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 (note: coaches are listed alphabetically). Keep up with coaches changes that have already happened on our FBS Coaching Carousel page.

**UPDATED DECEMBER 2, 2024**

ALREADY DONE

• Will Hall (Southern Miss) – FIRED 10/20
• Mike Houston (East Carolina) – FIRED 10/24
• Mike Bloomgren (Rice) – FIRED 10/29
• Brian Bohannon (Kennesaw State) – FIRED 11/10
• Mike Neu (Ball State) – FIRED 11/16
• Stan Drayton (Temple) – FIRED 11/17
• Tom Herman (Florida Atlantic) – FIRED 11/18
• Don Brown (UMass) – FIRED 11/18
• Biff Poggi (Charlotte) – FIRED 11/18
• Jim McElwain (Central Michigan) – RETIRED 11/20
• Kevin Wilson (Tulsa) – FIRED 11/24
• Mack Brown (North Carolina) – FIRED 11/26
• Ryan Walters (Purdue) – FIRED 12/1
• Mike MacIntyre (FIU) – FIRED 12/1
• Neal Brown (West Virginia) – FIRED 12/1
• Shawn Clark (Appalachian State) – FIRED 12/2

YOUR CHAIR IS ON FIRE, SIR

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

• Billy Napier (Florida)
  • Paying a coach $26M+ to go away sounds ridiculous on the surface but this is the SEC. This is Florida. They would do that rather than continue paying a coach $7M+ a year to finish below .500, as Napier has done in each of his two seasons at the helm. Picked 12th in the preseason poll, the Gators have an experienced QB in Graham Mertz and a top 15 recruiting class but the pressure is certainly on their third-year head coach. Fans and boosters are well past restless at this point, and back-to-back 22-point losses to rival Georgia is not helping. UPDATE: The Gators pulled off upsets over LSU and Ole Miss as part of a three-game winning streak to finish the season 7-5 (4-4) to save some face and get back into bowl season. But 7-5 seasons aren’t going to cut it in Gainesville long-term. 
• Mike Norvell (Florida State)
  • We didn’t have Norvell anywhere on our list to start the season, let alone this high. The Seminoles went 13-1 (8-0) last year and only missed out on the CFP because of an injury to QB Jordan Travis. That omission was the talk of college football ten months ago, because the committee essentially considered FSU a different team without Travis even though they still finished 13-0. But the conversation around the Noles is MUCH different now, after they followed up a season-opening upset loss in Ireland with two-straight home losses that have dropped them from preseason #10 to unranked, listless and winless. This is the team’s second 0-3 start under Norvell, after beginning the 2021 season 0-4 (they finished 5-7 and then won 23 games in following two years). There isn’t that same kind of patience this time around and the expectations are high enough in Tallahassee that a coach could definitely get fired for having a bad enough season the year after going 13-1. UPDATE: What a horrible season that has been for the Seminoles, finishing 2-10 overall (1-7 SEC). But it seems Norvell is safe, as FSU is instead shaking up his coaching staff – including hiring Gus Malzahn to be the next OC.
• Sam Pittman (Arkansas)
  • Perhaps on the hottest seat in college football, Pittman is entering his fifth season at Arkansas with an overall record of 23-25. He led the Razorbacks to a 9-4 record in his second season (2021), but dropped to seven and four wins, respectively, in the last two including a 1-7 mark in SEC play in 2023. You have to think that anything short of a bowl appearance will trigger a coaching change, but honestly Pittman may need to win 7-8 games this year to turn down the heat enough to keep his job. UPDATE: The Hogs finished 6-6, which is an improvement over last year but not exactly going to garner much confidence in Pittman’s abilities.

THIS SEAT IS RATHER WARM

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

• Dave Aranda (Baylor)
  • It was only a few years ago that Baylor went 12-2, won the Big 12 and the Sugar Bowl to finish the season ranked #5 in the country. Since then, Aranda’s teams have gone 9-16 overall and 6-12 in league, with an embarrassing 3-9 (2-7) mark in 2023 that had many wondering if a change in leadership was coming. Baylor confirmed after the season that Aranda was returning for 2024, but his team was picked 12th in the expanded Big 12 field. The Bears face an early test on the road in Week 2, going to visit #12 Utah in Salt Lake City. Aranda will need to really turn things around if he’s going to stay in Waco past this season. UPDATE: The Bears finished 8-4 (6-3) and tied for 5th in the Big 12, a significant over-achievement based on their preseason rankings.
• Tony Elliott (Virginia)
  • Virginia had one of the worst offenses and defenses in the ACC last year, finishing 3-9 (2-6) after going 3-7 (1-6) the year prior. Elliott’s tenure started in tragedy, with the shocking November 2022 shooting on the UVA campus that left three players dead and a fourth wounded, all at the hands of a former player from before Elliott’s time there. The on-field results for that season can be forgotten and last year can be kind of written off as a rebuild, but this year’s team is going to need to show improvement on the field or Elliott is going to be done. UPDATE: The Cavs were middle-of-the-pack in the ACC for much of the season but ended up missing bowl eligibility at 5-7, losing to Tech for the fourth-straight year and also to rival UNC for the third time in the last four years.
• Mike Locksley (Maryland) 
  • Locksley has taken the Terps to three-straight bowl games, winning all three, but the team seems to have plateaued – there’s been no real growth and now there is regression in 2024. Maryland is 4-6 overall and just 1-6 in the Big Ten and still needs to play Iowa and at #4 Penn State. One puzzling stat has been Maryland’s record in November under Locksley: through 11/16/24, the team is a combined 5-15 in such games, representative of the faster starts and slower finishes we’ve come to expect from these Terp’s teams. How much longer will Maryland be OK with a middle- to bottom-tier football team before making a change? UPDATE: The Terps finished second-to-last in the Big Ten at 1-8 and won just 4 games overall. Locksley will need to get back into winning ways next year or it will be his last in College Park.

