{"id":711732,"date":"2026-01-28T15:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T15:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/711732\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T15:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T15:18:17","slug":"college-football-second-year-coach-grades-alabamas-kalen-deboer-gets-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/711732\/","title":{"rendered":"College football second-year coach grades: Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer gets ‘C+’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"College<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

The coaching carousel is moving faster than ever before, which means coaches have to find their footing at new schools quickly. After only two years, several coaches from the 2023-24 cycle have already established themselves as successes — or failures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The headliner, of course, is Indiana’s<\/a> Curt Cignetti. The former James Madison<\/a> coach burst on the Power Four scene the greatest hires in the history of sports after leading the Hoosiers to an unlikely national championship<\/a>. Five other coaches from the cycle have also reached the College Football<\/a> Playoff in their first two years. Duke’s<\/a> Manny Diaz also captured an ACC title.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That said, four second-year coaches have already been fired: Oregon State’s<\/a> Trent Bray, Michigan State’s<\/a> Jonathan Smith, UCLA’s<\/a> DeShaun Foster and Michigan’s<\/a> Sherrone Moore. More could quickly find themselves on the hot seat in pivotal Year 3s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are how we grade every second-year coach in college football after the 2025 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images The coaching carousel is moving faster than ever before, which means coaches have to find their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[52,930,1919,2283,7210,77421,7213,4715,30235,30234,3577,21178,4707,21202,331,612,34093,103296,59,16784,2036,7491,7643,3039,1301,7,4716,21205,5042,932,4725,21207,103297,4842,21180,11364,44062,577,2549,71,41095,7209,4712,4604,21160,4591,21200,41096,8243,3329,69,6094,4729,6776,21188,21208,17,5043,4431,1923,27003,60261,1541,7212,1078,21179,28826,128,11361,4711,22804,17074,13112,666,1442,4616,671,6095,4736,2785,8498],"class_list":["post-711732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-alabama","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-arizona-state-sun-devils","tag-arizona-wildcats","tag-auburn-tigers","tag-bishop-davenport","tag-boise-state-broncos","tag-boston-college-eagles","tag-brown-bears","tag-bryant-bulldogs","tag-buffalo-bulls","tag-charlotte-49ers","tag-cincinnati-bearcats","tag-coastal-carolina-chanticleers","tag-college-football","tag-college-football-coaches","tag-college-football-grades","tag-college-football-year-2-coaches","tag-colorado-buffaloes","tag-curt-cignetti","tag-darian-mensah","tag-diego-pavia","tag-duke-blue-devils","tag-dylan-raiola","tag-florida-gators","tag-football","tag-georgia-tech-yellow-jackets","tag-georgia-state-panthers","tag-houston-cougars","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-hoosiers","tag-james-madison-dukes","tag-jordan-mccloud","tag-kalen-deboer","tag-kent-state-golden-flashes","tag-liberty-flames","tag-louisiana-monroe-warhawks","tag-louisville-cardinals","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-middle-tenn-blue-raiders","tag-mississippi-state-bulldogs","tag-navy-midshipmen","tag-nebraska-cornhuskers","tag-nevada-wolf-pack","tag-new-mexico-state-aggies","tag-new-mexico-lobos","tag-north-texas-mean-green","tag-northwestern-wildcats","tag-ohio-bobcats","tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","tag-oregon-state-beavers","tag-purdue-boilermakers","tag-sam-leavitt","tag-san-diego-state-aztecs","tag-san-jose-state-spartans","tag-shedeur-sanders","tag-south-alabama-jaguars","tag-south-florida-bulls","tag-stanford-cardinal","tag-steve-angeli","tag-tarleton-state-texans","tag-tennessee-volunteers","tag-texas-am-aggies","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-state-bobcats","tag-tony-sanchez","tag-travis-hunter","tag-troy-trojans","tag-tulane-green-wave","tag-tulsa-golden-hurricane","tag-tyler-van-dyke","tag-uab-blazers","tag-ucla-bruins","tag-unlv-rebels","tag-utep-miners","tag-washington-huskies","tag-washington-state-cougars","tag-western-michigan-broncos","tag-wisconsin-badgers","tag-wyoming-cowboys"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}