First-year college football coach grades after debuts: Lane Kiffin dazzles, Kyle Whittingham falls flat

College football's Week 1 featured a wave of new coaches making debuts with their programs after a tumultuous offseason. The SEC alone flipped six coaches, causing chaos across the Group of Six as programs scrambled to backfill.

New coaches headlined the highest-profile games of the weekend, as LSU's Lane Kiffin got out to a quick start and Michigan's Kyle Whittingham faltered. In other cases, coaches got simple starts to flex their muscles against overmatched FCS opponents.

The list includes two coaches promoted from interim status who coached a handful of games last season: Ole Miss's Pete Golding and Kent State's Mark Carney. But still, going through a full offseason and taking over is a new complication. We also included a handful of coaches who coached multiple games with seasons starting in Week 0. We'll happily take additional data points.

Here's how we grade every first-year coach's performance in Week 1.

What is there to say? Kiffin's Tigers were magnificent in his Baton Rouge debut, obliterating Clemson 51-10. LSU won every phase of the game in spades, but the running game — led by QB Sam Leavitt and RB Dilin Jones — stood apart. Honestly, the only hesitation about this performance…

Original source: https://www.cbssports.com/