The coaching carousel seems to spin more wildly than ever each season, and the 2023-24 one was no exception. This carousel cycle saw college football's greatest coach of all time, Nick Saban, retire from Alabama after more than two decades at the top of the sport.

His announcement coming in January gave us a much later carousel that extended into February. Coaching changes made in mid-to-late February, like Georgia State's Shawn Elliott resigning and UCLA's Chip Kelly joining Ohio State's staff, kept the carousel spinning even longer into spring than usual.

So, which were some of the best coaching carousel hires this cycle? Let's run through the list to find out, using both head coaching hires and assistants.

The Best Assistant Hires, Part I

Don Martindale, Michigan

Sherrone Moore lost former Wolverines defensive coordinator Jesse Minter to the Los Angeles Chargers. To replace him, he hired former New York Giants defensive coordinator Don "Wink'' Martindale. Prior to going to the Giants, he spent four seasons as the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator. He was Baltimore's linebackers coach when the Ravens won Super Bowl XLVII during the 2012 season.

Collin Klein, Texas A&M

Collin Klein looks to be one of the rising stars in college football coaching. A Kansas State quarterback from 2008 to '12, he joined the Wildcats' coaching staff as a graduate assistant from 2014 to '15. From 2017 to '23, he was K-State's quarterbacks coach, and he had offensive coordinator duties as well in 2018, 2022 and 2023. He joins Mike Elko's staff at Texas A&M with a proven signal-caller in Conner Weigman under center.

D'Anton Lynn, USC

USC head coach Lincoln Riley is hoping D'Anton Lynn can help his unit that finished 119th and 106th, respectively, in total defense the last two seasons improve. Lynn spent 2023 at UCLA, where he helped the Bruins defense finish 10th nationally in total defense, and helped mold edge-rusher Laiatu Latu into a 2024 top-10 draft pick. Prior to UCLA, Lynn coached on various NFL defensive staffs.

The Best Assistant Hires, Part II

Eric Bieniemy, UCLA

Although Eric Bieniemy was expected to be an NFL head coach one day, the two-time Super Bowl champion is headed back to college football. At UCLA, Bieniemy will be the Bruins' associate head coach and offensive coordinator.

He joins Deshaun Foster's staff after helping the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes put together some of the most prolific offensives in league history from 2018 to '22. He spent 2023 as the Washington Commanders offensive coordinator. The last time he coached in college football was as Colorado's offensive coordinator from 2011 to '12. Bieniemy's hire makes UCLA's offense look pretty dangerous.

Zach Arnett, Ole Miss

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin is playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers. Kiffin hired former Mississippi State head coach Zach Arnett to be a defensive analyst on his staff for 2024. Arnett, who took over after head coach Mike Leach's death in 2022, led the Bulldogs to a 4-6 record in 2023. The Bulldogs were top 50 in total defense the last three seasons under Arnett's direction.

Travaris Robinson, Georgia

Kirby Smart, whose team fell to Nick Saban and Alabama last season, is benefiting from Saban's retirement by hiring one of his former assistants. Travaris Robinson, who was Alabama's cornerbacks coach for the last two seasons, joins Georgia's staff as co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach. Known as an impressive recruiter, Robinson has plenty of SEC coaching experience, having coached at Florida, Auburn and South Carolina.

Chip Kelly, Ohio State

Ohio State looks to have won the offseason so far in 2024. One big reason for that is the hiring of Chip Kelly to replace Bill O'Brien as the Buckeyes' new offensive coordinator. Kelly, who went 35-34 over six seasons as UCLA's head coach, is a gifted play-caller, having previous head coaching jobs at Oregon and the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers. Kelly will get to work with Kansas State transfer quarterback Will Howard, running back TreVeyon Henderson and receiver Emeka Egbuka this fall.

Some Hires Weren't the Splashiest Names but Have a Chance to Work out Well

Bill O'Brien, Boston College

Boston College is hoping a Boston native like Bill O'Brien can turn things around for the Eagles. BC has been mediocre at best for the last decade-plus. The last time the Eagles had more than seven wins? In 2009, under head coach Frank Spaziani, who lasted just four seasons at BC.

This is O'Brien's second college head coaching job—he had two seasons at Penn State, going 15-9 in 2012 and 2013 before becoming the Houston Texans head coach. He went 52-48 over seven seasons with the Texans. Since then, he's had coaching stops with the New England Patriots and was Alabama's offensive coordinator from 2021 to '22. We'll see if O'Brien helps Boston College escape mediocrity.

