NCAA football coaching changes in 2009

The 2009 NCAA football season welcomes 21 new head coaches after last season's annual game of musical chairs.

Some coaches left their old head coaching spots for greener pastures, like Gene Chizik, who migrated from Iowa State to Auburn.

Others resumed their old post, like Bill Snyder at Kansas State, who took over for the fired Ron Prince. Snyder coached the Wildcats from 1989 to 2005 before retiring and Kansas State thought highly enough of him to name their stadium Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium. That's a pretty good recruiting tool in my book.

Several coaches were ready to make the jump from coordinator to head coach, like New Mexico's Mike Locksley, who came from Illinois, and Washington's Steve Sarkisian, who left USC.

Others didn't have much of a choice but to step back from the NFL and get back into college coaching, like Lane Kiffin at Tennessee, who took the job after getting fired for a sub-par performance running the show with the Oakland Raiders.

And some people bided their time waiting for a promotion, like Dabo Swinney at Clemson. Swinney accepted the promotion from assistant head coach and wide receivers coach to the full gig when the Tigers parted ways with Tommy Bowden.

The number of moves wasn't much different than in most years, but it's always interesting to watch the dominoes begin to fall. One coach leaves a Pac-10 school to take a job at a Big 12 school. The Pac-10 school hires a Big East coach. The Big East school hires a MAC coach. The MAC school hires a Sun Belt coach, and the life cycle continues.