2025 Sun Belt Coaching Carousel…with Grades!

By David Asbury

My thoughts send me on a carousel!

The Sun Belt is no stranger to the coaching carousel.  As a top G5 league, P4 teams love to poach the top Sun Belt coaches.  But with so many new coaches last season, there were not many coaches with established resumes to poach.  No matter, the coaching carousel is still alive and well in the Sun Belt.  The poaching was just replaced with cannibalism.  Let's see how these teams did in this year's carousel and let us know if you agree with these grades.

These grades are the opinion of David M. Asbury and do not reflect the views of The Pride of ODU Collective or the other Monarchists. 

Southern Mississippi - Charles Huff

Will Hall was a dead man walking last season and everyone knew it.  In fact, I ranked him having the hottest seat in the Sun Belt last season.  But do not give me any credit because his firing was obvious and inevitable.  He probably should have lost his job after the disastrous 2023 season.  USM ultimately pulled the trigger midseason after a horrid 1-6 start.  Hall's overall record was 14-30.  Hall is off to be an assistant at Tulane and USM is on to bigger and better things (because it could hardly get worse).  Well, at least they'll always have the 2022 Lending Tree Bowl. 

USM's Charles Huff overseeing ODU's Colton Joseph getting past NFL draft prospect Mike Green.  Photo courtesy of CB Sports Photography.

Even before Marshall played in the championship game, the secret was out that Charles Huff was leaving Marshall to coach USM.  Entering the last season of his contract at Marshall, Huff had his magnum opus season going 8-1 in conference and winning the Sun Belt Championship.  Huff took Marshall bowling in each of his four seasons at Marshall and had big P4 wins against Notre Dame and Virginia Tech.  To top it all off, Huff has coaching experience from his days at Mississippi State and Alabama so he is actually going back to his old recruiting footprint in the Deep South.  You would think getting such a coach would be expensive but actually his base salary is only $950k, typical for a Sun Belt coach and just a slight raise from the $755k he made at Marshall.   I will admit that I was not sold on Huff prior to 2024 but he proved himself and then some.  No matter how you cut it, this is a homerun hire.  If Southern Miss. cannot turn it around now, it will not be because of coaching.  Grade:  A+.

Marshall - Tony Gibson

Now we have to talk about the other side of the coin.  Marshall just let a championship coach walk.  You can read Marshall's side of the story here.  It is clear that both Marshall and Huff were not keen on renewing the contract even before the 2024 season started.  But still, Marshall let a championship coach walk!  Any excuse given for that is a lame excuse.  If he brings the Sun Belt Trophy home and is not being poached away with millions of dollars, you just have to find a way to make it work.  Marshall fans can rationalize it any way they want but going from a championship coach to one who is not is a downgrade no matter how you cut it.

Marshall lined up Tony Gibson to replace Huff even before Huff's last game.  Gibson, the defensive coordinator from NC State is a good hire.  Unlike Huff, the West Virginia native actually looks like he wants to be in Huntington and coached at West Virginia University as an assistant coach in two different stints.  As the Wolfpack's defensive coordinator, his 3-3-5 defense was above average in the ACC....until last year where it tumbled to 14th in the conference.  It was the best time for new start for Gibson and NC State so this job transfer is probably the best for all parties.  Grade:  B- in a vacuum, F- when considering Marshall let Huff's contract expire.

App. State - Dowell Loggains

No one bleeds black and gold more than Shawn Clark.  Clark played his college ball at App. State and coaching there was a dream come true for him.  He was not terrible either, going 40-24 and sporting a 3-1 bowl record.  He also won the Sun Belt East twice in 2021 and 2023.  So why was he let go?  Well, he just came up short of bowl eligibility in both 2022 and 2024 and that is just not acceptable for team that expects championships. In fact, Clark never won the Sun Belt where his predecessor won it twice in 2018 and 2019.  So, App. State is firing a pretty good coach who loves the school in the hopes they can get a great coach that will win championships. 

Loggains coaching Johnny Manziel on the Cleveland Browns in 2014.  Photo attributed to Erik Daniel Drost via Wiki Commons. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.

In comes Dowell Loggains, the now former offensive coordinator from South Carolina.  Loggains actually has a lot of experience in the NFL as an offensive coordinator before going to his alma mater Arkansas as a tight ends coach in 2021.  He became the Gamecock's OC in 2023 and oversaw LaNorris Sellers' rise there.  He is a solid hire but this will be his first head coaching experience ever so there is going to be a slight learning curve.  App. State is also a pretty hard G5 job.  The fanbase expects championships but they are among peers in the Sun Belt.  Every team expects championships and only one can do it.  The roster has also been decimated by graduation and the transfer portal.  Will Loggains be given time to rebuild the team or will the fan base get impatient?  Grade:  B+.

Ark. State - Butch Jones (Extension)

The Red Wolves are coming off of their best season since 2019 with a bowl victory over the Bowling Green State Falcons.  It took him a bit, but Jones built the team to be a contender in the Sun Belt West.  On the surface, offering an extension appears to be a no-brainer if nothing else, to just allow him to continue building and hopefully keep getting better.  However, I have some big reservations about his defenses and the 2024 strength of schedule looks really soft in hindsight.  Grade:  C+.

Ga. Southern - Clay Helton (Extension)

Clay Helton's seat was getting pretty warm after two 6-7 losing seasons but in 2024 he finally brought home a winning season and a win against archrival App. State.  So the team is going in the right direction.  But he still has not won a bowl game with Southern.  Although his offenses have been high-powered his defenses have been rather bad.  That leaves him with a record of only 20-19.  Did he really do enough to deserve an extension already?  I think not.  Grade:  C-.

