It’s that time of the year again. Before every football season, administrators and fans alike start sweating for different reasons. Administrators’ headaches come from a delicate balancing act of maintaining the athletic budget and hoping the football coach doesn’t fall flat on his face so that when the holiday season rolls around, said coach will be celebrating with a buyout. As demanding and skeptical as they are, fans will have many people to blame if their team doesn’t make the 12-team playoff.
Last year’s list featured five coaches being dismissed for various reasons, including the two biggest salary bandits, Jimbo Fisher of Texas A&M and Michigan State’s Mel Tucker. Those that survived the purge include Neal Brown, Butch Jones, and Eli Drinkwitz, but the pink slips brigade waits for no one.
There is no advocation for anyone losing their jobs, but this is college athletics where the margin for success is thin, and fans’ patience for losing is thinner.
Here are the college football coaches whose seats are en fuego entering the 2024 season.
Billy Napier, Florida
With the financial resources, the tradition, and the rich recruiting soil of the Sunshine State, this should be one of the nation’s premier programs. Instead, Napier, with an 11-14 record in his first two campaigns, has quickly turned Gator Nation into an afterthought. And with the schedule backloaded with national title-contending teams (Georgia, Texas, LSU, Ole Miss and Florida State), the powers that be at Florida might be cranking up the buyout machine in no time to thus begin another cycle in desperately trying to get back to the top of the sport.
Ryan Day, Ohio State
Losing to Michigan three years in a row is unacceptable to some. The placement here has to do with what Ohio State thinks it deserves and what the football team actually is. This is a top-tier program and one of the nation’s most talented, and their nemesis up North felt the same way until Jim Harbaugh got them over the hump, promptly departed from the yearly lunacy, and took off to the NFL and the Los Angeles Chargers. Any other program would be thrilled with what Ryan Day has accomplished in his six years in Columbus. Not the Buckeyes fans, who want national championships or to get rid of the person not delivering the goods.
Butch Jones, Arkansas State
Jones hasn’t done much in his tenure at Arkansas State, and how he was brought back for a fourth season is anyone’s guess. Winning a total of 11 games in the previous three seasons doesn’t instill much confidence in the faithful thousands that show up to watch the Red Wolves play. By any measure, 2023 was a success with competent play down the stretch and a bowl appearance, and there is no doubt at least a repeat performance in 2024 is needed to save his job.
Sonny Cumbie, Louisiana Tech
A third consecutive non-winning season will spell doom for Cumbie, who is trying to get Tech back to its winning ways, which hasn’t happened since the end of the last decade. The Bulldogs enter 2024 having lost six consecutive games. Fortunately for Cumbie, Conference USA is winnable, and no matter the offensive genius he has known to display in previous stops, if the defense plays like it doesn’t want to stop anyone, the inevitable will happen.
Clark Lea, Vanderbilt
It’s tough to win at Vanderbilt. Maybe they are in the wrong conference, but when coaches take this job, they are fully aware their time on the sideline, at least at this school, could be short. The Commodores lost their last 10 games in 2023, giving up at least 31 points in each game. Not only could they not stop anyone, but they also couldn’t move the ball, making that the exact recipe to get you fired sooner rather than later with another coach enjoying the upgraded stadium and facilities.
Sam Pittman, Arkansas
Hiring former motorcycle-riding head coach Bobby Petrino as offensive coordinator seems to be a step in the right direction, if anything, to breathe some life and attention into the program. Still, Arkansas has the unfortunate task of being in the SEC, and navigating that schedule is almost impossible. Quarterback KJ Jefferson and running back Raheim Sanders headed to the transfer portal, leaving ex-Boise State quarterback Taylen Green to take the reins. It’s bowl game or bust for the Razorbacks, and even that might not be enough to save Pittman’s job.
Lincoln Riley, Southern California
The thought was that Riley left Tornado Alley and the oppressive humidity of Oklahoma for the beaches of Southern California because he wanted to avoid the SEC. That rumor continues to rear its ugly head, depending on the day and who you believe. Well, the Trojans are headed off to another moneymaking conference where you actually have to play some semblance of defense to compete for titles. Riley’s leash may be longer than the rest of the coaches on this list, and if he isn’t producing a Heisman finalist this year or in Indianapolis in December at the very least, the couch (or the NFL) might be his next destination.
Scott Satterfield, Cincinnati
Moving forward, Cincinnati should be listed as one of the betting favorites in a Big 12 Conference whose two most powerful schools, Texas and Oklahoma, took their egos and brands for the greener pastures of the SEC. This conference is ripe for the picking, but it is tough to win when you aren’t good in any aspect of the game. Then again, the school could be patient and wait until Jan. 1, 2026, to fire Satterfield so that the buyout wouldn’t be as bad.
Joe Moorhead, Akron
Maybe Moorhead is best suited for an offensive coordinator job, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Moorhead is quickly trending in the wrong direction, just like his last stop at Mississippi State, where once the fanbase turns its back on you, it’s over. There is no such worry at Akron, but a 4-20 record over the past two seasons won’t instill confidence in the administration. The Zips will find out how much they have improved when visiting Ohio State in a season-opening tone-setter.
Dave Aranda, Baylor
It seems like a lifetime ago since Baylor won the Sugar Bowl over Ole Miss (it was 2022), and any goodwill gleaned from the victory has slowly gone by the wayside. The Bears had the worst offense and defense in the Big 12, so Aranda has taken the reigns back and is calling the defense. Bringing in Jake Spavital to retool the offense was a smart move. The truth is there is no reason why the Bears can’t win this conference and win it consistently for years to come.
Honorable mentions: Stan Drayton, Temple; Mario Cristobal, Miami (Fla.); Kalani Sitake, Brigham Young; Pat Narduzzi, Pittsburgh.
