WSU fired Mickey Mental two games before the end of his third season with the Wildcats having gone 2-10 in his final 12 Big Sky games. Veteran offensive line coach and WSU’s 12-year associate head coach Brent Myers finished the 2025 campaign, with true freshman Kingston Tisdell, and running backs Spencer Ferguson and Colter May, leading Weber to a dominant win over Northern Arizona to end the season.

Weber has gone to the FCS playoffs just once in the last five seasons; going more often than not is likely the standard a new head coach will need to meet.

FACTORS TO CONSIDER

WSU hired Jay Hill in late 2013 after he’d worked 13 years as an assistant coach at Utah. But now, the difference in pay between, say, a Utah or BYU position coach compared to what a head coach might make at Weber State, is two or three times greater. Wherever WSU looks, there is a big gap to bridge if it wants to pull interest from such coaches.

Mental came to WSU in 2022 as an offensive coordinator after a career at Division II school in Ohio, which he led as a head coach for the final two seasons. On paper, this route seems the right way to find a hungry, young coach who might be OK starting at a certain salary, but this particular choice didn’t pan out.

MATT HERP, Standard-Examiner file photo

One factor in Mental’s hire, aside from Hill’s endorsement, was the desire to move forward largely with the same coaching staff and attempt to continue the momentum Hill built over nine years. That is likely not a factor this time, and doing so might now is a tough sell. The idea of attempting the Jay Hill Experience, just without Jay Hill, didn’t seem to work without his skill set and leadership.

In regards to age, Hill was 38 years old when he was hired and Mental was 37. Going back to Ron McBride at his 2005 hire, he was 66. John L. Smith was 63 and Jody Sears was 45.

As for the timing? Hill was hired on Dec. 12, before the early football signing period existed. Hill left on Dec. 7, 2022, and Mental was hired on Dec. 20.

But this year’s early signing period is Dec. 3-5; that window has been moved up two weeks from its previous slot just before Christmas. Having a hire in place before is difficult, to understate it. Many FBS coaches just finished their regular season on Saturday (some are prepping for conference championship games this week) and any thought to look at top FCS coordinators is met with the likelihood a good head coach candidate is likely coaching a playoff team.

The transfer portal opens Jan. 2 and the regular signing period for high school freshmen comes around Feb. 4.

Another factor is likely how quickly a candidate can assemble a staff that provides skilled coordinators and strong ties to the state of Utah — likely with a desire to reforge connections to Polynesian communities as well.

Aside from what candidates make basic sense, salary is a hurdle in some scenarios. Some candidates who might’ve been a great fit may have since grown into other opportunities or have even bigger ones on their horizons.

For example, Mental was paid a salary of $215,000 per year. In Hill’s final season at Weber State, after nine years of unprecedented success, he was paid $366,475. Colton Swan — the former WSU player and longtime assistant now at Utah who is often at the top of discussions among fans for WSU’s opening — made $450,000 in 2024 as Utah’s linebackers coach, according to a database compiled by USA Today.

BYU’s apparent success in retaining Kalani Sitake as head coach after being courted with major money from Penn State also seems more likely to hold the BYU staff intact next year, as the Cougars have become a Big 12 and playoff contender.

Hiring a sitting head coach is an unlikely proposal in most situations. WSU has never hired a sitting DI head coach in football or men’s basketball.

With that said, it’s worth considering who might make sense in an ideal pool of candidates. So here’s a look at some — with the disclaimer that this is a list about existing connections, potential fits or relevant experience, not a list of actual candidates based on sourced information. A coach appearing on this list does not assume there is interest from either party.

This list is also heavily based on Utah connections and does not account for any potential long-distance hires from interested parties across the country, and is not meant to be an exhaustive list of coaches who might have interest.

PRICEY P4 ASSISTANTS

As mentioned, Colton Swan makes a ton of sense. Obvious, if he’s interested. But that ship might’ve sailed. Swan played at WSU and coached for 15 years in Ogden under five head coaches before going to Utah in 2019 and has carved a strong spot into that staff — especially one that could have him positioned to take over as defensive coordinator when Kyle Whittingham retires and coach-in-waiting Morgan Scalley takes over.

Another successful former WSU assistant now making more money at a Power 4 school (though his salary is unknown) is Fesi Sitake at BYU. The former WSU offensive coordinator (2016-17) has been wide receivers coach at BYU since leaving Weber State in 2018 and has also been BYU’s passing game coordinator since 2021.

Justin Ena was Hill’s first defensive coordinator at BYU in 2014. The former BYU and NFL linebacker has coached at all six of Utah’s football-playing, four-year schools, with one-year stops at San Diego State and Eastern Washington. He’s now been at his alma mater for three years. If there’s ever a time for the 48-year-old to jump at a head coaching opening, would this be it?

The well-traveled Jason Kaufusi is also a former WSU assistant. The Salt Lake City native and former Utah defensive player is a well-traveled coach at 46 and might also be interested in a chance to become a head coach (with, again, the salary caveat ever present). He’s currently in his second year at the University of Washington as defensive line coach and run-game coordinator.

He was at Weber State for five seasons, separated in two stints by a stop at BYU to be a graduate assistant, and was WSU’s defensive coordinator in 2016. He’s since been at Nevada, UCLA and Arizona before landing at Washington.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THIS GUY?

