College football is a sport that runs on haves and have-nots. Inequality is baked into the system. That's why there's always such a robust market for the coaching carousel and general college football hot seat discussion.
Because of this, it's rare to find a coach that stays with one program for 15 or 20 years; in fact, it's increasingly difficult to find coaches who last more than a mere five years at one job.'
Here's a list of the longest-tenured college football coaches at the FBS level, for those who are curious.
Longest Tenured College Football Coaches
| First Season | Head Coach | School | W/L Record At School (Win Percentage) |
| 1999 | Kirk Ferentz | Iowa | 186-115 (.618) |
| 2005 | Mike Gundy | Oklahoma State | 156-75 (.675) |
| 2005 | Kyle Whittingham | Utah | 154-74 (.675) |
| 2006 | Rick Stockstill | Middle Tennessee | 109-103 (.514) |
| 2007 | Troy Calhoun | Air Force | 121-78 (.608) |
| 2007 | Nick Saban | Alabama | 187-27 (.874) |
| 2009 | Dabo Swinney | Clemson | 143-38 (.790) |
| 2013 | Dave Doeren | NC State | 72-54 (.571) |
| 2013 | Mark Stoops | Kentucky | 66-59 (.528) |
| 2014 | Dave Clawson | Wake Forest | 59-53 (.527) |
| 2014< /td> | James Franklin | Penn State | 78-36 (.684) |
| 2014 | K.C. Keeler | Sam Houston | 85-27 (.759) |
| 2014 | Jeff Monken | Army | 64-49 (.566) |
| 2014 | Chris Creighton | Eastern Michigan | 46-61 (.430) |
| 2014 | Chuck Martin | Miami (OH) | 45-59 (.433) |
| 2014 | Craig Bohl | Wyoming | 52-56 (.481) |
| 2015 | Pat Narduzzi | Pittsburgh | 62-41 (.602) |
| 2015 | Jim Harbaugh | Michigan | 74-25 (.747) |
| 2016 | Willie Fritz | Tulane | 43-45 (.489) |
| 2016 | Dino Babers | Syracuse | 36-49 (.424) |
| 2016 | Kalani Sitake | BYU | 56-34 (.622) |
| 2016 | Matt Campbell | Iowa State | 46-40 (.535) |
| 2016 | Mike N eu | Ball State | 33-48 (.407) |
| 2016 | Jason Candle | Toledo | 54-32 (.628) |
| 2016 | Kirby Smart | Georgia | 81-15 (.844) |
| 2017 | Tom Allen | Indiana | 30-40 (.429) |
| 2017 | P.J. Fleck | Minnesota | 44-27 (.620) |
| 2017 | Brent Brennan | San Jose State | 27-42 (.391) |
| 2017 | Justin Wilcox | Cal | 30-36 (.455) |
| 2017 | Shawn Elliott | Georgia State | 34-38 (.472) |
One recent departure from this list is Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald. It's been many years since Pat Fitzgerald started coaching at Northwestern, his alma mater – he got the head coaching gig in 2006 but had been an assistant with Northwestern for an additional five years before that.