Here's a ranking of the top five most intriguing assistant coach hirings in 2025. We've excluded head coaches from this list (sorry Scott Abell and Phil Longo).

1. Skyler Cassity – North Texas Defensive Coordinator

The first two seasons of the Eric Morris era at North Texas have resembled the first two “Rocky” movies - all haymakers and no defense.

Morris’s teams leading the American Athletic Conference in total offense in back-to-back seasons should’ve yielded better than a 6–10 combined conference record. Instead, he had to fire Matt Caponi after the Mean Green allowed UTSA to set a program record of 681 total yards in a November loss. 

Hiring Skyler Cassity as defensive coordinator will define Morris’s tenure, one way or another. Is the 30-year-old ready to shore up the gaping holes on North Texas’s defense after one stellar season at Sam Houston? If he is, North Texas is a dark horse AAC contender.

2. Shiel Wood – Texas Tech Defensive Coordinator

Texas Tech poaching Shiel Wood from Houston – and providing a nearly half-million dollar raise - was a Texas-sized flex. Now, it’s up to Wood to make defense a strength in Lubbock.

Joey McGuire had to replace both of his coordinators for different reasons this offseason. FAU made offensive coordinator Zach Kittley the youngest head coach in the FBS after the Red Raiders finished with the country’s No.9-ranked passing offense. McGuire made defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter pack his bags after Tech allowed the most passing yards in the Big 12.

The Red Raiders have signed five defensive backs in the Portal who're all at least 6'1. The hope is that Wood can coach the added length into a unit that's on par with the offense, thereby putting Texas Tech in conference championship contention in the ever-unpredictable Big 12.

3. Slade Nagle – Houston Offensive Coordinator

Plenty of fixes are required for an offense that finished second-to-last in the nation in points per game. But Conner Weigman’s reclamation project is the most intriguing for new offensive coordinator Slade Nagle. 

Weigman went 9–4 as Texas A&M’s starting quarterback but regressed in 2024, ultimately losing the job to backup Marcel Reed. Houston hopes he can rebound to his play from the first four games of the 2023 season, and it’s up to Nagle to get him there. 

Nagle most recently served as the special teams coordinator and tight ends coach at LSU, but spent eight seasons with Houston head coach Willie Fritz at Tulane. Fritz and Nagle combined to make Tulane quarterback Michael Pratt the AAC Offensive Player of the Year.

4. Landon Keopple – Texas State Offensive Coordinator

All other names previously mentioned are replacing a fired coordinator. Keopple, however, is stepping in for a man who took a Power Four gig (Mack Leftwich, Texas Tech) and is doing so as a first-time playcaller at the FBS level.

That’s not to say Keopple is a green playcaller. He was the offensive coordinator at Division II Southern Arkansas from 2011-19, where he mentored a quarterback to all-conference accolades in eight consecutive seasons. 

Keopple is new to the job but not new to head coach GJ Kinne. The pair have worked together at Hawaii, UIW and Texas State. They’ll lean on that familiarity to navigate a transition period for a Bobcat offense needing to replace running back Ismail Mahdi and wide receiver Joey Hobert, mainstays for the past two seasons.

5. Vince Munch – Rice Offensive Coordinator

While everyone else zigs to the spread offense, Rice’s hiring of Scott Abell means it intends to zag with the shotgun option. Abell and his offensive coordinator, Vince Munch, coached Davidson to the FCS’s top rushing offense in five seasons. The hope is that the scheme can cause headaches for the American Athletic Conference and get Rice to its first winning season since 2014.

While the style shift is intriguing, Munch isn’t higher on this list because it’s unclear whether he or Abell is calling plays. Either way, Munch will be a vital staff member working primarily with the offensive line. The returning linemen will have different responsibilities and techniques to learn over the offseason.