Toasty Buns: 5 college football coaches on the hot seat after Week 2

We have been presented problems and offered no solutions when it comes to a few programs across major college football. Because ties are stupid, somebody has to win and lose every game on the Saturday gridiron. However, every loss is different, and the same applies to every win. The body of work will tell the tale of if a head coach will have staying power leading his respective college team.

While the top of the SEC looks to be as good as advertised, the rest of the sport seems to be in flux. We think Ohio State is good, but the Buckeyes have only beaten the brakes off two bottom-tier MAC teams. Miami looks great in the ACC, but Florida is not that in the SEC. As for the Big 12, we recognize that there is a power vacuum atop the league, but nobody is ready to occupy it just yet. We shall see!

So what I am going to do today is highlight five Power Four head coaches who are really starting to feel the heat in the early part of September. No, they are not getting fired right now, as I fully expect a few of these guys to be able to retain their jobs into next season. However, losses either in Week 1 or Week 2 have many college football fans questioning if they have the right man in charge of the team.

Let's start with a man whose stubbornness on the offensive side of the ball may mean his retirement.

5. Iowa Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz

Since when does Iowa lose CyHawk to Iowa State? Apparently, now. It may have only been a narrow one-point loss for the Hawkeyes, but it was just more of the same offensive nonsense that has been plaguing Kirk Ferentz's program for years. It was a great opportunity for Cade McNamara to shine, and he got outshone by Rocco Becht as the game went along. Iowa State defeated Iowa, 20-19.

A win for either team would be a feather in the victor's cap heading into conference play for the most part. Iowa State now looks to be one of the better teams in the Big 12, while Iowa may be just the sixth best team in the Big Ten. All the while, you have to wonder if Beth Goetz is going to fire Ferentz like she did his son when she was the interim athletic director. Same old Iowa, as nothing changes!

For as good as this team has been on defense and special teams under Phil Parker and LeVar Woods' guidance, I think you can do a better job of calling plays on offense over what Iowa has had for the last decade or so. My concern is that Iowa is going to stay together for the kids, even though Goetz one of the kids to take his ball and go home. Iowa will still win eight games this season, but that is it.

This is one of the biggest brands in the Big Ten, but why does Iowa not seem to want to play up?

4. Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman

I'm an idiot... I thought Notre Dame was a lock to make the expanded College Football Playoff and be a serious contender to win multiple games this postseason. I had the Fighting Irish going undefeated. After handling Texas A&M last week in College Station, what the hell was that up in South Bend?! I get that Thomas Hammock had his Northern Illinois team ready to play, but you cannot lose to them, man.

Notre Dame looked listless offensively, as Mike Denbrock refuses to run the ball with Riley Leonard. It may have only been a two-point loss, but falling 16-14 to Northern Illinois has us very concerned about the upward trajectory of Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman. This is now the third team Notre Dame has been a massive favorite two and lost. The other two were to Marshall and Stanford.

When I was talking with my FanSided.com colleague Cody Williams on the Week 2 recap episode of False Start, I equated this loss to being doubly bad. Instead of getting a huge boost from the A&M win and having some margin for error, a loss at home to a Group of Five team has this team feeling like it will only be viewed as a 10-2 team if they win out, even if their record says they actually went 11-1.

Freeman is still a work in progress as a head coach, but man, will he lose a dumb one like Brian Kelly.

3. Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders

We may have fallen out of the frying pan and into the fire when it comes to Coach Prime in Boulder. His Colorado Buffaloes may be 1-1, but they narrowly survived a home scare vs. FCS power North Dakota State last week. Now they just got embarrassed against traditional rival Nebraska in Lincoln. Shedeur Sanders was not the quarterback we were raving about in a good way from this ball game.

That would be true freshman Dylan Raiola. He is more than competent for the Huskers, as he is doing more than enough to ensure us all that Nebraska will be playing in its first bowl game this season since the Barack Obama administration. Colorado got shelled by Nebraska, falling 28-10. Although Colorado outscored Nebraska 10-0 in the second half, Nebraska had a 28-0 lead before halftime.

With how loud and unapologetic Sanders has been at CU, I think people are getting more and more sick of him by the day. People were saying he would leave Colorado for another better job after this season once his sons turned pro. Well, I don't think anybody in the Power Four is going to want to hire him now. Colorado is getting more undeserved love and attention than the Dallas Freaking Cowboys!

I'm at the point where Sanders must get Colorado to a bowl game for him to get a third year in charge.

2. Baylor Bears head coach Dave Aranda

I know what I saw in Salt Lake City on Saturday afternoon. I saw one team that might be good enough to win the Big 12 if their starting quarterback is healthy, and another that needed to fire its head coach yesterday. While the Baylor Bears cut into the halftime deficit vs. the Utah Utes, it was not a good showing for Dave Aranda's team in the 23-12 defeat. This was not even a conference game...

At around halftime, I relocated to a different part of Atlanta to watch the game. I thought Utah looked like the best team in the Big 12 in the first half. Then Cam "Black Smoke" Rising got hurt... Once he was on the sidelines in street clothes with a splint on his fingers, that is when Dequan Finn and the Baylor offense started to make up the difference on the board. Like Aranda, it was too little, too late.

It has become abundantly clear that Aranda won with Matt Rhule's players during the 2021 college football season. He may be The Samurai, but he has too much zen for only one man. Baylor plays like it is asleep half time, and I think that is a direct reflection of its head coach. I did not have Aranda on the hot seat entering this season because I thought Finn would help get this team to a bowl game.

We are talking about the best player in the MAC last year looking like he doesn't belong in the Big 12.

1. Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier

I don't care that Florida wiped the floor with FCS Samford on Saturday. That 45-7 victory does nothing to me. Even the worst Power Four teams have shown an ability to dominate whatever cupcake game they put on their schedule. It might even be a week later, but I still think Billy Napier is so beyond cooked as the Florida head coach. He couldn't even open a water bottle after Week 1.

I think the only way that Napier saves his job is if he starts freshman D.J. Lagway the rest of the season at quarterback. The Graham Mertz era of Gators football is over. The moment Napier trots Mertz back out there under center should be the moment Scott Stricklin leaves his suite to come down to the field and fire him on the spot. If it is in the middle of the game, I do not really care, man.

While I don't think Florida will pull the plug on Napier after losses to Texas A&M and Mississippi State, as Florida could conceivably win those two games, it would be hard to stomach if Florida were to somehow fall to 1-4 to start the year by losing to little brother UCF on the first weekend of October. I am willing to give Napier the benefit of the doubt, so long as he starts Lagway forever going forward.

Florida fans want to run this man out of town, but they have to be patient to get their wish this season.