. He developed one of the best backs in the nation in 2024, RJ Harvery of UCF. Harvey rushed for 3792 yards and 43 TD in his career, going for over 1400 yards and 16 TD in 2023 and 2024. Not a bad player to have on a young coaches resumé, to say the least.

Taking the job at Tulsa feels like a downgrade, going from a power conference team to a group of five program, but becoming an associate head coach is no small deal. Recently, the associate head coach tag is often given to a position coach who is a budding star, who is close to becoming a high-level coordinator or head coach at any level. Martin is certainly on that track, and is a name to watch in the future.

Chris Hampton - Safeties Coach/Assisant DC - Oregon

Although this list is in no order, it is probably a disservice to not have Hampton near the top of this article. He has progressively climbed the ranks of college football, with multiple graduate assistant roles, then FCS position coach roles, then FBS position coach gigs, and finally got his break as a defensive coordinator at Tulane in 2021.

At Tulane, he helped lead one of the largest turnarounds in recent memory, as the Green Wave went from 2-10 to 12-2, including a New Year's Six bowl victory over USC. He coached multiple NFL players on that defense, and had one of the best linebacker units in the nation, feauturing Nick Anderson (current Edmonton Elk) and Dorian Williams (current Buffalo Bill).

In 2023, he accepted the role of safeties coach and assistant defensive coordinator at Oregon. He has put on a recruiting masterclass in that time, and helped develop a solid group of defensive backs. For the class of 2025, he won 247Sports recruiter of the year award, after hauling in three defensive backs with at least a 0.979 recruit ranking (Five star CB Na'eem Offord, five star SAF Trey McNutt, four star CB Brandon Finney).

Shiel Wood - Defensive Coordinator - Texas Tech

Shiel Wood has had numerous stops in his career, including coordinating special teams for Georgia Tech, serving as the co-DC for Army, as a DC for Troy, and replacing the above mentioned Chris Hampton at Tulane as DC. Houston head coach Willie Fritz brought Wood over from Tulane to Houston last season.

Going into 2025, he was hired by Texas Tech to be their defensive coordinator.

Wood helped lead Tulane to an 11-2 record in 2023, and was nominated for the Broyles award that season as well. He is climbing the ranks, and head coach Joey McGuire has something very special building at Texas Tech. Wood being hired onto the Red Raiders staff shows that he is one of the biggest up and coming names in college football. Texas Tech has an elite coordinating duo with Shiel Wood with the defense and Mack Leftwich on offense.