Which coaches are on the hottest seat and under the most pressure after Week 2 of the college football season?
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The hot seat can cool off really, really quickly. One win doesn’t secure a coaching gig, but it makes life a whole lot easier when you’re the USC head coach and come up with, say, a 2-0 start with a Pac-12 victory over Stanford.
Overall, the hot seat is about pressure. Which ten coaches are going to be feeling it if they don’t win … NOW.
The hot seat rankings are done in two ways. First, the five coaches who need a win for job security, and then the five coaches who aren’t in any real danger of being fired – yet – but could desperately use something positive.
Coaches On The Hot Seat: Win, Or Else
5. Chad Morris, Arkansas
The problem isn’t that Arkansas lost on the road to Ole Miss 31-17. The problem is that there doesn’t appear to be a major sign of improvement. The passing game went for 300 yards, but the first touchdown didn’t come until the fourth quarter against what appears to be the SEC’s second-worst team.
There’s a chance to improve over the next two weeks against Colorado State and San Jose State at home, but anything less than a 3-1 start – and with more from the O – will be a disaster.
4. Randy Edsall, UConn
The Huskies might have lost to Illinois, but after only two games, at least they look a lot better than they were last season. They showed off a little bit of defense in the 31-23 loss, and they battled well, and …
They lost.
With three of the next four games on the road, and none of them looking winnable against Indiana, UCF and Tulane, the home date against USF in a few weeks is a must. It’s going to take a few shockers to do anything better than three wins overall.
There’s nowhere to go but up after two straight 1-11 seasons, but with independence coming up from the American Athletic Conference world, there needs to be hope that the program can start to be more than just a speed bump.
3. Tony Sanchez, UNLV
No, no, no … you don’t lose at home to a Group of Five program in Year Five.
You don’t lose to a Sun Belt team, no matter who it is, when you’re at home, and you REALLY don’t lose 43-17 at home to that Group of Five Sun Belt program.
The 43-17 loss to Arkansas State is a big, big problem considering four of the next five games are on the road. UNLV won’t be favored again until the San Jose State game in late November.
It’ll be a shocker if this isn’t a fifth-straight losing season.
2. Charlie Strong, USF
It doesn’t help that the program up I-4 continues to rock and roll.
UCF is once again on a path to get a New Year’s Six bowl game, and USF is struggling just to score with one touchdown in the first two games.
How bad is this? The Bulls were supposed to turn a corner and be more dangerous, but instead, they’re on an eight-game losing streak after starting 2018 6-0.
The run will stop next week against South Carolina State, and the wins will come with UConn among a slew of winnable games ahead, but getting to six wins is hardly a given.
1. Chris Ash, Rutgers
Just when it seemed like this was going to be a different year with a stronger offense and more hope …
Pfffffffffft. The air went out of the balloon in a hurry.
The Scarlet Knights roared back to beat UMass in Week 1, but in the Big Ten opener the two top quarterback options combined to hit 9-of-26 passes for 41 yards and two picks, the ground game came up with 84 yards, and there wasn’t any hope in the 30-0 loss.
The game against Liberty doesn’t come up until the end of October, and it’ll likely be a long and painful next five games to get there.
NEXT: 5 Coaches Who Won’t Get Fired, But Need A Win
Coaches On The Hot Seat: Won’t Get Fired, But … WIN NOW IN A BLOWOUT
5. Jonathan Smith, Oregon State
The program needed a redo after spiraling down for a few seasons before taking over, but Smith could use a win or three just to probe that he’s got a few idea to make the rest of the Pac-12 worry.
Hawaii is dangerous at home, and it managed to beat Arizona in the opener, but losing to the Rainbow Warriors 31-28 hurt. Beating Cal Poly next week is a must, and UCLA looks extremely beatable, but it’s going to be a fight to be better than the 2-10 record of last year.
4. Butch Davis, FIU
After starting out 17-9 in his first two seasons with two bowl appearances, Davis apparently had the team in place to make a big run in the Conference USA race.
And then it started out with a loss to a Western Kentucky team that was the only FBS program in Week 1 to lose to an FCS team.
The Golden Panthers have suffered a bad power outage to kick things off, with just 14 points in the first two games in an 0-2 start. With New Hampshire, UMass, Charlotte, UTEP, and Old Dominion among the very, very winnable games ahead, things should turn around …
But not if the team plays like it did against the Hilltoppers.
3. Chip Kelly, UCLA
And now Oklahoma comes to town.
The Bruins still don’t have any sort of offensive advantage 14 games into the Chip Kelly era, doing next to nothing in the 24-14 opener against Cincinnati, and then losing at home 23-14 to a San Diego State team that won its opener against Weber State 6-0.
That was it. That was the easy part of the schedule.
On the plus side, the defense is keeping the team in games so far. Now there needs to be SOMETHING from the offense to give the Bruins a shot to be more competitive. But now comes the date with the Sooners, and then the Pac-12 season starts out with three road games in the first four.
Overall, the home game against Oregon State looks possible for a win … and that’s where the bar is set right now.
UCLA will win a few games, and a switch will be flipped at some point, but merely being better than the 3-9 record of last year isn’t okay.
2. Willie Taggart, Florida State
It took double overtime and a missed extra point to beat … ULM.
Not LSU, or even Louisiana Tech, but Louisiana-Monroe.
The defense struggled late for the second straight week, and the team that apparently was dehydrated in the collapse to Boise State bonked again coming out of the locker room after halftime.
But there’s hope.
The Seminoles looked amazing in the first half of both games, and overall it seems like there needs to be a tweak instead of a total overhaul, but after going 5-7 last year, and without a 100% sure-thing win coming up until the date with Alabama State in mid-November, this is going to be a weekly fight.
1. Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee
With UT Chattanooga coming up, Tennessee was supposed to be 3-0 with America caring about the showdown at Florida to kick off the SEC season.
There was hope for the Vols to at least make a push to battle with the big boys on the schedule, and …
They’re 0-2 with losses to Georgia State and BYU at home, and now they have road games against Florida and Alabama coming up over the next month, and a home game against Georgia to deal with, too.
Now, not even the home game against UAB in early November looks like a week off from the world.
There’s enough talent to do something crazy along the way – the Vols did beat Auburn and stunned Kentucky last season – this isn’t the step-forward season for a program that’s supposed to be sitting at the adult table.
