It was a wild day on the coaching carousel the past 72 hours with coaching changes at North Texas, Maryland, USC and South Carolina. In all we have seen five coaching changes this fall, including Illinois before the first kickoff of the season. There will be many more to come as the year progresses, and two more coaching changes could be likely at Texas State and UTSA.
According to a report from Gridiron Now, both Texas State and UTSA could be thinking about their respective long-term futures. That would make sense given the ages of their current head coaches. Texas State head coach Dennis Franchione is 64 years of age and UTSA head coach Larry Coker is 67. Both coaches carry some solid backgrounds in the coaching game of course, which is why they were solid hires for each school as they each prepared to make the jump into FBS football. Having coaches who had been at that level provided a sense of confidence and organization for each. Their time as head coaches though, was always relatively limited and now that those transitions to the FBS have been completed (UTSA in Conference USA and Texas State in the Sun Belt now), it is not a bad idea to start thinking about the next coaches that can continue to grow within the program for the next stages of the programs.
Coker took on the job at UTSA in 2009 when the school started up its football program from scratch. It did not play a game until 2011 as a FCS independent, and the jump into the FBS took place in 2012, perhaps earlier than scheduled due to the seismic shifts in conference realignment leading the WAC to add members as quickly as it could. That also allowed Texas State to make the jump at the same time. As the WAC fell apart, UTSA found solace in Conference USA and Texas State landed in the Sun Belt Conference. Franchione was hired by Texas State in 2011 to a five-year contract. He had previously coached at Texas State, as well as stints at New Mexico, TCU, Alabama and Texas A&M. Texas State is coming off back-to-back seasons of .500 or better since moving into the FBS.
When the time does come for these programs to make new coaching hires, the direction of the ideal candidate will likely be younger. Both should be able to attract some good young assistant coaches looking to begin their head-coaching careers. Neither program will one day rival the Longhorns or Aggies, but success on the level of a program like Houston may not be too unrealistic over time.