By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam
With the news of Associate Head Coach Jake Shrum leaving the University of Virginia coming out on Tuesday, Virginia will become the fourth top-10 program, including Michigan, Cal, and Texas, that is looking for a new associate head coach before the start of the 2026 season.
There is always a lot of big coaching news that comes out after the NCAA Championships with coaches jumping from one team to the next or others retiring. This year has been rather tame in regard to head coaching changes after we saw a lot of new head coaches in 2025 and 2024.
While there haven’t been a ton of major head coaching announcements, there have been a lot of associate and assistant head coach changes during this offseason, including from some of the major Division I programs.
Michigan was the first of the four teams to announce their new associate head coach search. Sources told SwimSwam at the beginning of February that Bryon Tansel had been relieved of his duties. He took over the position in August of 2023 shortly after Matt Bowe was hired to the head coach role. Tansel’s last reported salary from the 2025-2026 season was $122,100.
About a month-and-a-half later, on the final day of the 2026 men’s NCAA Championships, David Marsh told SwimSwam that he would be leaving Cal after the season was over. He came to the program in January of 2022 in a temporary role to help when then-assistant Chase Krietler went on paternity leave. The following year, women’s head coach Teri McKeever was fired and Marsh took over the Associate Head Coach role to help ease the transition. Marsh’s last reported salary comes from 2024, and he made $102,500.
Finally, Mitch Dalton announced on Monday that he was moving to Brown University to become the head coach of the women’s program after spending six seasons at the University of Texas. Dalton’s last reported salary was $108,900.
Shrum joined the four this afternoon after spending two seasons as the associate head coach at Virginia. His last reported salary comes from 2024, the year in which he was promoted, and stood at $58,653. This is the lowest salary of the four schools and he likely earned more this season. It is worth noting, however, that Virginia has a different coaching structure than the other three schools and has had two associate head coaches and one senior associate head coach since Shrum’s promotion. The other associate head Gary Taylor reportedly made $66,300 in 2025 and Tyler Fenwick, the senior associate head, reportedly made $69,405.
Now for the speculation. There are a number of coaches who could take over these roles. It is important to note that these speculations are just for fun. There are plenty of coaches that are not on this list who could make a lateral move from one associate head coach job to another along with mid-major coaches who could make the jump to Power 4. To make our lives easier, we have narrowed down potential coaches to current assistants at top-20 programs who could be looking to move up in their careers and seem primed to do so.
First, we are taking a look at the internal promotions. Cal and UVA don’t appear to have anybody primed to move up into the associate head role. UVA’s Margaret Zagrobelny and Cal’s Noah Yanchulis are the top two options, but they don’t seem as likely as an external hire to fill those positions.
Michigan’s Gunnar Schmidt appears to be the most likely pick for the promotion. He is currently listed as an associate coach, a role he has had for the past three seasons. Schmidt is a Michigan alumnus and served as the Club Wolverine head coach from 2016 until he joined the Michigan staff in 2023.
The Texas job could go to assistant coach Chad Mylin, though it doesn’t seem quite as likely as Schmidt with Michigan. He has been with the Longhorns for five seasons, serving two as a volunteer assistant coach before taking over an assistant role in July of 2023. The biggest factor working against Mylin is his age and experience. He knows the athletes and he knows women’s head coach Carol Capitani, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see an internal promotion, but it could also go to someone outside the program.
Other Potential Hires
There are eight other current assistant coaches at programs who finished in the top-20 at the 2026 NCAA Championships that could move up into a major associate role.
Rob Collins, Tennessee
Two of the options come from Tennessee. The Volunteers are a combined program and currently have two assistant coaches with a lot of coaching experience. The first is Rob Collins. He has been in Knoxville for five seasons now, starting as an assistant during the 2021-2022 school year. Before moving to college, he was the head coach at the Sierra Marlins Swim Team in Folsom, California. Collins would be a clear option to move up to an associate head position as he continues to try to prove himself in the college sphere.
Caleb Lawrence, Tennessee
Caleb Lawrence is the other Tennessee assistant who seems primed to take the next step. Lawrence does not have as much overall coaching experience as Collins, graduating from NC State in 2018, but he has been coaching in college since his graduation. He has served as a volunteer assistant at Notre Dame for three seasons before moving to Richmond, where he spent two seasons. He has been at Tennessee now for three full seasons and might be looking to make a move.
Nick Thorn, Louisville
Louisville’s Nick Thorn has been with the Cardinals since 2021, marking five seasons with the team. Before joining Louisville, he spent three years as an assistant coach for Florida State and two years as a volunteer assistant at Alabama, marking 10 total years of Power Four Coaching experience.
Jake Larson, Alabama
Jake Larson has been at Alabama since the start of the 2023 season. Before that, he spent four seasons at the Miami University, the final of which he served as associate head coach with the Hurricanes. He has associate head experience, and he has been at a top program for three seasons now, and it would make sense to see him move into one of the available associate head roles.
Keith Dawley, USC
One of the most experienced coaches on this list is USC assistant Keith Dawley. He has been with the Trojans for two seasons, but has a plethora of college coaching experience. Dawley spent six years at Southern Methodist, even serving a stint as interim head coach of the program in 2019. He also worked at TCU as an associate head and later interim head for a season, leading the distance groups. He also briefly coached at Miami University as an assistant, and notably was a volunteer assistant at the University of Virginia during the 2015-2016 season, though that was before Todd DeSorbo took over the position in 2017.
Nate Rhoads, Georgia
Nate Rhoads has been a men’s assistant coach at the University of Georgia for three seasons following one year as a volunteer assistant. Prior to moving to Georgia, he was the head coach at NAIA school Brenau University for seven seasons, helping lead the program to multiple conference championships. He has also served as a club coach in Texas (Lakeside Aquatic Club), and Virginia (Quantico Devil Dolphins) which could improve his chances at either of those two schools.
Lyle Robelot, LSU
One of LSU’s most senior coaches is Lyle Robelot, who has been with the Tigers for seven seasons. He joined the program in August of 2018 after spending one year as an assistant at Tulane, one year as a volunteer assistant at NC State, and two seasons as an assistant coach with Nova S’Eastern. Before coaching at Nova S’Eastern, he was a volunteer assistant at LSU for two years. Robelot definitely seems ready for a promotion, but he is an LSU alumnus (not as a swimmer) and might be attached to the program.
Kayla Kumbier, UNC
Finally, the University of North Carolina’s Kayla Kumbier could earn one of the four open positions. She has been an assistant at UNC for four seasons, serving primarily as the middle distance coach and the women’s recruiting coordinator. She also has Division I experience at the University of San Diego and UC San Diego.
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