January 07, 2025 | Read Online

Want to see who applied for the Kennesaw State head football coach gig?

Boy, those are a lot of references to EA Sports CFB25!

Good morning, and thanks for your continued support of Extra Points.

Typically, FBS head coaching searches don’t operate like most job openings. Athletic directors, regents, or search firms will typically discreetly reach out to potential candidates, conducting the interviews and conversations outside the public eye. If you aren’t already on the proverbial short list before the position opens up, or if you don’t have a highly placed agent making calls for you via back channels, you’re probably not going to get hired.

That’s what happened at Kennesaw State. Last month, the school hired Jerry Mack, a former assistant with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Volunteers, to be their new head football coach. School officials told me that Mack’s paperwork was handled by a search firm. My understanding is that this was also the case for other candidates the school seriously considered.

But sometimes, because many FBS schools are public institutions with a responsibility to follow state employment protocol, the schools formally open up job postings anyway, just like they might for hiring a new Java programmer, adjunct professor, or bus driver.

That’s also what happened at Kennesaw State. While school officials were talking with candidates via other channels, the department also posted the head coach job opening on their own website, as well as LinkedIn.

So naturally, I was curious…what kind of person applies to an FBS head coaching job on LinkedIn? Were there legitimately qualified people who reached out that could have potentially been interviewed? Were they just a bunch of jokers?

Only one way to find out. I filed an Open Records Request for all the application materials submitted for the job opening via the school website and LinkedIn.

Here’s what the school sent me.