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 right now. 

• Dave Clawson (Wake Forest)
  • This is year eleven for Clawson at Wake Forest, and after a run of seven-straight bowl appearances (with five wins), the Deacs are in danger of missing the postseason for the second year in a row. Clawson’s team went an impressive 11-3 in 2021 but are just 16-19 since then (4-6 this year). The team travels to Coral Gables to face #9 Miami (FL) next (though they have actually fared better on the road this year that at home) and then finish the season hosting Duke. They will need to win both games to get back to a bowl, a tall task for sure. UPDATE: Wake lost its last four games to finish 4-8 (2-6) and will miss their second-straight bowl season.
• Sonny Cumbie (Louisiana Tech)
  • Cumbie has gone 3-9 in each of his first two seasons at Louisiana Tech and he enters year three picked to finish 7th in Conference USA. The Texas-native had never coached outside of his home state before taking the Tech job in late 2021 and while he has been able to recruit well – he’s had some of the league’s best recruiting classes and transfer portal hauls since taking over – it is really time to get that talent level to translate to wins on the field. This is a classic make-or-break year for Cumbie, who needs to prove he can do better than three wins if he’s going to have a future in Ruston. UPDATE: This will be Cumbie’s best year at Tech, but the Bulldogs ended up with just 5 wins and another bowl season miss.
• Clark Lea (Vanderbilt)
  • Lea has been the head coach at Vanderbilt for three seasons in he has already gone winless in the SEC twice, finishing 2-10 (0-8) in both 2021 and 2023. In any other scenario, he is clearly at the top of this list. But after Vanderbilt fired head men’s basketball coach Jerry Stackhouse – and reportedly paid him as much as $15M on the way out – the athletic department may be looking to avoid another massive buyout in 2024. We think that any sort of improvement from 2-10 will buy Lea another year, but this is the SEC so you never know. UPDATE: Lea probably bought himself another year in one afternoon by leading his squad to an upset of then-#1 Alabama in October (their first W over the Tide in 40 years). The 6-6 Commodores will be bowling for the first time since 2018.

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.

• Thomas Hammock (Northern Illinois)
  • We had Hammock on our list last season and he did end up leading the Huskies to a win in the Camellia Bowl, his first bowl in and second bowl appearance through five seasons at NIU. But the 7-6 finish after going 3-9 the year before was not quite enough to get him completely off the hook. The program has established itself as one of the best in the MAC and fans expect to be competing for a league title (they won it all in 2021, Hammock’s third year) every season. Continued movement in the right direction will push Hammock into the safe zone, but we are keeping him on the list for now. His latest contract (signed in 2021) has him in Dekalb through the 2026 season. UPDATE: The Huskies upset #5 Notre Dame in South Bend and earned their first AP ranking in 11 years. They finished 7-5 overall and will go bowling for the second-straight year.
• Butch Jones (Arkansas State)
  • After starting his tenure with respective 2-10 and 3-9 records, Jones and the Red Wolves showed some improvement last year to win six and get to a bowl. Other mid-majors may have some leeway with new head coaches but Arkansas State has been a very successful program the last two decades, with head coaches like Hugh Freeze, Gus Malzahn, Bryan Harsin and Blake Anderson parlaying their success into bigger jobs. So Jones and company will need to keep the momentum going, otherwise he will be right back on the hot seat. UPDATE: The Wolves are 7-5 (5-3) with a bowl game upcoming, making this Jones’ best season yet in Jonesboro. 
• Maurice Linguist (Buffalo)
  • The Bulls took a step back in 2023 after going bowling in 2022, finishing just 3-9 overall and 3-5 in MAC play. Linguist had big shoes to fill taking over for Lance Leipold in 2021, but after a slower first season he led Buffalo to a 6-6 regular season in 2022 plus a win over Georgia Southern in the Camellia Bowl. Excitement was high, so the minus-4 shift in win total last season was a major disappointment. Linguist has leeway to turn things around, but it’s fair to wonder if he can return to the success of 2022. UPDATE: Linguist and the Bulls (8-4, 6-2) have returned to their winning ways and will be back in a bowl game after missing out last year.
• Justin Wilcox (California)
  • It was looking like another rough season for Wilcox and Cal in 2023, but the Bears won their final three games, including road victories over Stanford and UCLA, to earn their first bowl bid since 2019 (lost to Texas Tech to finish 6-7). There have been some highs during his 7+ years in Berkeley, but the on-field results have been largely mediocre. Beating Stanford in three of the last four meetings helps, but with both teams playing in the ACC this year the program is in uncharted territory. There are lots of question marks around Wilcox and Cal, but the fact that he has a $15 million buyout probably has him pretty safe in 2024. UPDATE: The Bears went 4-0 out of conference but had a rough go in their first year of ACC play, finishing near the bottom at 2-6 (6-6 overall). They beat Stanford to get their bowl eligibility, which should give Wilcox a bit more breathing room.