Which coaches are on the hottest seat and under the most pressure after Week 5 of the college football season?
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We have our first coaching casualty of the season with Rutgers firing Chris Ash after his eight wins in just over three seasons.
The hot seat rankings after Week 5 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, but could desperately use something positive.
Coaches On The Hot Seat: Win, Or Else
5. Doug Martin, New Mexico State
And the hits just keep onnnnnn coming.
The Aggies are trying, and they’ve been able to hang around with New Mexico two weeks ago and Fresno State last week. With the loss to the Bulldogs, though, they’ve lost their last ten games against FBS teams since the 2018 midseason win over Liberty. And who’s up this week?
The Flames in the first of two games with the fellow independent for the second year in a row. With three straight road games to follow, a loss likely means an 0-9 start.
4. Mike Bobo, Colorado State
The Rams put up a nice fight against Utah State on the road, but it was a loss – the ninth straight against FBS teams going back to the 2018 midseason.
With a tough game against a rested San Diego State team up next, followed up by two road games, Bobo needs a break and come up with a good win. With road games at Fresno State and Wyoming to go, along with home dates against Air Force and Boise State, the season has to turn around now.
3. Charlie Strong, USF
Don’t … lose … at UConn.
The Bulls have a nasty slate in November and three road games in four weeks in October. After a 48-21 blowout loss to SMU, the Bulls are 1-3 with the last win over an FBS team coming in mid-October of last season against UConn. After a 7-0 start, USF is 1-9 – with the lone win coming over South Carolina State.
Again, don’t … lose … at ….
2. Randy Edsall, UConn
Just when it seemed like the Huskies were getting better – the defense has been far, far stronger than the 2018 version – they just so happened to catch UCF in a bad mood.
The 56-21 loss looked cosmetically better thanks to a late score – and wonderful to those investors who had UConn +42 – but it wasn’t remotely that close.
With Tulane and Houston up next, a loss to a reeling USF team means the next likely shot at a win is at UMass in late October.
How bad is this getting? Edsall’s last win over an FBS team came on October 21st … 2017. The Huskies are 0-for-their-last-19 against the big league ball clubs.
1. Justin Fuente, Virginia Tech
It’s been an absolutely stunning meteoric drop for a head coach who appeared to be on the verge of getting a major Power Five job after the 2017 season. Instead, Virginia Tech struggled through a rebuilding 2018 year, and nothing was built.
Not only did the Hokies lose to Duke, but it was a 45-10 stomping at home on a Friday night national showcase game. It took a struggle to get by Old Dominion, and a dogfight to get past Furman. With Rhode Island on the schedule – a second FCS team – it’s going to take four more wins over FBS teams just to get bowl eligible.
It’s going to take something big – like beating Miami on the road this week – to take the pressure off.
NEXT: 5 Coaches Who Won’t Get Fired, But Need A Win
Coaches On The Hot Seat: No Chance These Coaches Get Fired, But They Could Use A Big Win
5. Mike Bloomgren, Rice
The program needs to catch a wee bit of a break. Rice is playing better than when Bloomgren took over the program last season, but it’s one of the three winless teams left in college football – Akron and New Mexico State the others – after dropping an overtime loss to Louisiana Tech.
Bloomgren is now 2-16 with road games at UAB and UTSA coming up. This is a major building process, but a few wins – and very, very soon – would be nice.
4. Joe Moorhead, Mississippi State
The Bulldogs were so good defensively last season that the hope – despite severe massive talent losses to the NFL – was for the system to be good enough to keep the production going. On the other side, Moorhead – the former Penn State offensive coordinator – was going to get his offense moving with QB Tommy Stevens coming in from Happy Valley.
Nope, and not really.
The losses to Kansas State was a wee bit troubling, but to be torched by Auburn 56-23 – after winning 23-9 last season – is a concern.
Everything is still fine for a bowl game at 3-2, but the Bulldogs still have to face LSU, at Texas A&M, and Alabama. The Auburn game was the first of a run of four road dates in five with the road trip to Tennessee up next in two weeks. To be blunt … DON’T LOSE AT TENNESSEE.
3. Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern
Stanford is awful, and it beat Northwestern 17-7. UNLV is awful, and the Wildcats got the easy win. Michigan State and Wisconsin aren’t down and mediocre like they were last year, and they beat Northwestern.
The team has experience, it has a talented quarterback in Hunter Johnson, and it should be whole lot better than this, but …
Uh oh.
Lose at Nebraska this week, and with Ohio State up right after, Northwestern will be a 1-5 before facing Iowa and going to Indiana – which means 1-7 is very, very possible.
Despite the hype, Nebraska is Northwestern’s mediocre equal. The Cats need a season-saver in Lincoln.
2. Jay Norvell, Nevada
Are you old enough to remember when the Wolf Pack took advantage of an epic Purdue meltdown to win 34-31 in the season opener? Good times.
Since then, Nevada was obliterated by Oregon 77-6, slipped by Weber State and beat UTEP, and lost its Mountain West home opener to Hawaii 54-3.
All of a sudden, San Jose State isn’t a pushover. Norvell and Nevada have to beat the Spartans after getting a few weeks to rest up, and then it’s off to a run of four games in five weeks with dates at Utah State, Wyoming, San Diego State and Fresno State.
1. Mike Locksley, Maryland
Everything is fine, we’re only four games in, and everything can flip back around in a hurry.
But Maryland can’t play like that again.
After destroying Syracuse, the loss at Temple was particularly galling. The Owls are fine, but they got housed a week later by … Buffalo.
Fine, that’s one bad day, and there were two weeks off to prepare for a national showcase Friday night home games against Penn State, and …
Apparently, the Terps thought they were playing on Saturday.
It was the type of 59-0 loss that will be a marking point if the team doesn’t pull up out of the nosedive in a big, big hurry. The Terps were outgained 619 yards to 128, came up with just ten first downs, and were behind 38-0 going into halftime.
That happens – Penn State is good. However, if Maryland loses this week against a Rutgers team that just fired its head coach, that would be a horrible, horrible look.
