Well that didn't take long. The first three weeks of this college football season have already brought with them a ton of chaos, and this weekend, they brought us our first firings too.
The coaching carousel is officially spinning after UCLA and Virginia Tech decided to move on from Deshaun Foster and Brent Pry, respectively. Given that both programs suffered embarrassing home losses by three scores to G5 competition (the Bruins to New Mexico, Tech to Old Dominion), it's hard to say the moves weren't warranted. But it's still awfully early in the season to have pulled that particular trigger, and it should set up even more movement in the weeks to come.
Which names might be next on the chopping block? Here are five who seem most at risk entering Week 4 and beyond.
1. Billy Napier, Florida
Let's just get this one out of the way up top. For the second straight week, Florida once again played well enough to have a chance to win against a ranked opponent, this time on the road against No. 3 LSU. And for the second straight week, the Gators were done in by a truly baffling string of physical and mental errors, most prominently a whopping five interceptions from quarterback DJ Lagway.
Sure, there are excuses to be made. Lagway hardly practiced all offseason due to multiple different injuries, a setback that surely hasn't helped a young QB in his development. And at the end of the day, Florida's defense has done enough to have this team sitting at 3-0 and presumably in the top 10 of the AP poll.
But Napier's calling card is offense, and this was supposed to be the year the vision came together. Instead, Lagway looks as though he's getting worse, not better, and Napier's game management has been frankly baffling at times. If this is the product now that his hand-picked recruits are becoming key contributors, you can't expect Florida to have much more patience, and the schedule only gets tougher from here.
2. Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
Gundy has seemingly been a dead man walking before during his time in Stillwater, and who knows, maybe he's got another trick or two up his sleeve yet. Right now, though, things look as grim as they ever have: The Pokes slogged through a season-opening win over FCS UT-Martin, then got absolutely erased against Oregon in Week 2. Coming off a wildly disappointing 3-9 campaign in 2024, it's beginning to look like Gundy is fully out of answers.
Granted, the early injury to young quarterback Hauss Hejny didn't help, but we're going on two years now in which the Pokes have looked largely punchless on offense. That's Gundy's whole value add, and his resistance to the transfer portal in 2025 just makes him seem hopelessly out of touch. It's a brave new world at Oklahoma State, and the program risks getting left behind in the Big 12 if it doesn't act fast.
3. Luke Fickell, Wisconsin
I was a big-time believer in Fickell at Cincinnati, and I loved the Badgers' decision to do whatever it took to lure him to Madison back in 2023. But it just hasn't worked out: Wisconsin got blasted this past weekend at Alabama, and they've still got five more ranked teams on the schedule (plus Iowa, Washington and Minnesota). At this point, bowl eligibility feels like a long shot, and a third straight underwhelming season might just do him in regardless of what his buyout looks like.
It's not just that the product on the field doesn't look any better. Fickell's decisions about his own coaching staff have been deeply questionable, from the misguided decision to try and modernize the offense with Phil Longo to replacing Longo with an uninspired retread like Jeff Grimes. He was able to build a team at Cincy that could just physically overwhelm most of the teams on their schedule; pulling that same trick in the Big Ten is a lot tougher, and right now it doesn't seem like Fickell knows what he wants this program's identity to be.
4. David Braun, Northwestern
Braun was given a thankless task taking over for the fired Pat Fitzgerald, and he worked a minor miracle getting the Wildcats to 8-4 in his first season at the helm. It's been a precipitous drop since, though, from 4-8 in 2024 to 1-2 this year after Saturday's loss to Oregon. This is one of the worst teams in the Power 4, hands down, and while that's certainly not all on Braun, it's also hard to argue that he has things headed in the right direction.
We also have to address the elephant in the room: There are plenty of important people around this program who weren't happy that Fitzgerald was fired in the first place and would love to see him back in charge in Evanston. Braun has always felt like a placeholder, and with a new administration in town, the writing is on the wall already.
5. Mark Stoops, Kentucky
Stoops has appeared to have one foot out the door for a couple of years now, and while Kentucky would do well to remember just how low the floor was in football before he arrived, this marriage may finally have run its course.
The Cats are 2-1, and they put a real scare into Ole Miss in Week 2, but their two wins have come against MAC competition in less-than-impressive fashion. And now things are really about to ramp up: Kentucky has road trips to South Carolina, Georgia and Auburn sandwiched around home games against Texas and Tennessee over the next six weeks. Good luck with that, especially with question marks at quarterback. This has all the makings of a 4-8 type of season, which will probably be enough for Kentucky to finally cut bait.