- Approximately 25-30 coaching changes are anticipated this winter, following a trend of high turnover in recent years.
- Several SEC coaches, including Hugh Freeze (Auburn), Sam Pittman (Arkansas), and Brent Venables (Oklahoma), are facing high-pressure seasons in 2025.
- Other coaches on the hot seat include Brent Pry (Virginia Tech), Scott Satterfield (Cincinnati), Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State), Brent Brennan (Arizona), Trent Dilfer (UAB), Sonny Cumbie (Louisiana Tech)
Marcus Freeman’s seat at Notre Dame is an ice-cold tundra. The temperature of Clemson coach Dabo Swinney’s seat sits at absolute zero. Likewise with Georgia’s Kirby Smart, Indiana’s Curt Cignetti and Colorado’s Deion Sanders, among a few others.
On the other end of the thermometer are the Bowl Subdivision coaches in college football facing sweltering scrutiny and increasingly high stakes heading into make-or-break 2025 seasons.
Recent history suggests somewhere between 25 and 30 programs will making a coaching change this winter, many triggered by the initial burst of moves in the days following the end of the regular season. Sixty-one programs have changed coaches in the past two cycles, representing roughly 45% of the FBS
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Let’s go down the list of college football’s hottest seats, starting with a threesome of SEC head coaches nearing win-or-go-home territory:
Hugh Freeze, Auburn
The results simply haven’t been there through two seasons, ratcheting up the pressure on Freeze to justify the hype and applause that greeted his return to the SEC after a successful run at Liberty. This can’t-miss hire has, uh, missed: After going 5-7 last year, Freeze is in danger of becoming the first Auburn coach to post three losing records in a row since Earl Brown from 1948-50. The heavy focus paid this offseason to Freeze’s terrific golf game and the Tigers’ woeful recruiting class is the canary in the coal mine for a tenure that could be circling the drain.
Sam Pittman, Arkansas
Arkansas is the SEC program most likely to make an offseason or even midseason coaching change given Pittman’s inability to capitalize on a breakthrough 2021 season and the Razorbacks’ questionable depth and talent level compared to the league’s top half. Pittman is 30-31 overall since 2020 but just 14-28 in the SEC – and only 7-17 in conference play the past three seasons. It doesn’t help that Arkansas is set to face what may be the nation’s toughest schedule.
Brent Venables, Oklahoma
Venables is definitely on firmer ground that Freeze and Pittman, though that might change should the Sooners implode in 2025 and, say, fail to even reach the postseason. Combined with the fact that rival Texas is surging toward a potential national title, another miserable run through the SEC might convince Oklahoma to reenter the job market just four years after tabbing Venables as Lincoln Riley’s replacement. With the school set to hire a new athletics director in the coming months, now is the time for Venables and the Sooners to make a run at nine or more wins.
Brent Pry, Virginia Tech
After going 16-21 through his first three years, Pry remade his coaching staff and brought in about 30 transfers to change the direction of a program still mired in the middle of the pack in the ACC. While he’s led the Hokies to back-to-back bowl bids, another six- or seven-win finish might not be enough to salvage his tenuous job security; the Hokies probably need to show more substantial progress to earn Pry another season.
Scott Satterfield, Cincinnati
Last year’s team did make a two-win improvement over Satterfield’s 3-9 debut, though that doesn’t really tell the story of another lost season: Cincinnati coughed up five losses in a row after a 5-2 start, further contributing to the sense of negativity that has gripped the program since Luke Fickell’s departure for Wisconsin. (That hasn’t worked out for anyone involved, unfortunately.) The Bearcats should be better in 2025 and should get to six wins, buoyed in part by a Big 12 schedule that avoids three of the league’s best in Arizona State, Kansas State and Texas Tech.
Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
Gundy agreed to a restructured contract after a dreadful 2024 and then rebooted his roster and coaching staff in what feels like a last-ditch effort to salvage the most successful tenure in program history. While his track record and connection to the school have long been factors in Gundy’s corner, his relationships with the administration and fan base have seesawed so much over the years that Oklahoma State would be clearly be comfortable pulling the plug at some point during or right after his 21st season.
Brent Brennan, Arizona
Things have gone south so quickly at Arizona that Brennan is in legitimate danger of being fired after just two seasons. (Four coaches were dismissed last year after two years or less in their position, so while rare, it’s not unheard of.) After opening 2024 ranked No. 21 in the preseason Coaches Poll and fifth in the Big 12 – one of five teams to earn a first-place vote – the Wildcats slumped to 4-8 overall and finished second from the bottom in the conference standings. As at Cincinnati, there’s a pervasive sense of doom and gloom around the program that’s impossible to ignore.
Trent Dilfer, Alabama-Birmingham
The most unserious hire in recent FBS history is nearing its end, much to the delight of a fan base that has been absolutely stunned by the Blazers’ decay into one of the worst teams in the American. After going six years in a row without a losing finish, UAB is a pitiful 7-17 in Dilfer’s two seasons, with only one victory against a team that finished with a winning record. It’s almost as if hiring a coach with zero college experience – and only four years of on-field coaching experience, period, all on the high school level – was an idiotic decision.
Sonny Cumbie, Louisiana Tech
After going 3-9 in each of his first two years, Louisiana Tech went 5-7 in the regular season in 2024 and backdoored into the Independence Bowl in place of Marshall, losing to Army 27-6 but doing enough to give Cumbie one more season to post the Bulldogs’ first winning record since 2019. The offense has to improve: Tech finished 118th nationally in scoring to offset major gains from a defense that ranked among the best in the Group of Five.
