College football coaches who are on the hot seat

Okay, building up Akron was going to be difficult for anyone, but Arth's predecessor ... Terry Bowden ... was able to do so. Arth replaced Bowden and the ship has sunk. After an 0-12 mark in 2019, the Zips sloshed to a 1-5 record in a weird MAC season. The Akron athletics program is in some financial straits, cutting programs and flailing under a new AD. Arth got his name as a successful DIII coach at John Carroll before moving on to a mediocre stint at Chattanooga. For most programs, the financial implications of firing Arth wouldn't be an issue but would Akron be able to swing it while trying to pay a new coach to figure it out? Arth needs to show something to help end that discussion.

Nearly any coach coming off a 1-10 season would be sitting on the hot seat, and Babers is no different. Just three years ago, Syracuse had a 10-win season one year after knocking off Clemson and Babers was a buzz-worthy coach. He's won just 6 of 23 games since, with last year's blowout loss to Liberty stinging quite a bit. If the Orange can't trend back towards being somewhat competitive in the ACC, look for a change to be made. They've been a middling team this season yet again.

In two seasons at UMass, Bell's Minutemen have gone 1-15, with the lone win against winless Akron in 2019. Last year's 0-4 season saw the Minutemen outscored 161-12 ... though every game was on the road. In 2019, UMass allowed an FBS-record 52.7 points and 561 yards allowed per game. Bell jumped off the Florida State ship as it was sinking under Willie Taggart but now helms over his own disaster. This UMass job is a tough one -- an independent tucked away in the northeast -- that having a dreadful record isn't shocking, but how bad they have been losing is. With only one win thus far in 2021 doesn't inject confidence around the program. 

Remember back in 2018 when Purdue popped Ohio State and killed the Buckeyes' national championship hopes? For Boilermaker fans, that seems like a long time ago. Since that game, Purdue is 8-16 overall and just 7-13 in league play and the program looks like it's sinking back into the days of Darrell Hazell. They are bringing in one of the lowest-rated recruiting classes in the Big Ten to try to turn this back around. 2021 has looked a lot like Brohm's tenure as one week after beating No. 2 Iowa on the road, they come home and get rolled by Wisconsin. Time could be running out for Brohm. 

The 11-year Paul Johnson era with the Yellow Jackets brought a level of success -- nine bowls, seven winning seasons, three ACC title game appearances, and the 2009 ACC championship. Of course, converting Johnson's triple-option attack into Collins' spread offense was going to take some time and roster overhaul, and that has been the case with two three-win seasons. The defense cannot get much worse than what they've been and the offense looks promising with the young, athletic Jeff Sims at quarterback. Success is relative, so if the Jackets hover around the .500 mark ... which they currently are doing ... shore up the defense and the offense looks like it's starting to develop into its new identity then Collins should be alright. But this is a weak ACC he's doing this against. 

Cutcliffe has been fantastic for Duke. He turned around a laughingstock program into one that has enjoyed five winning seasons under his watch, including playing in the 2013 ACC championship game. But the Blue Devils have finished 6th in the Coastal Division three out of four seasons before finishing 14th in the 15-team ACC standings last year. Now with longtime athletic director Kevin White retiring from Duke (and the subsequent upcoming retirement of basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski), changes are coming to Durham. Cutcliffe, 66, could be another looming change if the losing continues. As of now, Duke is winless in a bad ACC and they're not even competitive in those losses. 

The Panthers are 1-6 this season and flailing in Conference USA (the one win was against Long Island University). He has failed to build up this program as he did at Miami and North Carolina (of course he left there in shame) and FIU just watched FAU bolt for the AAC without them. While that last point may seem like a thrown-in but that's a big deal for a program that's sitting in a league who is struggling for its own survival. His deal expires after the season so this should be a clean break.

Diaz may be the ACC coach in the biggest trouble. Getting throttled by Alabama happens, but a close win over Appalachian State and a beatdown from Michigan State is alarming. Now he's up and down in a down year for the ACC. Diaz is a defensive guy and the Hurricanes are not playing well on that side of the ball. A tell-tale sign of a coach's grasp on his team is how many mistakes are being made, and Miami is turning the ball over and giving up too many big plays.

One of the few success stories on this list. As we entered Year Four of the Dimel era in El Paso, he needed to turn things around quickly. Last year was a more respectable showing -- going 3-5, after a pair of 1-11 seasons. Still, those three wins were over Stephen A. Austin, Abilene Christian, and Louisiana-Monroe, they failed to win a conference game for the second straight year (and are 1-19 in Conference USA play under Dimel) and they were throttled by Texas, 59-3. UTEP wasn't going to be an easy fix -- the Miners have had just one winning season in the last 15 years -- but going 5-27 in three years is unacceptable. Substantial progress needed to be made.  

Well, right now UTEP is 6-1 and in the thick of the Conference USA race. His likely bought himself at least another season with the Miners. 

I've been quite critical of Fisch ... especially before the season started. I had him listed as one of the worst offseason hires as well as Arizona as one of the worst teams in the FBS. Fisch's hiring already felt like an outside-the-box idea for a program that has been known to try anything to see if it works. Well, this hasn't. Arizona is 0-7 and has confirmed the doubts fans had about him when the university made the hire. I'm usually against canning first year coaches since it does take time to build up a program this bad but this may be a rare exception. It's likely they don't make a move, but that doesn't take the pressure off him.  