Manny Diaz, Duke

Duke has hired Manny Diaz to replace Mike Elko. Diaz comes to Duke with decades of college coaching experience, starting as a graduate assistant at Florida State in 1998 and most recently coaching under James Franklin at Penn State the last two seasons as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.

With the hire, Duke is hoping Diaz can learn from his mistakes as Miami's head coach from 2019 to '21. The Canes went 21-15 over three seasons. While the pressure to win at a high level isn't quite the same at Duke, consistently getting the Blue Devils to reach eight-, nine- or 10-win seasons would be a great start.

Jonathan Smith, Michigan State

Michigan State has yet to find a long-term successor to Mark Dantonio, who retired in February 2020. Mel Tucker, who led the Spartans to an 11-2 mark in 2021, was fired last September. The decision came shortly after the school opened an investigation of sexual harassment between Tucker and Brenda Tracy, a rape survivor and sexual violence educator.

Jonathan Smith was hired by MSU from Oregon State, where he spent the last six seasons. In 2022, he led the Beavers to just their third 10-win season in school history, and he finished 8-4 last season. As Oregon State, along with Washington State, decided to not join another conference amid the Pac-12's demise last fall, the move isn't too surprising, even for an OSU alumnus like Smith. Hopefully Smith can turn the Spartans into a legitimate Big Ten contender, something he wasn't able to do at Oregon State.

Curt Cignetti, Indiana

Curt Cignetti helped build James Madison into an FCS powerhouse and guided the Dukes to two successful seasons while transitioning into the FBS from 2022 to '23. JMU went 19-4 over the last two years, and Cignetti went 52-9 overall with the Dukes.

Cignetti will look to replicate his winning formula at a place that hasn't done much winning recently. Since 2004, the Hoosiers have had just three seasons above .500. If Cignetti can get Indiana consistently above .500, that would be a massive improvement.

Willie Fritz, Houston

As Houston enters year two in the Big 12, it's hoping that hiring a proven winner like Willie Fritz can help make the Cougars into a contender.

Fritz comes to Houston after spending the last eight seasons at Tulane. While there, he led the Green Wave to an American Athletic Conference title in 2022, capped off with an upset Cotton Bowl victory over USC. Tulane fell to SMU in the conference championship last season.

Over his eight seasons in New Orleans, Fritz went 54-47, reaching double-digit-win seasons in his last two. Before Tulane, he won nine games at Georgia Southern two seasons in a row after the Eagles moved up to the FBS. Now, the Kansas native looks to turn Houston into a threat to win the new-look Big 12 in 2024.

"That's one of the many reasons I wanted to come here," Fritz said in December of Houston playing in the Big 12. "I wanted to come here to have this opportunity in the great state of Texas and in the great city of Houston. I just feel like Houston has had some great teams. It's not like it hasn't been done here before. We just want to do it again and do it consistently year after year. That's the goal here."

Houston went 4-8 last season during the Cougars' first year in the Big 12. Let's see how quickly Fritz can turn things around.

Jedd Fisch, Washington

To replace Kalen DeBoer, Washington has hired Jedd Fisch as its next head coach. Fisch takes over in Seattle after spending the last three seasons at Arizona.

Fisch put together a massive rebuild there, going 1-11 his first year in 2021 and finishing 10-3 last season, capped off with an Alamo Bowl victory over Oklahoma. Arizona's 2023 season marked the first bowl win since 2015 and the first 10-win year since 2014.

Prior to arriving at Arizona, which was his first head coaching stint, Fisch bounced around various staffs in college football and the NFL. He was the quarterbacks coach for the New England Patriots in 2020 and spent two years on the Los Angeles Rams' staff from 2018 to '19. He was on Michigan's and UCLA's offensive staffs from 2015 to '17.

Fisch also did a great job recruiting while at Arizona. The Wildcats' 2022 recruiting class ranked 22nd nationally, per 247Sports, and third in the Pac-12. Washington is moving to the expanded Big Ten in 2024, where the Huskies could be a contender right away.

"The Big Ten and the SEC right now are who's leading the football pathways," Fisch said in his introductory press conference. "If you look at what teams traditionally compete, it's about the same 12 or 14 teams. Washington is one of those 12 or 14 teams. That's why we coach, to be able to take a seat at that table and give yourself a chance every single year with resources beyond belief."

