Forde-Yard Dash: The First-Year Coaches Making an Instant Impact

With an unusual number of teams led by new hires making it in the top 25 this season, here are some of the coaches making waves in their first year on the job.

Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football, where we no longer have to believe the Heup about Tennessee:

First Quarter

Home Run Hires

This time a year ago, the earth was about to rumble in college athletics with some seismic coaching hires few people saw coming. USC was preparing to make a massive offer for Lincoln Riley to leave Oklahoma, and LSU was about to shockingly swipe Brian Kelly from Notre Dame.

Two big swings. Both connected. Both knocked it out of the park even more rapidly than expected. The…