Georgia State - Both Coordinators.  

Last season Georgia State hired head coach Dell McGee late in the offseason.  It left McGee very little time to build his roster and hire a coaching staff.   I thought he as a great hire and gave it an A+ grade last season but under the circumstances I cautioned that he deserves some time to build his team.  The 3-9 2024 season should be considered a mulligan and I stand by that.  I think he would agree too because both of his coordinators from last season had to go.  McGee finally had time to get the guys he actually wants.  But are they the right guys?

Hue Jackson on the Browns during the infamous 0-16 season.  Photo attributed to Erik Daniel Drost via Wiki Commons. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.

At offensive coordinator, McGee promoted Hue Jackson...yes that Hue Jackson, the one who had a very bad tenure with the Cleveland Browns.  Jackson was a dreadful NFL head coach going 3-36 with the Browns over two and half seasons before being fired.  What has he been up to lately?  Well, in 2021 he coached a season as Tennessee State's offensive coordinator where his offense averaged a meager 19.7 points per game.  Then he became Grambling State's head coach to sport a 8-14 record before getting fired again.  It has been a very long time since he coached a successful team or unit.  Look, there was probably a time, sometime when Obama was President, where Jackson would have been a great hire at OC but that time is just not now.  Grade:  F.

The defensive coordinator hiring looks much better.  McGee hired Deron Wilson for the position. Wilson spent the last two years working side-by-side with Marcus Woodson coaching Arkansas' defensive backs.  The Hogs’ secondary was arguably the most improved unit on the team in 2023, Wilson's first year with the program. The Razorbacks ranked fourth in the SEC in passing yards allowed per game, the program’s best effort since 2011.  So, overall it appears to be a good hire.  Grade:  A-.

Coastal Carolina - Both Coordinators

Head Coach Tim Beck enters his third season at Coastal after two relatively successful seasons but lost both coordinators.  Beck fired OC Travis Trickett midseason despite some good numbers.   After filling in at OC himself for the remainder of the season, he announced bringing in Drew Hollingshead, the co-offensive coordinator from Western Kentucky.  WKU is known for their high-powered air raid offense and if Hollingshead can bring that to Dirty Myrtle then it could be a great hire.  Grade A-.

Last month, Beck also announced he was letting go of DC Craig Naivar and immediately named his replacement bringing in Jerremiah Johnson the famous cowboy...I mean famous Louisiana Tech defensive coordinator.  Johnson’s defense at Louisiana Tech was ranked as the 12th best in the country last season allowing just over 308 yards per game. A huge improvement from the Bulldogs' atrocious 2023 defense.  Another good hire.  Grade:  A-.

South Alabama - Paul Petrino (Offensive Coordinator)

The Jaguars' Rob Ezell was poached by Wake Forest.  Accordingly, they promoted veteran coach and Bobby Petrino's younger brother Paul Petrino to the OC position. The brothers have worked together on coaching teams such as Louisville, the Atlanta Falcons, and Arkansas.  However, Paul Petrino spent a lot of his coaching career as the Idaho Vandals head coach in 2013-2021 where his son Mason played quarterback for the team in 2017-19.  Overall, Petrino did not have a great tenure going 34-66 as a head coach.  In fact, the Taylor Heinicke-led Monarchs defeated his team at the Kibbie Dome back in 2013.  The Vandals would later drop down to FCS and cancel their return trip to play in Norfolk.  Since then he coached Central Michigan's very average offense in 2022 and '23.   He brings lots of experience but also a pinch of drama.   Here, it is just hard to believe the Jaguars will get more out of him than the Chippewas did.  Grade:  C+. 

Paul Petrino at SBC Media Day in 2015. Remember when Idaho was in the Sun Belt? Weird, right? Photo attributed to Bobak Ha'Eri via Wiki Commons. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

Texas State - Landon Keopple (Offensive Coordinator)

The Texas Tech Red Raiders poached OC Mack Leftwich after the Texas State offense excelled.  To replace Leftwich, GJ Kinne looked internally promoted Landon Keopple.  Keopple has been an OC before for Southern Arkansas where he coached a pretty stout offense at that level.  Given Keopple's experience at TXST not much should really change with the Bobcats who will likely have another top Sun Belt offense in 2025.  Grade:  B.

Louisiana-Monroe - NO ONE? (Offensive Coordinator) Did you know ULM didn't have an offensive coordinator last year?  It sure looked like it because the Warhawks finished 126th out of 134 teams in total offense, averaging only 304 yards per game. Head coach Bryant Vincent managed the offense but in December he announced he would hand over play calling responsibilities next season and hire an offensive coordinator.  But no one has been named yet!   Former Warhawk quarterback Cody Wells was named an offensive assistant coach but that is not a coordinator.  It is February and the clock is ticking to hire a good coach.  What is going on down there? Grade:  TBD

Ark. State - Griff McCarley (Defensive Coordinator)

Rob Harley was poached by the NIU Huskies to be their defensive coordinator.  That is an interesting hire because the Red Wolves defense was pretty bad last year. In fact, the Red Wolves ranked last in the SBC in yards per game.  The Red Wolves are better off without him.  Head coach Butch Jones announced that linebackers coach Griff McCarley has been elevated to defensive coordinator.  McCarley has been a linebackers coach all throughout his career and his unit has excelled for the most part.  So maybe there is hope that he can bring that unit's success to the entire defense?  But other than that, this promotion is just not very exciting.  Grade:  C+.