The new-coordinator picture in college football is starting to separate into two piles fast: the staffs that have hit the ground running, and the ones already leaving their head coaches with more questions than answers.
At the top of the list of success stories is Northwestern, where Kelly has leaned into a throwback identity and made it work in a big way. The Wildcats battered Penn State on Friday night with a wing T attack that looked straight out of another era and still produced modern damage: 413 rushing yards, their most in a home game in 26 years and the most nationally against a power-conference opponent this season.
Northwestern ran the ball over and over, used motion and misdirection to keep the Nittany Lions off balance, and threw it only 14 times. It followed a much different kind of grind seven days earlier, when the Wildcats had to lean heavily on quarterback Aidan Chiles and the passing game against Indiana before falling 29-23 after pushing the reigning champions deep into the fourth quarter.
Northwestern is 3-1, and the schedule ahead suggests a strong finish to the stretch. The Wildcats should be 6-1 when they travel to face the team Kelly led to the 2010 national championship game, Oregon.
Texas also belongs in the “working” column, and the defense has been the engine. The Longhorns have forced five takeaways while allowing only four touchdown drives.
Opponents have scored touchdowns on just 27% of their red-zone trips against Texas, and Muschamp unleashed a heavy dose of pressure on Tennessee freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon last game, producing 10 sacks, including 5.5 from edge rusher Colin Simmons. Since the fourth-quarter shutout of Ohio State, the Texas defense has been giving up only 2.6 points and 46 yards per quarter over its last nine.
That sets up a tricky spot for Oklahoma’s shaky offense in Dallas on Saturday.
Utah has kept rolling too, even with Kyle Whittingham taking Jason Beck with him to Michigan. Beck’s replacement, McGiven, has kept the Utes humming.
In their first season under Morgan Scalley, they are 4-0 and have topped 30 points, 400 total yards and six yards per play in every game. Devon Dampier looks like the same quarterback he was last year in Beck’s offense, only with less rushing so far.
Wayshawn Parker broke out in the win at Iowa State, posting career highs with 174 rushing yards and 239 yards from scrimmage.
Missouri has gotten a boost from Lindsey as well, even with the offense dealing with major personnel turbulence. Lindsey has made seven different stops over the last decade, and his first months in Columbia were followed by a gunshot injury to the Tigers’ best offensive player, running back Ahmad Hardy, who still has not played this season.
Lindsey has had to sort through transfer quarterback Austin Simmons and several new receivers, but the results have been strong. Missouri leads the SEC in league games in total offense at 487 yards, and the Tigers blasted Florida for 560 yards and 8.48 yards per play in Saturday’s blowout.
UCLA is another instant fit. Chesney brought the same playbook and several of the same players from James Madison, and the Bruins have stayed on script all the way to a 4-0 start.
They are averaging 44.8 points per game. Kennedy is the main coordinator, but Smith deserves credit too for his role as offensive line coach and run-game coordinator.
UCLA leads the nation in yards per carry at 6.95 and rushing touchdowns per game at 4.5, and the Bruins have been especially punishing in the fourth quarter, averaging 125 rushing yards in that period alone.
Not every new setup is going nearly as smoothly.
Michigan’s offense remains stuck in the mud. The Wolverines have now gone four of their first five games without reaching 20 points, something that had not happened since 1965.
That team finished 4-6 despite a strong defense, and the current version has a familiar feel. Five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood has been roughly the same passer he was last year as a freshman, which means pretty pedestrian by the standard Michigan hoped for.
His performance in the loss to Minnesota was especially rough: 101 passing yards, 121 total offense and two interceptions. That may not be Beck’s fault, but he is the one likely to absorb most of the criticism.
Clemson’s offensive reset has been a dud so far. In classic Dabo Swinney retrograde fashion, he brought back the coordinator he had from 2011 to ’14 in an effort to modernize the attack.
