During the 2016 season college football saw dramatic changes in staff. With promotions, hiring and firing of head coaches, several teams have had a lot of changes to make in order to adjust to their new direction. Several of theses changes occurred over the recent Thanksgiving break.

Louisiana State University (LSU) fired Les Miles on September 25, 2015, after 10 years as head coach. They named previous defensive line coach Ed Orgeron as interim head coach. Over the Thanksgiving break the LSU athletic department held a press conference and announced Orgeron as head coach for the upcoming 2017 season.

The University of Texas (U.T.) let Charlie Strong go after a 16-21 record for the three seasons that he was head coach of the longhorns. U.T. hired University of Houston head coach Tom Herman to replace Strong in the 2017 season.

The longhorn’s prime seasons were under the coaching of Mack Brown, going to bowl games almost every year. Brown was head coach from 1998 to 2013. In 2005 the longhorns won the Rose Bowl and was titled National Champions.  In 2009 they went undefeated and won the Big 12 South Division then went to the BCS National Championship game. Brown was well respected by his team and longhorn fans.

Strong had large shoes to fill in 2014 with Brown leaving an impressive reputation at the university. After a 5-7 record in 2016 and losing to 2-10 Kansas Jayhawks, many U.T. fans were disappointed in the coaching staff, mainly pointing fingers to Strong.

Herman had a 13-1 record and won the Peach Bowl in 2015 at the University of Houston. With an overall record of 22-4 during his two-year term at Houston, Herman was a key component for Houston and a talented leader, which is what U.T. lacked. Houston promoted defensive coordinator Todd Orlando as interim head coach.

In the past decade Houston has been working to propel their football program and has seen some very successful seasons recently. Herman’s departure is very similar to former head coach Tony Levine. Both coaches left Houston for larger schools, in Levine’s case, Texas A&M.

Les Miles was the LSU head coach from 2005 to 2015, winning the BCS National Championship Game in 2007. After starting the 2016 season with a 2-2 record and losing to Auburn, Miles was fired along with offensive coordinator Cam Cameron. Ed Orgeron was promoted from defensive line coach to interim head coach. Orgeron named Steve Ensminger as offensive coordinator. Under his direction, LSU went 5-2, and on November 26, 2016, Orgeron was officially titled head coach.   

A new head coach is a big change for large programs like football, hundreds of teammates, colleagues and fans have to adjust to a new coaching style. The colleges will do whatever necessary to maintain their athletic status, even if that means getting a brand new coach every few years.