There was a huge surprise from the hot seat world this past week with Florida firing coach Jim McElwain. He had been to the SEC championship game each of the last 2 seasons with records of 10-4 and 9-4 in each year respectively. This year, Florida has looked terrible in a 3-4 start so the Florida higher ups decided it is time to move on. Fellow contributor Joseph Alcido wrote an article talking about McElwain’s possible replacements. With McElwain out, a Florida coach won’t be on the hot seat for a while so let’s move on and focus on our other hot seat coaches.
Tier 1: Championship of Life Tier
My main man Butch Jones somehow lasted longer this year than Jim McElwain, this just points further to the incompetence of Tennessee’s program. They have a break from SEC play this week as they host Southern Miss. I already can’t fathom how and why Butch has a job, but I would bet the fort that if they lose this week then he doesn’t have a job when this fantastic article drops this time next week. This must be true considering post-Southern Miss game, if they lose, they would have to win out against only SEC opponents just to be bowl eligible. We will see if Butch can stop his 4 game losing streak against lesser competition this week.
Next on this tier is Mike Riley from Nebrasksa. This great man squeaked out a win from the jaws of the Purdue Boilermakers 25-24, he survived a possible era ending loss at Nebraska. They sit at 4-4 but will be underdogs in 3 of their remaining 4 games vs Northwestern and Iowa and at Penn State. They might also be an underdog visiting PJ Fleck’s Minnesota squad. Unless Riley can get an upset in 1 or maybe 2 of those games, the Cornhuskers will be finding a replacement for Riley next year, if they aren’t already.
Tier 2: Score Touchdowns Tier
First up here is Arkansas coach Bret Bielema. Similar to Mike Riley, he squeaked out a 1 point win last week against Ole Miss. Also similar to his SEC comrade Butch Jones, he has a slacker game this week against Coastal Carolina before going back into SEC play to finish the season. I’m sad Tennessee doesn’t play Arkansas at all the rest of the year because I would love to see a game where no matter the result, both coaches end up getting fired after.
Second up on this tier is UCLA coach Jim Mora. Mora’s squad got housed 44-23 at Washington as many expected. To close out the year they have 3 winnable games against Utah, Arizona State and Cal as well as a tough game against archrival USC. Sitting at 4-4, if Mora loses 3 of these 4 and fails to make a bowl game, look for UCLA to find his replacement next year.
Tier 3: Leadership Reps Tier
First up on this tier is Missouri coach Barry Odom. Missouri is coming off a MASSIVE 2 game win streak, congrats Mizzou. However, their wins are against lesser competition and this week they get back into the thick of SEC play. In the last 4 weeks, 2 games are against fellow hot seat coaches Butch Jones and Bret Bielema, as well as another game against Florida this week. Missouri is surprisingly favored this week over Florida, and they might have a chance to be favored in a couple of the last games just because competition is so poor. If Odom has a bad end to the season we could be looking at moving him up a couple tiers next year, but if he finishes well, he could be moved off the hot seat completely.
Last coach we will talk about today is one who is darn close to moving off the hot seat, Chris Ash. His team has improved significantly in his second year, and while they lost to Michigan this week and failed to secure 4th place in the Big Ten East, it wasn’t as terrible a loss as the score would indicate. With games left against Michigan State and Penn State to accompany 5 losses already, it is very unlikely Rutgers makes a bowl, but if Rutgers can pull a win or hopefully 2 from their other games against Maryland and Indiana, it’s possible Chris Ash could be taken off the hot seat completely going into next year.
With all this talk about bad coaching let’s take a moment to recognize the 2 best coaches in college football, in order, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer.
