Bret Bielema, Arkansas

After spending seven seasons in Wisconsin with the Badgers, Bielema has taken his talent down to Arkansas. Before his head coaching days, he spent five seasons as Iowa’s linebacker coach, one season as a co-defensive coordinator for Kansas State, and was Wisconsin’s defensive coordinator for a year before becoming their head coach. During his run in Wisconsin, Bielema won 68 games compared to only 24 losses.

For the past three seasons, the Badgers marched to the Rose Bowl under Bielema and came away untriumphant. Bielema’s down fall is, and has always been, bowl games. Including the three Rose Bowl losses, he also failed to lead his team to victory in two other bowl games and only won two in his seven years at the helm of the Badgers. The new Razorbacks coach will have an immediate challenge as likely starting quarterback Brandon Mitchell recently transferred to NC State. This shall be a true test of his head coaching talent.

Gus Malzahn, Auburn

Malzahn began his coaching career as a high school coach from 1991 to 2005, primarily as a head coach, but was the defensive coordinator for his first season. After his high school days, Malzahn moved up to the college level where he spent time as the offensive coordinator/ positional coach (position varies by school) for Arkansas, Tulsa, and then Auburn. During his one season at Arkansas, Malzahn became well known for utilizing the Wildcat formation.

Based off his success as a coordinator, Arkansas State hired Malzahn for the 2012 season and he lead them to a 9-3 (7-1) record, first in the division, and won their bowl game. The success that Malzahn had as a first year head coach caught Auburn’s eye, especially with the rather poor job Gene Chizik had done (19-19 through his three seasons without Cam Newton).

Mark Stoops, Kentucky

Although he coached at Iowa for a bit then coached high school for three seasons, Stoops’ full fledged college coaching career began as South Florida’s defensive back coach in 1996. Since then, he has had stints as the defensive backs coach and/or defensive coordinators for Wyoming, Houston, Miami (FL), Arizona, and most recently, Florida State. As a DB coach, Stoops has produced players such as Ed Reed, Antoine Cason, and Xavier Rhodes. Stoops, who left for Kentucky on November 27, immediately stepped in and helped finish off a recruiting class that was the best the Wildcats had seen in recent years. His long tenure as a defensive coach should lead to Kentucky having a solid defense, but it will be interesting to see what Stoops can throw together on offense.

Butch Jones, Tennessee

After alternating between offensive coordinator and positional coaching jobs for five different schools from 1990 t0 2006, Jones landed the head coaching gig at Central Michigan. For his first two seasons, Jones ended the year with eight wins, but in his third and final season with Central Michigan, he was victorious eleven times. After this success, Jones went to try his luck at Cincinnati as their head coach. After going a mediocre 4-8 in his first season, he lead them to 19 total wins in the next two seasons, including a bowl game victory. Jones has already been dominating the 2014 class, including a five star athlete (likely to play running back) and nine four star recruits.  2013 may be a bit rocky for Jones, but once he gets all of his shiny new toys, the rest of the SEC better watch out.