Pace rankings:
1-20 – Very Fast
20-45 – Medium Fast
46-85- Medium
86-110 – Medium Slow
111 – 136 Very Slow
Head Coaching changes:
Appalachian State:
2024 Coach: Shawn Clark – Shawn ranked 35th in pace at 25.5 seconds between plays.
2025 Coach: Dowell Loggains – The previous OC at South Carolina ranked in the middle at 68th in pace. I expect much of the same with the team slowing it down some.
Change: Medium Fast to Medium
Ball State:
2024 Coach: Mike Neu – Temple ranked 71st in seconds between plays at 27.2.
2025 Coach: Mike Uremovich – Prior to Butler, Mike was an OC at temple ranking 30th in plays per game.
Change: Medium to Medium Fast
Bowling Green:
2024 Coach: Scot Loeffler – The Falcons ranked turtle like 118th in pace at a slow 29.4 seconds between plays.
2025 Coach: Eddie George – Did a good job at Tennessee state and they scored a good amount of points. I expect a medium fast schedule, but my confidence level is low.
Change: Very Slow to Medium Fast
Central Michigan:
2024 Coach: Jim McElwain – The Chippewas were a slow 101st in pace, but you probably didn’t win on too many unders due to a terrible defense.
2025 Coach: Matt Drinkall – coming as an OC from Army, I expect a slow slow pace like they had last year ranking dead last in seconds between plays at 32.85. While they won’t be an option offense, I expect slow play.
Change: Medium Slow to Very Slow
Charlotte:
2024 Coach: Biff Poggi – This team was a tad bit slow ranking 83rd in pace.
2025 Coach: Tim Albin – Tim won the MAC title and jumped ship to Charlotte. His teams played a very slow pace ranking 119th at 29.8 seconds between plays.
Change: Medium Slow to Very Slow
East Carolina:
2024 Coach: Mike Houston – Houston, we have a problem. This team played very fast thanks to offensive coordinator John David Baker ranking 2nd in the league at 21.9 second between plays. Mike Houston was fired mid-season.
2025 Coach: Blake Harrell – Blake Harrell who was defensive coordinator took over the team in October being promoted to interim from defensive coordinator. ECU went 5-1 and Blake got the full time gig. John David Baker remains the OC so speed is what we need.
Change: Very fast to Very Fast
Florida Atlantic:
2024 Coach: Tom Herman – Last season, the Owls had a modest pace ranking 65th in the nation.
2025 Coach: Zac Kittley – As an OC at Texas Tech, Kittley had his team ranking a blazing 6th in pace at 23.3 seconds between plays.
Change: Medium to Very Fast
Florida International:
2024 Coach: Mike MacIntyre – FIU was a slower paced team ranking 94th in total pace.
2025 Coach: Willie Simmons – Simmons was the running game coordinator at Duke before taking the FIU job. Before that he was an FCS coach at Florida A&M. I expect a faster pace as Duke ranked 28th in pace.
Change: Medium Slow to Medium Fast
Fresno State:
2024 Coach: Tim Skipper (Interim) – Kind of a medium pace ranking 47th last season.
2025 Coach: Matt Entz – A Lincoln Riley disciple from USC, the Trojans ranked 48th in pace. I actually expect a bit faster this year as USC’s history had faster play.
Change: Medium to Medium Fast
Jacksonville State:
2024 Coach: Rich Rodriguez – This team was a blazing 9th in pace last year. Might have been more without blowouts.
2025 Coach: Charles Kelly – Charles Kelly has been in the league as a DC for a very long time. Clint Trickett will be the OC who comes from Georgia Southern. They had a medium pace. I expect slower play.
Change: Very Fast to Medium
Kennesaw State:
2024 Coach: Brian Bohannon – I thought the firing of Brian Bohannon mid-season was weird. They just got to the FBS. Anyways, they ranked 99th in pace.
2025 Coach: Jerry Mack – Jerry Mack comes from the NFOL. He was the OC at Rice back about 5-7 years ago and his pace was quite slow. I expect continued slow pace.
Change: Medium Slow to Medium Slow
Kent State:
2024 Coach: Kenni Burns – This teamed burned time ranking only 103rd in pace from the 2024 season.
2025 Coach: Mark Carney (interim) – Being that Mark was the OC, I do not expect much change.
Change: Medium Slow to Medium Slow
Marshall:
2024 Coach: Charles Huff – The Herd ranked 46h in pace from last season.
2025 Coach: Tony Gibson – Gibson comes in as a defensive coordinator from NC State. More importantly, Rod Smith comes in from being the OC at Jacksonville state and I expect a fast pace for 2025.
Change: Medium to Very Fast
New Mexico:
2024 Coach: Bronco Mendenhall – This bad team ranked 21st in pace last season.
2025 Coach: Jason Eck – Jason comes in from being the head coach at Idaho. The Vandals had a medium fast pace, and I expect the same.
Change: Medium Fast to Medium Fast
North Carolina:
2024 Coach: Mack Brown – Not so return of the Mack ranked 43rd in pace last season.
2025 Coach: Bill Belichick – The new Hugh Hefner won’t be calling the plays on offense. Freddy Kitchens will and he pretty much did that last season at UNC. I expect the same pace.
Change: Medium Fast to Medium Fast
Ohio:
2024 Coach: Tim Albin – Tim was methodical on offense ranking 120th in pace for the Bobcats.
2025 Coach: Brian Smith – Brian was the OC last year, so I expect a lot of the same.
Change: Very Slow to Very Slow
Purdue:
2024 Coach: Ryan Walters – Ryan’s Purdue to was worse than most group of five teams. Their tempo ranked 110th in the FBS.
