FCS East names 19 rising head coaches led by Schmidt, Taylor, Berry

The real question in FCS East’s 19-man coaching climb is not who is rising. It is which coach can actually change the shape of the 2026 FCS bracket, and South Carolina State’s Chennis Berry, North Dakota’s Eric Schmidt and Mercer’s Joel Taylor have the clearest case.

Berry has already shown the fastest route from hire to leverage. South Carolina State officially introduced him on Dec. 12, 2023, after he replaced longtime coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough, and the Bulldogs backed up the move by winning the 2025 Celebration Bowl 40-38 in four overtimes on Dec. 13, 2025. That result gave the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference its seventh all-time victory in the game and delivered South Carolina State a second straight MEAC title in the current run. If Berry’s program keeps that level, the measurable breakthrough is simple: another conference title and a return to Atlanta, with the kind of national profile that forces the playoff conversation to account for the MEAC again.

Schmidt is the next coach with bracket-shifting potential because North Dakota did not just hire a newcomer. The school named him its 28th head coach on Dec. 8, 2024, and he came back to Grand Forks after stops at San Diego State and Washington. That résumé suggests immediate roster traction and a scheme upgrade with national coaching influence behind it. The breakthrough to watch is whether North Dakota turns that experience into a playoff seed and a home-field edge in November, the kind of result that changes the road map for everyone else in the upper half of the bracket.

Taylor brings a different kind of evidence. Mercer named him its 22nd head coach on Dec. 11, 2025, after he led West Georgia through its transition to the FCS and earned United Athletic Conference and AFCA Region 3 coach of the year honors for an 8-win 2024 season. He also returned to Mercer after serving as its defensive coordinator, giving the Bears a built-in feel for his system. If Taylor can turn that continuity into a Year 2 jump, Mercer becomes the type of team that can knock a seeded opponent out of the bracket before December even begins.

The larger backdrop explains why this list matters. One 2026 tracker counted 23 head coaching changes in the previous offseason, down from 30 in 2024 and 28 in 2023, while another said 23 FCS programs entered 2026 with new head coaches. In a cycle that volatile, momentum is rare. The coaches most likely to matter are the ones with proof, and FCS East’s top names have it.