The coaches on the hot seat once again struggled mightily in Week 8. Is the first firing of the college football season near?
Exactly eight weeks of college football are officially in the books. Some teams have now fallen out of contention to make a bowl game while others are hanging on for dear life. It also means the first firing of the year is just around the corner.
That firing could come any time now, as programs will look to get an early jump in the race to hire their next head coach. As we get closer and closer to bowl season, the hot seat is just going to ramp up even further.
On Saturday, it was another mostly terrible day for the hot seat. The big fish on the hot seat was the lone win, however. Gus Malzahn needed a win and Auburn took care of business on the road against Ole Miss. While Malzahn had a great day, others weren’t as lucky. Here are the winners and losers of the hot seat.
5. Larry Fedora: North Carolina – Loser
To the credit of Larry Fedora, his North Carolina Tar Heels battled hard once again and didn’t roll over. The minute a program quits on their coach in a down year, that’s when the ax typically falls and a new era begins.
That’s not the case right now, but North Carolina did add another loss, as they fell to Syracuse in overtime. For Fedora, it’s the losses that are piling up that are dooming him. Almost wins aren’t going to cut it when he’s as deep into his tenure as he is.
That’s something a coach early in their tenure can point to, but not Fedora. At 1-5, the Tar Heels hopes of making a bowl game are once again in severe jeopardy. Winning out is their best bet but they actually would have to win games, which has been their biggest obstacle.
4. Chris Ash: Rutgers – Loser
You can tell how bad a program is by the mistakes they make on the field. At home against Northwestern, the Scarlet Knights made a dumb mistake on a punt return that had them backed up to their own one instead of a touchback.
Those are the mental errors that lead back to coaching and the poor effort is a reflection of Chris Ash right now. A close loss at home isn’t doing him any favors when the program is losing just about every game they’re in and making stupid decisions.
3. David Beaty: Kansas – Loser
After he was off the hot seat with some early wins and Jayhawks showing progress, David Beaty is once again back with his chair firmly ablaze. They got worked over on the road against Texas Tech and they have really cemented themselves in the cellar of the Big 12.
Progress has been made this year but not much. They’re once again a last place team in the conference and they might not even finish with a conference win. After almost four years, it’s finally time to end the experiment with Beaty and look elsewhere.
2. Randy Edsall: UConn – Loser
Well, UConn didn’t get blown out this week. However, they still lost 38-30 to USF and their defense remains atrocious. Once again, the Huskies gave up over 600 yards of offense and they are far and away the worst defense in college football.
The offense gave themselves a chance to make this a game, but the defense is so terrible it really wasn’t much of a chance at all. Edsall’s days with the program have to be numbered with how bad his defense performs on a weekly basis.
1. Gus Malzahn: Auburn – Winner
If Gus Malzahn had lost on Saturday, there is a very good chance that Auburn would have said forget it and paid him whatever it took to go away. Instead, his team took care of business on the road against Ole Miss and no one has to worry about that right now.
It feels like a bit of a pattern with the Tigers under Malzahn. They’ll be ranked high, suffer some bad losses and then rebound with a big win. They aren’t bad by any stretch but inconsistent play has reared its ugly head too many times.
Malzahn is safe after this week and really could use his program going on a bit of a run here. They’ll have a bye week to get ready for upcoming games against Texas A&M and Georgia, which could determine his fate.