College Football Coaches on the Hot Seat: Preseason

Every college football season brings high expectations for every team in the country. Those expectations, however unreasonable, fall squarely on the shoulders of the head coach of each program.

College football coaches face incredible scrutiny from fans and administrators that sometimes appear to have little capacity to remember anything past what happened at last weeks game. Fair or not, the coaches on the following list had better get things started quickly this season or they could find themselves jobless by December.

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Reason for the Ranking: A 5-32 record. That is really probably all that needs to be said here. Wulff took over an extremely difficult situation and has been given a reasonable amount of time to turn things around, but there is little evidence of progress. When you have less wins than the amount of years you have coached it is probably time to head in a different direction.

How to Save his Job: Win and win early in the season. The first five games of the season present the best opportunity (and maybe only) to start piling up some wins. They start off with Idaho State and that really is a must-win game for Coach Wulff. A loss in week 1 would all but end the Cougars' chances for a 5-win season, which is the minimum needed to keep their head coach. Gotta get to 5 wins, with 2 in PAC-12 play. A win over in-state rival Washington would go a long way to holding off the alumni.

Likelihood of Job Loss: 90% - The PAC-12 is stronger than ever with 2 new teams (Utah and Colorado) joining this year. Just no reason to believe Wulff can get the team to 5 or 6 wins.

Reason for the Ranking: Locksley has been a failure on many levels at New Mexico and would be the number one guy on the list had he been more than two years along in his contract. Locksley has been involved in a sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit with a secretary (settled out of court) and also allegedly punched and choked an assistant on his own staff. Oh yeah, and he has a 2-22 record.

How to Save his Job: New Mexico isn't really in a good position financially to be paying buyouts, which is probably the main reason he is still coaching the Lobos. After lowering his buyout in a recent contract renegotiation, it is clear that Locksley must win now. He has said himself that anything less than 6-6 is "unacceptable."

Likelihood of Job Loss: 85% - Locksley has a lot of returning starters and there are six wins to be found on an MWC schedule, but 9 of those returning are from the nation's worst defense a year ago. 

Reason for the Ranking: Toledo has gone 13-35 in four years at Tulane and only 7-25 in conference play. He received a one-year extension after a review by administrators in December, but at 65 years old it seems like it is time for Tulane to get a new man at the helm.

How to Save his Job: Toledo will have to find 6 or 7 wins to keep his job after this season. The bar will be set high to keep the veteran coach in New Orleans simply because the program needs new blood and Toledo cannot coach forever.

Likelihood of Job Loss: 80% - The percentage would be higher, but Toledo survived a thorough review to remain head coach after last season. They must see something they like. 

Reason for the Ranking: In case you haven't heard, Ohio State got in a little trouble this summer and Fickell was given one of the most prestigious jobs in the country by default. Buckeye fans will be calling for Urban Meyeresque candidates at the first sign of a loss. Not to mention administration will likely consider separating itself from any connection to the Jim Tressel Era if the sanctions or further investigation calls for it.

How to Save his Job: Fickell will be required to get at least 9 wins this season to have any chance of fans getting behind him as the long term solution. Oh yeah, and a win against the Wolverines is a must, as always.

 
Likelihood of Job Loss: 75% - This number could rise significantly depending on the start to the season. Fickell and OSU caught a huge break with the Miami scandal in more ways than one. Suspensions will likely hamper the Hurricanes significantly for the Week 3 matchup, leaving the first real test for week 5 against Michigan State.

Reason for the Ranking: Neuheisel has only garnered 8 wins in PAC-12 play and a 15-22 record overall. That is simply not getting the job done when the expectation is that you will be competing with cross-town rivals USC year in and year out. Even the offense has been terrible, which is totally unacceptable when you are an offensive guru with NFL-caliber offensive coordinators.

How to Save his Job: Everyone wants to see Neuhiesel succeed at UCLA. It is his alma mater and "dream job," but he knows that will not be enough at this point. The Bruins need to find a way to get to a bowl this year in my opinion. 7 wins, with one of them being USC, will take him from hot seat to hero.

Likelihood of Job Loss: 65% - Neuhiesel has the tools to get to 6 or 7 wins this year. They showed some improvement after moving to the Pistol offense last year and have a lot of returning players with experience.

Reason for the Ranking: Personally, I would place Dabo higher on this list, but there their doesn't seem to be as much pressure as there should be from the Clemson fanbase. A 19-15 record with the talent they have recruited is not good enough for a team like this in the ACC. The now-jobless Rich Rodriguez (who previously coached at Clemson) would be a perfect fit for the job and most of the country knows it.

 
How to Save his Job: Word is that he may be able to survive another mediocre season, but I think it will take at least 7 regular season wins for the administration to pass on a guy like Rodriguez.

Likelihood of Job Loss: 50% - Every year it seems like 7 wins for Clemson should be a no-brainer, but they have a brutal non-conference schedule this season, which would be tough for any team to survive. If they can't pull off a win or two (or at least compete extremely well) against Auburn, Virginia Tech and FSU early on, the hot seat will begin to intensify. 

Reason for the Ranking: He lost to Jacksonville State and Vanderbilt at home en route to a 4-8 season that included wins over Louisiana-Lafayette and Tulane. Couple last season with the recent rise of in-state rival Mississippi State and Nutt's early success has long been forgotten by the Ole Miss faithful.

 
How to Save his Job: He needs to get to 6 wins and I think he gets another year simply because he has a $5 million dollar buyout. It isn't going to be easy, though; the Rebels face a very difficult schedule and rival Mississippi State is poised to blow them out in the final regular season game.

Likelihood of Job Loss: 50% - The only thing keeping it this low is the high buyout and faint memory of 9-win seasons in years past. Nutt tends to respond well to the hot seat, but not much is working for him on this year's schedule.

Reason for the Ranking: Erickson got off to a fast start in 2007, but the last 3 years have only produced 15 wins under the direction of the former NFL coach. He is also getting up there in age at 64.

How to Save his Job: Erickson returns 20 players with starting experience and he finds himself in the relatively easy PAC-12 South. The fact that they are favored by many to win their division sets the bar high for the coaching veteran. This should be at least an 8-win team, but Erickson has yet to prove he can win with the players he recruited to ASU. 

Likelihood of Job Loss: 40% - Erickson looks to be in good position to redeem the last 3 seasons, but that could backfire if he doesn't cash in on his experienced squad this year.

Reason for the Ranking: Ron Zook is sporting a career record of 28-45 at Illinois in 6 seasons. Not exactly what Illini fans probably had in mind. Zook may have already been out the door had he not ended the school's 12-year bowl victory drought with a win over Baylor.

How to Save his Job: He'll need to at least duplicate last year's 7-6 season to calm the talk of losing his job. Seems easy enough.

  
Likelihood of Job Loss: 45% - I see about 7 winnable games on the Illini schedule and the high-powered offense should be enough to give them 7 wins. That would mean that Zook has to avoid being out-coached in all 7 of those games, however. Not exactly his strong suit.

Reason for the Ranking: It is hard to imagine a guy that is 96-34 while playing in a conference as strong as the SEC being on the hot seat, but this is a "What have you done for me lately?" business. What has Richt done for Bulldog fans lately? 14-12.

How to Save his Job: Richt needs a good season to quiet critics and that means at least an 8-win season. It would help if Georgia could find a win over the Florida. Richt is only 2-6 against the Gators.

 
Likelihood of Job Loss: 30% - Richt would have to have another losing season in Athens to lose his job. I don't see that happening because he is a great coach with talented players. It is the SEC, however, and any given week could be a loss.