Gardner-Webb’s coaching change barely had time to settle before it was ripped up again. Kris McCullough was fired on Wednesday, ending a brief and unsettled tenure that lasted only one game and leaving the program to keep moving under interim head coach Pete Bennett.
The timing is what makes this such a striking turn. McCullough took over the program in December after Cris Reisert stepped down, but his run never developed beyond the opening week. Gardner-Webb opened its season on Thursday with a 35-17 loss to Austin Peay, and by Monday school officials had already suspended McCullough pending an ongoing investigation while naming Bennett interim head coach.
A rapid collapse after a reset
For Gardner-Webb, the firing means another abrupt reset only months after the previous one. McCullough arrived with recent head coaching experience from Texas Permian Basin, where he coached Division II football from 2023-25, and the hope was that the new hire would bring stability after the December transition. Instead, the school moved from coaching change to suspension to dismissal in the span of a few days.
The school did not explain what the investigation involved, which leaves the public picture incomplete. But the football side is already clear enough: Gardner-Webb has moved on from McCullough after one game, and Bennett, who joined the staff in 2024 as special teams coordinator, is now the name in charge.
That is a difficult way to open a season, especially for a program that had already gone through a major change in December. Even without details on the investigation, the football implication is obvious. Gardner-Webb now has to manage the immediate fallout of a fired head coach while trying to steady a team that has barely had time to begin its season.
In the end, McCullough’s Gardner-Webb tenure will be remembered not for what it built, but for how quickly it disappeared. One game was all it took for the program to move again.
