The Post looks at coaches hired to take their programs to new heights in the 2023-24 college season and beyond:
Zach Arnett, Mississippi State
Mike Leach’s defensive coordinator takes over after the coach’s tragic passing last December.
Just 36 years old, Arnett is the youngest coach in the SEC, and has never been a head coach before.
Expectations are low — the Bulldogs were picked to finish last in the treacherous SEC West — but Arnett does return standout senior quarterback Will Rogers.
Luke Fickell, Wisconsin
Wisconsin has been one of the Big Ten’s better programs over the last 15 years, winning its division six times since 2011.
But it has not been at the top tier of the conference in quite some time, playing second fiddle to the Big Ten East’s best.
Fickell, the lone coach to lead a non-power conference school (Cincinnati in 2021) to the College Football Playoff, has arrived in Madison to change that.
Hugh Freeze, Auburn
Liberty gave Hugh Freeze a second chance and Auburn rolled the dice that he can revive the program that has fallen on hard times.
Freeze resigned from his job at Ole Miss in the summer of 2017 amid a wide-ranging scandal that included him using his school-issued cell phone to call an escort service and resulted in 15 Level I violations.
Freeze, 53, did win at the SEC school — the highlight was a second-place SEC West finish and Sugar Bowl victory in 2015 — and he had a strong first offseason at Auburn, bringing in the fifth-ranked transfer recruiting class, according to 247Sports.com.
Matt Rhule, Nebraska
After rebuilding programs at Temple and Baylor, Rhule failed in the NFL, fired by the Panthers five games into his third season with an ugly 11-27 record.
Nebraska, which last won double-digit games in 2012 and hasn’t finished above .500 in conference play since 2016, is hoping he hasn’t lost his touch.
A strong first season seems possible for the 48-year-old Rhule.
The Cornhuskers only face one of the rugged Big Ten East’s big three, missing Ohio State and Penn State.
Scott Satterfield, Cincinnati
This was a lateral move, going from Louisville and the ACC to Cincinnati and the Big 12, and he has massive shoes to fill in following Fickell, the school’s all-time winningest coach.
But Satterfield, who went 25-24 in four underwhelming seasons at Louisville, gets a fresh start at least with the Bearcats.
He was hardly beloved by Cardinals fans, who expected more from Satterfield after he won at least 10 games in three of his last four seasons at his prior stop, Appalachian State.