We all know the successes of Nick Saban, Kirby Smart, Dabo Swinney, Jim Harbaugh, and Ryan Day. All of these coaches have appeared in multiple conference championships, and multiple playoffs, and the first three all have multiple national championships under their belt. Who will emerge in the next group of all-star coaches? Who will be next to lead their team to multiple conference championships and playoff appearances? Today, we’re going to take a look at the coaches who have the smarts, skills, and situations to become one of greats.
Josh Heupel
We all saw Tennessee take the college football world by storm last season, beating Alabama, LSU, and Clemson on their way to an 11-2 record in Heupel’s second season in Knoxville. His spread-out offense caused problems for defenses all year and allowed Hendon Hooker and Jalin Hyatt to shine. It’ll be interesting to see if it was the players, the scheme, or a mix of both that allowed for the offensive explosion in 2022. Only time will tell, but Heupel has done a great job recruiting and completely turning this program around. If he can continue what he’s doing and improve that team on defense, then there is no reason why he couldn’t be one of the future star head coaches in the sport.
Mike Norvell
Mike Norvell has done a very similar thing as Josh Heupel. They both got hired on at historically successful programs that were in the dumps and turned around. Once Jimbo Fisher left FSU, they became a laughing stock for the rest of the country. A huge miss on their first coaching hire, three win seasons, and losses to FCS schools, it really couldn’t have gotten worse. That was until Mike Norvell came along and shifted the entire culture down there in Tallahassee. Florida State went 10-3 last season and capped it off with a win in the Cheese-It Bowl vs Oklahoma. This has set up some momentum entering 2023, where a lot of people have them as ACC favorites and even contenders for the CFP. They open the season with a rematch with LSU, this time in Orlando. These are two teams who were unranked when they played last year, both had really good seasons and will now both most likely be ranked inside the top ten for this matchup. Norvell has done a tremendous job so far, and if he can keep the Seminoles in contention, he could become one of the best and most successful in the game.
Shane Beamer
Shane Beamer is the son of legendary Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer. Shane has served on many staffs including Georgia, Oklahoma, Virginia Tech, and Tennessee. He was hired as South Carolina’s head coach in 2021 after never having another head coaching or coordinator job before. It was a gamble that a few people didn’t quite understand at the time, but it has definitely paid off. Beamer took a South Carolina program with no life and made them respectable again in just two seasons. After only having six total wins between the previous two seasons, Beamer led the Gamecocks to a 7-6 record in 2021 and an 8-5 record in 2022. If he continues this trend, he could have South Carolina competing for SEC championships soon. Hopefully, a bigger-name program doesn’t come and steal him away from Columbia.
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Dan Lanning
Dan Lanning has only been at Oregon for one season, and he already has Oregon recruiting as hot as it has ever been. Lanning was a great recruiter at Georgia and it seems to have translated very well out west. He also led the Ducks to a 10-3 season in his first year. He gets veteran QB Bo Nix back for one final year, so they should be primed for another successful season. If he can keep up the elite recruiting and develop those guys to be productive in their time in college, Lanning and Oregon could be a force to reckon with over the next decade-plus.
Marcus Freeman
Marcus Freeman and his Notre Dame Fighting Irish had a very underwhelming start to this season. They lost their first two games, one to Ohio State, and one to mighty Marshall. They quickly turned things around however and ended up 9-4. This was without a quality quarterback all year as well. This upcoming season, Notre Dame won’t have that problem as they have elite quarterback Sam Hartman coming in from Wake Forest. We will really be able to see how well Freeman can coach next season, as he has a chance to lead a very good Notre Dame team into 2023. I have faith in Freeman, and he still has much to prove. He has the situation to become great, so it is up to him now whether or not he will become one of the premier coaches in the nation.
