5 college football coaches who will be on the hot seat with a bad 2025 season

After how unappetizing last offseason's coaching carousel was in college football, expect for more head coaches to be out of work in a little bit less than a year. While some head coaches like Mike Locksley, Sam Pittman and Scott Satterfield are already starting to feel the heat, it may take another bad season or two for some of the biggest names to eventually be let go. This does feel inevitable.

Although one could argue that these big-name head coaches could be entering this season on the hot seat, I feel they have too much built-up equity, earned or not, to be one year away from getting ousted. Again, this may be an inevitability because I struggle to see their fortunes changing precipitously in the coming months. Then again, good fortune favored Dave Aranda and Billy Napier...

So what I am going to do today is identify five college football head coaches who are one more bad season away from firmly finding themselves on the hot seat heading into 2026. To be honest, if it is bad enough in 2025, they could be let go, but I would not count on it. Buyouts cost a lot and no booster is going to want to rip the band-aid off until they are left with no choice in the matter of this.

Let's start with a long-tenured head coach who is coming off his worst season on the job to date.

5. Oklahoma State Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy

I am honestly shocked that we are even having this conversation. Then again, Mike Gundy lost his last nine games of the season at Oklahoma State, which included an absolutely pitiful 0-9 mark in Big 12 play. Oklahoma State was throughout to be a serious contender to make the College Football Playoff out of the Big 12 last season. The Cowboys played for a Big 12 Championship only a season ago, y'all!

To me, this is a program that Gundy is synonymous with. He starred there in the 1980s and has been the head coach at his alma mater since taking over for Les Miles in 2005. To be frank, Gundy has won some at Stillwater, but not nearly as much as he probably should have. With Oklahoma State being a pick by many to take advantage of the power void at the top of the Big 12, what a terrible start to that.

If Oklahoma State fails to reach a bowl in back-to-back seasons, Gundy will be coaching for his job.

4. Florida State Seminoles head coach Mike Norvell

Mike Norvell falls into the same bucket at Mike Gundy over at Oklahoma State. It is borderline unbelivable how awful Florida State was a season ago. This was a team ranked inside of the top 10 to start, and Florida State went to win a grand total of two games. I understand that coordinator changes needed to happen, but the air really went out of the balloon on Norvell last college season.

Truth be told, I think moving on from Norvell after even next season may be too soon. Then again, this is Florida State, a traditional power in the sport where the standard is the standard. Florida State probably cannot afford to miss out on back-to-back bowl games under Norvell anyway. I would be willing to give him a little bit more runway, but last year cannot be the start of a new beginning for FSU.

Norvell may get one more year in charge before potentially be scapegoated for all the wrongdoing.

3. USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley

Even though I am not ruling out either Mike Gundy or Mike Norvell being let go after another disastrous season next year, it may take an additional one for USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen to come to her senses. Lincoln Riley is robbing everyone blind. Every year under him has been worse than the year before. Now entering year four at USC, I am shocked that he is probably getting a fifth.

The reasoning behind keeping Riley around is that USC is still transitioning from a Pac-12 school into a Big Ten university. Having to travel across the country for half of their conference games may take some more adjustment. Then again, USC hired Riley to get the Trojans back to being championship-caliber. All I have seen over the last three years is a bunch of excuse making and almost zero defense.

I would have moved on from Riley after last year, but his expiration date probably ends up being 2026.

2. Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell

I am very concerned about Luke Fickell's staying power at Wisconsin. The only head coach I feel has less job security than him right now in the Big Ten would have to be Mike Locksley at Maryland. Fickell had great success at Cincinnati previously, but that was when UC competed at the Group of Five level. Over the last two years, Fickell has devolved into a painfully mediocre Power Four head coach.

Admittedly, I was down on the hire from the start. Wisconsin was not the job to leave a good thing at Cincinnati for. The fact he wanted to run an Air Raid offense in Madison, Wisconsin landed about as well with me as having an outdoor skating rink in Boca Raton. This feels like an inevitability. He may find success at a new place of work, but this has been the epitome of a square peg in a round hole.

Fickell may be out after this year, but anything short of an eight-win season in 2026 is not acceptable.

1. Oklahoma Sooners head coach Brent Venables

If not for Joe Castiglione giving him a massive contract extension, why is Brent Venables still the head coach at Oklahoma? Three years in and all I know he is not the next Bob Stoops, Barry Switzer or Bud Wilkinson in Norman. While Venables did land John Mateer in the transfer portal, that had more to do with Ben Arbuckle than anything. Plus, Jake Dickert left right afterward for Wake Forest.

What I am getting at is the additions of Arbuckle and Mateer on offense, as well as Nate Dreiling and Wes Goodwin on the defensive staff put a ton of pressure on Venables to get it done for once at OU. The Sooners are no longer the supreme ruler over the old Big 12. They are essentially another Auburn in the SEC. The sooner the Sooners realize this, the better. They need an upgrade at head coach now!

For financial reasons, I cannot see Oklahoma moving on from Venables until after the 2026 season.