Coaching dominoes fall in the SEC with multiple hires on Sunday

It’s already a hectic day in the SEC with the final day of the regular season less than 12 hours ago. Now, a trio of SEC teams have hired their new coach and LSU could be No. 4 coming soon.

Here’s a rundown of all of the hires, the extensions, what to know, and the outlook for LSU and Ole Miss as the Lane Kiffin saga hopefully comes to an end.

Arkansas hires Memphis’ Ryan Silverfield

After playing their hand close to the vest with Silverfield, Arkansas has its guy, moving on from the Sam Pittman era with a young, offensive-minded head coach. He’s been an offensive line coach in the NFL and was the offensive line coach at Memphis under Mike Norvell before he left.

Now 45 years old, Silverfield has been the head coach at Memphis since 2020. During that time, he’s consistently had the Tigers performing as one of the top Group of Five teams in the country. That’s been particularly true over the past three seasons. Over the past three years, he went 29-9 at Memphis. That ties him for a Top 10 win percentage over that time.

At Memphis, Silverfield was 3-0 against USF’s Alex Golesh, who is now headed to Auburn. He was also 2-0 vs. North Texas‘ Eric Morris, who is now headed to Oklahoma State, and 1-0 vs. Iowa State‘s Matt Campbell.

In his six seasons at Memphis, Ryan Silverfield went 50-25 overall and 27-21 in American Conference play. He also led Memphis to four bowl wins, which is the most any individual coach has won in program history. In fact, he was 4-0 in bowls there, all against Power 4 opponents: Arkansas, Florida State, West Virginia, and Iowa State.

Florida hires Tulane’s Jon Sumrall

Sumrall is heading to the SEC as one of the most successful head coaches in the country over the past four years for his level. Sumrall has received interest from Auburn in recent weeks and before that, was expected to be a factor at Ole Miss with Kiffin’s departure. A former Kentucky linebacker and co-defensive coordinator for the Wildcats, he is 19-7 in two seasons at Tulane.

The 43-year-old Alabama native won two conference titles at Troy and made the American conference title game in 2024 in Year 1 at Tulane. He has the Green Wave playing in another conference championship game this week with a College Football Playoff bid on the line. Sumrall is 10-2 on the season and 42–11 in four years as an FBS head coach.

Jon Sumrall was a popular name in last year’s coaching carousel, receiving interest from West Virginia and North Carolina. But he opted to sign a contract extension and return to Tulane. The Green Wave were unable to hold onto him this year with the allure of the SEC.

Auburn hires USF’s Alex Golesh

An exciting offensive mind, Golesh brings a fascinating upside to Auburn with experience in the SEC and a strong 2025 season at USF. It became clear Golesh was one of the exciting up and comers this coaching cycle and now Auburn gets him signed.

“Auburn Football is one of the proudest, most tradition-rich programs in all of college football and my family and I could not be more excited to join the Auburn Family,” Golesh said in a statement Sunday. “This will be a player-driven program and no one will outwork our staff. Auburn has won, can win and will win championships. Let’s get to work.”

USF has remained in the hunt for a College Football Playoff berth, though a 41-38 loss at Navy on Nov. 15 likely knocked it out of contention. Still, the Bulls are 9-3 after being Rice 52-3 in their regular-season finale.

Golesh has made his mark on the offensive side of the ball. His current USF squad ranks 5th among Bowl Subdivision teams in scoring (42.2 points per game) and yardage (497 per game). Josh Heupel, now Tennessee’s head coach, gave Golesh his first coordinator job at UCF ahead of the 2020 season. The Golden Knights finished 8th in the country in scoring at 42.2 per game. Golesh followed Heupel to Tennessee ahead of the 2021 season and served as the Vols’ offensive coordinator.

In Knoxville, Golesh’s offense finished 7th in scoring during the 2021 season and led the country in scoring during the ’22 campaign.

Vanderbilt and Missouri lock in their guys

Clark Lea at Vanderbilt and Eli Drinkwitz at Missouri have both signed extensions to stay at their schools which comes after both of their names were floated around as potential targets in some high-profile jobs, including LSU, over the past month. Both programs are where they want to be and have their guys locked in for the future.

Missouri ended the year 8-4 overall, bringing Drinkwitz to 29-9 over the past three seasons, the 12th best record in the FBS during that time. The Tigers have also qualified for six straight bowl games under Drinkwitz as he has raised the floor considerably in his time there. He has certainly struggled against top 25 teams (now 7-18), but getting Missouri to a consistent winner is impressive nonetheless.

At Vanderbilt, the vibes could not be higher, as Lea has led the Commodores to a 10-2 season, capping it with a 45-24 win over Tennessee on the road. The only losses this year have been to Alabama and Texas on the road and Lea has utilized quarterback Diego Pavia, an elite offensive line, and a stout defense to put his team in contention for the College Football Playoffs.

LSU and Ole Miss continue to wait on Kiffin

While it appears Kiffin is bound to be at LSU next year, we continue to await a final word out of Oxford as we sit here on Sunday. There’s urgency from Kiffin to start building his staff, but he also wants to coach his team to the end of the season, which does not appear to be in line with what Ole Miss wants. The hope is to get something finalized in the coming hours, but until then, both programs continue to wait.

For Ole Miss in particular, the Rebels have seen three other SEC teams hire young and successful coaches from the G5 ranks for their openings, while Kiffin dragged out this situation, leaving them with few options available. Will they promote Pete Golding? Will they look at other names like a Jedd Fisch at Washington or Rhett Lashlee at SMU? It’s unclear what’s next for Ole Miss as Kiffin makes it clear he does not want to be there next year, but the Rebels are the only SEC program left to fill the position.