This should've been the year that Frost had Nebraska showing promise -- and equating that with wins. The honeymoon is over for the former Huskers quarterback and the guy who put UCF on the national stage. He is 12-20 in his first three seasons and now has his recruits in place to start to turn this thing around -- but it hasn't happened. Nebraska has been spinning in place since joining the Big Ten and they don't want to have to replace another coach but it looks as if they have to cut one of their own. Frost already has more losses in fewer games than Mike Riley, the man he replaced, which means that he doesn't have much more time to stall.

When your AD says, "I understand the hot-seat talk, and the best way to get off that is to win some games and do it right, so that's what we're planning on doing", that's not the most ringing endorsement. After all, that comes after a 5-6 season where the Hokies' 27-year bowl streak came to an end. One of the most stable programs in America under Frank Beamer has turned into a mess under Fuente, and he may have already been fired if not for an expensive buyout during tough financial times. After a season-opening win over North Carolina (which doesn't look as good now as it did then), the Hokies have sputtered and reports all around Blacksburg say that he's lost his program. That may be official in the next six weeks or so.

Before the season, you would think that Harbaugh's seat would be scalding hot. Michigan can't beat Ohio State (they didn't even play them in 2020) and can't get into a Big Ten championship game, let alone win one. He is just 1-4 in bowl games. Yet he signed a contract extension and got a vote of confidence from the athletic director so it seems that, in the short term, his job is relatively safe. Still, if the Wolverines have a devastating start to the season -- one that everyone expects to be just mediocre, to begin with -- he could find himself out. That confidence may be paying off. Michigan is undefeated and heading into a huge game against rival Michigan State. All those things that Harbaugh hasn't accomplished in Ann Arbor could happen this year. Of course we've seen this before and it all blew up, so it is understandable for fans to be a bit shy about fully embracing this team's potential.  

USC already dismissed their head coach, could UCLA? In 2017, the UCLA Bruins went all-in on Chip Kelly and it hasn't paid off yet. Kelly is 10-21 in Westwood and those high-octane offenses he's known for haven't exactly happened. The 2020 season was better, as their 3-4 record featured really close losses to Colorado, Oregon, USC, and Stanford, so things are trending up. Still, the Bruins look nothing like Kelly's Oregon teams that dominated the Pac-12 a decade ago and the cross-town Trojans seemingly are ahead of the curve at this moment. 

The good news? Leach's first game at Mississippi State was a 10-point win at defending champion LSU. The bad news? The Bulldogs lost the next four games by a total score of 114-30. Mississippi State got to a bowl game, but that was despite a 3-7 record and an awkward bowl season where some really bad teams qualified for bowls. It was already going to be interesting to see if Leach's style was going to work in the SEC and it was a mixed bag in 2020. With a more normal offseason to implement his offense, maybe the SEC defenses will have a tougher time slowing the Bulldogs down. But with Lane Kiffin getting off to a better start at Ole Miss, Leach may be held to that standard. 

North Texas used to be fun to watch during the pre-Christmas bowl games and had an edge to their program. That's all but gone. After Littrell took the Mean Green to three straight bowl games, they've looked bad the last two seasons (granted, their 4-6 team of 2020 did "earn" a bowl bid. This is a guy who turned down the Kansas State job a few years back with hopes of a better gig looming. Not only has that not happened, but he may not get to keep his current one. 

Martin's situation is a bit different than most coaches on this list. After going 5-19 in the last two seasons in Las Cruces, the Aggies shut down their football program in 2020 due to the pandemic. They would reappear in February to play two games, a 26-point loss to Tarleton State and a 7-point win over Dixie State. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for where the Aggies program is at. In seven seasons, Martin's Aggies have won more than three games just once and 2021 has gotten off to an ugly 1-7 start.

I'm not saying Mullen's seat is extremely hot, but there is some buzz around Gainsville that maybe the Gators should move on from him. Will he be fired? Likely not unless they have an ace in the hole they know they need to jump on. With LSU and USC already with job openings, it would be tough for Florida to be able to get into a battle with those two out on the market. This seems more like a case where coordinators and assistants must be changed after the season. Even with tempered expectations, this has been a disappointing season for Florida and there's at least a flicker of heat on his seat.

Maybe saying Norvell is on the hot seat is a bit premature. He just entering his second season at Florida State with his first coming during the pandemic. The Seminoles went 3-7 last year with a win over North Carolina to their credit (along with Duke and Jacksonville State). This is Florida State, though, who reached elite status under both Bobby Bowden and Jimbo Fisher and were quick to dump Willie Taggart after two lackluster seasons. Norvell overhauled the roster, ridding himself of the players that didn't like playing for him (most originally signed to play for Fisher or Taggart). The problem is that things haven't changed in Tallahassee. This is still a mediocre team that has failed to take advantage of a bad ACC season. 

USF went 1-8 last season, Scott's first, and began 2021 getting destroyed by NC State and Florida by a combined score of 87-20. The Bulls have lost 5 of their first 7 games on this season. This was a program that was competing for AAC titles not too long ago and just watched the Big 12 expand without them. If Scott can't get this team competitive, they may have to cut bait. With the AAC and the Group of 5 going through changes, South Florida cannot afford to be a program on the outside.