NCAAF · 19 minutes ago

15 College Football Coaches On the Hot Seat

TJ Inman

Host · Writer

15. Dabo Swinney - Clemson Tigers
Dabo Swinney is not going to get fired but the feeling of many Clemson fans about the program right now is a perfect case of the “what have you done for me lately” feeling prevailing in sports. Despite bringing unprecedented success to Clemson, it is undeniable that the program is on a downward trajectory and last season was a bitter disappointment. The Tigers had a lot of talent that was selected in the NFL Draft but they went from being ranked in the top five in most preseason polls to barely making a bowl game. With a retooled roster, what happens if Clemson bottoms out and is .500 (or worse)? Does Dabo Swinney just decide to move on? He’s been very clear that he is nowhere near retiring but if pressure builds at Clemson, will he look for different opportunities?
15 Coaches On the Hot Seat
The 2026 college football season is nearly here! Much of the sport is unpredictable but we do have a few certainties: Gus Johnson will lose his mind each week on Big Noon on FOX, fans of Big Ten and SEC teams will continue to snipe at each other, no matter how much off-field drama is circling the sport we will be reminded that Saturdays always deliver and finally, the coaching carousel will be spinning as coaches on the hot seat are fired. Which 15 head coaches enter this season under pressure?
1. Mike Norvell - Florida State Seminoles
We begin with the most obvious name: Florida State’s Mike Norvell. The former Memphis head coach is entering Year 5 in Tallahassee and his contract is very likely the only reason Norvell has been remained employed during the past two offseasons. After beginning his tenure in promising fashion, Florida State has bottomed out. They went 2-10 in 2024 and 5-7 in 2025. Remarkably, Florida State last won a road game in 2023 and they are a woeful 3-13 in the ACC in the past two seasons. Yes, the buyout is a problem for the ‘Noles, but if things don’t improve substantially on the field in 2026, you’d have to imagine Norvell will not get another year to right the ship.
2. Bill Belichick - North Carolina Tar Heels
As was entirely predictable, the “Bill Belichick Goes to College” experiment has been a colossal disappointment in Chapel Hill. It is largely believed that the athletic department was undermined during the search by prominent boosters and more logical candidates were eschewed in favor of the former Super Bowl winning head coach. Belichick came to North Carolina with delusions of turning the Tar Heels into the “33rd NFL team”. Unfortunately, they have imitated the dysfunction of the New York Jets or Cleveland Browns and have stumbled both on and off the field. With multiple members of his staff on leave and scandals colliding with poor results, it would be a surprise if Belichick survived the season. There’s a new athletic director at North Carolina and he’ll almost certainly want to wash his hands of this mess and start over with an actual college football coach.
3. Mike Locksley - Maryland Terrapins
Maryland is on a downward trajectory after going 7-6, 8-5 and 8-5 between 2021 and 2023. In the past two seasons, the Terrapins are 2-16 in the Big Ten and Locksley has yet to have a single season with a winning conference record. If stud sophomore quarterback Malik Washington can take a big jump forward, Locksley might be able to do enough to save his job but it seems unlikely he can reverse course in College Park.
4. Dave Aranda - Baylor Bears
After a fantastic second season in Waco, Dave Aranda’s Baylor Bears have had a losing season in three of the past four campaigns and they were just 5-7 last season. It was actually a bit of a surprise that Aranda was kept around for another season, but Baylor chose not to make a move and Florida transfer DJ Lagway is now the leader of the offense. Lagway has a high ceiling and it’s possible he realizes his potential and pushes Baylor back near the top of the Big 12. If not, Aranda is probably done.
5. Luke Fickell - Wisconsin Badgers
There was a time last season when it seemed nearly certain that Luke Fickell would be fired. After starting 2-0, the Badgers lost 38-14 to Alabama, 27-10 to Maryland, 24-10 to Michigan, 37-0 to Iowa, 34-0 to Ohio State and 21-7 to Oregon. For those keeping score at home, that’s a miserable 41 points total in six games. A pair of surprise upset wins down the stretch (Illinois and Washington) proved to be enough to save Fickell. The administration fairly recognized the rotten luck he’d had with quarterback injuries and promised an injection of capital investment in the program to be competitive with other Big Ten schools. Fickell still has not recovered from a fundamentally flawed hiring of Phil Longo as offensive coordinator but there is hope that running quarterback Colton Joseph can do enough to get Wisconsin back to a bowl game and give Fickell’s tenure some new life. If not, former Badger and current New Mexico head coach Jason Eck seems like the surefire first call to replace Fickell.
6. Dell McGee - Georgia State Panthers
The first Group of Six coach on this list is Georgia State’s Dell McGee. The former University of Georgia running backs coach is entering his third season as the head coach for the Panthers and his tenure has been a disaster. Georgia State went 3-9 in 2024 and tanked to a 1-11 record last season. There is no reason for a school in the talent rich area of Atlanta to be one of the worst programs in the country and McGee has turn it around quickly.
7. Shane Beamer - South Carolina Gamecocks
The Beamer name is an extremely familiar one for college football fans. Shane’s father, Frank, was a legendary coach at Virginia Tech and Shane has been a collegiate coach in some capacity since 2000. He was a surprise hire by South Carolina prior to the 2021 season and his tenure has been a difficult one to figure out. The Gamecocks were 7-6 and 8-5 in his first two seasons, backslid to 5-7 in 2023, nearly made the College Football Playoff with a 9-3 regular season in 2024, but then were a major disappointment last season at just 4-8. Despite having some very talented individuals, South Carolina is now just 16-24 in the SEC under Beamer. This is a difficult job but fans expect better than a barely above .500 record. If the Gamecocks can’t have a winning season with stars like LaNorris Sellers and Dylan Stewart, it’s hard to envision a seventh year in Columbia for Beamer.
