How will the first-time SEC football coaches fare in 2026?
By David Wasson
Published:
During the unprecedented college football coaching carousel in 2025-26, almost half the SEC programs turned over their head coaches – a record 6 hires out of 16 locations, which surely has kept the moving van and real estate industries humming over the past few months.
Out of those 6 coaches, only the erstwhile Lane Kiffin was previously an SEC boss – as Kiffin infamously led Ole Miss to a 55-19 record during 6 regular seasons in Oxford before bolting in a high-profile escape to Baton Rouge to take over the LSU job vacated when the Tigers fired Brian Kelly.
The rest of the coaches will be getting their first full-season taste of a high-powered SEC that bends to no one. Only Pete Golding, who ascended to the post at Ole Miss following Kiffin’s departure and guided the Rebels to 2 College Football Playoff victories, has even heard his team’s band play the alma mater.
The rest? Well, it is all new. So how will 2026 favor the 5 first-time SEC coaches? Here’s a preview:
Ryan Silverfield, Arkansas
Where Silverfield was: Memphis (6 seasons, 50-25 overall, 27-21 AAC)
Who Silverfield replaces: Sam Pittman (6 seasons, 32-34 overall, 14-29 SEC)
What Silverfield will do in 2026: At the very least, Arkansas wants more than the sub-.500 record that Pittman was able to muster in his half-dozen campaigns in Fayetteville. The resources are certainly there, as Arkansas has plenty of well-heeled boosters just aching to bestow NIL riches on the Hogs. The problem is that it isn’t a program exactly steeped in SEC success – as no coach has even mustered a .500 overall record since Bobby Petrino’s ill-fated tenure ended in 2011 with a 34-17 mark. Still, the 45-year-old Ryan Silverfield was one of the brighter young lights in the American Conference during his Memphis tenure despite a lackluster 12-20 mark against over-.500 teams and a grand total of zero conference title games. The Hogs managed 3 4-star commitments in a 23-commitment signing class during the transition to Silverfield and also reeled in a startling 42 transfer portal signees. Big changes are coming…
Alex Golesh, Auburn
Where Golesh was: South Florida (3 seasons, 23-15 overall, 14-10 American)
Who Golesh replaces: Hugh Freeze (3 seasons, 15-19 overall, 6-16 SEC)
What Golesh will do in 2026: Besides somehow both manage and overcome the weighty expectations that the Auburn faithful heap upon every coach in the past 50 years? Alex Golesh takes over a Tigers program with perennial hope of national contention similar to what Gene Chizik delivered in 2010 and Tommy Tuberville brought in 2004. Hugh Freeze was supposed to be the answer, but the former Ole Miss and Liberty coach couldn’t replicate his efforts on the Plains. The 41-year-old Golesh was successful at South Florida to the tune of 9-3 in 2025 due to an offense led by quarterback Byrum Brown – who transferred from USF to Auburn to stay with his former coach. Brown was among a 39-player haul in the transfer portal that accentuated a truncated recruiting efforts of 6 4-stars among 21 overall players.
Jon Sumrall, Florida
Where Sumrall was: Tulane (2 seasons, 20-8 overall, 14-2 American)
Who Sumrall replaces: Billy Napier (4 seasons, 22-23 overall, 12-16 SEC)
What Sumrall will do in 2026: Try to restore the luster that Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer delivered to a Florida football program that was an SEC bully for years but has recently fallen back to the pack in the conference. Unlike Auburn retroactively recognizing its 2004 national title, Florida’s 1996, 2006 and 2008 titles happened in real time – as did the resultant up-and-down tenures of Ron Zook, Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain, Dan Mullen and finally Napier. The 43-year-old Jon Sumrall brings a pedigree with him, as he just led Tulane to its first College Football Playoff berth in 2025 and also won back-to-back Sun Belt crowns at Troy before being tapped by the Gators. Florida may have lost quarterback DJ Lagway amid a 34-player exodus following a 4-8 season, but Sumrall’s portal shopping netted 29 incoming transfers and his 19-player recruiting class boasts 13 4-star athletes.
Can Florida make a run at the SEC championship in 2026? Kalshi has the Gators priced at 9 cents per contract:
Will Stein, Kentucky
Where Stein was: Oregon (as offensive coordinator)
Who Stein replaces: Mark Stoops (13 seasons, 72-80 overall, 38-68 SEC)
What Stein will do in 2026: The youngest new SEC coach of the bunch at just 36 and 1 of 2 first-time coaches, Will Stein will aim to breathe fresh life into a Kentucky program that saw some great moments during Stoops’ tenure that included a pair of 10-3 seasons and Citrus Bowl victories. Even more so than Silverfield at Arkansas, Stein has to build a program at a school where basketball reigns supreme – and fight all the external assumptions among recruits that come with it. Working as Dan Lanning’s offensive coordinator for three seasons at Oregon will certainly help in that regard, as will Stein’s tenure as a quarterback at cross-state rival Louisville. Still, Stein has plenty of building to do even after an above-average 29-player transfer portal haul. Kentucky didn’t exactly light it up in the high school recruiting, however, with just 3 4-stars among its 15 signees.
Pete Golding, Ole Miss
Where Golding was: Ole Miss (first full season as a collegiate head coach, but 2-1 at Ole Miss during the 2025-26 College Football Playoff)
Who Golding replaces: Lane Kiffin (6 seasons, 55-19 overall, 32-17 SEC)
What Golding will do in 2026: Golding arguably has the most difficult job of all the first-year SEC coaches – despite having already worked in the job during the Rebels’ magical run to the CFP semifinals. The former Ole Miss defensive coordinator was thrust into the head-coaching chair when Kiffin bolted to LSU and shined in the Playoff. But 2026 will be a different story now that the dust has settled in Oxford and he will have a full offseason to reload what was a stellar Rebels offense. While not fully resolved, it appears the 42-year-old Golding will have quarterback Trinidad Chambliss back to pair with standout running back Kewan Lacy again. And the Rebels brought in both an outstanding transfer portal class (9 4-stars among 29 signees) and a solid traditional recruiting class (8 4-stars out of 22 signees). But whether Golding can replicate the Kiffin magic will be the central question he has to keep answering week in and week out.
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
