With nine FBS jobs already open, Will Stein becomes a hot board staple

Penn State's decision to move on from James Franklin has run into turbulence. Indiana's Curt Cignetti got an eight-year, $11.25 million-a-year contract from Indiana. Former Penn State linebacker Matt Rhule insists he's happy at Nebraska.

With nine jobs already open and situations at Florida and Wisconsin teetering on dismissal, pressure increases on programs to make a splash hire, a move that looks like progress toward national championship contention.

It's dangerous, because athletic directors can fall into a rinse-and-repeat cycle of hiring a guy, falling short of expectations, buying out that coach out and hiring another guy. Florida, USC and the Cornhuskers have been in that cycle for a while, although SC and Nebraska are currently 5-1 and contending for a playoff spot.

The No. 20 Trojans have a big game Saturday at No. 13 Notre Dame, 4:30 p.m. PT on NBC. They're 9.5-point underdogs on the road with a leaky defense looking for the magic formula to stop quarterback CJ Carr and 6-0, 213-pound running back Jeremiyah Love.

It should be a good game, but another loss could put Lincoln Riley back on the hot seat. The Trojans are at Nebraska and at Oregon in November.

The relevance for Duck fans is that with the coaching carousel spinning faster and earlier than ever, offensive coordinator Will Stein has become a prime candidate for a head coaching job with the prospect of a hefty raise.

Already the Nittany Lions, Virginia Tech, Arkansas, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, UCLA, Stanford, UAB and Kent State are shopping for coaches. Bill Belichick has reached the vote-of-confidence stage at North Carolina, an experiment that's imploded badly.

Everybody wants to make a headline-grabbing hire that opens booster's wallets and moves the needle in recruiting. With each succeeding dismissal, the pressure to be the first school to hire a savior ramps up.

Names like Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Eli Drinkwitz, Marcus Freeman, Jon Gruden, Ed Orgeron, Dan Mullen and even Dan Lanning get bandied about, but the most realistic route is often a strong FCS head coach like Brent Vigen or an accomplished FBS coordinator like Stein. Another route is to target a successful head coach who might be in line for a perceived upgrade, like Fran Brown at Syracuse, Jason Eck at New Mexico, or Manny Diaz at Duke.

Stein makes $2 million in Eugene and he's done a good job for the Ducks. He and his family are reportedly happy here. But an upgrade to a head job would likely start him at $7 million and he has a choice of situations in all the major conferences and every region of the country.

He's an attractive candidate at 36 after having worked at Texas, UTSA and Oregon, running an offense that's 9th in the country in scoring at 42.2 points a game despite a recent slump. He's sent his last two quarterbacks to New York as Heisman finalists and then to the NFL.

It helps too that the first branch of the Dan Lanning coaching tree, Kenny Dillingham at Arizona State, took over a 3-9 team and had them in the playoffs in his second season. Dillingham remains another hot name at the high-profile landing spots but he's an ASU grad, seemingly planted in Tempe.

Losing Stein wouldn't be the worst thing for the Ducks. He's a good offensive coach but Lanning hires incredibly well. An infusion of new blood and a new voice in the coaching room in 2026 might be just the thing to get the program over the last hump, a deep run in the playoffs or a national championship. Not saying it would be him, but would Chip Kelly get more out of this array of talent than Stein has?

If and when Stein moves on, it'd create an opportunity for the Ducks to elevate the offense one more time. It's safe to trust Lanning to do exactly that. Though if he stays another season, it might encourage Dante Moore to do the same thing.

Timing becomes critical too. Programs needing a coach want to hire one this afternoon. The Early Signing Period hits in December and the portal opens on January 2, but for contending teams the playoffs run all through December until the National Championship Game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Monday January 19.