As we start to see heads roll in NFL head coaching circles, team ownership is starting to do their homework on potential replacements. While most of the candidates are going to be made up of the league’s top coordinators and assistants, a few candidates are popping up in the college ranks. Per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, Oregon’s Dan Lanning and Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman are popular names to potentially graduate from college to the NFL. 
It used to be much more popular to pluck college head coaches from their student athletes and give them an opportunity to coach in the big leagues. While many NFL coaches have college experience, Los Angeles’ Jim Harbaugh (Michigan) is currently the only head coach to not come directly from another position in the NFL. While this may be because Harbaugh has prior experience as an NFL head coach, his first job with San Francisco came immediately following his time at Stanford.
Other recent examples like Urban Meyer (Ohio State) and Matt Rhule (Baylor) have slowed the process a bit. In the last two offseasons, Harbaugh and fellow former Stanford coach David Shaw are the only coaches from college football to interview for head coaching jobs, and Shaw quit coaching the Cardinal in 2022. If we go back a year further, only Hines Ward, who was the wide receivers coach at Florida Atlantic at the time, joins the list. Ward experienced a head coaching gig with the San Antonio Brahmas of the XFL before heading to Arizona State as the wide receivers coach this year.
Lanning is an intriguing name out of Eugene. The 38-year-old is in his third year of the job since taking over for Mario Cristobal, who left for his alma mater, Miami (FL). In his first two seasons, the Ducks went a combined 22-5, ending the 2023 season as the No. 6 team in AP rankings. In 2024, Lanning’s Ducks are currently 11-0 in their first year in the Big Ten conference. They are the College Football Playoff committee’s No. 1 team thanks to a harrowing one-point victory over Ohio State (currently ranked No. 2).
Realistically, Lanning has a massive buyout and is in the middle of a run for a National Championship. He’s not looking at NFL job prospects at the moment and may not be for another year. But, thanks to a relatively thin pool of NFL candidates, executives have kept an eye on Lanning, someone they believe has “got some Dan Campbell to him.”
Freeman, also 38, is another intriguing name. A defensive-minded coach, Freeman held coordinator jobs at Purdue, Cincinnati, and Notre Dame before taking over the head job when Brian Kelly left for LSU. It was rumored that Freeman would follow Kelly to Baton Rouge, but instead, he accepted his first head coaching job. In his first two full seasons, Freeman led the Fighting Irish to a combined 19-7 record. This season under Freeman, Notre Dame is 9-1 and currently No. 6 in the CFP rankings.
Unlike Lanning, Freeman found his way to the NFL as a player following a five-year college career at Ohio State. A fifth-round pick for the Bears in 2009, Freeman floated around with the Bills and Texans before retiring in 2010 due to an enlarged heart condition. Though his heart ended any chances of recognition as an NFL player, he may still have a chance to make his NFL legacy as a head coach.
Again, the migration of college head coaches to the NFL has slowed since the days of Kliff Kingsbury, Meyer, and Rhule, and Lanning and Freeman are more intriguing names to watch than surefire candidates. Still, it’s noteworthy to see these young leaders on meteoric rises get such strong recognition from NFL executives.
Leave Dan in Eugene.