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2022 Preseason College Football Hot Seat Report

Welcome to the Coaches Database Hot Seat Report, an updating list of college football head coaches with low job security. With each update, coaches will be added, removed and shuffled around based on their performance. Below we have the official 2022 pre-season hot seat, but please bookmark this page to get the updates throughout the season!

YOUR CHAIR IS ON FIRE, SIR

Coaches at the end of the line at their current school. 

  • Dino Babers (Syracuse)
    • One bowl game in six seasons, with the other five all sub-.500 finishes. Babers came in from Bowling Green after two very successful seasons, but has not figured things out at Syracuse. The 10-3 record in 2018 got him a new deal through 2023, but another losing season and he is going to be out a year early.
  • Geoff Collins (Georgia Tech)
    • Collins came to Georgia Tech to replace Paul Johnson, who took the Yellow Jackets to nine bowl games in eleven years. But three wins in each of his three seasons at the helm is not cutting it for Collins and another a down year should signal the end of his tenure.
  • Scott Frost (Nebraska)
    • One of the most disappointing hires of the last five years, Frost came back to his alma mater in 2018 after going 13-0 and winning the Peach Bowl in his second season at UCF. But the Huskers have finished 5th or 6th in the West every year and enter this season just 15-29 overall (10-25 in the Big Ten). The current Nebraska football program is a far cry from the mid-90s when they were winning national titles (the second with Frost starting under center).
  • Bryan Harsin (Auburn)
    • With six bowl games in seven years at Boise State (69-19 overall), Harsin was courted year after year by major programs. But his first year at Auburn (6-7, 3-5 SEC) has been chaotic, with mass player and assistant coach defections amid accusations of mistreatment. Nearly fired this past offseason, Harsin will surely be out next year unless the Tigers pull of a miraculous season.

THIS SEAT IS RATHER WARM

These coaches need to start winning right now, but that may not even be enough…

  • Karl Dorrell (Colorado)
    • The former UCLA player and head coach has only coached 18 games in two years at Colorado (8-10, 6-7 Pac-12) but he. finds himself squarely on the hot seat in 2022. He was the league’s COY in 2020 after going 4-2 (3-1) and getting a bid to the Alamo Bowl, but a blowout loss to Texas in that game was a sign of things to come in 2021. He can definitely right the ship in Boulder, but it will be hard to do with recruiting going the way has.
  • Scot Loeffler (Bowling Green)
    • There are not a lot of coaches on the list who were hired as recently as Loeffler (2019), but his tenure at BGSU has been bad enough for him to be sitting on a pretty hot seat. He brought an impressive resume – save for zero head coaching experience – to the Falcons program but is just 7-22 overall and 4-17 in MAC play.
  • Jeff Scott (South Florida)
    • On staff for two national championships at alma mater Clemson, this seemed like a home run hire back in 2020. But two years and just three wins later, USF fans have moved well past anxious and into panic territory. The Bulls’ defense gave up 470 yds/gm last year, the 8th worst mark in college football, and ranked 100/130 in offense. In just 21 games under Scott, USF has been outscored by 289 points (331 points if you remove two wins over FCS foes). Not only has his tenure been a disaster, but his standing as a potential successor back at Clemson has been torpedoed, as well.
  • David Shaw (Stanford)
    • Shaw is one of the highest paid coaches in America, bringing in nearly $9 million in 2019 alone, all while the Cardinal have finished below .500 in three-straight seasons. The Stanford program has fallen a long way from the 2015 team that won the Rose Bowl and finished ranked #3 in the country and as the school’s investment in Shaw has increased, on-field production has hit the skids.

WE’VE GOT OUR EYE ON YOU, COACH

Here are those guys that are having a rough year (or two… or three…) but aren’t in total danger. Yet. 

  • Marcus Arroyo (UNLV)
    • Another recent hire that has not gone well, Arroyo is just 2-16 in his two seasons at the helm at UNLV. Football is big business now in Sin City with the Raiders coming to town, and UNLV could look to capitalize (and correct this mistake) after this season by luring a bigger name to the program.
  • Herm Edwards (Arizona State)
    • Edwards was hired in 2018 to bring some excitement back into the ASU program. He hadn’t coached in ten years and his last season in college job (DBs at San José State) was 1989. He’s taken the Sun Devils to three bowls in four years (1-2 in those games) but this is a program with bigger aspirations and consistent Las Vegas Bowl bids is not going to do it.
  • Willie Fritz (Tulane)
    • Tulane fans are justifiably worried that the program hits its plateau under Fritz from 2018-20, going to three-straight bowl games but never winning more than 7 games. Last year’s team regressed hard (2-10, 1-7 AAC) and optimism is at a low point in New Orleans.
  • Mike Norvell (Florida State)
    • This was no-brainer hire in 2020, as Florida State was getting the hottest mid-major coach on the market in Norvell. Coming off a 12-1 season and berth in the Cotton Bowl with Memphis – where he was 38-15 in four seasons at the helm – Norvell was meant to save a FSU program that had fallen from the national spotlight. But two years later, the Seminoles are a dismal 8-13 under Norvell and the outlook remains bleak. This was certainly a rebuilding project, though, so any noted progress this year will probably buy Norvell another year.

COACHES THAT ARE SAFE (FOR NOW)

This section is comprised of coaches who were previously in one of the above categories this season or are just starting to feel heat but are not yet in any real danger of being fired.

  • Tom Allen (Indiana)
    • The tides turned quickly for Allen and the Hoosiers, with the coach bringing the perennial underachiever IU program into the national picture in 2020 and earning a preseason #17 ranking in 2021. But that’s where the fairy tale ended, as Indiana went just 2-10 (0-9 Big Ten) and were embarrassed in several national games that they fought so hard to earn the year before. Allen is on a new deal and is still well-liked among the fanbase, but the goodwill will run out quick if he has another season like that.
  • Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern)
    • There have been plenty of highs and lows during Fitzgerald’s tenure as head coach of his alma mater, and the coach has weathered many storms along the way. The Wildcats have gone 3-9 twice in the last three years, though they also had their best finish under Fitz in 2020 going 7-2 (6-1) and landing 10th in the final polls. We don’t think Fitz will get fired, but some consistency in Evanston would help his case.
  • Steve Sarkisian (Texas)
    • It’s only been one year, but expectations at Texas remain as high as ever. The Longhorns are seventeen years removed from their last national title, but fans and boosters expect to be in the mix every year so 5-7 is not getting the job done. Sark has a good (not great) track record as a head coach but was the OC at Alabama in 2020 when the Tide won it all. Logically he deserves more time, but you never know in Austin.
  • Scott Satterfield (Louisville)
    • Satterfield is 18-19 in three seasons with the Cardinals, reaching two bowl games (1-1). He was ACC COY in 2019 after going 8-5 and winning the Music City Bowl, but has finished below .500 in each of the two seasons since then and has fallen out of favor a bit with the fanbase.