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Most college football coaches spend years working their way up the ranks before they’re able to land a job as an offensive coordinator. However, one program in Nebraska has decided to take a chance on a guy barely older than most of the players he’ll be overseeing as it attempts to rebuild in the wake of a brutal campaign.
The typical college football coach follows a fairly well-trodden path that usually starts with playing or doing menial jobs as a member of the support staff before landing a gig as a low-level assistant while attempting to grind their way up the ladder.
You can’t teach experience, and the people who end up landing a job as an offensive or defensive coordinator usually spent a significant stretch of time working as a position coach or assistant before getting hired.
There are some exceptions to that rule. Charlie Weis Jr. was only 24 years old when Lane Kiffin tapped him to become the offensive coordinator at FAU in 2018, and in 2024, the DII UT Permian Basin Falcons promoted former quarterback (and QB coach) Kenny Hrncir to that position at the age of 23.
Now, they’ve both been outdone by a tiny program in Nebraska that’s turning to someone even younger as it aims to turn things around.
Nebraska Wesleyan hired a 22-year-old offensive coordinator after going 1-9
I’m going to assume most people reading this are not intimately familiar with the football program at Nebraska Wesleyan, a DIII school with an enrollment of 2,100 located in Lincoln.
Brian Keller spent a whopping 30 seasons as the head coach of the Prairie Wolves after taking over in 1996, but that era came to an end when he decided to retire in the wake of the 2025 campaign after going 1-9 to bring his all-time record at the school to 133-159.
Keller was replaced by Jacob Donohoe, who previously served as the offensive coordinator at Coe College in Iowa. He knows a thing or two about what you need to do that particular job, and according to Football Scoop, he’s confident Brandon “Bear” Earp will be able to rise to the occasion despite being just 22 years old.
Earp worked alongside Donhoe at Tyler Junior College before heading to Truman State to oversee the linebackers and special teams unit on a Bulldogs team that punched its ticket to the DII playoffs last season for the first time since 1994.
Nebraska Wesleyan doesn’t really have anywhere to go but up, but it’ll still be interesting to see how that hire works out for them.