Every athletic director in the country has a list. If they love their coach, if they hate their coach, if their feelings are somewhere in between, if their coach faces a scandal, if their coach is approaching retirement age, if the coach has health problems, or if the coach just does not like this job much anymore, the athletic director always needs to have possible replacements in mind. If an AD does not have a list, they are not doing their job. Right now, Minnesota's Mark Coyle has a list.
With how many FBS head coaching jobs are open, this is an important year to have a list. Auburn or Florida will not hire P.J. Fleck, but maybe a school that loses their coach to a bigger job is willing to beat what the U of M is paying him. Maybe Fleck thinks he has done all he can at Minnesota, and he uses a potentially wild hiring cycle as his chance to move laterally. Maybe he just tried lutefisk for the first time, and it convinced him to get out of town immediately. Coyle should not be thinking of firing Fleck, and he is certainly not, but he needs to be prepared to replace him anyway.
This post covers coaches Minnesota should consider in the short term, if they need to find someone immediately, as well as those they should monitor for the future. Some are obvious fits. Some could make more sense a year from now. Some need way more on their résumé to hire any time soon. But all have arguments to succeed Fleck, whether directly or years down the line.
(In case it does not go without saying: This is not reporting. I have no sources in the coaching industry. This is meant purely as prognostication.)
First Calls
Matt Campbell, Iowa State head coach
I do not expect Matt Campbell will ever be Minnesota's head coach. He has been picky about his next job for long enough that it is fair to guess that this program does not reach whatever standard (or salary demand) he has. Penn State, who should be trying to bring him to Happy Valley right now, is likely the level of job for which he would leave.
This is not the best year to sell a fan base on Campbell, of course, but Iowa State's underwhelming record is easy to explain with injuries. The secondary the Cyclones started the year with is not the one they are fielding right now, and that is killing them. Sometimes, a program in good shape has a rotten season. If they do not achieve bowl eligibility against TCU or Kansas, they will against a woeful Oklahoma State.
There is zero doubting Campbell's bona fides as a program builder. Whenever he is done in Ames, he will be the school's first head coach since Earle Bruce to have a winning record for his tenure. The reason ISU has realistic expectations to be near the top of the new Big 12, the reason they have even played in big enough games to hold against their head coach for losing them, and the reason they will be able to sell candidates on the job when it next opens is Matt Campbell. He raised the floor and the ceiling on one of the historically worst programs in college football. He is the dream coach for a school like Minnesota. If Campbell is still at Iowa State when the Gophers enter the market for a new head coach, Coyle has to at least gauge his interest.
Chris Klieman, Kansas State head coach
Since a weird opening to 2025, where they went 1-4 in one-score games, Kansas State's season is more or less back on track. While the Wildcats' likely 6-6 finish would be Chris Klieman's worst full season in Manhattan, it is a sign of program health to rebound from such a difficult start.
Iowa and Wisconsin likely have Klieman on their own lists, and it is easy to see why. Three years ago, Klieman won the Big 12, and he has gone 8-5 or better in five of his seven seasons. As Ron Prince (and even Bill Snyder) showed, fielding a consistent winner at K-State is not a given. Klieman won four FCS titles in five seasons at North Dakota State, and he worked for years at his alma mater, Northern Iowa. He is a proven head coach who knows this part of the country very well. Though in years past, Minnesota would not have been a better job Kansas State, Klieman might want to move to the Big Ten for its greater television revenue and number of bids to the Playoff.