2025 Coach: Barry Odom – Barry comes to save the day, but UNLV’s tempo was a modest 64th in the nation. I expect a medium pace.
Change: Medium Slow to Medium
Rice:
2024 Coach: Mike Bloomgren – Rice had an average pace ranking 51st at 26.5 seconds in between plays.
2025 Coach: Scott Abell – Comes from Davidson in the FCS. They scored enough points for me to believe that the pace will be medium fast.
Change: Medium to Medium Fast
Sam Houston:
2024 Coach: KC Keeler – This defensive first team ranked 81st in pace.
2025 Coach: Phil Longo – While Longo comes from Wisconsin that ranked 59th in pace, his days at North Carolina and other schools tell me that he will light it up now that he is in charge. Expect a spread / air raid style offense.
Change: Medium to Very Fast
Southern Miss:
2024 Coach: Will Hall – The Tempo ranked right in the middle at 64th in the nation.
2025 Coach: Charles Huff – Last year with Marshall, Huff had his team ranking 46th in pace. I expect close to the same if not a little slower.
Change: Medium to Medium
Stanford:
2024 Coach: Troy Taylor – When you suck this bad, you have to slow the pace down to 99th in the nation.
2025 Coach: Frank Reich – Hard to say with Frank Reich taking over. Nate Byham is promoted from TE coach to OC, so I think that he could keep it close to the same.
Change: Medium Slow to Medium Slow
Temple:
2024 Coach: Stan Drayton – Temple ranked 71st in pace of play. They should have ranked dead last as they were quite bad.
2025 Coach: KC Keeler – This is easy. Keeler ranked 81st in Tempo at Sam Houston. No Change.
Change: Medium to Medium
Tulsa:
2024 Coach: Kevin Wilson – The Golden Hurricane played like one ranking 13th in pace.
2025 Coach: Tre Lamb – At East Tennessee State, Tre had his team pacing Medium Fast. Although, I have low confidence in this one.
Change: Very Fast to Medium Fast
UCF:
2024 Coach: Gus Malzahn – The Gus bus has left the building as fast as his 22nd ranking in pace.
2025 Coach: Scott Frost – Although Scott Frost had to slow it down in Nebraska, I think he goes back to his old ways in the Big 12 where he had UCF at lighting speed.
Change: Medium Fast to Very Fast
UMass:
2024 Coach: Don Brown – Boring Don Brown had the Minute Men only ranking about 110th in pace. Although his defense was quite bad.
2025 Coach: Joe Harasymiak – Joe comes in from being a DC at Rugers. He did hire Northwestern’s OC Mike Bajakian who played slow at 106th in pace. No change.
Change: Medium Slow to Medium Slow
UNLV:
2024 Coach: Barry Odom – We already know that Barry ranked 69th in pace from Purdue.
2025 Coach: Dan Mullen – Dan got off of his lounge chair and came back to coaching. He ranked a methodical 92nd in pace back at Florida.
Change: Medium to Medium Slow
Utah State:
2024 Coach: Nate Dreiling (Interim) – Utah State ranked a very fast 4th in pace last year at 22.3 seconds between plays.
2025 Coach: Bronco Mendenhall – Bronco hqs had his teams playing fast lately. His OC Kevin McGiven comes from San Jose State and they ranked top 10 in tempo.
Change: Medium Fast to Very Fast
Wake Forest:
2024 Coach: Dave Clawson – No time was left on the table for Dave Clawson ranking 20th in pace from 2024.
2025 Coach: Jake Dickert – Jake Dickert ranked 42nd in pace of play, but I think they were actually faster than that being that they were involved in a lot of blowouts.
Change: Very Fast to Very Fast
Washington State:
2024 Coach: Jake Dickert – Like I said with Jake, He had this team playing faster than the numbers showed last season.
2025 Coach: Jimmy Rogers – I think Jimmy has this team playing Moderately fast like he did at South Dakota State.
Change: Medium Fast to Medium Fast
West Virginia:
2024 Coach: Neal Brown – Neal Brown had this team’s pace ranking 83rd.
2025 Coach: Rich Rodriguez – Rich Rod back at coach. I expect the same high speed and a lot of running the ball once again with the spread option.
Change: Medium to Very Fast
Substantial offensive coordinator pace changes:
Alabama:
Going from Nick Sheridan to Ryan Grubb should speed this team up some like it was for the 2023-2024 Washington Huskies.
Change: Medium to Medium Fast
Coastal Carolina:
This team was medium in pace and should go much faster with Drew Hollingshead at OC.
Change: Medium to Medium Fast
Florida State:
A change from Kevin Alex Atkins to Gus Malzahn’s RPO offense should speed this offense up a bit.
Change: Medium to Medium Fast
Houston:
A switch off of Kevin Barbay to Slade Nagle should speed it up some. Last year, Houston was 125th in pace. I expect somewhat of a speed increase with the pro-style of Slade Nagle.
Change: Very Slow to Medium Slow
Michigan:
This team ranked a snail’s 132nd in pace at 31.3 seconds in between snaps. With Chip Lindsey from North Carolina, I expect a lot more speed.
Change Very Slow to Medium Fast
Texas Tech:
Going from Zach Kittley to Mack Leftwhich should slow it down some as this team has improved their defense and Mack ranked 32nd in pace at Texas Tech.
Change: Very Fast to Medium
UCLA:
This team should speed it up some going from 127th in seconds between plays. They hared Curt Cignetti protégé Tino Sunersi who played faster in closer games.
Change: Very slow to Medium
Wisconsin:
Now that Phil Longo is gone, the Badgers hire Jeff Grimes from Kansas who will slow this down to a crawl. I expect this team to get back to those unders that we loved in the 2000s.
Change: Medium to Very Slow
