10 college football coaches on the hot seat entering the 2017 season
Based on recent history, roughly two dozen Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches will be fired during or at the conclusion of this coming season. A year ago, for example, five programs made midseason moves – LSU, most memorably – and another 17 did it at the end of the regular season, because of a lack of success or because another program poached their incumbent coach.
Expect more of the same before the end of December. Again, a number of coaches will enter the season with tenuous job security. Some will remove themselves from the hot seat with a successful season. Others won’t.
This week’s top 10 list checks the temperature of those hot seats. Which FBS head coaches are on the block?
1. Rod Carey, Northern Illinois
Carey won three divisional titles in a row and one Mid-American Conference crown during his first three full seasons. Then came last year, when the Huskies went 0-4 outside of league play to ensure the program’s first losing season since 2008 and first year outside of the postseason since 2007. The pressure is on to rebound and climb back to the top of the MAC.
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2. Doc Holliday, Marshall
It doesn’t help his job status that the new governor of West Virginia, Jim Justice, met with Marshall officials this past winter to discuss firing Holliday and replacing him with former coach Bob Pruett. Not good, right? Also not good: Marshall won three games in 2016.
3. Butch Jones, Tennessee
He can recruit. (In fact, Tennessee’s current class is shaping together nicely despite the pressure on Jones and his staff.) But how many games does Jones need to win in 2017? And can he avoid the pratfalls and missteps that have come to define his underwhelming tenure? As always, the Volunteers have the talent and ability to win the Southeastern Conference's East Division. Jones can’t afford to come up short.
4. Paul Haynes, Kent State
Haynes is 12-35 in four seasons. Even at Kent State, that’s not going to cut it.
5. Steve Addazio, Boston College
A feel-good bowl win against Maryland in December overshadowed the Eagles’ ineffective regular season. Boston College has reached the postseason three times in Addazio’s four seasons, but each bowl team capped out at seven wins – and the past two teams have combined for two wins in Atlantic Coast Conference play.
6. Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M
In the grand scheme of things, winning at least eight games a year isn’t too bad. Texas A&M has higher expectations, however. Maybe Sumlin is a victim of his early success, when his Johnny Manziel-led Aggies knocked off Alabama and became the talk of college football in 2012. There have been diminishing returns since then, however. And remember: There are a number of talented coaches who would crawl to College Station to get the A&M gig.
7. Dave Doeren, North Carolina State
Doeren has reached three bowl games in a row after his three-loss debut. But the Wolfpack have been unable to get over the hump in the middle tier of the ACC. How many games would N.C. State have won had it knocked off Clemson early last season? The feeling is that this program is close to breaking through, but Doeren needs to add at least one win to his total in 2017.
8. David Bailiff, Rice
Bailiff’s degree of success at Rice, relatively speaking, gave him a reprieve for one more season. But the Owls have won a combined eight games during the past two seasons after reaching three bowl games in a row. The arrow might be pointing down, but Bailiff’s track record bodes well for a comeback.
9. Todd Graham, Arizona State
The question isn’t whether Graham can get ASU back into a bowl game this fall. Despite his critics, Graham is more than capable of adding several wins to the Sun Devils’ total after a disappointing 2016. The question is whether the administration thinks Graham is the long-term solution. Have back-to-back losing seasons impacted that view? Absolutely. So just getting ASU to seven wins might not be enough to get Graham off the hot seat.
10. Brian Kelly, Notre Dame
Kelly won’t be going anywhere as long as Notre Dame makes a bowl game. (Probably. Maybe a 6-6 season would raise eyebrows.) But another year of four wins might be enough to convince the university brass that a change would be in the best interests of the program. Here’s guessing last season was a blip rather than a sign of things to come.
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