Let’s have a bit of fun. Let’s call it Blind Resume. In the next two paragraphs, you will find the resume for a particular college football coach. You have to determine which one is on the hotter seat.
Coach No. 1 is two games above .500 overall. During the coach’s tenure, the team has 12 more wins in its last 40 games than it had in the previous 40 games before the coach started. His team is seven games below .500 in conference play. The school plays in a power conference and has received bowl invitations in 100% of his completed seasons.
Coach No. 2 is 20 games above .500 overall. During the coach’s tenure, the team has three more wins in its last 64 games than it did in the previous 64 games before the coach started. His team is six games above .500 in conference play. The school plays in a power conference and has received bowl invitations in 60% of his completed seasons.
You read the headline, so you know the two coaches are Arkansas’ Sam Pittman and Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher. Both of them have found themselves the subject of their school fan base’s ire lately. Fisher more last year when the Aggies went X-X. Pittman more this year with the Razorbacks 2-2.
While Saturday’s game in the Southwest Classic – a game Texas A&M has won 9 out of the last 10 times – won’t see either of them lose their job in the immediate aftermath, the game will likely be a harbinger of the things to come. The SEC isn’t exactly, even in this, a down year, an easy slate of games.
Pittman sees the similarities in their mutual sitations.
“I like Jimbo Fisher, I do. I do. He’s a good man. He’s a good coach,” Pittman said. “He’s getting killed down there by their people. That’s just the nature of people. Not all people. Just a few people.”
The Aggies have beaten the teams they were supposed to this year and as a near-touchdown favorite against Arkansas, they’re expected to Saturday. Arkansas has lost just one game it was expected to win, Week 3 against BYU.
With that in mind, and with those resumes facing you, which seat is hotter?