College football has several new faces in new places

Every year we must explain to students the “Five Ws” of college football turnover.

Who?

What?

Went where?

Why?

Things don’t stay the same very long. Players cycle out every four years and, for coaches, the grass is usually greener anywhere the green involves money.

A look at some new faces in new places:

Norm Chow, the longtime offensive coordinator, has left UCLA for Utah, his alma mater. Chow will be back in town Sept. 10 to face USC, another former employer.

Defensive coordinator Will Muschamp couldn’t outwait his coach-in-waiting position at Texas and jumped at the chance to replace Urban Meyer at Florida.

Muschamp has no previous head coaching experience. Is he the next Meyer or the next Ron Zook?

Muschamp hired former Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis to run the Gators’ offense.

Mack Brown responded to last year’s 5-7 record at Texas by replacing five assistant coaches. Brown’s big “bag” hire was Bryan Harsin, who ran Boise State’s electric blue offense.

Brady Hoke parlayed program resurrections at Ball State and San Diego State to land the Michigan job Rich Rodriguez left a shameless shambles. Hoke is a former Michigan assistant and the kind of meat-and-potatoes guy who can pick the Wolverines up while Ohio State is down.

At San Diego State, Rocky Long steps up from defensive coordinator to take Hoke’s spot.

Jim Tressel’s shocking off-season resignation left the Ohio State program to assistant coach Luke Fickell, who must navigate the program through its worse scandal in years. Fickell, only 37, says the good part is he didn’t have much time to worry after Tressel stepped down on Memorial Day. “The situation arose and, obviously, I had to stand up,” he said.

Al Golden, who did a remarkable job at unremarkable Temple, has now been assigned to return Miami to its former greatness. It’s all about the “U” in Miami, but even more about the “W.”

Stanford, coming off a 12-win season and romp over Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl, lost coach Jim Harbaugh to the San Francisco 49ers. The Cardinal went in-house and hired offensive coordinator David Shaw. His first year, with Andrew Luck returning at quarterback, should be on autopilot. He’ll need some luck after that.

Randy Edsall took Connecticut to the Fiesta Bowl and then left for Maryland, which fired Ralph Friedgen after he was named ACC coach of the year. Paul Pasqualoni, who won 107 games at Syracuse before he was inexplicably-in-hindsight fired, takes over at Connecticut.

The Dan Hawkins era/error is finally over at Colorado, which has asked alum Jon Embree to lead the program into the Pacific 12 Conference. Embree played in Boulder and was one-time assistant at UCLA, where his son, Taylor, is a senior receiver.

Lane Kiffin, famous for his nomadic nature in drive-by stints with the Oakland Raiders and Tennessee Volunteers, returns for his second year at USC.

“He’s in the same place for two years in a row now, which is good,” USC quarterback Matt Barkley quipped.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com twitter.com/dufresnelatimes