It's a new era for the Houston Cougars and former head coach Dana Holgorsen.
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On Saturday, the Houston Cougars lost 27 to 13 in their season finale to the UCF Knights bringing the Cougars' record to 4-8 with just two of those wins being in conference play, earning them a second-to-last finish in their first year as a member of the Big 12 Conference.
Following their loss, the Cougars parted ways with the entire coaching staff including head coach Dana Holgorsen. Holgorsen took over as head coach for Houston in 2019 and after a 7-12 start in his first two seasons, finished 12-2 in 2021 earning them a spot in the American Conference title game and notching a win over Auburn in a bowl game. In 2022, it was a year of two seasons as the Cougars started out 2-3 before winning six of their eight games. Unfortunately, 2023 was rough and pretty disappointing for the Cougars as they joined the Big 12 leading to Holgorsen's firing.
Prior to Houston, Holgorsen was the head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers from 2011 to 2018 a place where he would notch two 10-win seasons, an Orange Bowl win, and close out his eight-year tenure with a 61-41 record. But before his last two jobs as a head coach, Holgorsen's background was as an offensive coordinator for various schools including Oklahoma State, Houston, and Texas Tech. This leaves Holgorsen with a wide variety of options for his destination.
The odds of Holgorsen going to a Power Five school as a head coach seems unlikely but he could still find himself on the sideline of a Power Five school next year but just as an offensive coordinator. However, Holgorsen is 92-69 in his career as a head coach and has had some success in his two previous jobs which might lead to a smaller school viewing him as an upgrade. So, which open positions could Holgorsen be a good fit for and where could we see him in 2024?
New Mexico Head Coach
The New Mexico Lobos are in the market for a new head coach after firing Danny Gonzales after an 11-32 record in four seasons. Since 2008 the Lobos have consistently been one of the worst teams in college football posting just two winning seasons during that time while totaling six seasons of two or fewer wins. This would be a major step down for Dana Holgorsen but it would be an opportunity to build up a program in a conference that is very competitive which would allow him to build up his resume with more positives than negatives and with the playoff expanding to 12 teams in 2024, who knows, maybe he could get them as a top Group of Five Team.
UTEP Head Coach
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Right up there with the Lobos for being consistently bad are the UTEP Miners who just let go of head coach Dana Dimel after he went 20-49 in his six seasons with the Miners. Again, very similar to the New Mexico head coaching job, the Miners would provide Holgorsen a fresh start to rebuild his resume in a new era of college football. The biggest difference between these two jobs is that coaching the Miners would keep Holgorsen in the state he has been coaching in for the last five seasons which allows him to keep the footprint he has built in recruiting in the state of Texas.
Iowa Offensive Coordinator
One of the weirdest storylines of the 2023 season was that of the Iowa Hawkeyes and offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz and the requirement for him to keep his job. An amendment to his contract stated that the Hawkeyes would have to win at least seven games (they won 10) and average at least 25 points per game. Despite winning the Big 10 West, the Hawkeyes only averaged 18 points a game, which ranked in the bottom 10 of the entire country. Holgorsen would be a huge improvement as his teams have averaged over 30 points per game in 11 of his last 13 seasons. Even if Holgorsen got to that requirement of 25 points, he would still be a great match for that Hawkeye defense.
Penn State Offensive Coordinator
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After going 0-2 against Michigan and Ohio State, the Penn State Nittany Lions fired offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich. The fans loved this move as it seemed that their offense was more capable of what they had produced with Yurcich. Penn State's offense is going to have some good experience in 2024 with Drew Allar at quarterback and their running back duo of Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen giving Holgorsen plenty of weapons to work with in his first year. This offense still managed to average 37 points per game and just needs an offensive coordinator to show up in the big games.
Boise State Head Coach
The Boise State Broncos fired Andy Avalos after just three years with the team, posting a 22-14 record during that time. The Broncos are best known for being one of the top Group of Five teams in college football finishing with 1o or more wins in 15 seasons since 2001. But the odd thing about this firing is that Boise State is in the Mountain West title game but at the time of the firing they were at .500. Holgorsen would have higher expectations at Boise State than at any other school but would have an easier time of winning now as opposed to having to build up a team and wins over the course of a couple seasons.
