2026's Year 2 Coach Vibe Check: Who's Already Heading for Trouble?

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Is your head coach going to succeed? Most of the time, you’ll know by Year 2. Welcome to the latest installment of SZD’s checkup on head coaches about to start their second season on the job. The class of 2025 was famously light on Power 4 hires but offers more G6 hope than you might think. In this episode, we’ll tier out this crop of second-year coaches as follows:

* 0:16: Why Year 2 remains such a revealing checkpoint for college football coaches, even after the portal changed the roster-building calendar.

* 8:03: The guys who are trending up, like Zach Kittley at FAU, Mark Carney at Kent State, Matt Drinkall at Central Michigan, Willie Simmons at FIU, Jerry Mack at Kennesaw State, Dan Mullen at UNLV, Jason Eck at New Mexico, and Matt Entz at Fresno State.

* 24:28: The guys who have us in wait-and-see mode, including the hard AAC jobs, Phil Longo at Sam Houston, Mike Uremovich at Ball State, Eddie George at Bowling Green, Dowell Loggains at App State, Tony Gibson at Marshall, Barry Odom at Purdue, and Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia.

* 39:22: The guys who are already trending the wrong way and need a turnaround, like Scott Frost at UCF and, well …

* 46:01: Bill Belichick’s lousy first year at North Carolina and how much hope there is that things could improve

Producer: Anthony Vito

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