Coaches and teams underperform on a yearly basis. Whether this is the coaches faults or not sometimes doesn’t always matter because someone has to be made out to be the scapegoat.
Some names on this list of coaches have great resumes but the pressure is building from the athletic administration for these teams to get back into thick of being the best teams in the nation.
1. Mike Norvell (Florida State)
Some were surprised he outlasted last years season with how much of a disaster it ended up being for the football team. Expectations were high as it usually is for a team of Florida State’s stature but they really thought they were building something down there in Tallahassee.
After having a 13-0 record in 2023 and sending off plenty of great players into the NFL, they came crashing down to earth at a 2-10 record in 2024. The biggest miss of the off-season might’ve been getting QB DJ Uiageleai from Oregon State in the transfer portal and paying him big time money to underperform. They couldn’t get anything started after a rough loss week 1 in Ireland to Georgia Tech and this just snowballed as the season progressed. Another dud of a season like that one will almost solidify Coach Norvell to be looking for another job after this year.
2. Lincoln Riley (USC)
Riley’s leash has been longer than many coaches in college football over the last few years. He led the Oklahoma Sooners back to a golden age of 4 consecutive Big 12 championships along with 3 Heisman winners and 2 first overall picks in the NFL draft.
He was viewed at one time as the next big thing when it came to best young coaches in the game. Not saying he still isn’t that but the light has definitely dimmed since arriving to USC. USC hasn’t been the team they were back in the early 2000’s for quite some time now and the patience is getting less by the year. In his career at USC he is 26-14 and had a very good 11-3 first season with them.
For most coaches this is very good but the expectations are substantially higher being where he is. Caleb Williams is another example of his ability to coach up top tier talent at the quarterback talent but he has to be better in all phases of his team, defense included. His defenses have always lagged behind his great offenses and this needs to change for overall better team success.
3. Luke Fickell (Wisconsin)
Fickell was signed over from Cincinnati after leading the bearcats to 3 AAC conference championship along with a CFP playoff appearance. After leading them to a 57-18 record over 6 years, Wisconsin gave him the keys to take their team to the next step. So far his tenure has been lackluster compared to his previous stint at Cincinnati and the expectations Wisconsin has built up over the years.
Not that Wisconsin has been up in the elite tier of FBS teams but they’ve made their fair share of conference championships and bowl games over the years. The program expected getting Coach Fickell could direct their program in the right direction and get this team to the next level. Granted, the quarterback position has dealt with some ups and downs over the last couple years from injuries/perfomance.
This year has to be the year of showing some sort of improvements otherwise the team might move into another direction. They did land a very talented QB in the portal in Billy Edwards but having the schedule of a BIG10 team is never easy to navigate.
These coaches are all in this position of being in the “hot seat” because of their status they built up in the college ranks over the years. That status comes with pressure to produce as these guys know. They’ve been on top before and could definitely rewrite the story for their programs this year and beyond.