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RotoBaller's Brant Henson's list of the worst college football head coaches since 2010. The worst Power Five coaching hires since in college football.
There have been several swing-and-miss hires in college football over the years. Some schools have to hit the coaching carousel more than others due to whiffs on hires. Getting the right guy in the door is incredibly important to set the tone for a college football program.
Since 2010, there have been over 200 coaches hired as the head man at the Power Five level.
Today, we take a look at the 15 worst hires made in that time frame.
15. Jimmy Lake, Washington (2020-2021)
The defensive coordinator under Chris Peterson, Jimmy Lake was thrust into the head-coaching role at Washington when Peterson unexpectedly stepped down in late 2019. Lake went 3-1 in the COVID-shortened 2020 season and entered 2021 with high expectations.
However, the Huskies lost to Montana in their opening game. The season went sideways, and the Huskies were sitting at 4-5 after a loss to Oregon when Lake was caught on camera charging at and swinging on one of his players. He was suspended, and later fired after additional allegations arose regarding his aggressive treatment of players.
Washington Announces Leadership Change In Footballhttps://t.co/RkkC08Qfjj pic.twitter.com/7FlJnQl5Zf
— Washington Athletics (@UWAthletics) November 14, 2021
Lake went 7-6 in his tenure as Washington’s head coach, one of the shortest non-interim coaching tenures in college football history.
14. Charlie Weis, Kansas (2012-2014)
Kansas thought it landed a big name when it brought Charlie Weis in to coach in 2012. The former Notre Dame head coach was ahead of his time in attempting to restructure the Jayhawks roster through primarily JUCO transfers, but his strategy did not pay off.
Weis went 6-22 during his time at Kansas and was fired in 2014 after a 2-2 start. His neglect of high school recruiting also crippled the program for the future, as it was so thin in future seasons on scholarship players that it took multiple coaching regimes to pull it from college football’s graveyard.
13. Chris Ash, Rutgers (2016-2019)
Hired from Ohio State, Chris Ash was expected to inject elements of the national championship-winning defense into Rutgers’ scheme. However, Ash’s time at Rutgers will be remembered for how historically bad the Scarlet Knights were.
They were shut out with a combined score of 224-0 in 2016 against Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Penn State, finishing with more punts than first downs in those four games. It never really got much better for Ash, as he went 8-32 throughout his tenure and was fired midway through the 2019 season.
12. Mike Riley, Nebraska (2015-2017)
Bo Pelini was fired from Nebraska in 2014 after winning at least nine games in every season of his Cornhuskers tenure. While he consistently won games, Pelini was never able to get Nebraska over the hump. That led Nebraska to the hiring of Mike Riley, whom it thought would be able to take it over the hump.
However, Riley was 61 years old at the time and had just wrapped up a 5-7 season at Oregon State. He hadn’t won nine games in a decade, and Pelini never fell under that mark during his time at Nebraska.
Riley went 6-7 in his first year, 9-4 in Year 2, and 4-8 in Year 3, leading to his firing. The hiring of Riley was the beginning of the fall of Nebraska football -- more on that to come later in the article.
11. Kevin Sumlin, Arizona (2018-2020)
Kevin Sumlin is largely known for his tenure at Texas A&M, where he was the head coach from 2012-2017 during the Johnny Manziel years. Sumlin was always solid, but after four straight seasons with five losses, he was fired. That brought him to Arizona in 2018, one year after his dismissal at A&M.
Sumlin inherited a dynamic playmaker in quarterback Khalil Tate, who had rushed for 1,411 yards and 12 touchdowns the prior season, and tried to turn him into a pocket passer. Tate only ran for 224 yards and two scores in Sumlin’s debut season, and the Wildcats went 5-7.
Arizona got increasingly worse over Sumlin’s tenure, and he was fired in 2020 after going 9-20 and burning the Wildcats program.
10. Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech (2019-2022)
Geoff Collins took over at Georgia Tech in 2019, taking over for Paul Johnson. Johnson had run the triple option at GT for the past 11 seasons, and Collins came in and attempted to swap to a more modern offensive system.
However, the entire roster that Collins inherited was made for the triple option. He went 3-9 in his debut season, including a loss to The Citadel. He lasted a few more seasons, but never won more than three games in a year, finishing his tenure at 10-28. Collins was fired in 2022 and was replaced by interim coach Brent Key, who is still the head coach today.
9. Darrell Hazell and Ryan Walters, Purdue (2013-2016, 2024-2025)
I’m grouping these two guys, as both of their tenures at Purdue were similar. Both Darrell Hazell and Ryan Walters were unproven, upside swings for a Boilermakers program that needed to hit on an underrated hire.
Hazell took over in 2013, coming up from Kent State after an 11-win season. He never worked out, finishing at 9-33 (3-24 Big Ten) through 3.5 seasons.
After the departure of Jeff Brohm to Louisville, Purdue hired Ryan Walters from Illinois’ staff at age 36. He lasted just two seasons, finishing at 5-19 (3-15 Big Ten).
Purdue has fired football coach Ryan Walters, source confirms to @NBCSports. He’d gone 5-19 over two seasons (and 1-11 this year).
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) December 1, 2024
Both coaches were unproven at the time of their hires, and were largely noncompetitive during their Purdue tenures.
