Man alive, it has been one wild fall for college football's head coach carousel, which has seen 19 men change their location of employment, including Florida football's luring of Jon Sumrall away from the Tulane Green Wave.

While not all of the voids have been filled yet, most schools have found their new skippers and are ready to move forward in preparation for the 2026 campaign. At this juncture, it seems prudent to review the moves so far, allowing everyone to start looking ahead to the future.

Among those who have evaluated the head coaching hiring cycle in 2025 is The Athletic's Chris Vannini, who recently offered his grades for the current carousel. Here is a look at what he had to say.

What The Athletic says bout Florida's hire of Sumrall

"Sumrall has been a head coach for four years across Troy and Tulane and has reached the conference championship game in all four years. This year’s Tulane team will play for a College Football Playoff spot against North Texas on Friday," Vannini begins.

"Sumrall took over a Troy team coming off three consecutive 5-7 seasons and went 23-4 with two Sun Belt championships. He took over a successful Tulane program when Willie Fritz left the Green Wave for Houston, but he had to rebuild the roster in his first season, then had to deal with the loss of star quarterback Darian Mensah and running back Makhi Hughes to Power 4 programs for Year 2," he continues.

"Sumrall is very good with roster management and logistics, and he brings SEC experience as a former Kentucky and Ole Miss assistant (and Kentucky player). But he has also coached at programs with more resources than many of their peers. Florida will have more competition.

"Sumrall will also have to adjust to recruiting and roster building at a Power 4 level. Florida fans are upset they didn’t get Lane Kiffin, but comparing Sumrall to Billy Napier as a fellow Louisiana Group of 5 coach would be unwise, because they’re very different coaches."

All in all, it appears that Vannini is feeling pretty bullish on the Orange and Blue's hire, even if it was not the splashy move that bringing Kiffin to Gainesville would have represented.

What about Billy Napier and James Madison?

While the Gators brought in their new head coach from the Group of Five, their former skipper, Billy Napier, headed back to the group — and the Sun Belt Conference as well — by accepting James Madison's offer on Dec. 4. JMU's decision to bring in the failed Florida coach earned a solid "B" grade from Vannini.

"On one hand, Napier went 33-5 in his last three years at Louisiana, including a 24-3 record against Sun Belt competition. JMU officials liked that, per sources. On the other hand, Napier looked like he was in over his head at Florida, with three losing seasons in four years," he offers.

"The track record of former Power 4 head coaches immediately coming back to the Group of 5 level is mixed, but maybe Napier’s talents are just better suited for Group of 5 life. JMU’s last three hires were all sitting FCS head coaches, and each won more than 70 percent of his games," Vannini continues. 

"This is a bit of a new direction, a sign of a program with real CFP chances looking to take that next step forward. Expectations are high here, and the resources are there to match. We’ll see if Napier learned from his Florida mistakes."

The Athletic's full 2025 head coach hire grades

• LSU hires Lane Kiffin: A
• Kansas State hires Collin Klein: A-
• Florida hires Jon Sumrall: A-
• Virginia Tech hires James Franklin: A-
• Cal hires Tosh Lupoi: B+
• South Florida hires Brian Hartline: B+
• Kentucky hires Will Stein: B+
• UCLA hires Bob Chesney: B+
• Auburn hires Alex Golesh: B+
• Oklahoma State hires Eric Morris: B+
• James Madison hires Billy Napier: B
• North Texas hires Neal Brown: B
• Ole Miss promotes Pete Golding: B
• Arkansas hires Ryan Silverfield: B
• Colorado State hires Jim Mora: B
• Kent State promotes Mark Carney: B
• Michigan State hires Pat Fitzgerald: B-
• Stanford hires Tavita Pritchard: C
• Oregon State hires JaMarcus Shephard: C

Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.