Nine college football head coaches have now been fired since the start of the season with Florida’s Billy Napier getting let go Sunday the morning after a win.
Of course, Napier’s fate wasn’t going to be saved by a 23-21 win over Mississippi State. Florida opened the season ranked No. 15 and is now 3-4. The Gators had just one winning season in Napier’s tenure, going 8-5 last year in his third season.
He joins Brent Pry at Virginia Tech, DeShaun Foster at UCLA, Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State, Sam Pittman at Arkansas, James Franklin at Penn State, Trent Bray at Oregon State and Trent Dilfer at UAB as coaches who have been let go this season. Colorado State’s Jay Norvell was also relieved of his duties Sunday.
They won’t be the last.
Here are the five coaches at the Power Four level on the hottest seats entering Week 9 of the college football season …
1. Florida State’s Mike Norvell
The Gators aren’t the only program in the state of Florida in need of a major reset. Florida State is reeling with four straight losses after a 3-0 start. This latest one was the worst yet, 20-13 against a Stanford team that had won only one other game against Power Four competition.
It’s crazy to think that this Seminoles team beat Alabama in the season opener, but that’s not going to matter in the big picture. Mike Norvell was already on a hot seat after going 2-10 last year.
He’s 36-31 overall at Florida State and heading toward a potentially fourth losing season in six years. The reason he’s lasted this long was the two seasons in the middle when he led the Seminoles to a 10-3 mark in 2022 and 13-1 in 2023. Florida State was actually 13-0 that year but became the first undefeated power conference team to get snubbed from the College Football Playoff (which was only four teams at the time) due to a season-ending injury to QB Jordan Travis.
It’s almost as if the entire program never recovered from that, losing 63-3 to Georgia in the Orange Bowl and continuing into the free fall that’s ensued the last two seasons.
It’s hard to see Norvell surviving in the job beyond this season (or even the rest of this season), but he has a $59.2 million buyout, as reported by the Tallahassee Democrat, which would top Franklin’s Penn State buyout as the second-largest ever paid in college football.
2. Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell
Luke Fickell sure seemed like a good hire for Wisconsin after his successful stint at Cincinnati, going 57-18 over six seasons with 13 wins in 2021 and a CFP appearance when it was still a limited four-team field.
But the Badgers have regressed in each of his three seasons, from 7-6 to 5-7 to 2-5 to start this fall. They’ve lost five in a row, have yet to beat a Power Four team and have gotten blown out a combined 71-0 the last two games by Iowa and Ohio State.
It should only get worse for the Badgers with a road game at No. 6 Oregon this week before a bye, which would seem the most logical time for a move to be made.
3. Michigan State’s Jonathan Smith
It’s only Smith’s second season, but Michigan State fans have lost patience and confidence already.
Smith, who came from a successful run at his alma mater Oregon State, went 5-7 in his debut season, which was in line with the mediocrity the Spartans had been mired in the previous two years as well. But now they’re off to a 3-4 start with four straight uncompetitive losses — by 14 points at USC, 11 points at Nebraska, 25 to UCLA and 25 at Indiana.
Michigan State’s only Power Four win was over lowly Boston College by two points. In other words, there’s not a lot of reason for optimism.
Smith should have the rest of the season before any decisions are made, but if it keeps going like this, how could Michigan State bring him back?
4. Auburn’s Hugh Freeze
Auburn fans have to be lamenting what could have been this season as the Tigers were at one point 3-0 and ranked and have since been competitive in every game.
But they’ve lost all those games nonetheless — four straight to Oklahoma (24-17 on the road), Texas A&M (16-10 on the road), Georgia (20-10) and Missouri (23-17). All of those teams are currently ranked in the top 15 of the AP poll, and the part that has to sting for Auburn fans is seeing the last two slip away.
The Tigers led 10-0 late in the second quarter vs. Georgia (and almost 17-0 if not for a controversial goal line fumble) before letting the Bulldogs reel off 20 unanswered points. And they led 17-10 midway through the fourth quarter vs. Missouri before ultimately losing in overtime.
While Auburn is not in the same type of freefall as the other teams on this list, this could be a third losing season in three years for Freeze after finishes of 6-7 and 5-7 his first two years there. If the Tigers don’t upset either No. 10 Vanderbilt or No. 4 Alabama next month, the best they can finish is 6-6 in the regular season.
Keep in mind, Auburn fired Gus Malzahn after eight straight winning seasons and let Bryan Harsin go in the middle of this second season, after a 6-7 finish in Year 1 and a 3-5 start the next year.
The expectations at Auburn are clear.
5. LSU’s Brian Kelly
Brian Kelly has had an incredibly successful career and would find no shortage of suitors should he be looking for a job again, but he was brought to LSU for one reason — to win a national championship — and the Tigers will likely miss the playoffs for the fourth time in his four seasons.
Each of the three head coaches before Kelly — Ed Orgeron, Les Miles and Nick Saban — won national titles within their first four years at LSU.
Kelly, meanwhile, doesn’t seem any closer four years in. The Tigers went 9-4 last year and finished unranked altogether and are now 5-2 with losses to the only ranked opponents they’ve played, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt.
Games against No. 3 Texas A&M and at No. 4 Alabama are next on the schedule and could determine Kelly’s fate.
Dishonorable Mentions
Kentucky’s Mark Stoops: The Wildcats have lost nine straight SEC games going back to last year, though they took Texas to overtime on Saturday. But there was a time Kentucky was desperate to keep Stoops and gave him a massive contract that now carries a reported $38 million buyout, per the Lexington Herald Leader, which may buy him some more time.
Boston College’s Bill O’Brien: He’s only in his second year and went 7-6 last season, but it’s looking bleak at BC. The team has lost six straight with its only win coming over Fordham in Week 1.
North Carolina’s Bill Belichick: This is obviously a complicated situation where it’s possible either side could look to move on after this failed 2025 season as the Tar Heels are 2-4 without a win over a Power Four opponent.
Rutgers’ Greg Schiano: Schiano’s first stint at the school was overwhelmingly successful. His second stint, not so much. He’s 29-38 in six years, hasn’t had a winning record in Big Ten play in any of those seasons and is 0-4 in the conference this fall. Rutgers didn’t find any success in between Schiano’s tenures, though, so it may not necessarily be looking to make a move just yet. In fact, his back-to-back 7-6 finishes the last two years were the best for the program since 2014.