News/Commentary

New FCS Head Coaches in 2022, Part Two

July 23, 2022 by Staff

At last count, there will be 22 new head coaches patrolling the FCS sidelines in 2022. As we reveal them alphabetically by team, here are the second seven.

Team 2021 Coach
(Record)		 2022 Coach Notes
Idaho
(Big Sky)		 Paul Petrino
(4-7)		 Jason Eck Petrino was 34-66 in 9 seasons that included 5 while the Vandals were still in the FBS (19-41). He was fired the day before he coached in his final game. He has since been hired as the OC at Central Michigan. Eck, an assistant for 23 seasons at 10 different schools, was hired on 12/17/21 after three seasons as OC at South Dakota State which was among tops in nation on offense.
Idaho State
(Big Sky)		 Rob Phenicie
(1-10)		 Charlie Ragle Phenicie (16-35) led the team to a 6-5 mark in 2018 for the program's first winning season since 2014, and only its second since 2003. Ragle comes to Pocatello from Cal where he coached special teams for 5 seasons and this is his first HC appointment.
Jacksonville State
(A-Sun)		 John Grass
(4-5)		 Rich Rodriguez Grass (72-26, 7+ seasons) and the school agreed to cut ties with two games left to play. The team was 4-5 at the time and had beaten Florida State 20-17 in Tallahassee in week two. Grass was quickly hired as an analyst at Clemson and remains in that role. His teams advanced to the FCS playoffs in 6 of his 7 full seasons and lost in the 2015 national title game to perennial power North Dakota State It is hoped that Rodriguez can successfully guide the Gamecocks in their transition to the FBS and CUSA next season. This year, the school is NOT eligible for the FCS title or the A-Sun title. After 15 seasons as a FBS head coach, Rodriguez spent 2019 as OC at Ole Miss and 2021 as OC at ULM. He was 43-35 in his last HC gig at Arizona from 2012-2017 and is 163-119-2 in his career.
Lafayette
(Patriot)		 John Garrett
(3-8)

 John Troxell Garrett was fired on Nov. 22, 2021 after going 15-33 in 5 seasons. The brother of former Dallas Cowboys' HC Jason Garrett had his only winning campaign in the covid-abbreviated 2019 season (2-1). Troxell was hired on December 14 to return to his alma mater where he played free safety. Troxell had been HC since 2006 at D3 Franklin & Marshall (92-67) in Lancaster which is just 85 miles from Lafayette's Easton campus.
Long Island
(NEC)		 Jonathan Gill
(Interim, 2-8)

 Ron Cooper Bryan Collins, LIU's last official head coach, resigned in June 2021 after going 162-84 in 23 seasons, but just 2-12 since the transition from D2 to the FCS. He became the DC at Stony Brook two months later. Cooper, age 60, gets his first official HC job since a 3-year stint at Alabama A&M from 1999-2001 (23-22). He was 4-4 as Interim HC at FIU in 2016, and also had brief HC stints at Eastern Michigan and Louisville in the 1990's. He served under Nick Saban as an analyst at Alabama last season.
Maine
(CAA)		 Nick Charlton
(6-5)		 Jordan Stevens Charlton (14-13, 3 seasons) left to become OC at UConn under Jim L. Mora. Stevens returns to his alma mater where he played DE from 2006-2009 and was an assistant from 2011-2014. He has been at Yale since 2015 where he held the AHC position since 2018.
McNeese State
(Southland)		 Frank Wilson
(4-7)		 Gary Goff Wilson led McNeese to a 3-4 Covid-delayed Spring season in 2021, followed by a 4-7 fall. He resigned after the fall season to take the AHC job at LSU under Brian Kelly, in spite of having been named earlier that year in a sexual harassment lawsuit against LSU when he was the AHC from 2010-2015. He has since been sued in federal court by the same accuser who was fired by LSU this past January. Goff comes to Lake Charles after going 22-3 in two seasons at his alma mater, Valdosta State (2019 and 2021), where his team lost 58-17 to Ferris State in last year's D2 national title game.

See FCS New Head Coaches In 2022: Part One - Part Two - Part Three