FAU has fired head coach Tom Herman, sources tell CBS Sports' Matt Zenitz, Richard Johnson and Chris Hummer.
Herman is coming off a disappointing loss to Temple, which dropped FAU to 2-8 this season. The 49-year-old Herman was hired ahead of the 2023 season and is 6-16 in just under two years in Boca Raton. FAU associate head coach and special teams coordinator Chad Lunsford is expected to be the program's interim head coach.
The Owls will owe Herman just north of a $4 million buyout, according to his contract. Herman's firing makes for eight FBS head coaching changes during the 2024 season, all of them on the Group of Five level. There are now 10 FBS head coaching jobs open if you include Utah State and Fresno State, both of which have been led by interim coaches throughout the 2024 campaign.
Herman's seat had been increasingly hot throughout the 2024 campaign. A 18-15 overtime loss to Temple, which actually fired head coach Stan Drayton, a former Herman assistant, on Sunday, pushed Herman's status over the edge. This is only the second time since 1973, among regular season games, that a pair of head coaches who faced each other in the prior weekend were fired in the same week. The other came last year when Texas A&M (Jimbo Fisher) and Mississippi State (Zach Arnett) both made a change.
The Owls will now look for their third head coach since 2020 after Lane Kiffin left the program for Ole Miss.
Prior to arriving at FAU, Herman was most recently the Texas Longhorns' head coach. He posted a 32-18 overall record in Austin and was fired following a 7-3 campaign during the 2020 COVID season. Before arriving in Austin, Herman led Houston to a 22-4 overall record, including a Peach Bowl win over Florida State. He was also the offensive coordinator at Ohio State in 2014 when the Buckeyes won the initial College Football Playoff national championship.
These are the current head coach openings on the FBS level, all of which are Group of Five programs:
| School | Status | Conference | Expected Salary Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball State | Open (Fired Mike Neu) | Mid-American Conference | ~600,000 |
| East Carolina | Open (Fired Mike Houston) | American Athletic | $2-3 million |
| Florida Atlantic | Open (Fired Tom Herman) | American Athletic | $1 million |
| Fresno State | Interim Coach | Mountain West | $1-2 million |
| Kennesaw State | Open (Fired Brian Bohannon) | Conference USA | ~$500,000 |
| Rice | Open (Fired Mike Bloomgren) | American Athletic | $1 million |
| Southern Miss | Open (Fired Will Hall) | Sun Belt | <$1 million |
| Temple | Open (Fired Stan Drayton) | American Athletic | $1-2 million |
| UMass | Open (Fired Don Brown) | Independent | <$1 million |
| Utah State | Interim Coach | Mountain West | $1-2 million |
Check out the latest in the coaching carousel tracker running on 247Sports.