Coaches On The Hot Seat: No, They Won’t Get Fired, But … WIN NOW
5. Ken Niumatalolo, Navy
The guy’s been brilliant at Navy with 103 wins at the school and a run of three AAC West titles in five seasons, but the 2021 team is 2-7 after going 3-7 in 2020. The team isn’t playing that poorly, Niumatalolo has lost 12 of his last 14 games as the O has totally stalled over the stretch.
East Carolina is up next. That will be tough, but losing to Temple would hurt, and obviously a second straight loss to Army isn’t okay.
4. Dan Mullen, Florida
All Mullen did was take Florida to the SEC Championship game last season and push one of the all-time greatest teams to the brink in one of the best heavyweight fights in the College Football Playoff era. But Florida lost to Alabama, and that came off a stunning loss to LSU, and the bowl loss to Oklahoma was brutal – even with all the stars sitting out to get ready for the NFL.
And now he’s not good at coaching football?
After the blowout loss to South Carolina and the weird 70-52 win over Samford, the 5-5 Gators need to at least go bowling. Losing at Missouri this weekend would be a huge issue, and don’t even start if the Gators lose at home to Florida State.
3. Chip Kelly, UCLA
The 44-20 win over Colorado was huge. Now the Bruins are finally bowl eligible in the Chip Kelly era, but it would’ve been nice to be a bit more in the Pac-12 title chase – 44-24 loss at Utah ended that. All is fine with wins over USC this week and Cal to close, but …
No, he won’t be fired, but it wouldn’t be a positive to lose to USC or Cal.
2. Manny Diaz, Miami
Give a ton of credit for Diaz, the staff, and the players for battling through all the negativity of a 2-4 start to go on a three-game winning streak. There were a few brutal close losses before taking down NC State and Pitt to get into the ACC title hunt and then …
Pffffffft. The air went out of the balloon. Losing to Florida State is always going to sting for the Miami head coach, no matter what.
Diaz should be fine – he’s 5-5 so far and Miami should go bowling. But if the Canes drop the last two winnable dates to Virginia Tech and Duke, there’s a problem.
1. Steve Sarkisian, Texas
And to think, with a 4-1 start the world was all his after the first half in Dallas in Oklahoma. One Caleb Williams fourth down touchdown run later …
0-5. Kansas 57, Texas 56. Lose at West Virginia or to Kansas State, and there’s no bowl game.
Of course he won’t be fired or bought out – don’t let social media screw you up – but this hasn’t gone well.
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Week 11 Roundup
Rankings AP | Coaches | CFN 1-130 Rankings
Week 12 Early Line Predictions | Heisman Race
College Football Playoff Chase, Who’s Alive?
Bowl Projections | Week 11 Scoreboard, Predictions
Big Game Reactions: Baylor, Mich, Ole Miss, more
Coach Hot Seat Top 10 | Bowl Bubble: Who’s In, Out