These days it isn’t just players who come and go with dizzying rapidity. The so-called coaching carousel is spinning rapidly too, for reasons from bad matches with a school, to retirement, to failure to meet the challenge of establishing ACC success, to the allure of better paydays, to the need for a less stressful life.
In short, greater coaching turnover in the ACC is emblematic of the times.
This
is the third straight season, and the sixth in eight years, a pair or more of ACC head coaching jobs changed hands. The 2025-26 season is the second straight in which four coaching changes are being ushered in, the third since 2012.
Thirteen coaches have gone and come over the past four years alone.
The changes create more uncertainty than usual. Four of the 11 ACC head coaches added since 2023 had not previously directed their own program – Duke’s Jon Scheyer, FSU’s Luke Loucks, Miami’s Jai Lucas, and Syracuse’s Adrian Autry.
Within a two-year span a pair of homegrown products, UVa’s Ron Sanchez and UL’s Kenny Payne, took their program’s reins in trying circumstances and quickly flamed out.
You can readily argue that with more members, more opportunities for change emerge. There are more posts to fill, after all. There’s more pressure to keep up, too, and more hiring mistakes to be made in trying to do so.
No wonder this is the third time in 15 years conference teams plugged in a trio or more of new coaches.
Lately a once-rich herd of brand-name coaches was culled by what might be called natural attrition. That is, the incumbents retired.
Hall of Famer Jim Boeheim abruptly stepped aside at Syracuse before being pushed off the stage following the 2023 season. Mike Krzyzewski left Duke in a well-orchestrated, year-long exit after the ’22 season in which Jon Scheyer slid over one spot on the bench. The transition has been so smooth it defies precedent and almost has eluded notice. And Hall of Famer Roy Williams, expressing remorse following consecutive disappointing efforts, including the only losing mark of his 18-year UNC tenure, retired after the 2021 season.
Rick Pitino, yet another Hall of Famer, made a mess of things at Louisville shortly after the Cardinals joined the ACC in 2015, replacing Maryland. Pitino was gone by 2017. The program tried four coaches in eight years until Pat Kelsey revived UL last season.
Improvement may prove essential in the near term for several coaches. Earl Grant’s BC teams may play hard, but have posted a single winning record during his four-year tenure and haven’t finished better than 10th in the ACC. Formidable though they may seem, none of Steve Forbes’ five Wake squads have broken the school’s eight-year NCAA drought.
Pitt has stuck with Jeff Capel despite a single NCAA appearance in seven seasons, four with losing records. Capel, with Duke’s Scheyer, is of course a Krzyzewski acolyte.
Georgia Tech and Notre Dame boast offshoots of another estimable coaching tree – Georgia Tech’s Damon Stoudamire and Notre Dame’s Micah Shrewsberry, both in their third ACC season. Shrewsberry was a former assistant to Brad Stevens with the NBA’s Boston Celtics. Stoudamire worked Boston’s bench in 2021-22, the year the cerebral Stevens took over as director of basketball operations.
And here’s a note worth remembering: For all the upheaval on ACC benches, one-third of 18 head coaches were born within the league’s original footprint, assuring a visceral link to the league.
| CHURN, BABY, CHURN ACC Coaching Changes by Season, Since FSU Joined In 1992 (Not Counting Coaches Accompanying A New ACC Member) |
||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Changes | Name, School |
| 2026 | 4 | L. Loucks, FS; J. Lucas, UM; W. Wade, NS; R. Odom, V |
| 2025 | 4 | P. Kelsey, UL; A. Enfield, SMU; K. Smith, Stan; R. Sanchez, V |
| 2024 | 3 | D. Stoudamire, GT; M. Shrewsbury, ND; A. Autry, SU |
| 2023 | 2 | J. Scheyer, D; K. Payne, UL |
| 2022 | 2 | E. Grant, BC; H. Davis, NC |
| 2021 | 1 | S. Forbes, WF |
| 2020 | 1 | M. Young, VT |
| 2019 | 2 | C. Mack, UL; J. Capel PU |
| 2018 | 2 | D. Padgett, UL; Kevin Keatts, NS |
| 2017 | 2 | J. Pastner, GT; Kevin Stallings, PU |
| 2016 | None | NA |
| 2015 | 3 | J. Christian, BC; D. Manning, WF; B. Williams, VT |
| 2014 | None | NA |
| 2013 | 1 | J. Johnson, VT |
| 2012 | 4 | M. Gottfried, NS; B. Gregory, GT; J. Larranaga, Mi; M. Turgeon, M |
| 2011 | 3 | B. Brownell, C; J. Bzdelik, WF; S. Donahue, BC |
| 2010 | 1 | T. Bennett, V |
| 2009 | None | NA |
| 2008 | 1 | D. Gaudio, WF |
| 2007 | 1 | S. Lowe, NS |
| 2006 | 1 | D. Leitao, V |
| 2005 | None | NA |
| 2004 | 2 | R. Williams, NC; O. Purnell, C |
| 2003 | 1 | L. Hamilton, FS |
| 2002 | 1 | S. Prosser, WF |
| 2001 | 2 | M. Doherty, NC; P. Hewitt, GT |
| 2000 | None | NA |
| 1999 | 2 | P. Gillen, V; L. Shyatt, C |
| 1998 | 2 | B. Guthridge, NC; S. Robinson, FS |
| 1997 | 1 | H. Sendek, NS |
| 1996 | None | |
| 1995 | 1 | R. Barnes, C |
| 1994 | None | |
| 1993 | None | |
| 1992 | None | |
