As the season begins to take shape, some college football fan bases are already out for blood when it comes to their coach. Here are the five who must win this week.
We are in the thick of college football and you know what that means — it’s time for those fair weather, know-it-all fans to come out of the wood work and call for the head coach to be fired every time their team loses. Some of those are actually well-founded, as we will discuss in this article and others are just insane. For example, anyone who calls for Nick Saban’s or Dabo Swinney’s head is certifiable.
Let’s start with those who are getting the honorable mention of hot seats, not exactly a place you want to be in but here they are. I’ll get things started with Dan Mullen over at Florida. Now, is Mullen going to be fired if he doesn’t win this week? No. However, he hasn’t exactly started his career as head coach of the Gators on a strong footing. To lose to Kentucky, a team that Florida has beat 31 seasons in a row, in your SEC opener isn’t exactly the best way to get boosters on your side.
We move across the state of Florida to Tallahassee. Willie Taggart’s career at Florida State, attempting to replace Jimbo Fisher, hasn’t started out as he hoped it would. They have started the season 1-1, losing to Virginia Tech in Week 1 and then nearly losing to Samford in Week 2. Yes, that says Samford — not Stanford. This is a team that Florida State had no business struggling against. Will Taggart be fired anytime soon? No, probably not- but Seminole fans are not happy.
Which five coaches must win to avoid the hot seat in Week 3?
5. Kevin Sumlin, Arizona
I am going to start this one off by saying that, as an Aggie, I am so glad that I don’t have to write about this guy wearing maroon and white anymore. However, Arizona fans have now taken the Aggies place in griping and moaning about Kevin Sumlin’s coaching style.
Never in his career has Sumlin started 0-2 as a head coach, but he has done just that at Arizona. With losses to BYU and Houston, the feeling in Tucson is not all that welcoming toward the newest addition to the Wildcat family. Sumlin chose to bring with him offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone and for quarterback Khalil Tate that has been an absolute disaster.
At the start of the season, Tate was a Heisman favorite. Now, two weeks in, he is trying to pick up the pieces of that broken campaign.
The Wildcats take on Southern Utah, a team that currently sits at 0-2. This is a must win game for morale and for Kevin Sumlin’s career at Arizona. With such a bad start, who knows how long Sumlin will last in Wildcat red. At this point, he doesn’t have a Johnny Manziel and a win over Alabama to lean on and that, in itself, may shorten his time there.
4. David Beaty, Kansas
For the first time since 2009, Kansas won a road game. Yes, you read that right, 2009. David Beaty has only been at the helm of this program since 2015, but it may just be time to part ways with the man. He has gone 3-33 in the last three seasons. How he has not been fired already is beyond me. I would also like to point out that one of those three wins was against Texas and no one should forget that.
Jayhawk fans rarely pay attention to football and many are already talking basketball. If you thought Kentucky was basketball obsessed, you obviously haven’t met a Kansas fan. There were articles circulating this offseason about how it would be best for the Jayhawks to simply cut their football program altogether — that’s how bad it has gotten. Do I agree with that? Not at all. Do I think it’s time to find a new head coach? Yeah, probably.
Kansas is actually favored in their Week 3 matchup against Rutgers, a thought process that was unheard of in recent years. This is a winnable game for this team and a must win for Beaty if he wants to keep his job at the end of the season.
3. Tom Herman, Texas
This isn’t my Aggie bias talking, though it does make me smile a little to say that Texas is indeed not back. Tom Herman is in his second year as head coach of the Longhorns and it seems to be getting worse by the week.
He is currently 8-7 at Texas, including losses two losses to Maryland — a team that has no business winning those games.
Last week, the Horns only beat Tulsa by a touchdown. Not exactly what the boosters and the fans wanted in their new head coach. However, I guess a loss to Maryland is an improvement over a loss to Kansas. I am not sure what they expected hiring a head coach that lost to SMU while at Houston.
This week, the Longhorns face off against USC in a game that has been a classic since the 2005 championship. The Trojans will head to Austin, though I doubt the crowd will be a factor in this one as it seems that every week post-Mack Brown, the crowd seems to dwindle.
If Herman and Co. want to please the boosters and athletic department in Austin, a win against USC or any semi-decent Power Five team, for that matter, would be a good place to start.
2. Ed Orgeron, LSU
Yes, I know that LSU beat Miami. I don’t need to be reminded of that. However, remember when Texas beat Notre Dame in 2016 and the world decided Texas was back? Yeah, that didn’t go over too well. At this point, we don’t know that LSU beating Miami won’t be the same situation as Texas over Notre Dame. Miami had lost four games in a row in which they hadn’t forced a turnover. So we know that LSU was able to take care of the ball enough to win, that’s about it.
This week, the Bayou Bengals head to Jordan-Hare Stadium, home of the Auburn Tigers.
Right now, LSU sits at No. 12 and Auburn at No. 7 — one team has proved themselves and the other has shown that they know how to shut down Miami. Of course, so did Pittsburgh last year and no one is ranking them in the top 15. A win over Auburn would solidify that LSU belongs in the spotlight that they have been thrust into.
Let us also remember who Ed Orgeron is replacing.
Les Miles was 114-34 during his tenure at LSU, including two trips to the national championship in his 11-year stretch there. Right now, Orgeron is 17-6 at LSU and while that isn’t bad, I don’t see it as good enough for those who love purple and gold. As of right now, we don’t even know if Orgeron fully speaks English, much less if he will be able to fill the shoes of Miles.
1. Kliff Kingsbury, Texas Tech
I want to preface this by saying that I do not think Kliff Kingsbury is a bad coach. However, he isn’t ready to be a head coach. Before he took the head coaching job at Texas Tech — where he played from 1998-2002 — he was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Texas A&M. He worked with Johnny Manziel, the young man who won the Heisman in 2012. Kingsbury knows what he is doing offensively, but he just isn’t a head coach.
Kingsbury’s team hasn’t been able to play strong defense in quite awhile. It is often said that Texas Tech can’t stop a nose bleed and under Kingsbury that has wrung true more than ever. While Kingsbury has been able to consistently field one of the most explosive offenses in the Big 12, when your defense can’t stop the other team from scoring that doesn’t help you all that much.
Currently he sits at 30-34 as a Red Raider and looking at the Big 12 this year, that becoming a winning record doesn’t seem likely.
This week, the Red Raiders host the Houston Cougars. This is a winnable game for the Red Raiders and an important game for Kingsbury’s coaching career. This is a team that he should beat, but of course the key word there is should.