8. Jeff Lebby - Mississippi State Bulldogs
The Mississippi State Bulldogs are on the right path, but Jeff Lebby needs to turn a corner this season, or things could get dicey for him in Starkville. After a 2-10 Year 1, the Bulldogs were 5-7 last season (5-8 after a bowl-game loss). Things looked a lot better, and Mississippi State was quite competitive in several close losses, but the numbers don’t lie. Jeff Lebby is just 1-15 in SEC play. Reaching a bowl game would be a great step, and getting a nice season from emerging star Kamario Taylor at quarterback would show a bright future. However, if things go sideways this season and SEC wins can still be counted with a couple of fingers, Lebby might not get Year 4.
9. Bill O'Brien - Boston College Eagles
I’m not entirely sure what the expectations for Boston College football should be, but surely they should do better than 2-10 with just one ACC win. The Eagles went 7-6 in Bill O’Brien’s first season but tanked in year two, going just 2-10 and then facing an exodus of players in the transfer portal. O’Brien is known as a bright offensive mind, but neither the offense nor the defense is working in Chestnut Hill, and there’s not currently much reason for optimism.
10. Derek Mason - Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders
Why is Derek Mason still a head coach? He was the head man at Vanderbilt for seven seasons and went 27-55 and just 10-46 in the SEC. As we have seen with both James Franklin and Clark Lea, success is possible at Vanderbilt but it was certainly not seen under Mason. He was hired by Middle Tennessee prior to the 2024 season and is just 6-18 with a pair of 3-9 seasons and just four total Conference USA victories. The conference is down and Middle Tennessee is a decent program but the Blue Raiders are flailing. If Mason is not able to turn things around in 2026, his time as a head coach in the FBS is probably over.
11. Chris Creighton - Eastern Michigan Eagles
Chris Creighton has been the head coach in Ypsilanti for a dozen seasons and he was rumored as a candidate for a step up after the 2022 season when the Eastern Michigan Eagles went 9-4, but he did not land those gigs and EMU is now on a downward slide. Since going 9-4, the Eagles have gone 6-7, 5-7 and 4-8. Creighton now has a record of just 61-83 and if the dropoff continues, EMU will be looking for a new head coach after the 2026 season.
12. Lincoln Riley - USC Trojans
The final four names on this list are more speculative and a bad season could move them quickly onto the hot seat. There’s a lot to like about how things are going at USC right now. The Trojans brought in one of the nation’s best recruiting classes, the defense continues to improve and USC believes they are finally capable of holding up in the trenches. But the pressure is on Lincoln Riley to breakthrough this season in Los Angeles because his tenure thus far looks a heck of a lot like those of previously fired USC coaches. Riley is just 35-18 since his blockbuster move to USC from Oklahoma and USC insiders believe it is “playoff or bust” in 2026. Given the difficult schedule USC faces, this is certainly one to watch.
13. Scott Satterfield - Cincinnati Bearcats
It’s not really fair, but Cincinnati fans do not seem to have ever embraced Scott Satterfield and it feels like he’s been on a hot seat since he took the job. Part of that is the fact he fled Louisville in order for the Cardinals to hire Jeff Brohm and he has not exactly lit the world on fire as the head coach of the Bearcats. The job has been complicated by the program moving from the American Athletic Conference to the Big 12 but going 9-18 in conference and 15-22 overall is not good enough for a school with the tradition of Cincinnati.
14. Brent Venables - Oklahoma Sooners
Brent Venables is a good coach and I don’t think there can be a whole lot of dispute about that, but his tenure in Norman has been bizarre. The Sooners were 6-7 in Year 1 followed by a 10-3 breakthrough campaign, but a major backslide to 6-7 and then last season was a bounce back to 10-3 and a trip to the College Football Playoff. The Sooners lost to Alabama to end the season and the offense sputtered far too often. What happens if OU disappoints this season and slides to something like 7-5? That would leave Venables at roughly .500 in conference play through five seasons and starting quarterback John Mateer would be moving on. If things play out that way, do the Sooners make a move?
15. Dabo Swinney - Clemson Tigers
Dabo Swinney is not going to get fired but the feeling of many Clemson fans about the program right now is a perfect case of the “what have you done for me lately” feeling prevailing in sports. Despite bringing unprecedented success to Clemson, it is undeniable that the program is on a downward trajectory and last season was a bitter disappointment. The Tigers had a lot of talent that was selected in the NFL Draft but they went from being ranked in the top five in most preseason polls to barely making a bowl game. With a retooled roster, what happens if Clemson bottoms out and is .500 (or worse)? Does Dabo Swinney just decide to move on? He’s been very clear that he is nowhere near retiring but if pressure builds at Clemson, will he look for different opportunities?
15 Coaches On the Hot Seat
The 2026 college football season is nearly here! Much of the sport is unpredictable but we do have a few certainties: Gus Johnson will lose his mind each week on Big Noon on FOX, fans of Big Ten and SEC teams will continue to snipe at each other, no matter how much off-field drama is circling the sport we will be reminded that Saturdays always deliver and finally, the coaching carousel will be spinning as coaches on the hot seat are fired. Which 15 head coaches enter this season under pressure?

15 College Football Coaches On the Hot Seat

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