Let's see how Fisch can do leading the Huskies into a new, more competitive conference in 2024.

Sherrone Moore, Michigan

This was one of the least surprising moves of the coaching carousel this cycle. Following Jim Harbaugh's departure to the Los Angeles Chargers, Michigan elevated the Wolverines offensive coordinator to replace him. The move made sense for a number of reasons.

First, Harbaugh's departure in late January made it particularly late in the carousel cycle to make an outside hire. Second, Moore served as Michigan's interim head coach during the 2023 season for four games, during separate Harbaugh suspensions. Moore went 4-0, including a 30-24 victory over Ohio State. Lastly, Moore had been on staff since 2018, which gives the program some continuity recruiting-wise for both the 2024 class and beyond.

As Michigan enters an expanded Big Ten in 2024, Moore will have to rebuild in Ann Arbor. Most of Michigan's core star players, such as quarterback J.J. McCarthy, running back Blake Corum, leading receiver Roman Wilson and leading tackler Junior Colson, are headed to the NFL.

Meanwhile, rival Ohio State looks to have cleaned up this offseason, returning some key star players— like receiver Emeka Egbuka, running back TreVeyon Henderson and defensive tackle JT Tuimoloau—and landed some big names in the transfer portal. But instead of trying to be another Harbaugh, Moore is clear he wants to lead Michigan in his own way.

"I can't be Jim Harbaugh," Moore said when he was introduced as Michigan's head coach. "So I'm going to be me. And I think in this business, in any world, if you're not yourself, then you're going to lose the people around you. So I'm definitely going to be myself, be who I am, my leadership style, how I'm going to approach things. But I'm definitely going to lean on [Harbaugh] tremendously because of what he built and what we've built here."

It sounds like Michigan is in good hands with Moore leading things heading into next season.

Mike Elko, Texas A&M

Texas A&M's $95 million experiment with Jimbo Fisher as head coach didn't exactly pan out. So instead, the Aggies are hoping a guy like Mike Elko—who has some previous ties to A&M—is the man for the job.

Elko spent 2018 to 2021 with the Aggies as defensive coordinator under Fisher. From there, he went to Duke, where he led the Blue Devils to a nine-win season his first year in 2022. Last season, Duke finished 7-5 in the regular season.

In his first stint as a head coach, going 16-9 over two seasons at Duke was impressive. Now, he has the recruiting resources and staff support at Texas A&M to presumably win at an even higher level. Elko told ESPN in a recent interview that seeing what went wrong while he was in College Station to win at a high level should help him this time around.

"The unique spot that I have sitting here for four years [as defensive coordinator] is I know all of the reasons why this place can win a national championship," Elko said when asked what he learned from his time at A&M. "And then I probably know some of the reasons why we failed, which I think gives me a unique perspective coming in.

"I come in with a lot more knowledge of what Texas A&M is all about. That can only help, and I just think we've got to be intelligent about how we go about building this place because it's a place where it has high expectations and you have to win now for sure, but you've got to still focus on building it in a way that allows you to sustain the success that you have for long periods of time."

The expectations are high for Elko heading into 2024. With a starting quarterback in Conner Weigman already in place, let's see if Elko can replicate the success he had at Duke in his first season.

Kalen DeBoer, Alabama

It's not an easy job to replace college football's greatest coach of all time. But that's what Kalen DeBoer is tasked with as he takes over for Nick Saban after 17 incredible seasons in Tuscaloosa.

DeBoer's most recent coaching stop was at Washington, where he went 25-3 and led the Huskies to a national championship game just last season. In 2022, Washington finished 11-2.

But DeBoer has won pretty much everywhere he's coached, even before his two great seasons at Washington. At Fresno State from 2020 to '21, he finished 12-6. As head coach at his alma mater, NAIA Sioux Falls, from 2005 to '09, he went 67-3 overall while winning three national championships.

"I'm going to embrace it," DeBoer said via ESPN of the challenge of replacing a coach like Saban. "There's only one person that's ever going to get to do that."

Naturally, DeBoer did experience some losses on Alabama's roster as a result of Saban retiring. The Tide's leading tackler from last season, true freshman Caleb Downs, is now at Ohio State. The Buckeyes also managed to flip Alabama quarterback signee Julian Sayin, receiver Isaiah Bond transferred to Texas.

2024 might be a bit of a rebuilding year in Tuscaloosa, but it appears as though there's a proven winner in place as Alabama's next head coach.