We've spent this series shining a light on everyone from Charlotte and Western Michigan to Wisconsin and Colorado, and we've finally arrived at the point where we crown a top new staff in college football.
The previous spots on our list are occupied by:
Charlotte (#10)
Western Michigan (#9)
Liberty (#8)
USF (#7)
Colorado (#6)
Purdue (#5)
Nebraska (#4)
Auburn (#3)
Wisconsin (#2)
The top spot on our countdown belongs to the staff in Tempe that Kenny Dillingham has assembled.
Hit with a bowl ban that (arguably) should have been announced at least a year ago, Dillingham's staff may have their hands full getting complete buy in during the infancy of their takeover, but the experience combined with the roots this group of coaches have in the state of Arizona make them uniquely qualified for that challenge in a number of ways.
The staff is built to recruit at a high level, with some really well respected coordinators that have a lot of confidence to get things turned around in Tempe.
COORDINATOR RECAP
For two of his three coordinator hires, Dillingham was able to hire sitting FCS head coaches to fill the roles.
Dillingham lured Beau Baldwin away from a three season FCS head coaching run at Cal Poly to lead the Sun Devils offense.
Baldwin had previously led FCS program Eastern Washington to a national title (2010) and three semifinal appearances as the Eagles head coach from 2008-2016 before leaving to run the offense at Cal for a few seasons.
To run the special teams, former Arizona high school head coach and Charlie Ragle was brought back to The Grand Canyon State after a 1-10 finish to his first head coaching opportunity at Idaho State (FCS).
Ragle had a very successful run as the head coach at Chaparral HS (AZ), where he went 63-7 with three straight state titles while developing talent like future NFL Pro Bowl tackle Taylor Lewan, before leaving for college football stops at Arizona and Cal. A well respected special teams coordinator, Ragle previously coordinated Pac-12 special teams units with the Wildcats and Bears.
On defense, veteran special teams coordinator Brian Ward was brought in after one season at Washington State to get the Sun Devils defense back on track.
Ward has previous stops as a special teams coordinator in college football at Drake, Western Illinois, and Bowling Green, and more recently at Syracuse, and Nevada. In his lone head coaching stint at the small college level with McPherson (NAIA) he went 4-6 in his first two seasons before jumping to 9-2 in his final season leading the program.
BIGGEST HIRE
I could have went a number of different directions with this one, as Dillingham retained Shaun Aguano after he served as interim head coach through last year's tumultuous season, or Ra'Shaad Samples moving from the LA Rams to a co-coordinator role for Dillingham's staff, but instead I'm going to go with tight ends coach Jason Mohns.
Mohns and his family live in nearby Scottsdale, and he had established himself as one of the top high school coaches in the country at Saguaro HS (AZ), where they rattled of an unheard of six straight state titles in the state's open classification loaded with the top teams in the state.
We've previously shared on the site that Mohns could be the next high school head coach to make the jump to making a big impact at a college program, and no where is that more evident that hearing him speak at a clinic, as he's easily the best, most dynamic clinic speaker I've heard in my time coaching and covering college football.
Working for Dillingham as the team's tight ends coach was the opportunity that made Mohns jump to college football, and it was the unique mix of allowing his family to stay where their roots are while contributing to a major college football program in his own backyard with a guy like Dillingham that got him to take the leap of faith.
He's undoubtedly had other opportunities at the college level over the years, and likely with a "sexier" title, but this one checked too many of the boxes to let pass by, and in Mohns I feel confident saying that Dillingham has one of college football's future stars on the staff.
BIGGEST CHALLENGE AHEAD
After news of their bowl ban, this seems like the most obvious one, but unlike the rest of the issues we've laid out for other staffs, it doesn't rest on the shoulders of one person or one side of the ball.
Collectively, how they manage the adversity of the bad news to use as fuel, and not as a crutch, is going to be the lynchpin for how this initial season goes, but also, Year Zero isn't going to define the new Kenny Dillingham era, how they're able to continue to recruit and build a talented and roster beyond into next year will tell their story.
Here's where I think their mix of guys with head coaching experience and pride in their Arizona roots can be a huge advantage though.
Guys like Mohns, Ragle, and Aguano with successful high school head coaching experience in-state under their belt, have unique experience dealing with daily adversity putting out fires that came to their desks constantly as a high school head coach, as well as relationships to build on recruiting the state's top talent.
Ragle, as well as Baldwin, will also be able to provide Dillingham some important perspective on hurdles and strategies that worked, or didn't work for them, when the chips were stacked against them during their runs at both Cal Poly (Baldwin) and (Idaho State), as well as what they did to refocus their teams after losses, and as one loss turned into two and more.
UNDERRATED HIRE
Bryan Carrington took the job at Arizona State after helping to build the roster that overachieved in Sonny Dykes' debut season at TCU that saw the Horned Frogs play in the national title game.
Carrington was an offensive analyst and recruiting coordinator for TCU, and helped sign a top 20 class for 2023, behind only Texas and Oklahoma in the Big 12.
He's also spent time in prominent roles at USC, Texas, and Houston and has already established himself as one of the premier recruiters in college football, inking 11 five-star recruits including guys like Bijan Robinson and Bru McCoy at Texas.
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