There are coaching carousels and then there is the Dallas Wings. Five coaches in seven years. A revolving door between the baselines. Now it’s Jose Fernandez’s task to revive the moribund franchise. Thanks to the recent draft acquisitions of Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd, there’s restored hope that the Wings can finally buck the trend of being a WNBA doormat. But turning it all around in Dallas will be no easy feat.

And while the talk around the Lone Star State these days revolves around Bueckers, Fudd and four-time All-Star Arike Ogunbowale, an important key to the Wings’ prosperity could come down to a man who was coaching the South Florida Bulls this time last year. What does success look like for a playoff-starved franchise breaking in a college coach making his pro debut?

GONE TOO SOON

Brian Agler was a two-time WNBA champion. Vickie Johnson earned a pair of All-Star nods over the span of a 13-year career.

Neither saw a third season as Wings head coach. Nor did Latricia Trammell nor Chris Koclanes as Dallas routinely recycled highly-respected coaches and basketball minds.

Johnson, for example, led the Wings to 18 wins (18-18) in 2022, its highest win total since the franchise relocated from Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2016. Yet the Wings fired her at season’s end despite consecutive playoff appearances.

Trammell lasted two years, one more than last year’s head coach Koclanes, which is still better than being fired midseason, as Fred Williams experienced in 2018 after four-plus years between Dallas and Tulsa.

Four of them remain in the WNBA today, including three as assistant coaches.

MEET JOSE FERNANDEZ

If stability is what the Wings seek, then they might have found it in Jose Fernandez.

Dallas’ new head coach arrives in town after 25 years in Tampa at the helm of the Bulls. Fernandez posted a 485-317 record at South Florida, while earning 11 postseason berths and claiming the 2009 WNIT Championship. He earned FIBA Americup gold medals as an assistant coach with USA Basketball’s U18 (2024) and U19 (2025) squads.

“Yes, I’m a rookie in the W,” Fernandez told WFAA reporter Jonah Javad. “But I was coaching professional sports in college, so why not make the leap to the WNBA?”

His real impact has been in the program and player development at USF. Fernandez has recruited across 22 countries and has placed seven players into the WNBA. Most notable among them is Courtney Williams, who the Phoenix Mercury selected No. 8 overall in the 2016 draft and is still active today with the Minnesota Lynx.

The Wings are hoping to get a team and culture builder in Dallas, not just another game manager. And Fernandez doesn’t appear fazed by the prospect of being a first-time WNBA head coach with a team suddenly loaded with high expectations…and said as much at his introductory press conference to the league.

“A lot of people were scared about this job,” Fernandez said. “I wasn’t scared.”

IT’S BEEN DONE BEFORE

You don’t have to look far for an example of a college coach succeeding in making the jump to the pros.

The Wings are asking Fernandez to essentially emulate the blueprint laid down by the Atlanta Dream and their first-year head coach Karl Smesko.

Atlanta hired Smesko for the 2025 season after 23 years at Florida Gulf Coast where he accrued a 672-137 record and was a 13-time Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year. Pretty good for a guy who was tasked by FGC to literally create the university’s women’s basketball team from scratch in 2002.

Sound familiar?

Smesko brought a culture change to the Dream, who improved from a 15-25 record in 2024 to a franchise-best 30-14 in his first season. It was the most wins ever for a first year coach and earned him WNBA Coach of the Year honors.

And while the Dream fell in the first round of the playoffs, the culture has clearly shifted in Atlanta. Now the Wings are turning to Fernandez to do the same.

THE BLANK SLATE

Fernandez inherits something that his predecessors lacked. A roster infused with youthful stars and deep talent to compete now. In fact, the Wings might have their most complete team in the 10 years since making the move to Dallas.

This year’s top overall draft pick Azzi Fudd joins last year’s No. 1 selection and 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers as the engines that will fuel Fernandez’s offense. They’re surrounded by the likes of co-Defensive Player of the Year Alanna Smith and the franchise’s all-time leading scorer Arike Ogunbowale.

So far Fernandez has the thumbs up from the Wings star and former UConn Husky legend Bueckers.

“He reminds me a lot of Geno (Auriemma) in terms of discipline, structure and the culture he wants to build,” Bueckers told the Dallas Hoops Journal after Day 1 of training camp on April 19. “He has a no-BS mentality and doesn’t let anything slide. He’s very detail oriented, but communicates well with players.”

The first-year WNBA coach brings a pro-style system with Euro-based influences. His squads rely heavily on tempo, ball movement and floor spacing. Under the Fernandez system, the Wings will target 90-100 possessions per game in an effort to feed the ball to sharpshooters Bueckers and Fudd and improve a team that finished 12th out of 13 teams in three-point efficiency in 2025.

THE CHALLENGES

Challenges, of course, remain. Fernandez has limited experience managing a WNBA practice, everyday team details and pro personalities. Plus, the Wings’ new starting five have never shared the court together. So building chemistry will be vital in the early stages of the season.

In addition to improving their accuracy from beyond the arc, the Wings must also upgrade their 12th-ranked defensive ratings.

It can be done. The Dream went from the bottom of the league in scoring in 2024 to leading the WNBA in three-point attempts and second in net rating a year later during Smesko’s first year. When the talent is in place, the system dictates everything. And Fernandez sees the potential.

“My expectation in taking this job is to win a championship,” the coach told WFAA.

THE LANDING

Dallas has experienced a revolving door at the head coach position. One-by-one, five coaches tried and each one walked away empty-handed.

So there’s reason to be skeptical of a coach with no pro experience taking over a team that’s close to having all of the essential pieces in place to make a deep postseason run. Then again, as Smesko proved, a lack of pro experience and adherence to the old guard could be the blessing the Wings need to turn around the recent slate of misfortunes.

Fernandez has the hoops acumen and clearly isn’t afraid of the Wings’ past. He came to Dallas to build.