- Coaches in the SEC face intense pressure and scrutiny on a week-to-week basis.
- Florida coach Billy Napier is under a particularly bright spotlight after pre-game skirmishes and a loss to LSU.
- Several other SEC coaches, including those at Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, are also feeling the heat.
BATON ROUGE, LA — Nearly two hours before this boiling pot of emotion unfolded, before LSU further established itself as a national championship contender, Florida players twice instigated skirmishes between the teams during pre-game walk through.
The first was on the LSU side of the 50, and the second was in the LSU end zone. About 50 yards from where Florida players should be.
Or about a country mile from where the program should be under embattled coach Billy Napier.
Welcome to coaching in the SEC, where it’s week to week in the cutthroat world of coaching in the biggest, baddest conference in college football.
Big money, big expectations, big drama. And every coach – I mean, every coach – is a loss away from standing in front of public scrutiny, naked and exposed for all to see.
Napier isn’t alone on this lonely, inevitable march to the unemployment line. He’s simply the guy standing at the front, in the brightest spotlight of all.
‘I thought our guys played their asses off,’ Napier said in a somber post-game closet of a interview room in the bowels of Tiger Stadium.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the stadium, for the team and coach on the verge of something big, LSU coach Brian Kelly found his inner fire when, right out of the box, he was asked about the poor performance from his offense.
‘Stop, really. Is that the first question?’ Kelly snapped. ‘Try another question. We played the game to win the game.’
And sometimes, even that’s not enough in the high stakes world of SEC football.
Tennessee coach Josh Heupel is feeling it because his kicker, who has been as good as any in the SEC since 2024, can’t hit a 43-yarder at the end of regulation to beat Georgia for the first time since Butch Jones was talking about Champions of Life in Knoxville.
Kalen DeBoer’s honeymoon at Alabama – if there ever really was one – ended Week 1 when Florida State pushed the Tide all over newly renovated Doak Campbell Stadium. Somebody, quick, find $70 million.
Arkansas coach Sam Pittman can’t beat a rebuilt Ole Miss team with a backup quarterback, and Kentucky coach Mark Stoops has problems beating anyone. Much less, Eastern Whoeveritwas.
Vanderbilt rolled into Columbia and destroyed South Carolina, which was without star quarterback LaNorris Sellers in the second half. Like having Sellers would’ve made a difference — or defused the narrative that coach Shane Beamer’s teams fold with expectations.
Had LSU lost to a Florida team coming off a brutal home loss to South Florida, Kelly would’ve been one step closer to becoming the first LSU coach since Gerry DiNardo (in the 1990s!) to not win a national title. The bigger DiNardo sin: no national title, or those horrific purple pants?
Kirby Smart – yes, even Kirby Smart – is feeling it because Georgia is very un-Georgia of late. And how in the world does Tennessee have a chance to win with a quarterback in his first SEC start?
“I almost feel like we have to apologize” Smart said after escaping Tennessee with an overtime win.
None of these guys should apologize. These games are brutal fist fights, weekly white-knuckle rides where one mistake or one big play can change everything.
Or five interceptions from Gators quarterback DJ Lagway, three after throwing late over the middle against a ferocious LSU defense — and one that was returned for a touchdown. Or four holding calls from Florida, one that negated an 83-yard touchdown pass.
That’s 14 points, and that’s your game, ladies and gentlemen. Yet another talking point for those who desperately want Napier unemployed.
‘That’s two games in a row like that,’ Napier said.
That’s two too many for those who want the Florida coach with a losing record (20-21), a losing record on the road (5-14), and who’s winless against ranked teams on the road in four seasons, pink-slipped.
And why should’t they, or any other fan base, demand more?
If you pay top dollar for tickets, for seat licenses just to have the right to buy tickets, for suites or skyboxes, for game day parking and tailgating, for food and apparel, you better believe you think you have a place at the table.
If you’re spending top dollar on airline tickets and hotel rooms and rental cars to follow your team at road games, you better believe you’ve got skin in the game.
If players are being paid top dollar to move from team to team, if coaches are being paid top dollar to not coach, and others paid millions to coach poorly, why shouldn’t those whose money is a significant factor in keeping programs afloat, be able to speak and be heard?
This isn’t about the vicious lunatic fringe on social media, this is about legitimate complaints from legitimate consumers. The excuses of the past are long gone: players are paid, and open to any and all criticism.
So are the coaches who coach them.
There’s nothing easy about this business. It’s hard on coaches and players, and wives and girlfriends and families.
It’s hard on university presidents and athletic directors and everyone involved – from student managers washing jerseys, to deep-pocket boosters throwing good money after bad – knowing full well that somebody is losing.
And more times than not, that somebody should be fired. Or else.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
