Which coaches are on the hottest seat and under the most pressure after Week 3 of the college football season?
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Which ten coaches are going to be feeling it if they don’t win … NOW.
The hot seat rankings after Week 3 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. Pat Narduzzi, Pitt
Ugh.
Michigan State’s meltdown against Arizona State meant Mark Dantonio spent the latter part of Saturday holding Narduzzi’s beer after a horrible end to the Penn State game.
Losing 17-10 in Happy Valley would normally be acceptable, but not going for it on the goal line late in the game – and not getting the field goal – was galling. If the Panthers got stuffed, there wouldn’t have been much of a beef. It was the lack of guts in that moment that got the social media world jumping.
The defending Coastal Division champs host UCF this week. Win, and it becomes a big moment for the program to pivot with a date with Delaware to follow. Lose, and with three of the next four games on the road, and with a home game against Miami, the Panthers might suffer a losing season before mid-November.
4. Mike Bobo, Colorado State
Toledo is the type of 50/50 home game that an embattled head coach needs to win and win big.
Bobo’s defense got rocked by rival Colorado to start the season, and it looked miserable against an Arkansas offense that’s done nothing for a few years. Toledo has the talent and potential to win the MAC, and it’s going to be a fight for the Rams to pull it off.
Lose, and with three of the next four games on the road, and the home game against San Diego State, pulling up out of the nosedive – going 1-7 in the last eight games, and with the last victory over an FBS team that finished with a winning record coming all the way back at the end of the 2016 season – isn’t going to be easy.
3. Clay Helton, USC
Aaaaaaand, now the hot seat is back on.
Just when it seems like the Stanford win was a step forward for a program loaded with young talent, the Trojans couldn’t get by an okay BYU team on the road. They needed the buffer with what’s coming up next.
Utah never wins at USC, but on Friday night with the world watching, it’s a must-win for the season to turn back around. And if USC loses?
At Washington, at Notre Dame – that’s next, and that would almost certainly mean 2-4 part with Oregon and trips to Arizona State and Cal still to deal with.
2. Tony Sanchez, UNLV
It always seems like the program is just this close to turning a corner and getting the offense working, but it’s just not. With the 30-14 loss at Northwestern, Sanchez is now 17-34 at the job with a trip to Wyoming up next in two weeks.
Lose to the Cowboys, and and with Boise State, at Vanderbilt, at Fresno State, and San Diego State to follow, the Rebels and Sanchez will likely be 1-7 before going to Colorado State.
1. Lovie Smith, Illinois
It wasn’t pretty, but Illinois managed to get out to a 2-0 start against two awful teams. So what that the opener was a win over Akron, and the trip at UConn was a struggle? With Rutgers a home game down the road, and with Eastern Michigan up to close out the non-conference portion of the slate, the Illini would have to find two more wins to get bowl eligible, and …
Ugh.
Eastern Michigan beat Purdue last season, but it got rocked at Kentucky two weeks ago, and had problems against Coastal Carolina.
And it’s a MAC team.
Now, at 11-28 in just over three years, Smith needs something special at home against Nebraska next week to get the season and his tenure going. There has to be some sign of life with Michigan, Wisconsin, Purdue, Michigan State, Iowa, Northwestern and Minnesota still to play.
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. Willie Taggart, Florida State
Really? Now it’s a positive that Florida State was competitive at Virginia?
At 1-3 and an extra point against ULM away from having to survive that, it’s hard to see that the Noles are actually progressing. QB James Blackman has been excellent, RB Cam Akers has been solid, and there have been flashes of potential greatness.
But FSU is dead last in the nation in time of possession, the offensive line is still a disaster, and the defense is allowing close to 500 yards per game.
Lose to Louisville at home this week, and all of a sudden the hot seat is a full-on Tennessee Titan pregame sideline fire.
4. Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee
When there’s excitement about beating UT Chattanooga 45-0, there’s a problem.
Georgia State just got destroyed by Western Michigan 57-10 making the season-opening loss look even worse, and BYU’s win over USC makes the collapse in Knoxville two weeks ago even more galling.
But now it’s measuring stick time.
At Florida, Georgia. Those are the next two games for the Vols, and there’s a chance to turn this whole thing around in a hiccup with two shocking wins. Or, the 2019 season – with a trip to Alabama coming up in mid-October – could go totally into the tank with a few ugly losses.
3. Dino Babers, Syracuse
There’s no shame in losing to Clemson at home, and there’s no shame in losing in a blowout. However, now the ugly loss to Maryland looks far worse after Temple tagged the Terps, and overall, the offense isn’t working.
There shouldn’t be a problem this week against Western Michigan – at least there had better not be.
The 1-2 start is made worse by the failures on offense. The offensive line isn’t blocking anyone – Clemson defenders spent the evening dancing on Tommy DeVito’s head – and the secondary is getting torched.
The concern is a regression. Beat WMU, rock Holy Cross, and get the team back to 2018 form before going to NC State. That’s Babers’ job over the next few weeks.
2. Justin Fuente, Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech is 2-1, but it’s a very, very shaky 2-1.
The loss to Boston College now looks far worse considering what Kansas just did in Chestnut Hill, it took too much to put against Old Dominion, and it took a late rally to get by Furman 24-17.
With a trip to Miami coming up to kick off October, the Hokies desperately need to find more pop on both sides of the ball over the two weeks off before hosting Duke.
Lose to the Blue Devils, and 2-4 is likely with trips to Notre Dame and Virginia to go, and dates with North Carolina and Wake Forest looking more dangerous now than they did before the season.
1. Chip Kelly, UCLA
The problem isn’t just that UCLA got destroyed again, it’s that everyone got to see the 2019 IT offense in the Rose Bowl on Saturday night.
Even if the Bruins aren’t very good and in need of at least another recruiting class or three, the offense is supposed to be entertaining. Kelly is supposed to bring with him some sort of schematic advantage to make up for the talent disparity. Instead, Lincoln Riley and Oklahoma showed how it’s done with 611 yards.
The Sooners scored 48 points, only because they didn’t want to score 70.
UCLA has the second-worst offense in college football averaging 263 yards per game. It’s averaging 14 points per outing, and it has absolutely nothing to rely on at the moment. And now this week the Bruins go against Washington State and the nation’s sixth-best offense.
