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Smaller and tidier. That's a good way to describe the 2023 coaching carousel. Last year, there were 30 coaching changes, 23% of the FBS. This year was less shocking and more business as usual, but still, 24 new hires are in place entering the 2023 season, making up 18% of the FBS. (More than 40% of the available jobs have changed hands in the last two years alone.)

In the three previous years combined, there had been 71 coaching changes -- 95 total since the 2019 season.

Surprised? Don't be. Security is defined by size of a coach's buyout these days. The top 10 coaches in that department are averaging more than $35 million in funny money if they were fired today. This list contains replacements for five coaches who lasted three seasons or fewer. Impatience still rules.    

More than half of this cycle's hires (13) have never previously been college head coaches. Seven of those 13 make their debuts under the age of 40. The reconfigured Conference USA is making the most changes (five).

Only the other end, former Michigan assistant Biff Poggi, 63, gets his first chance at Charlotte. Looming over it all, of course, is the Deion Sanders experiment at Colorado.

As for what it all means, judge for yourself. Only three of the seven coaches to whom we awarded As last season won 9+ games (Brian Kelly, Jeff Tedford, Lincoln Riley). The others went a combined 23-26 (Mario Cristobal, Billy Napier, Brent Venables, Jerry Kill).

Here's how we grade the hires as we enter the 2023 college football offseason with the carousel having stopped spinning ... at least for now.