8. Billy Napier, Florida (2022-2025)
Coming in from Louisiana, Billy Napier replaced Dan Mullen as Florida’s head coach in 2022. Napier went 6-7 in his debut season in The Swamp, suffering the worst debut record for a Gators coach since 1979. It never got that much better for him, as he finished his tenure at 22-23 and was fired partially through the 2025 season.
Napier went 0-14 in road games against ranked opponents during his tenure at Florida, a big reason as to why he was never going to work out for the Gators.
7. Bryan Harsin, Auburn (2021-2022)
Bryan Harsin was hired from Boise State in 2021 to take over at Auburn after the firing of Gus Malzahn. After just one season where the Tigers went 6-7 and finished the season with five straight losses, Auburn leadership reportedly tried to dig up dirt on Harsin so that it could fire him for cause.
He ended up surviving the coup attempt, but did not make it through the 2022 season after a 3-5 start. Harsin also struggled mightily on the recruiting trail, signing Auburn’s lowest-ranked recruiting classes in modern history during his time there.
6. Charlie Strong, Texas (2014-2016)
Charlie Strong had a lot of success at Louisville, paving the way for him to land a big-time job. When Texas came calling after the 2013 season, it was a no-brainer.
Strong made a bowl game in his first season, but put out just 59 total yards of offense in a humiliating bowl loss to Arkansas, falling to 6-7. The Longhorns went 5-7 in both 2015 and 2016, leading to Strong’s firing. The saying “Texas is back” comes from where Strong left it buried.
5. Willie Taggart, Florida State (2018-2019)
Willie Taggart spent just one season as the head coach of Oregon before he was hired away by Florida State, which he called his dream job. Taggart became Florida State’s third head coach in the past 43 years, set to fill big shoes left behind by Bobby Bowden and Jimbo Fisher.
However, Taggart did not even make it two seasons as a Seminole. Taggart’s Seminoles went 5-7 in his first season, and were off to a 4-5 start in 2019 before he was kicked to the curb. Some argue that he wasn’t given a fair chance, as the cupboard was fairly bare following Fisher’s departure, but Florida State had expectations and Taggart failed to deliver.
4. Sherrone Moore, Michigan (2024-2025)
Jim Harbaugh departed from Michigan for the Los Angeles Chargers in the wake of his own scandal, leaving Sherrone Moore behind to clean up his mess. However, that did not happen one bit.
Michigan’s performance did fall off from the national title contender it previously was under Moore, as he finished 8-5 in 2024 and 9-3 in 2025. The program was largely trending downward when a scandal of Moore’s own hit.
It was revealed in late 2025 that Moore had an inappropriate affair with a staff member, Paige Shiver, who served as his personal assistant. Moore was fired for cause on December 10, 2025, and was arrested days later after driving to Shiver’s home and threatening self-harm.
UPDATE: Ex-Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore was detained and arrested after breaking into the home of the staffer he had an affair with. Moore threatened to kill the staffer and himself. He’s currently in protective custody.
— Scott Hughes (@ScottHughesCBB) December 11, 2025
As a part of the aftermath, athletic director Warde Manuel has been forced to step down at the end of the calendar year. This program just keeps jumping from scandal to scandal in recent years, and it remains to be seen if former Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham can steer the ship back on course.
3. Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee (2018-2021)
Tennessee has had its fair share of swings and misses on coaching hires in recent history, but Jeremy Pruitt takes the cake. The former Alabama defensive coordinator finished at 16-19 from 2018-2020, and was fired with cause after an NCAA investigation found that there had been more than 200 infractions under his watch involving handing recruits' cash inside of McDonald’s bags.
Not only did Pruitt fail to perform on the field, but he also tarnished the Volunteers program. They had to vacate all wins from 2019 and 2020, were fined $8 million, and were placed on probation for five years through July 2028.
Scholarships were slashed, along with other recruiting losses such as official visit bans and communication blackouts. Fortunately for the Volunteers, they were not given a postseason ban due to their “exemplary cooperation” with the NCAA.
2. Scott Frost, Nebraska (2018-2022)
Scott Frost had spent his college days as Nebraska’s quarterback and led it to a 13-0 season and a national title in 1997. He had been cooking at UCF, turning the Golden Knights around from 0-12 to an undefeated 13-0 season in 2017.
This was a hire that made sense at the time -- Nebraska’s hometown hero returns to bring Cornhuskers football back to the glory days. However, that is not quite how it worked out. Frost finished his tenure with a 5-22 record in one-score games, even going 3-9 in 2021 while outscoring Big Ten opponents on the season.
Frost coached at Nebraska from 2018-2022, getting booted out of the door after losing to Georgia Southern early in the 2022 season. He finished his tenure at 16-31, failing to ever make a bowl game or have a winning season.
1. Chad Morris, Arkansas (2018-2019)
Chad Morris didn’t even last two full seasons at Arkansas after he was hired in December 2017 to replace Bret Bielema. Morris was fired partway through the 2019 season with a 4-18 record, finishing 0-14 in SEC play.
Arkansas should fire Chad Morris at halftime.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) November 2, 2019
About a third of the Razorbacks’ losses were by 30+ points under Morris. Morris had been underwhelming at his previous stop as SMU’s head coach, going 14-22, although he did marginally improve each season.
This was a hire that never made much sense, and Morris left the Razorbacks program much worse off than he found it.
