The USC Trojans will enter the Big Ten in 2024. Though the calendar hasn’t yet turned to next year, we have already been given a coaching search for a 2024 Trojan opponent.
USC faces Northwestern next year, and the Wildcats have begun the search for their 2024 head coach after firing Pat Fitzgerald.
With one Big Ten coach already out the door, you may be asking — as a USC fan who is beginning to get used to the Trojans’ future existence in the Big Ten — if other coaches in the conference are on the hot seat.
We’re glad you asked.
Our analysis of the Big Ten coaching landscape points to two clear “leaders” in the hot seat category, a category in which no coach ever wants to be a leader.
First, a little background: Nebraska, Purdue, and Wisconsin have made coaching changes preceding this season. Northwestern will likely hire its permanent head coach in December after muddling along with an interim coach for the 2023 season.
Michigan, Penn State, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Rutgers and Maryland have coaches who are not in any immediate hot-seat danger. That’s 11 of the 14 Big Ten schools.
Ohio State has a slight degree of hot-seat pressure this year. (That’s no joke. Ryan Day is under huge pressure in 2023.) However, if Day does leave after 2023, it will more likely be due to an NFL offer than because he is fired.
This leaves two true hot-seat situations at Big Ten football programs.
The less-hot seat (but still very hot) belongs to Mel Tucker at Michigan State. MSU bet big on Tucker after his great 2021 season, giving him a hefty extension. However, the 2022 season was terrible and the 2023 season shows signs of being underwhelming due to a lack of player retention. If Michigan State bottoms out and goes 3-9 or 4-8, the Spartans might pull the plug on Tucker. However, they have invested so much money into him that they might eat a 2024 season just to save on buyout costs.
That’s why Michigan State is second on the Big Ten football hot-seat list.
Number one is Indiana. Tom Allen had a great pandemic season in 2020, but that year was a weird one. Indiana needed to sustain some degree of momentum from 2020, and it hasn’t. The Hoosiers are going nowhere quickly, and one wonders what another bowl-less season will do for IU. This can’t be allowed to go on forever. Allen has to show Indiana something that points to future success. If not, he could be gone.
That’s your Big Ten football hot-seat overview heading into the 2023 season.
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