Scott Frost Fired: College Football Coaches Hot Seat Top 10 Ranking Week 2
Now that Scott Frost is out at Nebraska, who are ten other coaches on the hot seat after Week 2 of the college football season?
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Scott Frost Fired: College Football Coaches Hot Seat Top 10
College Football Week 2 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 2 Scoreboard | Week 3 Early Lines
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like
AP Rankings | Coaches Poll
It was hardly surprising after a 16-31 including an ugly 1-2 start.
Nebraska collapsed against Northwestern to kickoff what was supposed to be a breakthrough season, the team struggled against North Dakota, and on Saturday it lost to Georgia Southern 45-42.
That was enough for the Huskers to fire head coach Scott Frost. Assistant Mickey Joseph will take over, and now the search is on to restore the glory – Iowa State’s Matt Campbell is reportedly one of the main targets, but this is a big gig that will attract other star prospects.
Which coaches will now get all of the hot seat attention? Which ones are under pressure to come up with something big to show that they’re going to give the respective fan bases and schools the fun they’re looking for?
The coaching hot seat top ten rankings are done in two ways. First, the five who aren’t going to get fired anytime soon unless something crazy happens, but could really use a big run of wins to relieve the stress. Then, the five who had better come up with a string of victories and a positive direction, or else.
Five coaches who have almost no chance of getting canned, but could desperately use a win …
– 5 college football coaches who had better win now, or else
5. Paul Chryst, Wisconsin
Up Next: New Mexico State
He’s great for the program, he has three Big Ten West titles in his seven years before this season, and he was one final stalled 2017 Big Ten Championship drive away from going to the College Football Playoff, but this remains the Power Five program that has won the most in the CFP era without getting into the tournament.
Three turnovers and a 17-14 loss to Washington State later, Wisconsin went from looking like a potential lock to win the West to needing to reestablish its dominance. There’s a big trip to Ohio State coming up in two weeks that could reset the narrative.
4. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M
Up Next: Miami
We all know what’s coming.
We all know that Texas A&M just cranked up one of the greatest recruiting classes in the history of college football – at least according to the people who get into those things – and we all know that the program is just this close to being the next big thing. It’s not crazy to see Texas A&M coming up with a 2019 LSU or 2021 Georgia very, very soon. However …
Losing at home to Appalachian State 17-14 with 186 yards of total offense isn’t a sign that things are going well. Worst of all, last week is as light as it gets until UMass on November 19th.
3. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
Up Next: Nevada
He’s the longest-tenured head coach at one school in major college football – he started at Iowa in 1999 – the next closest are Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State and Kyle Whittingham at Utah, who have been there since 2005 – and it’s impossible to argue with the results after getting to the Big Ten Championship last year, but …
316 yards of total offense and one touchdown in two games, a 10-7 loss to rival Iowa State, and a passing game that’s just plain sad isn’t how 2022 was supposed to start.
We all know how this works, and we all know the glitch will be fixed. Scoring more than seven points in a game would be nice, though.
2. Brian Kelly, LSU
Up Next: Mississippi State
The problem is there there’s no honeymoon period whatsoever, and the start to his tenure has been, let’s just say, weird.
The brutal fact is that LSU needs a little while to get back to a national title level, but that’s not where the expectations are. LSU isn’t supposed to struggle against Florida State, it’s supposed to win the SEC Championship, and Kelly is supposed to step in and win a national title like Nick Saban, Les Miles, and Ed Orgeron did.
LSU fans aren’t insane – of course they know this is going to take a little bit – but … beat Mississippi State. And then beat Auburn, and then Tennessee, and then Florida, and then Ole Miss, and then Alabama, and then Arkansas …
1. Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame
Up Next: Cal
Yes, Freeman is the first Notre Dame head coach to lose his first three games. Yes, the team collapsed in the bowl loss to Oklahoma State, didn’t open it up in the season-opener against Ohio State, and couldn’t handle a home game at Marshall.
Call it all a step back to possibly take a massive step forward.
