Gardner-Webb fired Kris McCullough on Wednesday, ending his run as head coach after only one game. Pete Bennett remains the interim head coach while the school keeps the reason for the move under wraps.
The dismissal came just two days after school officials said McCullough was being suspended pending the outcome of an ongoing investigation. He had been in charge for only one game, a 35-17 loss to Austin Peay on Thursday, and that was his entire stay on the sideline.
The abrupt change gives Gardner-Webb a new head coach almost before the season could settle in. Bennett, who joined the staff as special teams coordinator in 2024, was announced on Monday as the interim. McCullough had taken over the program in December after Cris Reisert stepped down, following Reisert's 7-5 season before he left for Toledo as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
What makes the move so unusual is not just the speed, but the silence around it. Gardner-Webb said there was an investigation, then suspended McCullough, then fired him. It did not say what the investigation was about, leaving the school with a coaching change and no explanation to match it.
That matters because Gardner-Webb is not an offseason sideline story. It is a Championship Subdivision program in the Ohio Valley Conference, and changing coaches this quickly in the middle of a season leaves Bennett to stabilize the team while the unanswered question hangs over the program. For McCullough, the job ended almost as soon as it began.
