Tim Beck hasn’t had a losing record in the regular season during his time at Coastal Carolina. But he’s nonetheless being fired as CCU’s head coach.
The Chanticleers went 6-6 this year with a 5-3 mark in Sun Belt play and earned bowl-eligibility for the third straight year of Beck’s tenure. They also went 8-5 in 2023, his first year at CCU, and 6-7 after a loss in the Myrtle Beach Bowl in 2024.
Now that CCU needs a new head coach, here are a few the program might consider:
Ohio State Offensive Coordinator Brian Hartline
Hartline has been at Ohio State during his entire coaching career, but his name has been floated around as a potential head coaching candidate. And I could see a Sun Belt job like this one maybe being a good fit.
Hartline has been either the offensive coordinator or co-OC at Ohio State since 2023. This year, the Buckeyes are 10th in the nation in scoring offense (37.9 points per game) and are 24th in total offense (444.7 yards per game).
Previously, he was a passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach in 2022 and a wide receivers coach from 2019-21. He was an interim wide receivers coach in 2018 and a quality control coach in 2017.
He’s mentored some incredible wideouts during his career. That includes Marvin Harrison Jr., Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Missouri State Head Coach Ryan Beard
Beard has been recognized as one of the up-and-coming head coaches in the FBS.
And that’s for good reason. In their first season in the FBS, the Bears are 7-5 at the conclusion of the regular season and will be playing in a bowl game.
Beard was the youngest person to become Missouri State’s head coach when he was promoted at 34 years old in December 2022.
Previously, Beard was Missouri State’s defensive coordinator for three seasons. During that span, he coached a defense that earned 18 all-conference nods and four All-American accolades while three players from that time had opportunities to play professionally. Missouri State was among the best in the country in several statistical categories on defense when Beard was the DC.
Before going to Missouri State, Beard was a special teams and safeties coach at Central Michigan in 2019. He was a quality control coach at Louisville, where he was from 2017-18, before becoming the team’s linebackers coach and co-special teams coordinator. He was also a defensive quality control coach there from 2014-15.
He coached defensive backs in 2016 at Western Kentucky, where he was a two-time All-Sun Belt defensive back himself, and was a graduate assistant at WKU in 2012-13.
Vanderbilt Offensive Coordinator Tim Beck
Yes, the coincidence of this is kind of funny. But I could see Beck’s name come up for head coaching jobs like this.
Beck hasn’t been a Power Four coordinator very long, but he’s been extremely successful and has head coaching experience, albeit at the Division II level.
Beck’s offense ranked ninth in the country in scoring offense (38.9 points per game) going into the final week of the regular season. He’s also helped Diego Pavia become a Heisman Trophy candidate. The quarterback was third in the country with 325.9 yards of total offense per game going into Week 14.
Beck, who arrived at Vanderbilt last year, was the OC at New Mexico State from 2022-23 and was an offensive analyst at TCU in 2021. He was the head coach at Pittsburgh State, his alma mater, from 2010-19 and led the team to a national championship in 2011 and got to the postseason on three other occasions. He was an assistant there from 1988-2009.
SMU Offensive Coordinator Casey Woods
Woods is a successful coordinator at a current Power Four school who has experience in the Sun Belt.
The Mustangs were eighth in the FBS in points per game (38.7) and 16th in yards per game (454.9) in 2023, their last year in the American. Woods, in SMU’s first year in the ACC, helped the Mustangs reach the College Football Playoff in 2024. The Mustangs are 8-4 overall this year.
At UAB, he was a tight ends coach, run game coordinator, and recruiting coordinator for three years after the football program came back in 2016. The Blazers set several school records and put together some highly-regarded recruiting classes during his time there.
Woods has also been a tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator at Missouri. He coached wide receivers and was a recruiting coordinator at Arkansas State in 2012 when the Red Wolves went 10-3, earned a Sun Belt title, and won the GoDaddy.com Bowl.
Montana State Head Coach Brent Vigen
Vigen doesn’t have experience at an East Coast school, but he’s regarded as one of the best FCS coaches and has reportedly been in the mix for multiple FBS head coaching jobs, including Oregon State.
Vigen has been Montana State’s head coach since 2021. That first year, he led the Bobcats to their first national championship appearance since 1984. The year after that, Montana State reached the national semifinals before losing to the eventual champion, South Dakota State.
And in 2024, the Bobcats went undefeated during the regular season – including a victory at New Mexico – and returned to the FCS national championship.
Vigen also was an offensive coordinator at Wyoming under head coach Craig Bohl from 2014-20, most notably coaching now-NFL star quarterback Josh Allen, and was an assistant at North Dakota State before that.
