We've reached the point in the 2025 college football season when fans start contemplating "what if" and "we wish", and it's the second nagging thought that will carry a fan base and give them a sense of hope for improvement, or even just change.
I'm here to tell you that wishing seldom makes a difference, particularly when money is involved. There's also the age-old adage of "careful what you wish for, because you might get it", and in some of the cases listed below, that could ring 100 percent true.
These fan bases might have a wish list, but it's not likely to happen, and for some it's probably better that it didn't.
Georgia's wish: Sam Pittman comes back to coach the offensive line
Hey, we get it, Bulldog Nation. You've been frustrated with the play of your offensive line for a few seasons, and the calls for o-line coach Stacy Searels to be replaced are almost as frequent as those for Mike Bobo.
Georgia fans want to run it back with their old friend, Sam Pittman, who recently became available after being fired by Arkansas as their head coach.
Chances of Pittman coming back to Georgia -- or going anywhere else, for that matter -- are slim. My guess is that Fayetteville was Pittman's last stop, and he'll take the retirement route, or possibly work as an offensive consultant or analyst. His days of prowling the sidelines are done.
Penn State's wish: The school decides James Franklin has hit the ceiling and makes a change
Not a week goes by that there isn't some Penn State fan out there reminding the world of James Franklin's putrid record against Top 10 teams, or his lack of championships -- both conference and national. His failures in the games that matter are well-documented.
There's no question that the Nittany Lions' struggles are frustrating, but Penn State is also a school that makes very calculated, slow moves. They aren't about to make a head coach change when their program is consistently among the best in the nation.
No, unless Franklin makes a bad decision and violates his contract or the Nittany Lions go into a tailspin and reverts back to a middling Big Ten team, chances are he'll be there in Happy Valley for quite a bit longer.
Florida's wish: Lane Kiffin is the next head coach after Billy Napier is fired
Billy Napier losing his job at Florida is only a matter of when, not if. And there's nothing wrong with creating a pie-in-the-sky wish list for replacement coaches.
That said, luring Lane Kiffin away from Oxford, Mississippi would be quite a feat and would take a lot more than bags of cash to make happen. And while there are uncovered rumors that Florida was close to landing Kiffin last year, we live in a different world now.
There would have to be a lot of riders in a new contract for Kiffin to lure him away from a very successful program that he essentially built at Ole Miss to come to the comedy of errors and mismanagement that are currently present in Florida.
Kiffin would essentially be starting from scratch, putting together a new coaching staff, and essentially rebuilding a once-proud program and recruiting stable. Even a coach as easily seduced as Lane Kiffin would have a lot of misgivings about that move.