It’s hard to sell a fan base on recruiting cycles when it’s expecting a College Football Playoff appearance – and that was exactly the right bar to set with a not-that-bad-other-than-Clemson schedule after going to Columbus.
Everyone loves the hire, no one has a negative word to say about him, and it’s acknowledged that there will be a learning curve of sorts in his first head coaching gig. That’s fine. Now the O needs to work on a nice-long, winning streak.
By the way, the BYU game in Vegas is in two weeks.
– 5 college football coaches who had better win now, or else
NEXT: 5 College Football Hot Seat Coaches Who Need To Win Now, Or Else
College Football Hot Seat Coaches: Win NOW, Or Else
These five coaches will likely hang on to their respective jobs with an okay final record, but they all need to put together a strong string of wins in a big hurry.
5. Eliah Drinkwitz, Missouri
Up Next: Abilene Christian
It’s one thing to get trucked by Georgia or Florida or Alabama – that’s life in the SEC – and it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to lose on the road against a good Kansas State squad. It was the way Mizzou lost in the 40-12 debacle.
222 yards of total offense, four turnovers, little run defense – it was a rough day in Manhattan.
There are plenty of winnable games on the schedule – Abilene Christian, Vanderbilt, New Mexico State – to get in range of a bowl game, but that’s not were the program is supposed to be in Year Three.
Drinkwitz went 12-1 in his one season at Appalachian State. He’s now 12-13 at Missouri.
4. Jeff Hafley, Boston College
Up Next: Maine
Hafley’s offensive style of play is interesting, but there’s no running game and the passing attack isn’t doing enough to make up for it.
After two straight six-win seasons to start, he’s now 0-2 with a tough late loss to Rutgers followed up by a dud against Virginia Tech. Those were two winnable games, and it’s going to be a heavy lift now to get to six wins and a bowl game even with a few baked-in sure-thing wins on the slate.
3. Ken Niumatalolo, Navy
Up Next: at East Carolina (Nov. 24)
He’s been so great for so long as the head coach at Navy since the end of 2007. He has 105 wins, took care of Army last year, and he’s not that far removed from a fantastic 11-2 season. However, since then he’s 7-17, and this season hasn’t shown any semblance of promise.
The Midshipmen are 0-2, the running game isn’t working, and starting out with a 14-7 loss to Delaware and 37-13 home loss to Memphis is a huge problem with a relatively brutal schedule – Temple the only game Navy is likely to be favored in – the rest of the way.
2. Mike Bloomgren, Rice
Up Next: Louisiana
He was supposed to use what worked at Stanford – where he was the offensive coordinator and key assistant for seven years – to another elite of the elite academic institution and win. 1) That’s not quite working at Stanford now, and 2) it’s been rough getting the running game going at Rice.
The Owls have gone 12-32 in just over four seasons, but to be fair to the start of 2022, getting blown out by USC isn’t anything to get into a twist over, and the 52-10 blowout over McNeese State was solid.
With Louisiana, Houston, and UAB up next, this is a big stretch to potentially change everything around.
1. Karl Dorrell, Colorado
Up Next: at Minnesota
The 4-2 run in 2020 was a pleasant surprise during a rough time. Colorado ran well, it came up with some strong wins, and it seemed like a good tone was set in the regular season. However, Dorrell has gone 4-11 in his last 15 games, and worst of all, the team appears to be have gotten worse.
The only thing more shocking than Colorado being a 17.5 point underdog to Air Force was that it wasn’t even close to getting to the mark in an ugly 41-10 loss. That came off a tough 38-13 home opener against TCU.
The defense has allowed 710 rushing yards in the first two games, the offense hasn’t shown up, and now the Buffs get Minnesota and UCLA before the Pac-12 schedule its a tad more manageable. Even so, Colorado likely won’t be favored in any game the rest of the way.
College Football Week 2 Roundup
CFN 1-131 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Week 2 Scoreboard | Week 3 Early Lines
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like
AP Rankings | Coaches Poll