There’s one former P4 assistant who’s back in the state for the first time in nine years who also happens to be an Ogden native, a Weber State graduate and has been an FBS coordinator for 13 seasons.

That’s Nick Howell who, despite the experience, is only 45 years old. The Bronco Mendenhall disciple is currently Utah State’s defensive coordinator after doing the same at BYU, Virginia, Vanderbilt and New Mexico. A graduate of Ben Lomond High School, Howell played at Snow College after missionary service before an injury caused him to hang up the cleats and enroll at Weber State.

He began working as an assistant coach at Weber High School and his alma mater, Ben Lomond, while still at Weber State and became Ben Lomond’s head coach before beginning his nine-year stint at BYU, rising from position coach to eventual coordinator.

One major difference between now and 2022 when WSU last made a hire for a head coach is Howell was an SEC coordinator then. Now, he’s made his P4 money and is back in Utah. Whether he’s the right guy or not, those stars seemed to have aligned at least a little. His salary at USU this season is unknown; the Deseret News reported his pay at New Mexico was $400,000.

OK, LET’S TALK ONE HEAD COACH

If there was one sitting head coach who makes sense and is in the realm of possibility, if he’s interested, it would be Ed Lamb, who is finishing his third season at Northern Colorado.

The California native played at Ricks College and BYU, and coached at BYU and San Diego before becoming head coach at Southern Utah, where he turned the Thunderbirds into a Big Sky champion late in his tenure from 2008-15. He was associate head coach at BYU from 2016-22 until moving on to take the job at Northern Colorado.

His results at Northern Colorado are mediocre at best, but he did inherit a train wreck from Ed McCaffrey. At the one sure program operating with fewer resources than Weber State, Lamb has the Bears competing. Lamb, according to a contract document made public by his university’s Board of Trustees, has a base salary of $203,116. That would seem to make it possible, if he’s at all interested.

Though not a splash kind of hire, Lamb would make a reliable, experienced leader with an existing understanding of the state and a track record of turning around low points. He’d also likely bring along both coordinators in former SUU playcaller Justin Walterscheid and former Weber State assistant Preston Hadley.

LOOK INSIDE THE BUILDING

Does anyone internal make sense?

Brent Myers is a football man through and through, and is as well-respected as they come. The veteran offensive line coach took over as interim leader for the final two games this season and had WSU looking like a new team in the finale. But one hurdle, which all current WSU coaches face, is timing. Myers may have been the right choice three years ago but now, the idea of keeping the gang largely together feels like it has less merit than in 2022 due to on-field results.

So those questions would apply to defensive coordinator Joe Dale, receivers coach Skyler Ridley, who is often talked about as having a bright coaching future, and Robert Conley who got his feet wet as offensive coordinator in WSU’s two interim weeks.

Would that apply to someone like Grant Duff, if interested? The longtime former Weber State man just finished his first season trying to turn around the defense as coordinator at Idaho State and helped the Bengals to their first above-.500 Big Sky season since 2018 (both 5-3).

What about Jamie Martin? The former Weber State legend moved back to Ogden fully this season as an offensive analyst for the Wildcats. His resume as a head coach consists of two years launching Dave Arslanian’s Ogden Jets program, so he may be better positioned to take over as quarterbacks coach or even an offensive coordinator for the right head coach. Keeping him in the program seems like the right thing, though.

WILD CARDS

There are a bevy of either WSU- or Utah-connected coaches out there likely kicking the tires, though their credentials vary in how tied to Utah they actually are at this point, or how successful they might be running the program.

Those likely include Oregon State’s soon-to-be castoffs as the Beavers didn’t land Montana State’s Brent Vigen and instead hired top Alabama assistant JaMarcus Shephard as head coach. That would be Robb Akey and Ilaisa Tuiaki.

Akey is the former Weber State player (1984-87) who immediately coached seven more seasons at WSU before stops at Northern Arizona and Washington State before a six-year stint as head coach at Idaho (2007-12, record: 20-50). His most recent staff job was Central Michigan’s defensive coordinator from 2019-24; he was special assistant to the head coach at Oregon State this year and took over as interim HC at the end of the season.

Tuiaki is the Provo native who was a seven-year BYU assistant and eventual defensive coordinator from 2016-22 before vacating the role, leading to BYU’s hire of Hill. He’s been Oregon State’s defensive line coach for three seasons.

Frank Maile could be a name to ponder. He’s a Utah State alum and former five-year Aggies assistant who was twice USU’s interim head coach (2018 bowl game, final three games of 2020). He’s also coached three years at Boise State, two at Washington State and two at Vanderbilt.

Some fans or others bandy the name of Eric Price, son of former WSU coach Mike Price. A 33-year veteran currently an offensive analyst for Montana, he’s only coached in Utah for one year, as a student assistant in 1990. His last major coaching roles were as Tulane’s offensive coordinator from 2012-15 and as OC for the UFL’s Houston Roughnecks in 2023-24.

Another name some throw around is Jake Cookus, the former Weber State assistant under Ron McBride from 2005-11. After WSU, he was safeties coach at Montana for two seasons, special teams at Hawaii for one, and spent seven years as special teams coach at Oregon State. He’s currently in his second year as a special teams analyst at Utah.