The result has been the opposite of what he wanted: Clemson is last in the ACC in total offense and total touchdowns, and one of those touchdowns came on a punt return. The passing game has been especially lifeless, with the Tigers sitting at the bottom of the country in passing touchdown rate with two scores on 153 pass attempts.
Texas A&M has shown flashes, but the offense still swings wildly from one week to the next. The Aggies put up a balanced 401-yard effort against Arkansas, but that came after a stretch that included just seven points in the first three quarters against Kentucky, no offensive touchdowns against LSU and a close game with Arizona State before two defensive touchdowns in the fourth quarter opened it up. Marcel Reed still has not thrown the ball well, though he has been more effective as a runner lately.
USC remains a moving target, which is exactly the problem. Lincoln Riley has a reputation for making opposing coordinators look bad, and at times he has lived up to that billing.
But there have also been nights when the Trojans could not stop Louisiana or Rutgers, let alone Oregon or even a random Washington tight end. Against Washington, the defense had a rough moment when poor tackling led to a 42-yard touchdown from tight end Decker DeGraaf.
Still, with the season on the line, USC settled in, forced a fumble-return touchdown and shut Washington out over the final 28 minutes. That at least gives the Trojans something to build on.
Louisville’s issues are more straightforward. No team has allowed more passing plays of 30 yards or longer this season than the Cardinals, who have given up 13.
Four of those have gone for 60 or more, and the back end of the defense has been open far too often. Those breakdowns are a huge reason Louisville sits at 2-3, with the defensive leaks undoing its own big-play offense.
And then there is California, where Tosh Lupoi might have flunked his first attempt at staff construction.
In Other News...
Texas Faces A New SEC Reality As Remaining Schedule Shifts
Texas is heading into the stretch run with a clearer picture of just how different the SEC can look from week to week. The latest look around the league turns to Oklahoma, Florida, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Missouri, all of which sit somewhere on the Longhorns remaining path. Recent results, shifting rankings and a few injury questions have changed the tone of those matchups, making the back half of the schedule feel less like a static gauntlet and more like a moving target.
For a No. 1 Texas team, that matters because the margin for error in November can shrink fast when opponents are trending in different directions. Some of these teams are coming off uneven performances, others are dealing with personnel concerns, and coaching comments suggest there is still plenty of uncertainty left to sort out before kickoff. The Longhorns cant control any of it, of course, but the evolving shape of the schedule adds another layer of intrigue to a race that already has plenty on the line. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Special Teams Carry One Big Concern Into Oklahoma
Special teams have quietly become one of the early-season stress points for Texas, and the issue is hard to ignore with the Red River Rivalry next on the schedule. Through the first four games, the Longhorns have not been as sharp in the kicking game as they need to be, and that area matters even more in a matchup like Oklahoma, where field position and hidden yardage can swing the tone of the day.
Steve Sarkisian has already pointed to the need for more depth on special teams, especially to keep defensive starters from doing too much work there. Texas also carries a reminder of how quickly things can turn against it, after the Tennessee game featured a long punt return touchdown and a late onside-kick recovery, the kind of sequence that can change a close game and one the Longhorns cannot afford to repeat in Dallas. [Read more 🡒]
Easton Royal Is Putting Texas Fans Through One More Stressful Month
Five-star wide receiver Easton Royal has been committed to Texas for more than 10 months, but the recruiting spotlight around him has hardly gone dark. The Longhorns have continued to stay engaged, and Texas coaches Steve Sarkisian and Chris Jackson recently made a trip to see him in Louisiana during the teams bye week, a reminder that this race is still being managed with plenty of attention.
Royal has also lined up additional game-day visits to Florida, Texas, and LSU over the coming weeks, with stops set for October 10, October 17, November 7 and November 14. For Texas fans, it is the kind of late-fall recruiting drama that can make a pledge feel a lot less settled than it once did, even if the Longhorns remain firmly in the mix for one of the biggest names on their board. [Read more 🡒]