Joel Klatt predicts hires for major head coaching vacancies

The head coaching carousel is alive and well in college football, and the offseason hasn’t even arrived. With Florida, LSU and USC among the premium jobs open at this point, Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt joined Colin Cowherd on The Herd, where he predicted who each of those three teams will hire as their next head coach.

Klatt’s predictions

LSU: Matt Campbell

Campbell, currently Iowa State’s head coach, has been gaining some traction in discussions as a potential hire for some prominent openings. He began his career as a head coach in the 2012 season at Toledo. Campbell coached at Toledo from 2012 to 2015, where he led the program to a 35-15 overall record and three bowl appearances.

In 2016, Iowa State hired Campbell to become the head coach of the Cyclones. Campbell’s first year at Iowa State was a forgettable 3-9 year, but things have turned around tremendously since then. Iowa State has seven wins in every year since, not including six wins on the current year. Campbell has led Iowa State to four consecutive bowl appearances.

Florida: Billy Napier

Napier has had a strong career as an assistant coach in addition to his current success at Louisiana. He was an assistant under Dabo Swinney and Nick Saban previously, and also has experience working at Colorado State, Florida State, South Carolina State, and Arizona State.

Prior to the 2018 season, Louisiana hired Napier as the next head coach of the Ragin’ Cajuns. Over the past four seasons, Napier has really done a great job. Louisiana is 38-12 under him with three consecutive bowl appearances and a fourth soon to come. The Ragin’ Cajuns are 10-1 this season.

USC: Dave Aranda

Dave Aranda, currently Baylor’s coach, has been a recent link as a potential head coach hire for some bigger schools. He has been a good defensive coordinator at Hawaii, Utah State, Wisconsin, and LSU in the past before Baylor hired him as head coach ahead of the 2020 season. Baylor was just 2-7 last year, but Aranda has turned things around and the Bears are a top ten team with a 9-2 record this year.

“I understand that and people have talked about, he’s a very deep thinker,” Klatt said of Aranda’s lack of experience. “He’s not what you would think of when you think of (Los Angeles), but I’ve heard that that’s getting some momentum.”