Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football, where Steve Young has revealed himself as a game-picking savant. First Quarter: Now It’s a Crisis. Second Quarter: The Compression of the SEC.
Third Quarter: Please Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself
As the saying goes, nobody’s perfect. There are bad games. Bad seasons, even. Nick Saban lost to Louisiana-Monroe in his first year at Alabama. Bear Bryant went 1–9 his first year at Texas A&M (the “Junction Boys” season). Woody Hayes was 2–6 his first year as a head coach, at Denison. Knute Rockne had a 5–4 season at Notre Dame. Curt Cignetti just lost a game. It happens.
But the good ones bounce back. Sometimes after being fired, something in the same job. A Dash salute to 10 coaches who had to fight through some lean times to enjoy the current good times.
Kalani Sitake (21), BYU head coach
At 90–45, his overall record is phenomenal. The body of work is why the Crumbl Cookies guy, CEO Jason McGowan, went to bat with his wallet and on social media to keep Sitake from going to Penn State last year. But Sitake was 4–9 in his second season leading the Cougars, in 2017, then crawled up to 7–6 the next two years. After a good three-year run, BYU experienced another backslide upon entry to the Big 12, going 5–7.
After that, the school understood what it would take to compete in the toughest conference it had ever been in. Armed with better resources, Sitake is 29–4 over the last 2 ½ seasons. The Cougars’ current No. 2 ranking is their highest since somehow winning the national championship in 1984.
Willie Fritz (22), Houston head coach
Fritz is an old war dog who has won everywhere, from Blinn Junior College to the Central Missouri Mules, the Sam Houston Bearkats, the Georgia Southern Eagles and the Tulane Green Wave. His work at Tulane earned him a power-conference shot at Houston. It was rocky at first—the Cougars went 4–8 in 2024 and averaged just 14 points per game, 133rd out of 134 teams.
Since then, Fritz has moved Houston to the forefront (with the help of a nice NIL bankroll). He’s 17–4 over the last year and a half, with former five-star QB Conner Weigman playing at a very high level. The defense is improved, too, under a coordinator who was vilified at his previous stop, Austin Armstrong. That stop was at Florida with …
Billy Napier (23), James Madison head coach
There are built-in Sun Belt Conference advantages at James Madison, clearly—which is why the school is seeking out a bigger challenge and bigger revenue checks in the American Conference starting next year. But the difference between Sun Belt Billy and SEC Billy is stark.
He was 22–23 at Florida, the first coach to have a losing tenure since Raymond Wolf in 1946–49. At Louisiana and now James Madison, he’s 49–12. The Dukes are 7–0 with an average victory margin of 23 points, positioning themselves as a contender for a second consecutive College Football Playoff Group of 6 automatic bid. The term was a pejorative in Gainesville, Fla., but there are worse things in life than being Sun Belt Billy.
Jeff Traylor (24), UTSA head coach
He was 39–14 in his first four seasons leading the Roadrunners, then backslid to 7–6 each the past two years. The 2025 team was particularly erratic, with five wins by 22 points or more and three losses by 18 or more.
This season, UTSA has moved to the top of the American at 6–1 and 3–0. If the Roadrunners keep rolling, they’ll be another G6 playoff candidate, with their lone loss at Texas.
Jim Knowles (25), Tennessee defensive coordinator
He got a $3 million paycheck to leave Ohio State for Penn State last year, then was part of a program collapse that broomed out James Franklin and almost everyone else. Knowles landed in Knoxville, Tenn., and rebuilt the defense on a 6–1 team, reducing points allowed nearly by half (28.8 to 14.7) and yards allowed by more than 100 (397.2 to 280.4). Bringing defensive line terror Xavier Gilliam with him from Penn State has worked out nicely—he’s third in the SEC in tackles for loss at 10.5.
Chip Kelly (26), Northwestern offensive coordinator
The last few years have run the gamut for Kelly, from coordinating a national championship offense at Ohio State in 2024 to being fired 11 games into last season as OC of the Las Vegas Raiders. David Braun wisely brought Kelly back to the college ranks, where he’s befuddling Big Ten defenses with the 5–1 Wildcats. The school single-season record for most yards per play is 6.2, in 2005; the current team is averaging 6.7.
Dan Enos (27), Wake Forest offensive coordinator
Since being the head coach at Central Michigan from 2010 to ’14, he’s had nine jobs and been fired from several of them—including twice at Arkansas. But he also was the quarterback coach at Alabama for the peak Tua Tagovailoa season of 2018. Enos linked up with rising star head coach Jake Dickert at Wake Forest in 2025 and has done outstanding work.
This year’s Demon Deacons are 6–1 and averaging 37.4 points per game. Quarterback Gio Lopez—himself a bounce-back Player of the Year candidate after a struggling 2025 season at North Carolina—has been brilliant, with 17 touchdown passes and one interception while averaging 314 yards of total offense per game. Don’t sleep on the Deacons as a potential ACC championship game participant.
Tim Lester (28), Iowa offensive coordinator
He was fired as head coach at Western Michigan in 2022 despite a winning record (37–32), something that probably shouldn’t happen in the hand-to-mouth world of MAC football. After spending a season as an analyst with the Green Bay Packers, Lester was brought to Iowa to breathe life into a long-dead offense. He’s succeeded, immediately making that unit better upon arrival in ’24 and gradually improving the product since then. The Hawkeyes can actually throw the ball capably most of the time, and have been effective playing either Jeremy Hecklinski or Hank Brown at quarterback.
Bobby Petrino (29), North Carolina offensive coordinator
For all the shenanigans, the man can still draw up ball plays. The Tar Heels’ surprising 4–2 midseason record is more a result of defense than anything else, but Petrino is coaxing the most out of journeyman quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. and a sporadic running game. They’re playing Belichickian, complementary football in Chapel Hill, N.C., this season, which gives the Heels a chance to win as many as nine games.
Multiple people at Arizona (30)
Everyone wanted Brent Brennan run out of Tucson after a 4–8 debut season, but he’s 14–5 since. (Brennan also started 3–22 at San José State before going 31–26 the rest of his tenure in a very hard job.) Wildcats defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales was fired after an 11–32 run as head coach at New Mexico before being hired at Arizona. After giving up 31.8 points per game in 2024 (part of the reason everyone wanted Brennan fired), the Wildcats’ scoring defense has plummeted to 19.3 points allowed last year and 19 this year.
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